See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

Very cool story! Congrats!

OPEN FACULTY POSITION, INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, ACADEMIA SINICA, TAIWAN - 128 Academia Road, Section 2, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan job with Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan ... One tenure-track faculty position is open for a qualified individual to establish an active research program at the IMB.

Be our IMB colleague! Join us for cool science!

[open faculty position at the institute of molecular biology, academia sinica in taiwan]

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Thanks Dor!

Overall, our findings expand our understanding of how bacteria outcompete one another in crowded environments. Check out our story! 💪

Interestingly, we found that the bacteria secreting Cpe1 are protected from self-poisoning by a protein called Cpi1. Cpi1 blocks the toxin using a unique mode. Unlike many other immunity that block the toxin’s active site, Cpi1 inhibits Cpe1 by blocking the substrate-binding site.

Using structural and mass spec approaches, we pinpointed the exact cleavage target sequences of Cpe1: in the short “double-glycine” motifs, specifically LHAGGKF, in GyrB and ParE!

This interbacterial toxin is called Cpe1. It acts like molecular scissors✂️, cutting the ATPase domains of essential topoisomerases, GyrB and ParE, in competing bacteria. Without the critical proteins, the rival cells can't properly copy their genomes, leading to growth stalls.

An interbacterial cysteine protease toxin inhibits cell growth by targeting type II DNA topoisomerases GyrB and ParE Bacteria use toxic effectors to outcompete other bacteria, influencing the composition of microbial communities. This study shows that the cysteine protease Cpe1, a widespread toxin in Gram negative b...

Link to the story: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Bacteria are constantly fighting for survival—not just against bacteriophages, but also against each other. In our new study, we uncover an antibacterial protease toxin that bacteria frequently use to disable their rivals.

Excited to learn that our story on characterizing an interbacterial protease toxin is finally out @plosbiology.org
"An interbacterial cysteine protease toxin inhibits cell growth by targeting type II DNA topoisomerases GyrB and ParE". Led by my wonderful team at Academia Sinica!

Horizontal gene transfer of molecular weapons can reshape bacterial competition Bacteria use molecular weapons such as toxins to outcompete rivals, but their horizontal gene transfer can undermine this advantage. This study shows that horizontal gene transfer of toxin plasmids is...

Always love a good bacterial warfare study:

"Horizontal gene transfer of molecular weapons can reshape bacterial competition"

by @prokaryota.bsky.social, @jdpal.bsky.social, et al. in @plosbiology.org

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice - Nature Microbiology InducTn-seq, a method for inducible mutagenesis followed by transposon insertion site sequencing, enables temporal control of transposition to bypass population bottlenecks and enable the quantificati...

OUT NOW: Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice

#microsky 🧪

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

n summary, our findings show that while phage resistance helps bacteria avoid viral infection, it can come at the cost of losing the battle against other bacteria in the environment. A double-edged sword! ⚔️🔬

More interestingly, even when Salmonella was treated with an enzyme from phages that degrades LPS, it also became vulnerable to bacterial attacks, demonstrating that phages can indirectly weaken bacteria and affect bacteria-bacteria interaction.

Further experiments revealed that the O-antigen, a part of the LPS structure, is crucial for protecting Salmonella against these bacterial attacks. Without it, they became easy targets.

The reason why Salmonella lose their ability to compete is due to mutations in genes related to their cell membrane, specifically in a structure called LPS (lipopolysaccharide), which normally protects against external stresses. Bacteria with damaged LPS became vulnerable to T6S.

We used Salmonella phage-resistants as the model for the question. Interestingly, while resistant strains grew and competed normally in liquid media, they struggled when grown on solid media with bacteria with the specialized weapon: type VI secretion system (T6SS)

Bacteria can become resistant to phages that infect them, but this resistance might weaken their ability to compete with other bacteria. Here, we start by asking how phage-resistant bacteria perform in competition with other competitor bacteria.

Our Phage infection/T6S story is finally out @embojournal.org! "Surface-mediated bacteriophage defense incurs fitness tradeoffs for interbacterial antagonism" Led by my wonderful team at Academia Sinica!
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

A҉L҉T҉R҉U҉I҉S҉T҉I҉C҉ ҉Z҉O҉M҉B҉I҉E҉ ҉B҉A҉C҉T҉E҉R҉I҉A҉🦠🧟

Fascinating Nat Comm paper Martin Cann Lab Durham UK

Dead bacteria encode post-mortem protein catabolism via Lon protease—provides nutrients promoting growth of surviving bacteria

No benefit of Lon to live bacteria to account for this

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

Graphic showing modification of mRNA with ADP-ribose mediated by bacterial enzyme cmdTAC

Check it out! Another novel RNA modification - ADP-ribosylation - that was previously only known on proteins. A cousin to #glycoRNA 👏

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

Discovery of a distinct BAM complex in the Bacteroidetes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.31.636011v1

A ubiquitin-like protein controls assembly of a bacterial Type VIIb secretion system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.24.634720v1

Symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer promote herbivory in the megadiverse leaf beetles Leaf beetles are among the most speciose herbivores on earth. Kirsch et al. show that multiple independent symbiont acquisitions and microbe-to-host horizontal gene transfers shaped the beetles’ reper...

Beautiful #symbiosis paper. Symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer promote herbivory in the megadiverse leaf beetles
www.cell.com/current-biol...

E. coli prepares for starvation by dramatically remodeling its proteome in the first hours after loss of nutrients It is widely believed that due to nutrient limitations in natural environments, bacteria spend most of their life in non-growing states. However, very little is known about how bacteria change their p...

What do bacterial cells do when they run out of nutrients? Although most bacterial studies focus on cells in exponentially growing states, in the wild bacteria likely spend most of their time slowly starving to death. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

YouTube video by Institute of Molecular Biology 中央研究院 分子生物研究所 Breaking Barriers: Gender Equity in Science at IMB Academia Sinica

Breaking Barriers: Gender Equity in Science, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Together, stronger!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4GE...

Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection - Nature Microbiology A secondary metabolite sensitizes competitor Bacillus subtilis to a wide panel of lytic phages by sequestering iron and preventing the activation of Spo0A.

OUT NOW - Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection

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

New year, new paper! Now published in @nature.com. We identified and characterised diverse immune cell states in plants under pathogen attack. My postdoc work in the Ecker lab at @salkinstitute.bsky.social. A thread (0/n)
#PlantScience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨New review🚨

Evolution and ecology of anti-defence systems in phages and plasmids

Link: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Ten species comprise half of the bacteriology literature, leaving most species unstudied https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.04.631297v1

Starvation of the bacteria Vibrio atlanticus promotes lightning group-attacks on the dinoflagellate Alexandrium pacificum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629110v1