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Megan Behringer

@megbehri.bsky.social

Assistant Professor @VanderbiltU BioSci โš“๏ธ | Dog mom ๐Ÿ•and sunset appreciator ๐ŸŒ…| Experimental evolution of microbes in stressful and structured environments ๐Ÿงซ๐Ÿงช | microbial epimutations ๐Ÿงฌ|

865 Followers  |  386 Following  |  34 Posts  |  Joined: 24.09.2023  |  1.6834

Latest posts by megbehri.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Beautiful morning in the Smokies at SEPEEG 2025. Listening to Fisherโ€™s geometric model, with coffee, in the mountain air, just hits different. ๐Ÿ”๏ธ โ˜•๏ธ

04.10.2025 13:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Our lab is hiring!!
We are looking for a research assistant who will be involved with our experimental evolution studies on how stress affects population dynamics in E. coli.
Great opportunity for recent grads!
E-mail for more info and apply here:
ecsr.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

29.09.2025 14:11 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 14    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Hey Zach! First, you talk about me in class?! Thatโ€™s incredibly flattering! Second, because of the meaning behind the event (a benefit to support survivors of SA) it might not be the most appropriate for class. But if you want a casual photo to show scientists as people, Iโ€™m happy to give you some!

28.09.2025 15:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Always a great night when we can get dressed up, wear goofy flamingo hats, and raise money for an amazing cause! Another great Mad Hatter in the books for the Nashville SAC @nashvilleSAC! (Yes, we did win best couple hats!)

28.09.2025 03:57 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Eis: machine learning to reverse-engineer #evolution. Brassington (@amandalea.bsky.social): Evolutionary mismatch. Rose: Genome-scale models. Bruder (@megbehri.bsky.social): Computational & experimental microbial evolution.

26.09.2025 13:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

No worries, just for anyone else who is curious I guess..

20.08.2025 22:10 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Iโ€™m also a yes.

20.08.2025 21:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Danone North America Invests in the Future of Microbiome Science with 2024-2025 Fellowship Awards /PRNewswire/ -- Danone North America, a leading purpose-driven food and beverage company and one of the world's largest Certified B Corporationsยฎ, is proud to...

Really proud of Owen Hale, a Ph.D. Candidate in our group who was awarded the Gut Microbiome, Yogurt and Probiotic Fellowship by Danone North America.

Owenโ€™s research focuses on E. coli / Lactic Acid Bacteria interactions!

www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

03.07.2025 13:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Microbial cross-feeding stabilized by segregation of a dependent mutant from its independent ancestor Abstract. Microbial gene loss is hypothesized to be beneficial when gene function is costly, and the gene product can be replaced via cross-feeding from a

Microbial cross-feeding stabilized by segregation of a dependent mutant from its independent ancestor

#ISMEJournal by @ofsheff.bsky.social et al from @jakemckinlay.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

27.06.2025 15:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 22    ๐Ÿ” 13    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Carl is an awesome science communicator. Heโ€™s finishing up his PhD focused on bacterial epigenetics and evolution. Heโ€™s a rockstar at applying Bayesian statistical approaches to large omics datasets!

22.06.2025 18:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Really proud of PhD Candidate Carl Stone, advocating for science and scientific funding by wiring this opinion piece for his hometown newspaper in Minnesota.

22.06.2025 18:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 20    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

An Anaerobic Pathogen Rewires Host Metabolism to Fuel Oxidative Growth in the Inflamed Gut https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.31.657111v1

01.06.2025 05:19 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Truly awful. Iโ€™m so sorry you and your lab are getting targeted by all this.

14.05.2025 19:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Given that there are 435 voting members of Congress, I would have hoped for more than 25% of House members to support American innovation in science and technology. 112? Thatโ€™s it? No one else wants answers?!?!

09.05.2025 22:30 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Starvation drives co-existence in cross-feeding bacterial populations Cross-feeding is a universal feature of natural microbial communities that extends even into subpopulation structures, generating cooperative ecotypes. However, we still lack an understanding of the e...

Very cool new work by @megbehri.bsky.social and William F. McLaughlin:

Starvation drives co-existence in cross-feeding bacterial populations

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

24.04.2025 10:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 21    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Of course! It was a fun paper to write because we got to really dig in and think about Rho (and mutations that evolve in Rho) in bacteria other than our usual E. coli! Especially, the gram positives where Rhi can have such an impact on development too!

06.03.2025 21:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Thanks for the Signal Boost, รkos!

Weโ€™re so happy to see our review discussing Rho as an evolutionary capacitor out in Transcription!
Itโ€™s an exciting follow up to our recent research article & opens up a discussion of where we expect evolutionary capacitors to exist b/w the genotype/phenotype gap.

06.03.2025 15:27 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Excited to announce our latest manuscript on bioRxiv! Led by PhD student Owen Hale, we anaerobically examine the mutation rates of aerotolerant anaerobic species of Lactic Acid Bacteria: Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus crispatus, and Lactococcus lactis.

01.03.2025 02:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Residence Time Structures Microbial Communities Through Niche Partitioning Much of life on earth is at the mercy of currents and flow. Residence time (ฯ„) estimates how long organisms and resources remain in a system based on the ratio of volume (V) to flow rate (Q). We test...

Congratulations to @emmiamueller.bsky.social on:

"Residence time structures microbial communities through niche partitioning"

Now out in Ecology Letters:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

27.02.2025 15:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 42    ๐Ÿ” 20    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Really enjoyed visiting NC State for the Genetics and Genomics seminar yesterday! Got to chat with a great group of researchers, heard awesome science, and the food scene in Raleigh was pretty yum! ๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงซ

11.02.2025 14:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Volunteer With ASM | Overview ASM volunteer opportunities range from speaking with legislators about funding research during ASM's annual Hill Day, to writing articles for asm.org, to serving on committees and the Board of Directo...

I am confident that scientific societies will play an unusually important role in the coming years. If you are a microbiologist of any kind, please consider joining @asm.org if you haven't already. There are many ways to get involved, including advocacy.
To learn more:
asm.org/About-ASM/Vo...

23.01.2025 21:21 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 443    ๐Ÿ” 121    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 4

To all the other professors who also opened their labs in the middle of COVID and are now going to go up for tenure during this mess, I see you. ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ

23.01.2025 03:10 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
2025 Microbial Population Biology (GRS) Seminar GRC The 2025 Gordon Research Seminar on Microbial Population Biology (GRS) will be held in Andover, New Hampshire. Apply today to reserve your spot.

Applications are open for the Microbial Population Biology GRS and GRC!

The GRS is a fun day for grad students and postdocs to network before the full GRC starts, and is co-chaired this year by me and Laura Suttenfield

Get your applications in by Jan 15! #evosky ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงช

www.grc.org/microbial-po...

14.11.2024 08:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 88    ๐Ÿ” 84    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 4
Three members of a research team are pictured in a laboratory. The man on the left wears a blue button- down shirt, the woman in the center has long red hair, wearing a blue and white patterned blouse. On the right stands another woman with brown hair, wearing a tan blazer over a black top. They stand in front of lab equipment and cables.

Three members of a research team are pictured in a laboratory. The man on the left wears a blue button- down shirt, the woman in the center has long red hair, wearing a blue and white patterned blouse. On the right stands another woman with brown hair, wearing a tan blazer over a black top. They stand in front of lab equipment and cables.

Three members of a research team are pictured in a laboratory. The man on the left wears a blue button- down shirt, while the two women beside nim, with brown and red hair, respectively, are dressed in professional attire, smiling at the camera. Laboratory shelves with various bottles and containers are visible in the background.

Three members of a research team are pictured in a laboratory. The man on the left wears a blue button- down shirt, while the two women beside nim, with brown and red hair, respectively, are dressed in professional attire, smiling at the camera. Laboratory shelves with various bottles and containers are visible in the background.

Excited for the upcoming #VUEvoMag Magazine! " @megbehri.bsky.social reached out to me a few weeks after my lab opened at Vanderbilt with this interesting observation about solution pH, but wondered if there was a way we could measure pH inside cells," Bratton recalled. loom.ly/a1hXE2o

15.11.2024 18:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Introducing our labโ€™s newest Ph.D candidate William McLaughlin. William is doing an awesome microbial systems ecology project thatโ€™s already turning out some cool results. Keep an eye out for this rising star.

21.10.2024 16:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/evolution/evolved-in-the-lab-found-in-nature-uncovering-hidden-ph-sensing-abilities/

Lastly, we have a great press release out by Vandyโ€™s own
Dr. Andy Flick, so share it with your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues!

t.co/4mEDyu5R4R

23.09.2024 17:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
https://behringerlab.wixsite.com/index

And if you love this type of research, we have lots of data on deck and are always looking for postdocs!
t.co/DEj9U2ROIl

23.09.2024 17:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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There is of course more to our story so you will need to read the paper!
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

23.09.2024 17:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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We also found the Arg -> His (Rho R109H) substitution in nature! Particularly in species that often navigate pH fluctuations like insect gut -> human blood or sponge microbiome-> ocean.
A great example of how lab evolution can provide insight into the natural world!

23.09.2024 17:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Next we collaborated with @bpbratton and found that the Rho/YdcI double mutant maintains an elevated intracellular pH, which should minimize the plasticity in mutant Rho function and maintain Rho in its alternate state thatโ€™s observed in higher pH!

23.09.2024 17:41 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

@megbehri is following 20 prominent accounts