Aileen Berasategui

WEES March Seminar & Master Class: "Molecular evolution in a defensive symbiosis", Dr. Aileen Berasategui

📍 Master Class Time: 12 March, 14:00 Contact: b.taboada@nioo.knaw.nl (for details)

📍 Seminar Time: 12 March, 16:00 Location: Orion C1040, WUR

VACANCY - We’re searching for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the newly appointed group of Dr @hassansalem.bsky.social, to explore the developmental biology of host-microbe symbiosis

www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Deadline - 25 March 2026
Salary - £37,500 - £45,350
Contract - 3 years, full-time

Excited to collaborate with @hassansalem.bsky.social and @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social on this new Postdoc opportunity!

If you're interested in the developmental biology of symbiosis, apply and join us @johninnescentre.bsky.social and @thesainsburylab.bsky.social 🪲🦠🔬

Studying adaptation at the invisible scale | PNAS In order to understand adaptation by natural selection, it is necessary to observe organisms in their natural habitat. For this reason, the field o...

How to study adaptation in organisms that we can’t see, living in environments that we can’t visit? Some thoughts in our perspective piece out today in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @biology.ox.ac.uk @stuwest.bsky.social

📣 Our latest story just dropped on bioRxiv:: A structurally unique effector shared between Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum is involved in cotton defoliation and virulence on other hosts www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵

Thrilled to share our work in @natcomms.nature.com!

Thankful for a great collaboration ☺️

Grateful for the support of the @humboldt-foundation.de and the @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

More details below.

Revitalizing actinobacteria research: an urgent response to the antimicrobial resistance crisis - Natural Products and Bioprospecting Abstract The crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is escalating while the antibiotic pipeline remains stagnant. Our bibliometric analysis of eight decades of literature reveals a critical imbalanc...

Research into filamentous actinomycetes, the antibiotic producers, is in steep decline. Loads of natural products chemistry research worldwide but not much aimed at understanding their biology and ecology. The latter is key to unlocking their specialised metabolism

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#SneakPeek 👀 Step inside the #Microbe Zoo at Norwich Science Festival 🌟🧪

🗓️ 14 - 21 February
📍 @theforumnorwich.bsky.social

Get ready to shrink down to learn some BIG, fascinating facts about microbes 🦠

@norwichmicro.bsky.social @sawtrust.bsky.social

How specific are heritable symbioses?

And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species?

We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com!

1/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Please share!

PhD position at the University of Copenhagen. Start date: 1st of June!
 
The project integrates field work, RNAseq, MALDI-MSI & FISH to explore composition, regulation, and resilience of termite host-gut symbiont metabolism.
 
👉 employment.ku.dk/phd?show=156...
 
⏳ Deadline 23/2/26

Postdoctoral Researcher (Charpentier Group) | John Innes Centre An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Charpentier Group at the John Innes Centre, working on cutting-edge science in the field of plant calcium signalling.

My lab at the JIC is recruiting 3 PDRA:
🔹 Bioinformatics / AI
🔹 Molecular Biology / Genetics
🔹 Proteomics
Programme funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
📅 Closing date: 27 February
Apply via JIC website:
www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/
Please share with outstanding candidates. 🙏

Had a blast nerding out about beetles (& The Beatles) on Switzerland’s daily news program/Tagesschau 🪲

Thankful for the chance to wax lyrical about our favorite bugs at the Aha Festival, and with the wonderful folks of Lucerne 🇨🇭

Please share!
My group at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social is offering a post-doctoral position (4 years). We look for a structural biologist with experience in Cryo-EM/Cryo-ET to investigate the mechanisms of host invasion by pathogenic fungi. Deadline February 28th!
uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

Please share!
PhD position (4 years) available in my group @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social. We look for candidates with solid aptitude in computer science to cross disciplines and use cutting edge imaging to understand host infection by destructive plant pathogens.
uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

Plant Pathogens Moonlighting as Beneficial Insect Symbionts Herbivorous insects can shape the epidemiology of disease in plants by vectoring numerous phytopathogens. While the consequences of infection are often well-characterized in the host plant, the extent...

Can plant pathogens boost vector fitness?

Together with @hassansalem.bsky.social, we review how phytopathogens can spread further by moonlighting as insect symbionts 🪲 More on this nifty lifestyle in @annualreviews.bsky.social!

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

First results chapter from Kelly-Rose Tulley’s PhD is published. It was a great team effort to get this finished. This work supports previous results on S. coelicolor OrrA and suggests its function is highly conserved. #microsky #streptomyces 1/2

TSL Summer Conference in Plant-Microbe Interactions, 20th – 31st July… Inviting Early Career Researchers to join international experts in discussing the latest approaches and discoveries in Plant-Microbe Interactions …

Join us in Norwich this July for the TSL Summer Conference in Plant-Microbe Interactions! ☀️🌱🧬

Discuss the latest approaches & discoveries in plant health with international and local speakers.

⏰ APPLY by 30 March '26

New keynote speakers ⬇️

Genome editing in brown algae! 🧬🪸🌿 Now out in Cell Reports Methods!

Excited to share this highly efficient, transgene-free CRISPR–Cas genome editing protocol for brown algae, requiring no cloning and no specialized equipment.

doi.org/10.1016/j.cr...

#CRISPR #BrownAlgae
@mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

Farewell to Max Planck Research Group Leader Hassan Salem as he moves from Tübingen to the #JohnInnesCentre. Wishing him all the best on his exciting journey! This post is part of our new #FarewellSeries, celebrating researchers moving on to exciting new chapters! 🚀 #maxplanck
tinyurl.com/2dr9k8k7

Characterizing a novel Symbiopectobacterium purcellii MEX strain at the early stages of establishing a symbiotic relationship Abstract. Insects ally with microbial symbionts for a diversity of services. The range of these interactions is wide, spanning from beneficial to pathogeni

I’m excited to share a new paper by a super talented graduate-student-now-postdoc. Grateful to work with old and new collaborators!

Characterizing a novel Symbiopectobacterium MEX strain at the early stages of establishing a symbiotic relationship url: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Hidden genetic diversity among Blochmanniella endosymbionts of closely related carpenter ant populations Abstract. Carpenter ants (Family Formicidae; Genus Camponotus) are a globally distributed, arboreal clade. They harbor an intracellular obligate bacterial

A little late due to re-establishing a Bluesky presence… but! here is another recent pub from a terrific and talented grad student.

A fun project from a beautiful place. Love (y)our National Parks! #nationaparks #symbiosis #insects

academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

TSL Summer Conference in Plant-Microbe Interactions, 20th – 31st July… Inviting Early Career Researchers to join international experts in discussing the latest approaches and discoveries in Plant-Microbe Interactions …

Join us in Norwich this July for the TSL Summer Conference in Plant-Microbe Interactions! ☀️🌱🧬

Discuss the latest approaches & discoveries in plant health with international keynote and local speakers.

APPLY by 30 March '26 ⬇️ Click link for more info
www.tsl.ac.uk/tsl-summer-c...

An earful of fungi: Hearing organ repurposed for symbiosis In a recent publication in Science, Nishino et al. reveal the evolutionary co-option of an auditory structure into a newly identified type of symbiotic organ. This organ, found on the hindlegs of fema...

How are host organs remodeled for symbiosis?

And do some insects converge in how they sustain life within/on these structures?

Loved unpacking these Qs w/ @francespi.bsky.social in light of the stunning Nishino & @fkttkm.bsky.social study!

www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

MtrAB activates ectoine production and triggers sporulation in response to osmotic stress in Streptomyces venezuelae The MtrAB two-component system is a master regulator of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces species. MtrA is also required for sporulation under certain growth conditions, which means that on some...

New preprint. Work led by @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social & Rebecca Devine.

They show the highly conserved Streptomyces MtrAB two component system activates ectoine production and triggers sporulation in response to osmotic stress in Streptomyces venezuelae

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The evolution of expendability: Why some ants traded armor for numbers Ants with lots of workers tend to put less energy into making them armored.

Congrats @arthurmatte.bsky.social @economo.bsky.social ! arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Excited to share our latest preprint on the conservation of RAR1-SGT1 across plants and their unexpected divergence in ferns! @hynmn-jeong.bsky.social @michaelwebster.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @yusugihara.bsky.social. Check out the preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Discovery and Heterologous Expression of the Soil Metagenome-Derived Lasso Peptide Metanodin with an Unprecedented Ring Structure Culture-independent metagenomic approaches have proven to be effective tools for identifying previously hidden biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding novel natural products with potential medical relevance. However, producing these compounds remains challenging as metagenomic BGCs often originate from organisms phylogenetically distant from available heterologous hosts. Lasso peptides, a subclass of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products, exhibit diverse bioactivities, yet no lasso peptide has previously been discovered directly from a metagenome. Here, we report the discovery and heterologous expression of the first soil metagenome-derived lasso peptide. Expression of its biosynthetic gene cluster in Escherichia coli, followed by mass spectrometry analysis, strongly supported the predicted amino acid sequence and lasso structure of the peptide. Notably, this lasso peptide is the first to feature asparagine as the ring-forming residue at position one. Taxonomic analysis of the corresponding BGC identified an uncultivated member of the Steroidobacterales family (Gammaproteobacteria) as the closest known relative of the potential native host. These findings underscore the potential of metagenomic genome mining to reveal structurally novel RiPPs and to expand our understanding of the natural diversity of lasso peptides.

Happy to share our newest manuscript about the discovery and hererologous expression of metanodin, a new lassopeptide with unprecedented structural features directly from soil metagenomes. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
#secmet #lassopeptides #syntheticbiology

Ultra-deep long-read metagenomics captures diverse taxonomic and biosynthetic potential of soil microbes AbstractBackground. Soil ecosystems have long been recognised as hotspots of microbial diversity, but most estimates of their microbial and functional comp

Want to know how diverse soil really is?
Our ultra deep sequencing is now published in GigaScience: academic.oup.com/gigascience/...
Soil is wild! Thanks for leading the study @canerbagci.bsky.social
#secmet #soil #metagenomics #bacterialdiversity

PanBGC: A pangenome-inspired framework for comparative analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters Abstract. Bacterial secondary metabolites are a major source of therapeutics and play key roles in microbial ecology. These compounds are encoded by biosyn

PanBGC: A pangenome-inspired framework for comparative analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters

#ISMEComms from @nadineziemert.bsky.social

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

Tetrapod vocal evolution reveals faster rates and higher-pitched sounds for mammals Abstract. Using the voice to produce sound is a widespread form of communication and plays an important role across diverse species and contexts. Variation

Now out in Evolution @journal-evo.bsky.social

Tetrapod vocal evolution reveals faster rates and higher-pitched sounds for mammals 🐘🦉🐸.

Mammalian hearing likely allowed the rapid diversification of their vocalizations.

Open access here:
doi.org/10.1093/evol...

#bioacoustics #animalcommunication