Kaitlin Schaal

Thanks, this is really helpful!

Thank you!

Ecologist friends! Can anyone recommend papers that link species abundance distributions to ecological processes? I'm interested in what inferences can be made from SADs, and the theoretical basis for those inferences. Thanks 🫶

Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health Call for Papers A defining characteristic of infectious diseases is that they evolve. The consequences of this evolution are among the most pressing medical issues facing humanity, including emerging pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and the success or failure of vaccines. Pathogen evolution profoundly influences virulence, transmission, and responses to a broad array of human interventions. While the evolutionary dynamics of pathogens have historically been challenging to study, large-scale genomic sequencing, novel computational tools, and experimental methods are rapidly changing the field. We encourage submissions on the broad topic of the evolution of infectious diseases. This Special Issue aims to feature research that blends evolutionary approaches to understanding pathogen heterogeneity and ongoing genetic change in clinical samples and models of human infection. It also seeks to highlight opportunities to design treatment and prevention strategies that remain effective in the face of ongoing pathogen evolution. Submission – open until January 31, 2027 Guest editors Robert Woods, MD PhD, University of Michigan Camilo Barbosa, PhD, University of Michigan Silvie Huijben, PhD, Arizona State University

🚨Call for papers🚨
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health
in the society journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

Guest Editors: Bob Woods, Silvie Huijben & Camilo Barbosa
EIC: me

This will be great, please submit and share!
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/m...

YouTube video by FEMS Microbiology Favourite Microbes for International Microorganism Day 2025

For #InternationalMicroorganismDay, we asked our FEMS MICRO 2025 Keynote Speakers and FEMS Journal Editors "'What is your favourite microbe?''

With delightful answers, ranging over many microbes and personal stories, this was the perfect way to celebrate IMD 2025! #MicroSky

youtu.be/oEJsWNJCtBw

International Microorganism Day - FEMS International Microorganism Day (IMD) is an initiative coordinated by FEMS, originally launched by the Portuguese Society for Microbiology (SPM) in 2017. Since then, International Microorganism Day ha...

"On this date back in 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek reported the first description of a single-celled organism with his letter to the Royal Society of London."

fems-microbiology.org/internationa...

Happy International Microorganism Day, to my whole beautiful community! 🧫🔬🧪

Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬?

In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments!

👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread!

Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)

Dissecting pOXA-48 fitness effects in clinical Enterobacterales using plasmid-wide CRISPRi screens Nature Communications - This study investigates the effects of the carbapenem resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in clinical enterobacteria. Using CRISPRi screens, the authors revealed that the...

This work is finally published! 🥳🧬
Plasmids are associated with very variable fitness costs in their different bacterial hosts. But, what is the contribution of each of the plasmid-genes in these host-specific effects? Study led by
@jorgesastred.bsky.social, @sanmillan.bsky.social and myself! 1/14

Species interactions determine plasmid persistence in a 3-member bacterial community Microbial communities are shaped by complex forces, including interspecies interactions and the effects of mobile genetic elements such as plasmids. How these forces interact to affect community respo...

Plasmids can be lost from a bacterial community even under positive environmental selection: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

New preprint with my HFSP collaborators. Network structures for bacterial and plasmid interactions determine community structure and evolvability: doi.org/10.32942/X21...

Heterogeneity drives plasmid maintenance in large microbial communities Microbiomes are complex systems comprised of many interacting species. Species can survive harsh or changing conditions by rapid adaptation, a process accelerated by the exchange of genetic material b...

Is the era of microbial metagenomics over? Check out our new preprint on using species abundance distributions to predict plasmid maintenance in bacterial communities: arxiv.org/abs/2509.01695

eight leatherbound books all titled "FERNS" volumes 1 through 8

Everyone in the past was neurotypical, which is how we got things like this single-author, eight-volume encyclopedia of ferns

"Tesla Inc. employs an odometer system that utilizes predictive algorithms, energy consumption metrics, and driver behavior multipliers that manipulate and misrepresent the actual mileage travelled by Tesla vehicles," reads the lawsuit. "In so doing, Defendants can, and do, accelerate the rate of depreciation of the value of Tesla vehicles and also the expiration of Tesla vehicle warranties to reduce or avoid responsibility for contractually required repairs as well as increase the purchase of its extended warranty policy."

It seems Tesla is detecting vehicles that may have problems, and artificially running their odometers faster so the warranty expires before they have to do any service

Just incredible grift

New postdoc position in our lab (2 y+): evolutionary genomics of integrons and MGEs with focus on vibrio-phage interactions. Great environment @pasteur.fr for science, career building. Super collaborators @celineloot.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @fredoleroux.bsky.social 3 weeks to apply!

Can anyone recommend papers where authors look at pairwise interactions between bacteria within a community context? i.e. interaction strength between strain A and strain B when co-cultured with several/many other strains.

Thanks!

Ecological histories govern social exploitation by microorganisms Abstract. Exploitation is a common feature of social interactions, which can be modified by ecological context. Here we investigate effects of ecological h

Ecological histories govern social exploitation by microorganisms

#ISMEJournal by @evokait.bsky.social et al from Greg Velicer

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

I miss it!

So excited that @relenski.bsky.social is the 2025 Microbiology Society Prize Medalist! What a role model, both for research and as a citizen of science

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Excited to share: The inaugural Alma Dal Co School on Collective Behavior is coming to Venice (Sep 29-Oct 4, 2025). This unique school honors Alma (1989-2022), whose brilliant work bridging physics and microbiology revealed how metabolic interactions structure microbial communities. 1/12

This. If you invite 40 people to a 2 hour meeting, or get them to complete 2 hrs of paperwork, you’re effectively ‘spending’ 2 weeks’ worth of productive institutional time…

MyxoEE Evolution experiments with myxobacteria – MyxoEEs – have been used to address many evolutionary questions and are summarised at myxoee.org

My colleagues and I are excited to announce our lovely new website showcasing the experimental evolution work with Myxococcus xanthus, a social and predatory soil bacterium. It's a great resource for anyone interested in microbial ecology/evolution or social evolution:

www.myxoee.org

Evolution of cooperation: thinking of cheaters as having a "host range" of permissible cooperators for my paper "Allopatric divergence of cooperators confers cheating resistance and limits effects of a defector mutation"

doi.org/10.1186/s128...

Check out my new preprint on how resource history impacts cheating and facultative exploitation in Myxococcus xanthus!

Ecological histories determine the success of social exploitation biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

with an AI summary: sciencecast.org/casts/paevzn7t