Wolfgang Hess

¡Muchas gracias, José!

Many thanks, Jörg! And it has been a pleasure to visit Göttingen recently!

RNA-binding proteins and photosynthesis: The RRM domain–containing protein Rbp3 interacts with ribosomes and the 3’ ends of mRNAs encoding photosynthesis proteins | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Inorganic carbon levels regulate growth via SigC signaling cascade in cyanobacteria Cyanobacterial growth depends on inorganic carbon (Ci; CO2 and bicarbonate) concentration, but mechanism(s) adjusting photosynthesis and growth according to Ci remain unclear. ΔrpoZ cells lacking th...

Inorganic carbon levels regulate growth via SigC signaling cascade in cyanobacteria - Kurkela - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Evidence for a CO2‐concentrating mechanism in the model streptophyte green alga Chara braunii Oxygenic photosynthesis in streptophytic algae, such as Charophyceae, is often impeded by low CO2 levels in aquatic habitats. Consequently, many algal groups evolved a CO2-concentrating mechanism (C...

Measuring carbon isotope discrimination and crucial gene expression changes indicated that C. braunii expresses a CO2-concentrating mechanism to cope with these challenges. Supported by @watertoland.bsky.social Details here: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

They must cope with low CO2 solubility in water, which can limit the CO2 fixation by RubisCO. Moreover, the total pool of inorganic carbon is highly variable in this environment, depending on pH, temperature, and salinity.

How are fully submerged algae efficiently fixing carbon?
All organisms performing oxygenic photosynthesis fix CO2 in
the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle using RubisCO. But aquatic organisms have a challenge.

Out now: Cyanobacterial Argonautes and Cas4 family nucleases cooperate to interfere with invading DNA
cell.com/molecular-ce...

Most long-A pAgos interfere with invading DNA solo. Why then are cyanobacterial pAgos co-encoded with a Cas4-like protein?

Just three days left for the deadline for oral abstract submissions for the 15th Workshop on Cyanobacteria at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA) - don't miss out!
Workshop dates: 4-7th June 2025. More information: web.cvent.com/event/3d0bd3.... Please share widely!

TIGR-Tas: A family of modular RNA-guided DNA-targeting systems in prokaryotes and their viruses RNA-guided systems provide remarkable versatility, enabling diverse biological functions. Through iterative structural and sequence homology-based mining starting with a guide RNA-interaction domain o...

TIGR-Tas: A new family of modular RNA-guided DNA-targeting systems in prokaryotes and their viruses: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨 New #Breakthrough article from @holmqvist-lab.bsky.social: "ProQ prevents mRNA degradation through inhibition of poly(A) polymerase" #RNA #Stability #Degredation #mRNA 📖 Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf103

Annegret Wilde (@freecyano.bsky.social) cyanobacteriologist from University Freiburg

Our new Opinion article, now out in Trends in Plant Science is the result of a great collaboration with Conrad Mullineaux and Annegret Wilde freecyano.bsky.social @cyanolab.bsky.social

Does mRNA targeting explain gene retention in chloroplasts? During their evolution from cyanobacteria, plastids have relinquished most of their genes to the host cell nucleus, but have retained a core set of ge…

Why did chloroplasts retain some genes from their free-living ancestors rather than transferring all of them to the nucleus following endosymbiosis? We suggest that mRNA targeting might play a role.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Horizontal gene transfer of the functional archaellum machinery to Bacteria Motility in Archaea is driven by a nanomachinery called the archaellum. So far, archaella have been exclusively described for the archaeal domain; however, a recent study reported the presence of arch...

Would you expect that Bacteria use an archaellum for swimming? We didn't, but we found that some Chloroflexota do! Find the story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A little thread below 1/n

Highly multiplexed spatial transcriptomics in bacteria Single-cell decisions made in complex environments underlie many bacterial phenomena. Image-based transcriptomics approaches offer an avenue to study such behaviors, yet these approaches have been hin...

🅲🅾🅾🅻 🆃🅴🅲🅷🅽🅾🅻🅾🅶🆈

“Bacterial-MERFISH” provides ~1000-fold volumetric expansion of individual cells, charts gene expression in hundreds of thousands of cells, deciphering bacterial single-cell heterogeneity, intracellular transcriptome organization, and bacterial adaptation to µm-scale niches in vivo

This review has been put together by 12 authors working on multicellularity in bacteria. Many thanks to the DFG by supporting this research through the SPP priority program 2389 “Emergent Functions of Bacterial Multicellularity”.

Resolving spatiotemporal dynamics in bacterial multicellular populations: approaches and challenges | Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews SUMMARYThe development of multicellularity represents a key evolutionary transition that is crucial for the emergence of complex life forms. Although multicellularity has traditionally been studied in...

Multicellularity is a key feature of complex life, but how to study multicellularity in bacteria and at the single cell level? Use advanced microscopy, MS imaging, flow cytometry, spatial and single-cell transcriptomics, advanced microfluidics and more. See here: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Sharepic showing Date, Time and Place of Prof. Eilon Shani's CIBSS Seminar talk on "A Multi-targeted genome-scale CRISPR Toolbox to Overcome Functional Redundancy and Reveal Hidden Hormone Transport Mechanisms", Tuesday, January 14th 2025, Lecture Hall, Institute of Biology I, Hauptstr. 1, and online per Zoom.

Mark your calendars for next Tuesday: Tel Aviv University's Prof. Eilon Shani will present a #CRISPR -based toolkit that targets multiple genes at a genome-wide scale, addressing functional overlap in genetic systems and to uncover hidden mechanisms behind hormone transport.
kurzlinks.de/fprn

The conformational space of RNase P RNA in solution - Nature Using a deep neural network and statistical analyses of atomic force microscopy images of individual RNA molecules enables the mapping of RNA conformational space in solution.

The conformational space of RNase P RNA in solution using atomic force microscopy: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

R-DeeP/TripepSVM identifies the RNA-binding OB-fold-like protein PatR as regulator of heterocyst patterning Abstract. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are central components of gene regulatory networks. The differentiation of heterocysts in filamentous cyanobacteria i

PatR (Alr1700) is a previously not characterized protein that binds sRNAs and functions as a master regulator of heterocyst patterning and differentiation.
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Not all bacteria, even of a single species, are created equal. Nor are they always unicellular. Some cyanobacteria develop heterocysts and fix nitrogen. GradR/R-DeeP analysis identified new RNA-binding proteins. Some were previously known for other functions. Others were completely uncharacterized.

Congratulations to our first author, Manuel, that the results are finally out! And we thank all our friends, colleagues and collaborators in Freiburg, Sevilla and Heidelberg.
@embl.org @unisevilla.bsky.social @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social

R-DeeP/TripepSVM identifies the RNA-binding OB-fold-like protein PatR as regulator of heterocyst patterning Abstract. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are central components of gene regulatory networks. The differentiation of heterocysts in filamentous cyanobacteria i

R-DeeP/TripepSVM identifies the RNA-binding OB-fold-like protein PatR as regulator of heterocyst patterning. academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

We are looking for a new colleague :)

Please spread the word!

ISPP-18, the "International Symposium on Phototrophic Prokaryotes" will take place September 8-12, 2025. This is the best conference in the world to learn about recent research in photosynthetic prokaryotes. Only every 3 years. Registration for ISPP-18 is now open.
ispp2025-qingdao.com

How Small Proteins Adjust the Metabolism of Cyanobacteria Under Stress Cyanobacteria are powered by oxygenic photosynthesis located in extensive internal membrane systems, the thylakoids. Using carboxysomes, they assimilate organic from inorganic carbon. The integration...

How Small Proteins Adjust the Metabolism of Cyanobacteria Under Stress: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The structure of Zorya is mind-blowing 🙀

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

Integration of horizontally acquired light-harvesting genes into an ancestral regulatory network in the cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina MBIC11017 | mBio Horizontal gene transfer, the asymmetric movement of genetic information between donor and recipient organisms, is an important mechanism for acquiring new traits. In order for newly acquired gene content to be retained, it must be integrated into the ...

Integration of horizontally acquired light-harvesting genes into an ancestral regulatory network in the cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina MBIC11017 | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

I love this tradition at @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social, every December the student representatives visit each floor and sing Christmas carols for us.

This work has been a great collaboration with the labs of Martin Hagemann in Rostock, Satoru Watanabe in Tokyo, and Roman Sobotka in Trebon. Many thanks!