New in JB: Smith, Unnikrishnan et al. connect daptomycin sensitivity to the staphylococcal type VII secretion system protein EsxC via changes in the membrane, linking pathogenesis to Abx sensitivity.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology

✨Save the Date ✨
Connect with fellow early-career microbiologists & start new collaborations🤝:

Meeting of the #VAAM Young Scientist Network:
"Establishing Collaborations within the Network"
📆 13.02.2026
⏲️ 2 pm
🔗https://t1p.de/hmbhw

#EarlyCareer #Networking #Microbiology #YoungScientists

✨ We've just joined Instagram! ✨Follow us there for news, updates and insights from #VAAM 📸 www.instagram.com/vaam_microbes/

Image-based bacterial phenotyping and antimicrobial drug discovery using smart high-throughput super-resolution microscopy at University of Warwick on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Image-based bacterial phenotyping and antimicrobial drug discovery using smart high-throughput super-resolution microscopy at University of Warwick, listed on FindAPhD.com

iCASE PhD project available in my lab, combining microscopy method development with high throughput screening of bacteria. Applications to antibiotic drug discovery and screening for new cell division proteins. Collaboration with Cairn Research #microsky #bioimaging
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Person standing outside next to a building wearing a red jacket

Meet Leonie Johanna Lorenz 🇩🇪, a Predoctoral Fellow at EMBL-EBI who is bringing mathematical modelling to microbes.

Find out more about how Leonie’s passion for modelling patterns extends from bacterial evolution to sewing 🧵

www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/p...

We are hiring!

Now with the final graphic ✨
Beautiful artwork by Sonia Monti (scientific-visualization-solutions.com). Design by @embo.org

🧬 The Rules of the Game
📍 @gimmfoundation.bsky.social, Oeiras (PT) | June 2–5, 2026
🗓️ Register by March 1st
👉 meetings.embo.org/event/26-cel...

Preprint:INSIDE OUT! Experimentally and via computational modelling, we showed that chemical gradients in late-stage N.gonorrhoeae microcolonies induce spontaneous symmetry breaking. Like a jet, the inner core flows towards the periphery, leading to a global eversion and the dissemination of cells.

Multistate kinetics of the syringe-like injection mechanism of Tc toxins Tc toxins perforate cells via a multistep process involving three intermediates, modulated by lipids, receptors, and pH.

First paper 2025🎇
Multistate kinetics of the syringe-like injection mechanism of Tc toxins - published by Enrica Bordignon & @raunser-lab.bsky.social in @science.org Advances #CryoEM

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

YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology How bacterial Tc toxins work: secretion, pore formation and host cell disruption.

Our new movie is online, highlighting the assembly, secretion and mechanism of action of bacterial Tc toxins. We hope you enjoy it and use it for teaching purposes or just for fun. Nature is fascinating!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfEf...

We want to thank @stephanwimmi.bsky.social @isahow.bsky.social, Kai Zhou, Marc Hennes, and @sabass-lab.bsky.social for this truly collaborative and interdisciplinary work and all their input and discussions!

Super proud to share my first preprint from the @maierlab.bsky.social lab, in a very fruitful collaboration with @isahow.bsky.social, Kai Zhou, Marc Hennes,and @sabass-lab.bsky.social, we investigated gonococcal microcolony remodeling due to changes in the dynamic Type4pili interaction network.

JB Editor's Choice: Bhattarai, Harshey et al. propose a new model for YcgR::c-di-GMP regulation of flagellar motility in Salmonella/E. coli. They provide evidence for the first part of their model.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology

Type IV Secretion Systems: Reconciling Diversity Through a Unified Nomenclature Abstract. Type IV secretion systems (T4SS) are versatile nanomachines responsible for the transfer of DNA and proteins across cell envelopes. From their an

Type IV Secretion Systems: Reconciling Diversity Through a Unified Nomenclature url: academic.oup.com/femsre/artic...

Temporal and spatial coordination of DNA segregation and cell division in an archaeon | PNAS Cells must coordinate DNA segregation with cytokinesis to ensure that each daughter cell inherits a complete genome. Here, we explore how DNA segre...

Temporal and spatial coordination of DNA segregation and cell division in an archaeon
#microbiology #DNA #archaea
@pnas.org
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

6SiR-C3-NextA is bright far-red, cell-permeable probe for live-cell selective HDAC6 imaging. Congratulations to Van-Thang Nguyen et al. @vanthang.bsky.social from @imprsgs.bsky.social ! Developed at @mpi-nat.bsky.social nat.bsky.social and published on BioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... .

Franziska Faber and I are recruiting shared postdocs, PhD students to work on Fusobacterium & new BGCs. www.helmholtz-hiri.de/fileadmin/HI...

I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026! The Microbial Ecosystems Lab @hot-mes-asu.bsky.social at ASU studies microbial interactions, spatial ecology, and imaging-driven microbiome science. If you love microbes, microfluidics, or single-cell analysis, let’s talk! www.microbialeco.systems

want to see a chemotaxis array (G) and a post-discharge T6SS (I) ? inside 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪 inside a 𝘌𝘱𝘳𝘺𝘮𝘢 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘴 crypt ? go no further...

#CryoET #CryoEM #teamtomo #MicroSky

I am very excited to announce that a fully funded PhD position is available in my group.

Topic: Synergistic coevolution in mono-specific and multi-species microbial consortia

Please RT or forward this information to interested candidates.

Deadline: 11.01.26

More info:

shorturl.at/f1TuF

Top left: CryoEM map for the ATP-bound YbbAP at 3.6 Å resolution, and (below)ATP-bound YbbAP-TesA complex contoured to visualize the detergent belt. Maps are shown at two contour levels—a partially transparent low contour map is shown in white (4.5 σ), and a high contour map is shown colored by nearest protein chain (7 σ). Top right: Structures of apo YbbAP, ATP analogue-bound YbbAP, and ATP analogue-bound YbbAP-TesA. Proteins are shown in cartoon representation (YbbA green, YbbP teal, and TesA pink), and the non-hydrolyzable ATP analogue (AMP-PNP) is shown in blue atomic spheres. Bottom: Biological functions of the four Type VII ABC transporters in Escherichia coli. From left to right: YbbAP-TesA forms a novel type VII ABC transporter involved in extraction of hydrophobic compounds from the inner membrane and enzymatic hydrolysis in the periplasm; FtsEX-EnvC uses transmembrane conformational changes to regulate the activity of peptidoglycan amidases in the periplasm; MacAB-TolC drive efflux of antibiotics and small toxins across the outer membrane; and LolCDE extracts lipoproteins from the inner membrane and delivers them to the outer membrane via the LolA shuttle.

Structures of 3 of the 4 #Ecoli Type VII #ABCtransporter systems are known. @allistercrow.bsky.social &co use #cryoEM structures to show that the 4th, YbbAP, may extract hydrophobic compounds from the inner membrane & present them to periplasmic TesA for hydrolysis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/49EhNHD

Role of FlhF and its domains in the assembly of a polar flagellum in P. aeruginosa | Journal of Bacteriology Pathogenic bacteria rely on flagellar motility for infection and colonization. FlhF, a member of the SRP GTPase family, is a key factor regulating flagellation patterns in various bacteria. In this st...

Role of FlhF and its domains in the assembly of a polar flagellum in P. aeruginosa

#JBacteriol from Deepti Jain

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Vibrio natriegens Vibrio natriegens is a Gram-negative, halophilic member of the Harveyi clade and Vibrio core group that inhabits marine and estuarine coastal waters and sediments. While generally considered nonpathogenic, this species shares this clade with serious human pathogens (e.g., Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and aquatic animal pathogens (e.g., Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio campbelllii, and Vibrio alginolyticus). Although it was discovered more than 65 years ago, most of our knowledge regarding this bacterium has been generated in the past decade.

Vibrio natriegens

Building the bacterial flagellum: coordinating regulation, dynamic assembly, and function | Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews SUMMARYBacterial flagella are remarkable rotary machines that enable motility, environmental sensing, and host interaction. In this review, we discuss recent advances in understanding the structure, a...

Building the bacterial flagellum: coordinating regulation, dynamic assembly, and function | Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Secreting bacteria undergo drastic changes.
We found that in Yersinia, T3SS activation triggers rapid, large-scale reorganisation of chromosomal and plasmid DNA. This links secretion to growth inhibition-revealing a new connection between virulence and bacterial cell biology.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

📣 VAAM Young Scientist Network – Upcoming Meeting!
Join us 📆Dec 8 ⏲️ 1 pm
for our next session:
“Industrial Careers: Perspectives and Pathways.”

Discover insights into career options beyond academia & hear experiences from young industry professionals
👉 Register here: t1p.de/hmbhw

#YoungScientists

The type VI secretion system and associated effector proteins - Nature Reviews Microbiology In this Review, Basler and colleagues examine the type VI secretion system (T6SS), focusing on the diversity of antibacterial T6SS effectors and the evolutionary forces that shape them. They explain h...

Happy to share our latest T6SS review:
nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you, Jan, Danny (@dannyjamesward.bsky.social), Joana (@joanampereira.bsky.social), as well as reviewers and editors @natrevmicro.nature.com!

Continuous exchange of an inner-membrane ring component is required for assembly and function of the type III secretion system - Nature Communications Bacteria use the type III secretion system (T3SS) to inject proteins into target cells. Here, Brianceau et al. show that a core structural component, SctD, exchanges between a T3SS-bound and a freely ...

Continuous exchange of an inner-membrane ring component is required for assembly and function of the type III secretion system

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

What if even the core of bacterial nanomachines wasn’t static?

We found that the T3SS core protein SctD in Yersinia dynamically exchanges subunits — and this flexibility is essential for proper assembly & function.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@kit.edu @t3sss.bsky.social