Hypermutable hotspot enables the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium Cells require highly polymorphic receptors to perform accurate self/non-self recognition. In the amoeba Dicytostelium discoideum, polymorphic TgrB1 & TgrC1 proteins are used to bind sister cells and e...

I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Super excited to share our paper online 🚨today🚨 in Cell Host & Microbe‬! Xiaomei Ren @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and Mason Clark @rmasonclark.bsky.social‬ co-led discovery of ecological factors for Acinetobacter baumannii carriage in the gut, a reservoir for pathogen spread. 🎉

tinyurl.com/443kfefk

Great opportunity to work on a fascinating biological system with a great lab.

Pls share: Kenyon College is looking for "a broadly trained microbiologist whose research focuses on prokaryotes."

You can see the full ad here:
careers.pageuppeople.com/695/cw/en-us...

Excited to share this collaborative study with @ritatamayo.bsky.social showing that E. faecalis influences C. diff morphology through the phase variable CmrRST system! This work was co-led by the amazing team of @ashleyweiss.bsky.social and Jilarie Santos-Santiago!

As always, the elegant work of the Eldar lab reveals deep biology. Such a wonderful tradition of creative work!!!

We recently ran a scRNAseq in competence inducing media and see very strong anticorrelation of eps genes with competence, which is known in biofilms but I didn't expect in such well shaking conditions. In hindsight I should have guessed it but was nice to see, and you are spot on in your prediction

For sure. Transition stage there are motile cells, comp cells, some EPS producers, & even subpopulations destined for death!

Also, for curiosity, are there particular cell fates other than competent cells that you'd expect in an SPII resuspension culture? - Just curious how much folks have thought about these induction protocols

Ooh, never done that but sounds very useful. How do you make them supercompetent (or is this just a freezer down of cells in spII with glycerol?).

I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!

An effluent pump family distributed across plant commensal bacteria conditions host- and organ-specific glucosinolate detoxification - Nature Communications Bacterial genes required for plant colonization are highly host- and organ-specific. An efflux pump detoxifies specific Arabidopsis glucosinolates to protect commensal bacteria from plant chemical def...

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

#microsky

Copy number flexibility facilitates heteroresistance to increasing antibiotic pressure and threatens the beta-lactam pipeline Nature Communications - Choby et al. show that dynamic increases in the copy number of preexisting β-lactamase genes in heteroresistance enables resistance of continua of cellular...

Excited to share the work with @dweisslab.bsky.social‬ and great collaborators on how gene amplification generates dynamic heteroresistance to new beta-lactams, like cefiderocol. We hope drug developers will consider heteroresistance during antibiotic development rdcu.be/euijW

Hi folks, we had a last minute cancellation at MBL STAMPS, the microbiome data analysis course in Woods Hole that runs from July 14th to July 24th. We can provide housing space for a woman. If you or anyone you know is interested, pls drop me an e-mail at ctbrown@ucdavis.edu. Thx!

Maximizing bacterial survival: integrating sense-and-respond and bet-hedging mechanisms Two-component systems allow bacteria to respond to specific environmental signals with defined adaptive phenotypic changes, a process that requires time and may be inadequate for contending with rapid...

Maximizing bacterial survival: integrating sense-and-respond and bet-hedging mechanisms

@cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social from @ritatamayo.bsky.social

www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Looking for a postdoc on bacterial-insect symbiosis, combining evolution and molecular mechanisms? I'll have one open in my lab starting Sept 2025. If interested contact me (or find me at the GRC on Animal-microbe symbiosis if you'll be there). #SymbioSky

Betül is amazing, highly recommend listening

FimX regulates type IV pilus localization via the Pil-Chp chemosensory system in Acinetobacter baylyi Type IV pili (T4P) are widespread dynamic appendages required for diverse prokaryotic behaviors including twitching motility, biofilm formation, and DNA uptake leading to natural transformation. Altho...

Excited to share the newest preprint from the lab for my first post! Driven by @tayellisonwrites.bsky.social and @ianyyen.bsky.social with Lynne Howell we show the protein FimX has diverged in function away from regulating pilus extension to instead regulate pilus localization in A. baylyi

BONCAT-Live for isolation and cultivation of active environmental bacteria In diverse environments, microbes drive a myriad of processes, from geochemical and nutrient cycling to interspecies interactions, including in association with plants and animals. Their physiological...

BONCAT-Live for isolation and cultivation of active environmental bacteria www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Research labs can be a revolving door of people. Today we officially welcomed a new PhD student, Rose Mason. Also today, Matthew Higgs @madeofmicrobes.bsky.social defended his dissertation and earned his PhD. Congratulations to both of these amazing scientists!!!

Congrats! Nice to see this out in print

With this method we link physiological measurement with the underlying transcriptional signature, and identify a cell population with high transnational activity and a distinct transcriptomic signature.

To do this, co-lead authors Chris Baumann and Molly Hydorn adapt a click-labeling based method for protein synthesis rate labeling (OPP labeling) to incorporate a user defined oligonucleotide. This label can be indexed alongside transcripts in microfluidic droplets and sequenced.

Simultaneous measurements of translation rate and transcriptome in single bacterial cells by scTR-seq uncovers linked regulation within a specialized active cell population Cell-to-cell variation within clonal bacterial populations provides bacterial communities important advantages including opportunities for bet-hedging and metabolic division of labor. In recent years ...

Happy to share a preprint from a fun collaboration with Jonathan Dworkin's lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We set out to profile transcriptomes and translation rates in thousands of single bacterial cells

Pls share: The Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, invites applications for a tenure-track or fixed-term faculty position at the level of Assistant Professor or Associate Professor.
ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/83911

Pls share: The Department of Microbiology & Immunology at East Carolina Universityinvites applications for Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in the area of microbial pathogenesis or host-pathogen interactions.
ecu.peopleadmin.com/postings/83911

Functional Metagenomic Selections for Phage Defense

My lab’s first preprint!

We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages.

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

1/10

Congrats Michael and Fernando, very striking phenotypes and cool technical approach!!

Search by sequence (text search) through the order history would be very useful

So a former postdoc from our department had just started as a PO at NIH and was terminated in the wave of terminations last week. He is in the research triangle and a phenomenal scientist with expertise in stress and glia. If anyone in the RTI is hiring asap please let me know! #neuroskyence