Rebecca Lowry Palmer

All that time sat next to @matthewjshepherd.bsky.social watching him work away at this - absolutely buzzing it's finally out there!! Well done!

New PDRA position with @knightjar.bsky.social @coytelab.bsky.social & me

Community assembly processes in soil microbiomes with focus on bioinformatics and computational modelling of data from field and lab experiments

www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

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

Logan and his title slide

Last ECR talk of the day from Logan Sauers on IgA transcriptomics #UoM_EEday

This was a brilliant talk, what an amazing career so far - I never knew there were so many different types of placenta!! @evol-molly.bsky.social's work on miRNA and pregnancy outcomes is SO important.

I was absolutely delighted to give a talk at the University of Manchester Ecology and Evolution day yesterday. An incredible collection of talks and posters were presented and we had some great discussions - thank you to @whelanfj.bsky.social and @knightjar.bsky.social for organising!

💕

Rebecca presenting a slide introducing bdellovibrio

@bexlowrypalms.bsky.social up next speaking about her work on bdellovibrio #UoM_EEday

I'll believe it when I see it, fortune cookie 😂

It's been a wild week for MERMan! Congratulations Rana, you are incredible ✨✨✨

So proud of @zahraaalbaqsami.bsky.social - you are amazing ✨✨✨✨

Whelan lab cake for the win at the Division of Evolution, Infection and Genomics and MCF Winter Celebration 🥳
#bakeoff #whelanlab

Rowan standing in front of a title slide reading “defective viral genomes in natural infections”

Lavish standing in front of a title slide reading “trade-offs in bacterial evolution in the context of temperate phage infection”

We had two fantastic visiting speakers today

MERMan alumnus @rowancallumg.bsky.social spoke about his current work with viral cheating in influenza with @asherleeks.bsky.social

And @lavishaparab.bsky.social talked about phage infection trade-offs

Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for our snacks!

More amazing posters presented by our researchers @zahraaalbaqsami.bsky.social and Rana at #MicroEvo25!

What a week! Thanks to everyone who attended the UK Phage Therapy workshop and #MicroEvo25 in Liverpool… every talk, poster, question, chat, and round of applause helps to build our microbial evolution community! Thanks to @microbiologysociety.org and @ukri.org for support

So proud of @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social, so much effort goes into everything she does and her presentations always have such amazing hand drawn figures - very well deserved 👏🏼

Jamie Hall on stage opening the conference.

So excited to be here for @microbiologysociety.org ‘s #microevo25 meeting!

Fantastic talk about the impact of inflammation on Pseudomonas aeruginosa evolution by @taoranfu.bsky.social #MicroEvo25

Come and see @willpjsmith.bsky.social at poster 71 to find out more about microbial warfare! #MicroEvo25

Learn about hot spring microbial communities from @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social at poster 62 🌋 #MicroEvo25

Find out more about DNA repair protein single-molecule tracking from @bexlowrypalms.bsky.social at poster 18🔬 #MicroEvo25

Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...

Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs

Amazing congratulations Simona!!!

✨I am thrilled to announce that my #ERCStG project will be funded by @erc.europa.eu. It explores how predatory bacteria interact with bacteria, which they invade and kill 🔬. I am very grateful to the ERC, the panel, reviewers, mentors, collaborators and colleagues! 🙏
#ERCStG => tiny.cc/174s001

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

Can Pseudomonas spp. Biocontrols help us to tackle Kiwi Canker? Isabella Frost is finding out! #PPATH2025

Pseudomonas is under attack again, with Rebecca Lowry Palmer harnessing Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus as a Biocontrol Agent Against Pseudomonas syringae in Tomato Plants. #ECPP2025 #PPATH2025

Very excited to be in Nottingham for the @bspp.bsky.social #bspp2025 giving a talk and poster presentation on my work with Bdellovibrio, plants and microbial evolution 🌱

The las and rhl QS systems have a reciprocal, synergistic, and unequal relationship. Top: Single-signal models demonstrate that the summed effects of single signals (3 oxo C12 HSL alone, red; C4 HSL alone, orange) cannot account for the maximal expression of lasI or rhlI. The upper green, flat surfaces in the plots indicate the maximum mean expression level measured across all combinations of signal concentrations while the lower semi-transparent surfaces mark the sum of single signal effects. The plotted points represent observed expression levels when C4 HSL is withheld (red) and when 3 oxo C12 HSL is withheld (yellow). Lines indicate the model predictions. Bottom: Multi-signal non-linear models capture the synergistic effects of both signals and match observed expression levels. Model estimates are shown as grid lines. Horizontal bars show the mean value of expression observed at each combination of signal concentrations. Lines extend from these mean values to the relevant grid point for clarity. Right: Data show that relationship of the las and rhl systems is reciprocal, and the multi-signal model quantifies the strength of those interactions. In particular, it reveals the contribution of both signals to the maximum fold-change in expression of both synthases. The charts in this panel summarize the contribution of 3 oxo C12 HSL (red), C4 HSL (yellow), and the synergistic combination of both (orange).

Bacterial #QuorumSensing is often assumed to follow a strict hierarchy. @brownlab.bsky.social &co find that #Pseudomonas aeruginosa instead uses a reciprocal, cooperative system that enhances responsiveness to population density & environmental changes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3I7DhRG

closing at the end of this week!