Ákos T Kovács

Arriving to Malaga for #PMS2025 Plant Microbiome Symposium 2025 organized by @vcarryon.bsky.social and the @microsos.bsky.social team in Antequera

Final countdown before the start of the #PMS2025!!! 🪴

Looking forward to seeing you in Antequera (Malaga) on 3-7 November!
Final program at: 6thplantmicrobiomesymposium2025.com/programme/

#Plantscience #MicrobiomeResearch #Bioinformatics

The evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation | The American Naturalist: Vol 0, No ja

The evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation

-in American Naturalist by @stuwest.bsky.social, @annadewar.bsky.social, @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social, Laurence Belcher, and @asgriffin.bsky.social

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

A cartoon/ digital drawing summarising the findings of the paper "Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs" by T. Nishino et al published in 2025. On the top left, a female Megymenum gracilicorne bug shows off symbiotic organs on the hind legs where she carries Ascomycota fungi. These were previously assumed to be Tympanal organs in these bugs but only females had them?; that didnt make a whole lot of sense to the authors...To the right of the bug is a row of eggs lying side by side. The paper shows that the bugs deposit the symbiotic fungi on the egg surface after egg-laying. Next on the image, fungal conidia grow on the egg surface. The eggs are pinkish in colour. A few fungi wear sunglasses like they are body guards. The paper shows that they protect the eggs from Trissolcus brevinotaulus, a parasitoid wasp, that likes to lay its eggs inside the developing bug's eggs. There are two wasps in this cartoon "eyeing" the fungi and looking frustrated. Eggs turn from whitish to pinkish within 10-days because they are reflecting the body colour of the nymph within the eggs.

Had to draw a cartoon for this fascinating finding!
Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#SymbioSky

A sulfur-containing nucleoside antibiotic from Photorhabdus | mBio Introducing novel antibiotics is essential to counter the spread of drug-resistant pathogens. Here, we report the discovery of 4′-thiothymidine (4′sT), a nucleoside antibiotic from the nematode symbio...

A sulfur-containing nucleoside antibiotic from Photorhabdus

#mBio from Kim Lewis

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Quorum sensing regulates a polysaccharide biosynthesis gene to control cell aggregation in Paracoccus denitrificans Abstract. Most biofilm research has centered on a few motile model organisms that form thick biofilms. During dispersal, motile bacteria actively escape th

Quorum sensing regulates a polysaccharide biosynthesis gene to control cell aggregation in Paracoccus denitrifican

in #ISMEComms

academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

The stringent response does not influence ribosome pausing in Bacillus subtilis Abstract. The stringent response represses translation and is activated when cells enter the stationary phase and intracellular amino acid levels drop. Bac

The stringent response does not influence ribosome pausing in Bacillus subtilis

@narjournal.bsky.social from Leendert Hamoen

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Experimental evolution of gene essentiality in bacteria

-in mBio

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

bioRxiv on predator-prey interaction between Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and V. cholerae and how chitin alters V. cholerae biofilm formation and predator-prey interactions - from Carey Nadell

Linking nutrient availability and community size to stochasticity in microbial community assembly Abstract. Both deterministic (e.g. species-environment interactions) and stochastic processes (e.g. random birth and death events) shape communities, but i

Linking nutrient availability and community size to stochasticity in microbial community assembly

@femsjournals.bsky.social Microbiology Ecology by Berenike Bick et al

academic.oup.com/femsec/advan...

Are you interested in studying RNA phages? We are looking for a PhD student and a postdoc to join the lab!

For more information and how to apply, see below 👇

Please RT!

Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites - Nature A recombinant antivenom composed of eight nanobodies provides broad protection against venom-induced lethality and dermonecrosis in mice challenged with venoms from cobras, mambas and rinkha...

An antivenom combining eight alpaca- and llama-derived nanobodies neutralizes toxins from a broad range of snake venoms #NBThighlight www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Morning run while at home

In between two travels, there was time on Monday to hand over master diplomas at Leiden University.

It was my pleasure that I could hand over the (cum laude) certificate to Marijan Visic who performed his MSc internship in our group... manuscript is approaching soon on his excellent work

Cellulose biosynthesis and function in Streptomyces Cellulose, a ubiquitous polysaccharide with critical roles in life, provides structural integrity to cells in plants and aids biofilm formation in many bacteria. Although bacterial cellulose biosynthe...

Cellulose biosynthesis and function in Streptomyces

@cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social by Chennan Yang, @xiaobozhong.bsky.social and Dennis Claessen

www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Why society needs to be microbiology literate 2

imili.org/pdf/Germapho...

Why society needs to be microbiology literate -1

imili.org/pdf/Biodiver...

Jumbo phage–mediated transduction of genomic islands | PNAS Bacteria acquire new genes by horizontal gene transfer, typically mediated by mobile genetic elements (MGEs). While plasmids, bacteriophages, and c...

@prczhaoyansong.bsky.social’s deep dive into the dark matter of compost communities is now out 🎉 Genomic islands hijack jumbo phages—whose capsids enable transfer of large tracts of DNA—shedding new light on the scale & scope of phage-mediated gene flow 😎

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

📣 #OurLastPaper is out! And it's a major breakthrough that we're publishing in @cp-cell.bsky.social l: we've discovered architect bacteria that build complex structures to feed themselves better!
#SymbioSky 1/5

Bacterial tubular networks channel carbohydrates in insect endosymbiosis Symbiosis is widespread in nature and plays a fundamental role in organism adaptation and evolution. In nutritional endosymbiosis, host cells accommod…

Agnès Vallier, @cmonegat.bsky.social , Baptiste Vierne, @nicolasparisot.bsky.social , Guy Condemine, Pedro Da Silva, Xavier Jaurand, @yschwab.bsky.social , @kaltenpoth-lab.bsky.social , Abdelaziz Heddi, and @annazaidmanremy.bsky.social

➡️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 5/5

Travel to China allowed me to meet again previous PhD and guest PhD students in my group, Yicen, Xinli, Guohai, and Jiyu and my collaborator, Zhihui

Bartje at University of Copenhagen for a lecture in the morning and a PhD defence in the afternoon. Thanks to Mette Burmølle for the kind invitation, always nice to return to the Section of Microbiology at UPCH
#BartjeAroundTheWorld

Molecular Microbiology Group Information about research topics and publications about the group around Kirsten Jung

A postdoctoral research position is available in the group of Prof. Dr. Kirsten Jung at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany (www.bio.lmu.de/en/research/...)

Bartje at Novonesis for a lecture and discussing manuscripts still to be published from a PhD
#BartjeAroundTheWorld

Selection and transmission of the gut microbiome alone can shift mammalian behavior Nature Communications - Here, the authors present evidence that the gut microbiome alone, without changes in the host genome, can shape how animals respond to selection, identifying a bacterium and...

We selected the laziest mouse at each round to inoculate the next batch of germfree mice: over rounds of selection and passaging, behavior shifted without changes to the mouse genome: rdcu.be/eM3rO
🦠🧫

EVENT - Centre for Microbial Interactions Annual Conference 2026

Register now to attend in-person or virtually @norwichmicro.bsky.social

🗓️ 4-5 March 2026
📍John Innes Conference Centre, NR4 7UH

⏰ Deadline for registration - 25 February 2026: okt.to/16MLmH

Full programme: okt.to/YF8TVe

Delighted to be awarded NWO VIDI grant! We will study how microbes shape root cells to enhance plant stress resilience - so exciting!!!!

www.nwo.nl/en/news/149-...

Fantastic to see several plant projects granted🌽🌱

#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social

A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:

Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.

Please RT

Deadline: 12.11.25

More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT

with @jiyuxie.bsky.social @pbbeauregard.bsky.social