Peter Fineran

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

📣 Fully funded PhD opportunity - CryoEM, Phage Biology & Structural Mechanisms
University of Sheffield, UK | Start Oct 2026

We’re looking for a motivated student to uncover how bacteriophage proteins shut down drug-resistant Enterococcus bacteria.

Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Really excited to be hosting @jcornlab.bsky.social here at @universityofotago.bsky.social next year. Looking forward to lots of fun science ahead.

Use antisense oligomers to silence phage genes and discover new biology.
@jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de
print: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
highlight: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
briefing: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wilkinson Lab We discover and study reverse transcriptases

The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social

🧬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)🧬

annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)

Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social

The ISVM logo for the International Society for the Viruses of Microorganisms

Welcome @isvm-society.bsky.social to bsky, the International Society for the Viruses of Microorganisms. Check the new look website isvm.org and become a member for free!

#phagesky #microsky

Come and work with me and @ariannebabina.bsky.social on #Streptomyces evolution and antibiotic production

Origins of a tangled bank: Adaptation and evolution in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces

www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...

please repost

Assistant Professor Plant-Microbe Interactions We seek a creative, collaborative, and visionary plant biologist to establish an internationally recognized research program at the forefront of plant-microbe interactions aimed at understanding how t...

The Department of Biology at Colorado State University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the area of plant-microbe interactions! Please spread the word!

jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition Smith and Fineran describe how priming by type I CRISPR-Cas systems facilitates adaptation and spacer maintenance by a co-occurring type III system, which normally induces abortive infection. While ty...

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition

Priming by type I CRISPR-Cas aids spacer maintenance by co-occurring type III. Concurrent DNA&RNA-targeting minimize phage escape for population benefit

@peterfineran.bsky.social @leahmsmith.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

All systems go: CRISPR crosstalk for enhanced immunity In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, companion manuscripts from Margolis & Meeske and Smith & Fineran demonstrate that CRISPR-Cas systems have an unprecedented level of cooperative crosstalk between ...

All systems go: CRISPR crosstalk for enhanced immunity

Barrangou Previews papers led by @peterfineran.bsky.social & Meeske demonstrating CRISPR-Cas systems have unprecedented level of cooperative crosstalk between different subtypes, enabling primed spacer acquisition
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Willing to join us @pasteur.fr for a PhD for a project on how interactions between mobile genetic elements shape bacterial adaptation? Subject to be tailored to candidates with keen interest in evolution, genomics, computational biology, microbiology. Check www.pasteur.fr/en/education...

We're looking for a technician at Institut Pasteur for experimental work on satellite-phage-bacteria interactions, working directly with @jmouradesousa.bsky.social and myself in the lab of @epcrocha.bsky.social ! ANR funded.

Link to the job emploi.pasteur.fr/offre-de-emp...
Thx for sharing!

Translational coupling of neighboring genes in prokaryotes | Journal of Bacteriology Prokaryotic genes are arranged in operons, with functionally related genes often located adjacent to one another (1). There are several ways in which the operonic organization of genes facilitates the...

Check out our new paper: a review of translational coupling, the phenomenon where translation of one prokaryotic gene can promote translation of the gene downstream. We cover the history, and delve into the mechanism, which is still not fully understood. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Programmable antisense oligomers for phage functional genomics - Nature Establishing antisense oligomers as versatile, non-genetic tools to silence phage mRNAs opens applications in basic research and biotechnology, as shown by identifying essential factors for propagatio...

No Genetics? Try ASOs – A non-genetic approach to silence genes at the phage-host interface. We use it to study jumbo phage biology and anti-phage defence.
@jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social
@uni-wuerzburg.de @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social
published now in @nature.com

Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy enables broad dissemination and ...

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems'.

#phage #phagesky

A bunch of interesting reviews

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Thanks Ákos!

Phage defence-system abundances vary across environments and increase with viral density | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences The defence systems bacteria use to protect themselves from their viruses are mechanistically and genetically diverse. Yet the ecological conditions that predict when defences are selected for remain ...

Phage defence-system abundances vary across environments and increase with viral density

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B by @seanmeaden.bsky.social, Edze Westra and @peterfineran.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

@leahmsmith.bsky.social

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition Smith and Fineran describe how priming by type I CRISPR-Cas systems facilitates adaptation and spacer maintenance by a co-occurring type III system, which normally induces abortive infection. While ty...

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition

Priming by type I CRISPR-Cas aids spacer maintenance by co-occurring type III. Concurrent DNA&RNA-targeting minimize phage escape for population benefit
@leahmsmith.bsky.social‬ ‪@peterfineran.bsky.social‬
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

@leahmsmith.bsky.social

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition CRISPR-Cas systems are diverse, with microbes harboring multiple classes and subtypes. Type I DNA-targeting and type III RNA-targeting systems often c…

In a multi-CRISPR-Cas system host, @peterfineran.bsky.social & I found that type I priming promotes spacer 🧬 uptake & maintenance by a type III system & that multiple systems minimize phage escape ⬇️ @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social @otagomicroimmuno.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thanks @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social

Crosstalk between three CRISPR-Cas types enables primed type VI-A adaptation in Listeria seeligeri CRISPR-Cas systems confer adaptive immunity to their prokaryotic hosts through the process of adaptation, where sequences are captured from foreign nu…

Check out the cool related study by Shally Margolis and Alex Meeske www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@leahmsmith.bsky.social

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition CRISPR-Cas systems are diverse, with microbes harboring multiple classes and subtypes. Type I DNA-targeting and type III RNA-targeting systems often c…

Ever wondered why some bacteria have multiple CRISPR-Cas systems? Our new study led by Leah Smith shows how type I CRISPR systems can promote the acquisition and retention of new spacers into a co-occuring type III system. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We’re building a team! 🔬I currently have open positions for a lab technician/ manager and a PhD candidate. I’m also always happy to hear from curious, motivated scientists interested in microbial defense, molecular machines, or structural biology.

Please get in touch! 🚀