Marta Pulido

Today's way back home from the lab 🥹

A great collaborative effort with Elisa Montero from @baclifestyle.bsky.social, who is currently working on the sequel to this story during her PhD.
Thanks to all our micro-mates @cabd-upo-csic.bsky.social @pablodeolavide.upo.es who have contributed with great discussions during these past years 😊

A beautiful example of how highly related organisms can use similar elements in their toolbox combined in different fashions to achieve disparate, or even opposite results!

In sharp contrast, our work shows that P. putida HsbA has co-opted to repress biofilm formation by targeting CfcR, a diguanylate cyclase widespread in environmental Pseudomonas and conspicuously absent in P. aeruginosa strains.

The anti-sigma factor antagonist HsbA in the target of the HptB-HsbR phosphorelay pathway, highly conserved in the genus Pseudomonas.
HsbA has been long known to stimulate biofilm growth in P. aeruginosa by interacting with HsbD, a diguanylate cyclase exclusive of the P. aeruginosa lineage.

HsbA represses stationary phase biofilm formation in Pseudomonas putida Pseudomonas putida biofilm growth is associated to nutrient-sufficient conditions and biofilm dispersal is induced by nutrient starvation, signaled by…

One of the big stories of my thesis is out!
We identified HsbA as a novel regulator of the starvation-induced biofilm dispersal response in P. putida that inhibits c-di-GMP synthesis by CfcR.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Today I say goodbye to @cabd-upo-csic.bsky.social after 8 wonderful years of science. Time for a new chapter!
Thrilled to announce that I'm joining @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social at @unimarburg.bsky.social @synmikro.bsky.social as a postdoctoral @humboldt-foundation.de fellow. Exciting times ahead! 🥳

Functional amyloid proteins confer defence against predatory bacteria Nature - Escherichia coli uses curli fibres, oligomers of the functional amyloid CsgA, as a barrier to protect against the predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Myxococcus xanthus in a...

Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry | Quanta Magazine Micro decisions can have macro consequences. A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.

Reading:

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-biofil... via @QuantaMagazine

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...

Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#MicroSKy #Microbiology

Finally, and most importantly, I have to thank my awesome labmates and micro-guys who I don't deserve at all, and the rest of members from @cabd-upo-csic.bsky.social and @pablodeolavide.upo.es.
They all have been guilty for turning every single day at work into a whole new adventure 🥹

It's been a long delivery 😅 Thanks Rubén!

Thank you guys! Thanks Carmen for coming (in the middle of a heat wave!) and for our little science conversations during all these past years 🥹

On the contrary, thank you for coming here without hesitation 🥹 It's been super nice to meet you in person and hear about those cool projects you guys have in your hands.
We'll keep in touch!

It's been a veeery long road, and I couldn't have asked for any better supervisors to guide me through this journey: @fgovrom.bsky.social and Aroa López.
Not all PhD students are lucky enough to call their bosses "friends".

Seems like I can't escape the "is there a doctor in the room?" question anymore!
Huge thanks to my thesis committee @thethormannden.bsky.social @type3lab.bsky.social @icanper.bsky.social. Science, when shared and discussed with such enthusiasm tastes much better ☺️

Nobody warns you about the true agony of the day before your thesis defense: having to clean and tidy up your entire place so your visiting family can get unrealistic expectations on how you live.

FlhG Cooperates With the Cell Cycle Regulator GpsB to Confine Peritrichous Flagella in B. subtilis FlhG (orange, with activator helix in green) regulates peritrichous flagellation in Bacillus subtilis by interacting with the C-ring protein FliY (gray, N-terminus in red) and the cell wall regulator....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @synmikro.bsky.social @unimarburg.bsky.social

New preprint led by @brunoluviano.bsky.social & Fernando Santos.

We show that filamentation enhances bacterial survival under toxic stress — not as collateral damage, but as a regulated morphological response.

TL;DR: Filamentation isn’t a symptom, it’s a strategy!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

These Tiny Magnetic Bacteria Act Like a Single Body – And Could Explain the Origins of Complex Life Tiny magnetic bacteria that live in tightly bound groups are showing scientists how life might have evolved complex, multicellular forms. These rare bacteria can’t survive alone – they depend on one a...

Fascinating new PLoS Biology paper from George Schaible et al in the Hatzenpichler Lab at Montana State

“𝘈𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘔𝘔𝘉 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦’𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩”

Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that capture, stockpile, and modulate the expression of genes encoded in integron cassettes. Mobile integrons (MIs) are borne on plasmids, acting as a vehicle ...

🧪
Finally out after peer review, our work showing that "Mobile #Integrons carry Phage Defense Systems" is now published in Science 🎉

Short 🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A 5-year work, straight from the oven! #Microsky

Pseudomonas syringae subpopulations cooperate by coordinating flagellar and type III secretion spatiotemporal dynamics to facilitate plant infection Nature Microbiology - Single-cell gene expression analysis reveals phenotypic heterogeneity to enable bacterial specialization over the course of plant colonization.

How Bacteria Outsmart Plants—Then Flee the Scene!

#MicroSky #PlantScience #Pseudomonas

Our new research in Nature Microbiology uncovers the sophisticated teamwork of Pseudomonas syringae, a notorious plant pathogen.

🔗 rdcu.be/egczU

I’m very happy to share our latest work on the ParABS system. We investigated the dynamic interaction between the ATPase ParA and the CTPase ParB mediating chromosome segregation in Myxococcus xanthus. I would like to thank all the people involved.

New postdoc position available at IBVF!

Happy 37th birthday to the LTEE!
the-ltee.org/history/

The offensive role of the Bacillus extracellular matrix in driving metabolite-mediated dialogue and adaptive strategies with pathogenic fungi Bacterial□fungal interactions have traditionally been attributed to secondary metabolites, but the role of the bacterial extracellular matrix (ECM) in shaping these relationships has remained unclear....

Excited to share our latest preprint! A fascinating story of chemical dialogue and microbial warfare: the Bacillus extracellular matrix acts as a key driver in the antagonistic interaction with Botrytis, while the fungus mounts a multi-layered defense.
🔗

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

Thanks to the awesome communication team at @pablodeolavide.upo.es for always having our backs in spreading science beyond the lab walls (and also for taking my first-ever "pretend to work" picture 😄).

Bacteria go to a lot of trouble to control their flagellation pattern 🦠
Late as always, but I just moved from the other side. Hope you enjoy our latest work describing how FimV, FlhF and FleN regulate the polar flagella assembly in Pseudomonas putida. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #MicroSky