Simon Roux

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

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

Stellenangebote: Universität Hohenheim Aktuelle Stellenangebote der Universität Hohenheim.

JOB ALERT! Do you also love large ecological experiments? Become coordinator of our big new geo-biosphere experiment in @terra-cluster.org. 7-year position! Follow link for details.
@gfoesoc.bsky.social
@britishecologicalsociety.org
@ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
@uslter.bsky.social

Please repost!

I have a fabulous undergrad who has a lot of experience with QIIME2 & using R to analyze microbiome data. She is looking for a job starting in January. Would love to learn more bench and field skills (will be getting some in her last 2 months). Open to academic, industry, government jobs in the US.

Cryo-EM resolves the structure of the archaeal dsDNA virus HFTV1 from head to tail This structure of an archaeal tailed virus (arTV) provides detailed insights into arTV assembly and infection mechanisms.

Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Temperature-driven biogeography of marine giant viruses infecting picoeukaryotes Micromonas Abstract. Climate shapes the biogeography of microbial and viral communities in the ocean. Among abiotic factors, temperature is one of the main drivers of

Happy to share our new work on Temperature-driven biogeography of marine viruses infecting Micromonas:
academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

What are folks using for calling genes these days in isolate genomes: PGAP, Bakta, or Prokka? This is for a 70% GC genome of a very novel lineage.

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A catalog of metagenome-assembled genomes from Amazonian forest and pasture soils | Microbiology Resource Announcements Our group previously recovered 64 bacterial and 5 archaeal metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from Amazonian forest and pasture soils and evaluated their genomic traits (1). Here, we formally announc...

Assembling MAGs from Amazonian soils is a challenge, but it has become one of our most useful tools to understand these complex communities. Check out our new paper at MRA @asm.org doi.org/10.1128/mra.... in collaboration with @louberrios.bsky.social @jubgontijo.bsky.social @mykophile.bsky.social

And, I might add, an easily engineerable solution, given our (sadly now abandoned) patent detailing our discovery that you could get efficient transformation of microalgae with Agrobacterium tumefaciens if you immobilise them in a Celite matrix 😁
patents.google.com/patent/AU201...

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

The assembly of a hybrid type IV secretion system by a Crohn’s disease-associated Escherichia coli strain - Nature Communications Adherent-invasive strains of E. coli are commonly isolated from patients with Crohn’s disease. Here, the authors show that an AIEC harbours a hybrid Type IV secretion system (T4SS) that mediates pilin polymerization and biofilm formation in vivo.

A plasmid and an ICE teaming up... 🤯😱

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

DYK most P. aeruginosa carry filamentous phage(s) that don't need to kill the cell to reproduce?

We 👉🏻@nanamikubota.bsky.social show that these Pf phages can go ROGUE.

"Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness"

🔗 authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...

The role of mobile genetic elements in adaptation of the microbiota to the dynamic human gut ecosystem

#CurrOpinMicrobiol from @lgbacteria.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Multiomic analysis of the only megaphage in culture. In press today.

Unlocking the genomic repertoire of a cultivated megaphage | npj Viruses share.google/HgU1cjRnaHWv...

#phage #bacteriophage

🚨 Join us for the Environmental Metagenomics course (Oct 13–17, online) with @oskolkov.bsky.social & @aroneys.bsky.social !

🔬 Hands-on training on read-based & assembly-based methods, MAGs, and integrating short & long-read @nanoporetech.com data.

shorturl.at/HOm6X

Virus and viroid diversity in hops, investigating the German hop virome Germany is worldwide one of the largest hop (Humulus lupulus L.) producers, an essential crop for the brewing industry. However, infections caused by viruses and viroids can severely impact hop yield and quality. In 2019, citrus bark cracking viroid (CBCVd) – a highly aggressive pathogen in hop – was first reported in Germany, raising concerns about its spread and prompting a broader investigation of the German hop virome.To investigate the viro-diversity in German hops, we started with a pilot study in 2021 targeting three hopyards in the Hallertau region (Bavaria), where CBCVd was previously detected. This study was expanded in 2022 and 2023 to include other main hop growing regions of Tettnang (Baden-Wuerttemberg) and Elbe-Saale (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia). Leaf samples were collected from hop as well as non-hop plants inside and outside the hopyard, pooled, and proceeded for double-stranded RNAs extraction. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) was used as a diagnostic tool, followed by RT-PCR confirmation. Our analysis identified four viruses infecting hops; hop latent virus (HpLV), hop mosaic virus (HpMV), apple mosaic virus (ApMV), arabis mosaic virus (ArMV) – and two viroids; hop latent viroid (HLVd) and CBCVd. HpLV, HpMV, and HLVd were consistently found across all targeted hopyards, while CBCVd was confined to the Hallertau region. ArMV was only detected in one hopyard at one sampling timepoint. ApMV was the only virus detected in both hop and non-hop plants. Additional analysis of hop pool datasets revealed the presence of other potential hop pathogens, i.e., fungi and bacteria. The results showed a low diversity of viruses and viroids infecting hops. However, this study provides a comprehensive overview on the major viruses and viroids in German hopyards. The results may serve as a useful resource for the development of disease management strategies in hop cultivation and highlight the valuable implementation of HTS in plant pathogen surveillance.

A nationwide #HTS survey of German hopyards identified HpLV, HpMV, ApMV, ArMV and viroids HLVd and CBCVd (CBCVd confined to Hallertau), highlighting HTS as a powerful tool for #PlantPathogenSurveillance and management #PlantViromics 🧬🌾🔬
📄https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329289
👤EVBC: Ali Pasha

Assistant Professor – Global History of Technology - Department of History University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

Job at UC-Berkeley: Asst. Prof. in Global History of Technology, apps due 10/10 (so soon). #history #histSTM #histsci #histphilsci

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065

Acinetobacter phages use distinct strategies to breach the capsule barrier Author summary Acinetobacter baumannii causes life-threatening and often antibiotic-resistant infections thereby posing a global threat. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for alternative treatments...

I said I will never work on phages, but having @micheleleroux.bsky.social next door made me change my mind. Here is Alexis's new paper showing how different phages deal with the capsular barrier to infect Acinetobacter! A great collaboration between our labs!
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Just an outrageous amount of structural variation in pennycress. While not yet reproductively isolated, its likely these shredded pericentromeres contribute to some reproductive incompatibilities.

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n

Hey all! Now that i've left my position at UQ, I thought I would leverage my network here to see if anyone has leads on environmental genomics, biotech, marine policy positions in the US/Canada/Australia/Europe. I'd love to speak with anyone in those fields re openings, worthwhile recruiters, etc.

Poster showing the following text: PhD in microbial mechanisms of soil carbon cycling. Soil microbes shape the global carbon cycle in life and death. We study the effect of aboveground land management on belowground soil carbon cycling processes. We aim create a scalable understanding of microbial processes from single cells to populations to communities to ecosystems. Pictures with text: peatland restoration, sustainable agriculture and woodland regeneration.

📢 Funded PhD opportunities for UK candidates in beautiful Edinburgh. Get in touch if you're interested in a PhD on understanding the mechanisms of soil carbon cycling and the role of microbes. We work in different ecosystems: peatlands, forests and agricultural soils. Please repost/spread the word.

The Mysteries of the Ponderosa Pine Take a look at the ponderosa pine and the many creatures that rely on it.

So, there you go:
Boring beetles bring blue wood fungus, but butterscotch brings birds that bite the beetles & burning brings more beneficial terpenes.

Now go stick your nose in some sap.

More reading here:

microbetag: simplifying microbial network interpretation through annotation, enrichment tests, and metabolic complementarity analysis - Genome Biology Microbial co-occurrence network inference is often hindered by low accuracy and tool dependency. We introduce microbetag, a comprehensive software ecosystem designed to annotate microbial networks. No...

our software, microbetag, for the annotation of microbial co-occurrence networks with phenotypic traits & metabolic complementarities was just published

A Cytoscape app is also available to make your life easier (and prettier)

#microbiome #metabolic-modeling #networks

Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

A promotional flyer for a webinar in the CSU Bioinformatics Webinar Series. On the left side, it shows the date and time: “26 Sep | 12 PM PST.” It includes instructions to join via Zoom with Meeting ID: 886 2442 3158 and a QR code above. On the right, there is a photo of Dr. Elinne Becket, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University San Marcos, sitting outdoors with plants and trees in the background. Below, the title of the talk is displayed: “The Soup that Blue up Twitter.” The description explains that Dr. Becket will discuss the shared curiosity of science, open science, and a story from February 2023 when leftover beef soup prepared by her mom turned bright blue. Scientists and people on Twitter collaborated to investigate, leading to a global effort among microbiologists and chemists. At the bottom, there are links to learn more about upcoming webinars at www.informatics.sdsu.edu and Dr. Becket’s website: https://elinneb.wixsite.com/becketlab

Giving a webinar on #BlueSoup this Friday, in case anyone wants to pop in during their lunch!

Which is actually mentioned in the paper too 😊 (despite the title maybe giving the other impression).

Also, no matter how much I wish it wasn't true, the same applies to CRISPR spacer hits 🥲

Just remember kids, proximity ligation can tell you when DNA is in the same cell but not necessarily that a phage successfully replicates on a host

These findings suggest phage pressure, while present, does not drive C acnes strain fitness on skin.

We propose that physical constraints — such as pore anatomy limiting phage access or skin physiology induced phage-resistant states — may explain the lack of coevolutionary arms race.