BejaLab

A phage-encoded anti-CRISPR protein co-opts host enolase to prevent type III CRISPR immunity - Nature Microbiology Streptococcus thermophilus phages circumvent host CRISPR defences via AcrIIIA2, which complexes with enolase, a highly abundant glycolysis enzyme, to block phage RNA binding.

A phage-encoded anti-CRISPR protein co-opts host enolase to prevent type III CRISPR immunity | Nature Microbiology https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-025-02178-2

Photo of an intact Roman two-handled translucent cobalt blue glass cup dated AD 30-70. The cup has a cylindrical body with vertical sides and two narrow strap handles attached to each side as ear-shaped loops. The cup is mould-blown with relief decoration on the body which incorporates two inscriptions in Greek, one on each side of the cup. One side reads ‘ENNIWN/ENOIH/CEN’ (‘Ennion made [it]'). The other side reads ‘MNHOH/O AOPA/ZNW translated as ‘May the buyer be remembered’. Dimensions: Height 2½ in. (6.4 cm), diameter (rim): 3% in. (9.5 cm) Collection Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria, Italy. Incredibly this is one of two matching cups blown from the same mould, found together in a Roman tomb at Cuora, near Adria, Italy, in the early 1900s. The matching cup is now part of the collections at the Corning Museum of Glass

Exquisite Roman glass cup signed by master glassmaker ‘Ennion’. AD 30-70.

Ennion was the first glassmaker to ‘brand’ his work by incorporating his name into the mould’s design, some 2000 years ago!

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria 📷 Leonardo.disimone

#Archaeology

Dated gene duplications elucidate the evolutionary assembly of eukaryotes - Nature Analysis of eukaryotic gene sequences using a relaxed molecular clock methodology indicate that eukaryotes emerged 3.0–2.25 billion years ago as a result of mitochondrial endosymbiosis with complex ar...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... INtrsting paper on the evolution of eukaryotes. Archeon what the driver of eukaryogenesis. Can we not find any evidence of this in nature currently?

went climbing in timna with my friends 🧗‍♀️I feel much better 🕺

The dead sea with old friends

A woman writing on a flipchart during a course. Text highlighting the next EMBO Lab Leadership for Postdocs course running in Germany on 27–29 January 2026 still has places available. Register now and we can still issue the invoice this year.

Still need to use up 2025 funding? Places available for @embo.org Lab Leadership for #Postdocs course 27–29 January! Take time to focus on interpersonal skills + discover tools to support development. Sign up now and still get invoice this year: www.embolableadership.org/course/embol... #EMBOLabLead

Deciphering guanidine assimilation and riboswitch-based gene regulation in cyanobacteria for synthetic biology applications | PNAS Guanidine is well known as a denaturing agent. However, recent studies have demonstrated both the widespread synthesis of guanidine, e.g., in plant...

Our latest paper on Guanidine metabolism in #Cyanobacteria is out @pnas.org
(it's useful as N nutrient but toxic at the same time)

A great collaboration w Klähn lab w small part from us on toxicity😅
@hhu.de @spp2389.bsky.social
@sfb1381.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Not to mention… we just had our 4th ever sighting of Haliphron in over 35 years (7000+ ROV dives).

Its arms were closed up but we followed it until we could see that it was again holding a jellyfish…
m.youtube.com/watch?v=4_lt...

See also: www.nature.com/articles/sre...

Excited to share our new @natecoevo.nature.com
paper. We identified microbes found across nearly all ruminants that act as the functional backbone of both the rumen ecosystem and the host, with major implications for food security and climate change mitigation. (1/8)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Vitamin auxotrophies shape microbial community assembly on model marine particles Abstract. Microbial community assembly is governed by the flow of carbon sources and other primary metabolites between species. However, central metabolism

🌊🦠🧪 Delighted to share this work now out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1093/isme... The currency of microbial life is chemistry, but there’s so much still unknown about how metabolic interactions shape communities. 1/

Angelina Fanny Hesse: The Woman Who Brought Agar from the Kitchen to the Laboratory Angelina Fanny Hesse reveals how childhood memories of Indonesian pudding solved bacteriology’s greatest problem in 1881. The unpaid laboratory technician whose kitchen knowledge enabled Koch…

Angelina Fanny Hesse: The Woman Who Brought Agar from the Kitchen to the Laboratory
voxmeditantis.com/2025/10/30/a...

#WomenInSTEM #STEM #Microbiology #Agarology #Bacteriology

A purple, red and white crab. Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/3438552539

The toxic crab (Lophozozymus incisus), a rare and very beautiful species found in warm waters the world over, including off the coast of Australia.

Toxic crabs can be incredibly dangerous, containing toxins that are similar to those of the pufferfish, called tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin.

#crustmas

@naturalist1986.bsky.social has done it again, this time with 3rd prize at the ISPS meeting in the beautiful Sde Boker. Poster title: A rhizobial trickster: Legume symbiont simultaneously fixes atmospheric nitrogen and denitrifies. Time to turn these posters into manuscripts.

Flowchart titled “Should you attend that meeting?” with decision nodes leading to “Decline!” in all cases.

Behold: a genuinely useful flowchart #AcademicChatter

פרק 36: חשיפת בכורה של מחקר פורץ דרך של מכון ויצמן בנושא מנפאוזה

Recommended listening. I was hosted on the podcast “Gil Hameever” to discuss our latest paper about the sudden physiological changes at menopause. The conversation is in Hebrew.
open.spotify.com/episode/0EVA...

#פידמדע
אורי אלון מצא ממצאים מעניינים על גיל הבלות.
להבנתי ומאוד בקצרה: התהליך מתחיל עשור(!) לפני הפסקת המחזור בפועל.
הרבה מערכות משתמשות במקביל עם הפסקת המחזור. לפחות האנמיה והדכאון מפסיקים לאחר הפסקת המחזור.
תחליפי הורמונים מפחיתים את השינויים ומקלים על המעבר.

#פידמדע
וכדאי להזכיר גם את 3 הזוכות הנוספות: מורן יסעור מהעברית.
@leeat-keren.bsky.social מווייצמן
@meravcohen.bsky.social מתל-אביב

Dr. Ayala Shiber from the Technion has been selected to join the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Young Investigator Program - הטכניון-מכון טכנולוגי לישראל

Dr. Ayala Shiber from the Technion has been selected to join the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Young Investigator Program www.technion.ac.il/en/blog/arti...

ד"ר אילה שיבר מהטכניון נבחרה לתוכנית החוקרים הצעירים של הארגון האירופי לביולוגיה מולקולרית (EMBO) - הטכניון-מכון טכנולוגי לישראל

ד"ר אילה שיבר מהטכניון נבחרה לתוכנית החוקרים הצעירים של הארגון האירופי לביולוגיה מולקולרית (EMBO) www.technion.ac.il/blog/article...

YouTube video by Protistologists ISOP member spotlight Lilach Sheiner

Had a great time interviewing Dr. Lilach Sheiner (@sheinerlab.bsky.social) for the latest edition of ISOP’s Protistology Newsletter. Check it out here! #ProtistsOnSky #Toxoplasma #Science

another day, another L for the WSJ

YouTube video by Schmidt Ocean Collaboration for Understanding | Searching for the Asgards

Wrap up video from the Symbiotic Partners of Asgards Research Cruise (SPARC).

youtu.be/mgmEh_qag5E?...

#AsgardArchaea
@schmidtocean.bsky.social
@moorefound.bsky.social
@texasscience.bsky.social
@utmsi.bsky.social

...nothing against the work, but I wonder how useful such information is as long as the alternatives are not considered. Plus, how does it stack up against natural compounds that we come in touch with every day?

Earliest oceanic tetrapod ecosystem reveals rapid complexification of Triassic marine communities www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#TRECExpedition I 👉 EMBRC was pleased to contribute to TREC’s scientific exploration of our changing planet & we're looking forward to insightful discussions at the TREC symposium.

Read our blog
🔗https://tinyurl.com/mw7sh7m8

@embl.org @fondationtaraocean.bsky.social 🧪🌊

🔊 APPLY NOW for our #MarMic #MSc/#PhD program!

Come to #Bremen and take an interdisciplinary approach to #marine #microbiology, #molecularbiology, #biochemistry, #evolution and more.

⏳ Open until Feb 28 2026
➡ marmic.mpg.de

#graduatestudents #marinescience #sciencecareer #IMPRS @maxplanck.de

our new paper on pelagic #Asgard archaea that use #rhodopsins with carotenoid antennas to harvest light energy in the oceans.
Structural insights into light-harvesting by antenna-containing rhodopsins in marine Asgard archaea www.nature.com/articles/s41... @galitzlil.bsky.social

צילום מסך מסרטון אינסטגרם של "מכבי טבעי". בפריים המצולם רואים אישה בחלוק לבן, ומופיע הכיתוב "אז מה בעצם קורה בתהליך של ניקוי רעלים?"

😡
משרד הבריאות מאפשר לקופות החולים לנצל את הלקוחות שלהן (בעבר: מטופלים) כדי למלא את הקופה. הפעם דוגמה ממכבי טבעי.

מה זה ניקוי רעלים? במובן שנטורופתים ויתר מקצועות רפואת האליל משתמשים בו: בולשיט מוחלט. הבטחות ל"ניקוי רעלים" הן תרמית.

1/7
#פידמדע