Kim Kreuze

Awesome #phage #bioinformatics preprint from @shelbyeandersen.bsky.social, who is also very close to finishing her PhD and on the lookout for her next position 👀

Mucin-enriched environment shapes bacteriophage protection against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in airway epithelial cells Mucin hypersecretion, a hallmark of chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), creates a complex microenvironment that reshapes host immunity and microbial behavior. However, its impact on bacteriophage ther...

We studied how exogenous mucins influence phage-bacterium interplay in human epithelial cells. This work is now available in BiorXiv

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

World's first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated life Scientists used AI to write coherent viral genomes, using them to synthesize bacteriophages capable of killing resistant strains of bacteria.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

ssDNA phage FLiP resides in dsDNA form in resistant Flavobacterium host Most of the environmental flavobacteria decompose organic matter, playing a crucial role in ecosystem balance. Phages infecting these bacteria regulate the host populations and thereby the ecosystem f...

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

#phagesky #phage

Efficient detection and typing of phage-plasmids Phage-plasmids are temperate phages that replicate as plasmids during lysogeny. Despite their high diversity, they carry genes similar to phages and plasmids. This leads to gene exchanges, and to the ...

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

#phagesky #phage

Presenting a poster at #EESMICROBIOLOGY today. Come by to talk about #jumbophage s at poster 204!

#phage #phagesky

Great to see Lara Ambrosio Leal Dutra representing CANS and presenting her excellent work on bacteriophages during The Danish Viruses of Microbes symposium in Copenhagen! 😀

Persistent virulent phages exist in bacterial isolates Despite the immense diversity of tailed bacteriophages, they are traditionally classified as either virulent or temperate, with only the latter thought capable of long-term persistence in bacterial ce...

Are there virulent phages hiding in your bacterial culture? Here we find hundreds of virulent phage genomes in bacterial genome assemblies. Bioinformatic and experimental evidence indicate these are not contaminations, but represent persistent infections.

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

Jari Valkonen picture

🧪 Very sad news from the field of #PlantVirology. Jari Valkonen, Professor and Chair of Plant Pathology at University of Helsinki, passed away this weekend. He contributed greatly to field of Potyviruses and how viruses overcome plant resistance. Moreover, was such a nice person. He will be missed

#phagesky

Get ready to dance, our paper – Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture – has been pre-printed! 🪩 This has been a really fun project to work on with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @nquinoneso.bsky.social, and our two talented undergrads Kesther and Carmen!

Genomic and structural insights into Jyvaskylavirus, the first giant virus isolated from Finland Giant viruses of protists are a diverse and likely ubiquitous group of organisms. Here, we describe Jyvaskylavirus, the first giant virus isolated from Finland. This clade B marseillevirus was found i...

there is a new #giantvirus in town! and it speaks Finnish! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I agree! I am no expert in marine virology but as I understand, the current thinking is that high phage predation in marine environments is a large driver of microbial diversity. I suspect something similar is happening in the infant but not adult gut. It will be exciting to find out 😀

A collection of researchers working on bacterial defense and offense systems, including secretion systems, immunity mechanisms, bacterial warfare, and microbial arms races. Please share and let me know if you'd like to be added (or removed) from the list.

This is only one train of thought that we had while writing this perspective, so if you found this interesting, read it on mrr: www.oaepublish.com/articles/mrr...
8/8

While all these ideas are very exciting, studying these elusive genetic elements can be challenging. Luckily, advances in methodology will make it possible to see if MGEs could really be the hidden puppet masters underlying infant gut microbiome assembly!
7/8

BUT at the same time, MGEs do not like rivals inside the same bacteria and can encode defense systems that protects the bacteria. In this way even though MGEs can be like a double-edged sword , sometimes providing useful genes to their hosts and sometimes killing them 🛡️⚔️.
6/8

Thus, the infant gut may be like a melting pot of genes where MGEs provide bacteria with novel genes that help both organisms thrive 🏆. Yet at the same time, MGEs, especially phages can be trecherous and cause mass mortality within for their hosts 💀.
5/8

This selection may reflect the high temperate phage activity in the infant gut and may be generalized to other MGEs like plasmids. This we think could lead to an increased rate of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between all kinds of bacteria and MGEs.
4/8

We know that these mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are abundant in the infant gut and can also be inherited from their mothers. Taking an ecological perspective we propose some ideas on how the harsh "colonization bottleneck" selects for MGEs that transmit horizontally between bacteria.
3/8

The infant gut is colonized at birth, exposed to microbes from both mother and environment 👶. These microbes are vital for health by helping develop the immune system and protecting against pathogens. But what role do phages, plasmids, and phage-plasmids play in this ecosystem? 🤔
2/8

How do mobile genetic elements (MGEs) like phages, plasmids and phage-plasmids shape the gut microbiome - and could they be hidden influencers for infant health?👀 Check out our new perspective article with @frimanscience.bsky.social and Tommi Vatanen on this very topic! #microbiome #phagesky 🦠
1/8

Nice work by an excellent PhD student from our department, @kkreuze.bsky.social w/ @frimanscience.bsky.social and Tommi Vatanen

Should I stay or should I go? 🎵

In a new opinion piece, Claudia Igler, Andrina Bernhard and I discuss how conjugative plasmids and temperate bacteriophages balance vertical and horizontal transmission: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Our framework sheds light on many aspects of MGE biology (1/7)

Our latest on phage-plasmids(PP) is out! Two main findings. PP recombine more with (other) plasmids and phages than the latter, thereby connecting them. PP can become just phages or plasmids, which may then transition to be conjugative. All the world’s an MGE! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hmm... Yeah I think I have also heard of someone making a glycerol stock of free phages but dont have first hand experience in it. In the previous lab I was in, we would have the phage infect their host and place it in -80 with glycerol just before they burst at least.

Jorvik: A membrane-containing phage that will likely found a new family within Vinavirales - PubMed Although membrane-containing dsDNA bacterial viruses are some of the most prevalent predators in aquatic environments, we know little about how they function due to their intractability in the laborat...

The other paper:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37867962/

Choice of Ultrafilter Affects Recovery Rate of Bacteriophages Studies into the viral fraction of complex microbial communities, like in the mammalian gut, have recently garnered much interest. Yet there is still no standardized protocol for extracting viruses fr...

I was taught the same but at least two recent publications show how filters can contribute to a substantial drop in titre and how an environmental membrane containing phage was extremely fragile and so required special storage solutions.
www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/15...