Lilian Caesar

Pretty excited to share our new preprint!
Non-photosynthetic Plastid Replacement by a Primary Plastid in the Making
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Dobzhansky Prize to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding early-career evolutionary biologist. Nominations due December 1, 2025.

Nominations are now open for the Dobzhansky Prize, which recognizes the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding early-career evolutionary biologist. The award includes $5000 and an award talk at the in-person Evolution meeting. Deadline: December 1
shorturl.at/p70wY

Age-related microbiome metabolites modulate splicing and chromatin accessibility in the brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680371v1

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Evolutionary rescue accelerates competitive exclusion in a parasite community Environmental stress drives biodiversity loss by altering competitive hierarchies and pushing taxa towards extinction. Parasites and their communities are particularly vulnerable to stress due to envi...

New pre-print: Eco-evolutionary responses of phage to different thermal regimes.

Great work led by Sam Greenrod and fun collaboration with Kayla King's lab.
1/2

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

Excited to be co-organizing an #AbSciCon2026 session on Symbiosis. We welcome everything from mobilomes and viruses to organelle evolution and ecological networks! Let's bring more bio to astrobio! Submit here: agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
#astrobiology #symbiosis

New article on equitable reuse of public sequencing data, published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com!
Led by the Data reuse core team @lhug.bsky.social @environmicrobio.bsky.social Cristina Moraru, @geomicrosoares.bsky.social, @folker.bsky.social and with Anke Heyer and The Data Reuse Consotrium!

A call for caution in the biological interpretation of viral auxiliary metabolic genes - Nature Microbiology This Perspective discusses virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes and provides a framework for the biological interpretation of these genes.

A call for caution in the biological interpretation of viral auxiliary metabolic genes www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Fungus-farming termites can protect their crop by confining weeds with fungistatic soil boluses The symbiotic agriculture of fungus-farming termites can collapse if they fail to prevent invading weeds. Previous studies suggest a role for symbiotic fungistatic microbes in bringing about weed cont...

When harmful fungi invade their carefully cultivated crops, fungus-farming termites fight back with the precision of skilled gardeners, a new Science study reveals, smothering them in soil clumps enriched with microbial allies that inhibit fungal growth. https://scim.ag/4nsAqCu

6 Scientists. 1 Panel. Big ideas.

From Gut microbiomes 🧬 to Halophiles 🧂 to Plant Holobionts 🌱
Join our #UnityInDiversity panel to explore how diversity fuels discovery in microbial ecology!

🗓 Oct 21 | 8AM PT · 5PM CET · 11PM Beijing
🔗 Join us: isme-microbes.org/invitation-t...

Very happy to see our new study on the evolution of eusociality come out in Evolution Letters! Our study is the first to experimentally manipulate the proportion of females that stay and help to simulate incipient sociality & assess fitness impact of helping. 🧵

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

Abstract submissions are now open for the 20th IUSSI Congress in Freiburg, Germany, from 16-20 August 2026. Submit by 31 Dec 2025. More info: https://iussi2026.org/ #conference

Excited to share our @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social led by Magda showing how Bif has co-evolved with different animal hosts 🐒🐭🐷🐦

Key takeaways:
🔹 Host ancestry + diet shape Bif evolution
🔹 Mammals enriched for carb-busting enzymes
🔹 Untapped diversity in non-human hosts = new probiotic potential

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution International Event Grants. Applications due September 15.

Applications due Monday September 15 for the International Event Grants! These grants support symposia, workshops, courses, and other evolutionary biology events, including virtual events. Learn more and apply now: rb.gy/76fgi

ggplot2 4.0.0 A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe

🚨 Save the date! Thrilled to be co-organizing the next iteration of the @embl.org Symposium on the Cellular Mechanics of Symbiosis (📅 March 17-20), w/ @floravincent.bsky.social, @hassansalem.bsky.social & Tom Richards.
www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky 🦠

I’m so excited to join Meli Bees in this initiative as a mentor, supporting and empowering Indigenous leaders (mainly from the Amazon and Cerrado: tinyurl.com/4tnkpytz. Today I met incredible leaders/team members—feeling so inspired! Here a beautiful illustration by Petra capturing our conversation.

Our paper on rodent thumbnails is out! Big team effort, powered by museum collections. Turns out, nails can reveal a lot about rodent evolution. Shoutout to Dr. Gordon Shepherd for the wild idea to study rodents thumbs!

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

Look at this crazy thing!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence - Nature Commensal Candida albicans enhances the virulence and dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

Excited to share our new publication, out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @kanchanj.bsky.social led this fascinating fungal-bacterial interaction project. We are grateful for our wonderful collaborators Brian Peters and David Underhill.

Genomic constraints shape the evolution of alternative routes to drug resistance in prokaryotes Background Variation within the prokaryotic pangenome is not random, and natural selection that favours particular combinations of genes appears to dominate over random drift. What is less clear is wh...

New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards.
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How do microbes become permanent partners? 🌊🔬🦠 Check out our new study published in Current Biology showing how cyanobacterial genomes evolve step-by-step into endosymbionts of diatoms. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social @mehrshmali.bsky.social

microscale anatomical features of 3D-printed bioreactor

One of @emmiamueller.bsky.social thesis chapters is now posted on @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social:

"The Enterostat: a 3D-printed bioreactor for simulating gut microbiome dynamics" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

#Comment

A call for early-career teams in interdisciplinary microbiology research

#MicroSky

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

Cell Symposia: Host-microbiome dynamics
May 10–12, 2026 | Bruges, Belgium

by @cp-immunity.bsky.social @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social and @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social

www.cell-symposia.com/microbiome-2...

Twelve species of human parasites make up half of the literature on microbial eukaryotes Although microbial eukaryotes comprise the majority of eukaryotic phylogenetic diversity and inhabit nearly all ecosystems globally, most research focuses on only a few species of human parasites. Her...

New lab pre-print up! "Twelve species of human parasites make up half the literature on microbial eukaryotes"
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

We (led by UG Joanna Lepper and with @hbrappap.bsky.social) quantified all mentions of protist species in the scientific literature 🧵

#protistsonsky #microsky

Program for #GloMiNe2025 "Preservation of microbial diversity” by @microbiotavault.bsky.social ‬and #MVIF is OUT:
cassyni.com/s/mvif-glomi...

1/3

Computational function prediction of bacteria and phage proteins | Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews SUMMARYUnderstanding protein functions is crucial for interpreting microbial life; however, reliable function annotation remains a major challenge in computational biology. Despite significant advance...

Thrilled to share our new review just published in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews (@asm.org #MMBR):
“Computational Function Prediction of Bacteria and Phage Proteins”
with @gbouras13.bsky.social @linsalrob.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social
🔗 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...