Thom Booth

The voices of thousands of overseas voters weren't heard due to postal delays at the last General Election.

Yet the government has proposed a new law with no improvements for Brits abroad:

❌ No postal vote improvements
❌ No dedicated overseas representation
❌ No automatic voter registration

A heads up to my dual citizenship friends. 🇬🇧 🇺🇳

They are updating the rules about which passports you can use to enter the UK - so don't get caught out!

If you will be negatively impacted by this change, please reach out and make your voice heard!

Whole genome comparison of Aspergillus flavus and A. oryzae - PubMed Aspergillus flavus is a plant and animal pathogen that also produces the potent carcinogen aflatoxin. Aspergillus oryzae is a closely related species that has been used for centuries in the food fermentation industry and is Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS). Whole genome sequences for these two fung …

Another example from the fungal kingdom is Aspergillus flavus vs. oryzae. The genomes are almost identical in size (and very similar over all). One is a horrendous pathogen and the other is benign!

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30408940/

Are you working with a particular pathogen. As I mentioned below, opportunistic pathogens, for example, have no selective pressure for genome reduction. Unfortunately, I had a quick search and couldn't find a citation (although several papers claim it because it is obvious!).

I would also add that genome reduction only makes sense in obligate pathogens. I think the reason we don't see genome reduction in scabies etc. is because they are facultative (or possibly opportunistic).

1/ 🔬 Our work, "Dynamic transitions of initiator binding coordinate the replication of the two chromosomes in Vibrio cholerae", is now published in Nature Communications.
Here's a thread on how we think Chr1 and Chr2 replication is coordinated in Vibrio. 🧵

Link : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Then @thombooth.bsky.social used the presence/absence of known telomere proteins to identify a potentially new telomere protein which is linked to the Sg2247 class telomere, which previously did not have an identified maintenance system (notice the dot in the red circle)

Did you know most 'complete' Streptomyces genomes are missing their telomeres?

Thanks to David and Tues hard work, we now have a new tool to recover them!

A pleasure to be part of a team. :)

🦠🧪💻 #microsky

It really was a pleasure!

Check out this new amazing preprint by David, @tuesparholt.bsky.social , @thombooth.bsky.social, and @tilmweber.bsky.social!

Is it time to start calling out the scientific board? Why aren't these people laughed out of town?

Images of Streptomyces venezuelae consuming the chitin-rich exoskeleton of a dead grasshopper (top), cricket (middle) and superworm (bottom).

More than a billion tons of #chitin are produced on Earth each year. This study shows that the soil #bacterium #Streptomyces venezuelae thrives on chitin from #insect #exoskeletons, using a potent mix of chitinases and a dedicated chitobiose importer @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/45sg4S5

Very cool! More labs should do this! :)

ZiemertLab The Ziemert lab is interested in the evolution and distribution of bacterial secondary metabolites. These bioactive compounds are especially important in human medicine as the chemical scaffolds are t...

Check out the Ziemert Lab’s new YouTube channel
m.youtube.com/@ZiemertLab
We’ve uploaded short tutorial videos on how to use our tools for genome mining and natural product discovery.
Thanks Semih, @martinaadamek.bsky.social @turgutmesut.bsky.social ! #GenomeMining #SecMet #naturalproducts

Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution Nature Communications - Giant transposons, known as ‘Starships’, mediate horizontal gene transfer between fungal genomes. Here, Sato et al. show that Starships occupy genome regions...

📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp

Large study of scientists who move their labs reveals how location drives productivity Concentrating funding at high-powered universities can maximize output, paper argues, but may sacrifice broader benefits

The mantra “location, location, location” isn’t just about real estate. For life scientists, more than 50% of their productivity can be attributed to the institution where they work, according to a new study. scim.ag/4kKs1YO

go.bsky.app/8zZNEGV

Great resource to connect early career folks with more senior scientists looking to hire postdocs! 🧪

Reconsidering the Structures of Tetillapyrone, Nortetillapyrone, Ochraceopyronide, and Rhizoaspergillin A In this study, we revise the structures of the marine sponge-derived pyrone-deoxyribosides tetillapyrone and nortetillapyrone, as well as the semisynthetic derivative tetillapyrone diacetate, to the n...

Crystal clear? Not quite!

Our new paper explores how atoms with similar atomic numbers can be misidentified with X-ray crystallography, and revises the chemical structures of a series of nucleoside natural products.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

A great story begun by Siobhan Dorai-Raj and taken over the line by @thombooth.bsky.social and Juan Pablo Gomez-Escribano. It's been tremendous fun and wonderful to watch old lab members become collaborators and leaders!

Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions | John Innes Centre An exciting opportunity for an Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions has arisen at the John Innes Centre. To read the full job description for this role…

New Independent Fellowship position in Microbiology to launch your lab in our department @johninnescentre.bsky.social (UK). We are conducting a broad search in the area of plant-associated microbial interactions. Message me if you have any questions.

Apply here: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/in...

Fantastic opportunity to start your independent career at the JIC here. Great startup package. Repost = nice. Thank you!!!

I should also add, thanks to you Susan! And everyone else who gave feedback at ISBA. It was incredibly helpful!

Is this what they were talking about when they said 'ignorance is bliss'?

I can't reach you on here apparently, but I will send you an email tomorrow. :)

Hi! Thanks for the kind words! It is reassuring to see other people as excited about this as we are! I'll send you a DM now! :)

Sorry David, I forgot to tag you! @tweakyaustin.bsky.social

Also to all the funders and institutions involved: @leibniz-dsmz.bsky.social, @johninnescentre.bsky.social, @earlhaminst.bsky.social, @dtu.dk, @novo-nordisk.bsky.social and the BBSRC.

6/6

I want to thank everyone involved in this project: Juan Pablo Gomez-Escribano, Siobhan Dorai-Raj, David Baker, Ern Lacey and Barrie Wilkinson (@barriewilks.bsky.social)!

A truly international effort.

5/6

Also of note, EEC1 is chock-full of biosynthetic gene clusters - it is more than twice as dense as the genome. Since all the known metabolites from E. australiensis are encoded on the chromosome, EEC1-like replicons are a unique reservoir of new natural products!

4/6

Fascinatingly, EEC1 is different to proteobacterial secondary chromosomes (chromids) as it does not appear to replicate like a plasmid. This suggests an evolutionary mechanism distinct from that of chromids, which are believed to have evolved from plasmids.

3/6