Hassan Salem

Thinking about a postdoc in microbiome science?
Our lab at the MPI for Biology (Tübingen) builds on the culture I established at Cornell: collaborative, creative, and internationally diverse. Postdocs lead their own projects with secure funding. Join us!
#PostdocJobs #HostMicrobe #AcademicJobs

New pre-print from our group showing remarkable synchrony of proliferative growth and regulated cell death during plant infection- each conidial cell has a different fate - by the rice blast fungus. Led by Alice Eseola with @osesmir.bsky.social Lauren Ryder @danmaclean.bsky.social and Martin Egan

Aileen Berasategui @berasymbionts.bsky.social (VU) on Origin and evolution of a defensive symbiosis in tortoise beetle

Chelymorpha alternans beetle => today, focusing on pupation

see their @currentbiology.bsky.social paper (with @hassansalem.bsky.social)
www.cell.com/current-biol...

#NIME2025

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe

Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
@hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org

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...

I just love that our civilization is capable of being curious about termite fungus farming and pest control behavior.

They use soil balls to contain contamination of their crop, which also happens to carry fungistatic bacteria.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧪🦠🧫

Insect spatial memory is thought to be based on panoramic snapshots that are modelled as retinotopic images. This idea won't allow a distinction of landmarks from the scene. Unexpectedly, our data suggest that 🐝 learn 3D-objects as individual landmarks. #neuroethology
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It’s definitely that! Congratulations, Siobhán 🎉

Apply online by November 1st! Wiko Early Career Call for fellowships 2026/27 in the #NaturalSciences and #LifeSciences. Gain time to think during a 3–5 month #fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Institute for Advanced Study: wiko-berlin.de/fellow-werde... #cfa

Ecology and evolution of virulence Silva and King discuss the concept of virulence and the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape it.

Interested in #virulence? Not sure what it is - or how to explain it? Just curious? 🧐🦠🧬🦋

@kayla-king.bsky.social and I just wrote a Primer for @currentbiology.bsky.social on the ecology and evolution of virulence!

Check it below and share :)

#MicroSky #EvoSky #pathogens

A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

A host organelle (in sea slugs) integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis

Whole genome sequencing of historical specimens from the world's largest fungal collection yields high‐quality assemblies High-throughput molecular studies of museum specimens (museomics) have great potential in biodiversity research, but fungal historical collections have scarcely been examined, leading to no comprehe...

Very excited to share that my first 1st author publication is available at the journal of #NewPhytologist !

Congratulations to the entire team that worked on this project including the #KewFungarium Team. 👏 🍄‍🟫

If you are interested in the topic, feel free to read it here: doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Come and join us in our new home - great colleagues and brand new facilities

Striking diversity of male-killing symbionts and their mechanisms Symbiosis is a fundamental characteristic of eukaryotic biology. Arthropods, including insects, often harbor maternally inherited endosymbiotic microb…

Our new review paper with @daisukekageyama.bsky.social is out in Trends in Genetics (@cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social)!
We summarise the current knowledge on the diversity of male-killing microbes and their mechanisms.

Available here:
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Nick Talbot, Executive Director and senior group leader at TSL, is pictured in a glasshouse surrounded by rice plants.

We are pleased to announce that @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social has been awarded the RKS Wood Prize 2026 by the @bspp.bsky.social.

“I am humbled to have been awarded the RKS Wood Prize 2026. I’d like to thank my research group and my TSL colleagues for their inspiration and support.”

buff.ly/VvoR27Q

Flagellar gliding in choanoflagellates Freire-Delgado and Brunet discover a new mode of cell motility in choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals. Under mild confinement, choanoflagellate move over surfaces without cell deformat...

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

One is the best EMBO/EMBL symposium is coming up and it’s going to be AWESOME. Save the date !

Only 3 day left to apply 👇

#microbes #evolution #mevoSky #evoSky #microSky

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 🦠

Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, has triggered seven pandemics, with the seventh pandemic emerging in 1961. The success of seventh pandemic El Tor (7PET) V. cholerae as a human pathogen is linked to its acquisition of mobile genetic ...

Excited to share my latest review, now published in the Royal Society theme issue on ‘The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems' (available OA):

Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Had an amazing time at #ESEB2025 in Barcelona, learning new science, meeting great people, and presenting my PhD work on genomic signatures of symbiosis in a beetle-associated fungus. Surreal that my poster won 2nd place! Grateful to the #MutualismsLab, MPI Biology & ESEB for the support 🍄🪲

It’s official 🎉 Congratulations, Can!!

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

Congratulations, Tonni 🎉 Wonderful news - all the best with the move!

We’ve done both, but erred on the side of individual samples if the beetle was large enough!

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

New research: With ancient origins & surprising flexibility, #BrownAlgae reveal a compelling story of sex chromosome evolution. This could rewrite how we view sex determination. Learn more: s.gwdg.de/YDoZ3L
Congrats to @agalip.bsky.social & Josue Barrera for their work in @natecoevo.nature.com

📢We're #hiring Group Leaders!

Apply to lead a lab at Janelia & advance biology using theory, computational modeling & machine learning.

🔹5-year renewable appointment
🔹Pioneer new tools & approaches
🔹Collaborate across disciplines

Apply by Nov. 4👉 https://janelia.link/groupleader

We’re pleased to announce two new vacancies for senior roles at our institute:

Group Leader in Discovery Plant Sciences: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/gr...

🗓️ Closes 25 August

Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/in...

🗓️ Closes 5 September

Assistant/ Associate Professor of Mycology at UGA - Go be part of a Legendary Fungal Group fungi.franklinresearch.uga.edu and dept of plant pathology plantpath.caes.uga.edu www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/445...