Vikram Alva

Look at this nice cover: beautiful archaella, image made by @sshamphavi.bsky.social !

Thanks also to Marta Rodeiguez for keeping the EM im shape in @ottlab.bsky.social lab!

At @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social at @uni-freiburg.de @sfb1381.bsky.social @cibss.bsky.social

So happy to see my first first-author paper published! 🎈
A short thread on how Ectocarpus and its TE secrets have kept me busy lately:

rdcu.be/eITQH

EXCITING NEWS!! We're searching for a new professor colleague at the Biozentrum🇨🇭. Ideal candidates are exploring novel biological questions with structure, biophysics, or high-resolution imaging. 🧪 🧶🧬 🔬

The call closes Nov 3. Please get in touch if you would like more information. Come join us! 👩‍🔬🤓

New Insights Into Bacterial Motility and DNA Transfer:
a small press on our discovery of ComFB signaling family by @claussenarne.bsky.social @hhu.de

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
w/ @mygalperin.bsky.social @thethormannden.bsky.social
@cmfi.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @sfb1381.bsky.social

Registration deadline for @embo.org workshop EvoChromo extended until September 30.

meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo...

Busting myths with @jweir.bsky.social. Did you know you don't inherit exactly 1/4 of your DNA from each grandparent? Or that fertility issues can affect young people, too? Find out more: www.fml.tuebingen.mpg.de/71433/videos #BiologyMyths

Rewiring of chromatin regulation underlies the evolution of brown algal multicellularity Chromatin structure plays a central role in regulating transcription, genome stability, and epigenetic inheritance in eukaryotes. Much of our understanding of chromatin architecture and histone post-t...

Super glad to contribute to this study on chromatin evolution in brown algae! Special thanks to Jeromine Vigneau, @borglab.bsky.social and Susana Coelho for making this happen.

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

We discovered a new family of c-di-NMP receptors, widespread in bacteria & regulating🦠motility @pnas.org

A great collab. w/ @mygalperin.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social @thethormannden.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@hhu.de @cmfi.bsky.social
@sfb1381.bsky.social
@mibinet.bsky.social

ComFB, a widespread family of c-di-NMP receptor proteins | PNAS Cyclic dimeric-GMP (c-di-GMP) is a ubiquitous bacterial second messenger that regulates a variety of cellular processes, including motility, biofil...

And here is the published version of the work from @selimlab.bsky.social, @mygalperin.bsky.social, Dubnau labs and @thethormannden.bsky.social labs
(superb collaboration)

ComFB, a widespread family of c-di-NMP receptor proteins

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Filamentous growth, cell envelope architecture, and surface appendages of a member of the Chloroflexota, Litorilinea aerophila Litorilinea aerophila, a filamentous bacterium of the phylum Chloroflexota (class Caldilineae), exhibits unique morphological and cell envelope features that challenge traditional bacterial models. In...

Who would have thought I would ever publish an article about a bacterium?
But here it is, but of course only because Litorilinea aerophilum actually has an archaellum!

Here is what we learned about its cell structure and other surface appendages:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria Archaea regularly interact with bacteria but reports of archaea killing bacteria are very rare. This study shows that many archaea encode peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target bacterial ...

Archaea are often surrounded by bacteria. But is there ever active conflict between the two? Can archaea kill bacteria? If so, how do they do it?

Work by @romainstrock.bsky.social shows that some archaea can kill bacteria by secreting peptidoglycan hydrolases. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Melbournevirus encodes a shorter H2B-H2A doublet histone variant that forms structurally distinct nucleosome structures Nature Communications - Melbournevirus encodes a conserved shorter H2B-H2A doublet variant. Here the authors report a cryo-EM structure of a nucleosome-like particle reconstituted with viral H4-H3...

our paper is online! rdcu.be/exXBX . Who would have thought that some #giantviruses not only have #histones, but even histone variants that make weird #nucleosomes (pdb 9CVT). Fantastic work from Ale Villalta and Chelsea Toner, with Hugo Bisio @molbiolgv.bsky.social and Chantal Abergel

Strategies and mechanisms of contact-dependent predation in bacteria Predatory bacteria kill other bacteria to acquire nutrients. Among diverse strategies to kill and feed on prey, contact-dependent predation stands out…

#MicroSky Summer read!

Predatory bacteria kill and eat other bacteria. Their deadly actions come in many flavors, often via direct physical contact between predator &
prey 🧛

How do they do it?
Our review 📖 @coralietesseur.bsky.social @ysantin.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

And the story is published now!🍾
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Open access link: rdcu.be/exnOc

Many years in the making, great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social & @tunglejic.bsky.social

Thanks @ukri.org BBSRC & @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding, reviewers & editor!! 🙏
#microsky #archaeasky

Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung has committed €7 million to the EMBL Imaging Centre.

That means more opportunities to create groundbreaking, next-gen imaging technologies and provide the necessary support so European life scientists can benefit.

www.embl.org/news/connect...

Hassan Salem Interview with Hassan Salem, who studies beetles and their microbial partners at the Max Planck Institute for Biology.

Grateful to the folks @CurrentBiology.bsky.social for the fun Q&A!

Come for the beetles, stay for the symbionts — and forgive the basketball detour 🪲🦠🏀

www.cell.com/current-biol...

🎉Congratulations to @caroleduchene.bsky.social, recipient of the 2025 "Grandes Avancées françaises en biologie" from @academiesciences.bsky.social for her research on how microalgae navigate ocean depths. Learn more: s.gwdg.de/FxdLh8
#Microalgae #ScienceAwards
Photos © Académie des sciences

EMBO Gold Medal 2025 awarded to Tanmay Bharat and David Bikard – Press releases – EMBO Every year, EMBO awards the Gold Medal to group leaders in the early stages of their careers for their remarkable contributions to the life sciences in

EMBO is delighted to announce that this year the EMBO Gold Medal is awarded to Tanmay Bharat @tbharat-lab.bsky.social ‬ @mrclmb.bsky.social and David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social @pasteur.fr for their remarkable contributions to the #LifeSciences.

www.embo.org/press-releas...
#award 🧪

Now online - the Review "Histone-mediated chromatin organization in prokaryotes and viruses" from @samuelschwab.bsky.social‬ @vikramalva.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social‬ and co.

#histones #DNAorganization #chromatin #eukaryogenesis

Read it here 👉 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

new preprint alert from the lab: bringing some order into the wide and wild diversity of archaeal histones. Who has acidic histones? who has multiple histones? what histone combinations do archaea employ and why? find all of this and more here
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our latest review on histone-mediated chromatin organization in prokaryotes and viruses! 🧬 @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

job description

📣📣We are #hiring! 📣Please RT! @mpipz.bsky.social has a group leader position available in the broad area of Plant Development and Diversity 🌿. Apply now!🌿 👉http://bit.ly/4nkUvLa #plantsci

Postdoctoral Scientist - Structural Studies - Dr Sjors Scheres - LMB 2640 - Cambridgeshire job with MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) | 12840844 Postdoctoral Scientist Starting Salary: £41,344 Fixed term: 3 years MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK We are looking for a postdoc...

We have a 3-year funded postdoc position to work on structures of #amyloid filaments. If you are an expert in protein biochemistry, structural biology or #cryoEM / #cryoET, this could be for you! Feel free to email me with any questions. Come join us! 🤩

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Structure of the virulence-associated Neisseria meningitidis filamentous bacteriophage MDAphi

Out in @pnas.org

Congrats @janboehning.bsky.social @abultarafder.bsky.social Miles Graham @mathieucoureuil.bsky.social
@mrclmb.bsky.social @hopitalnecker.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Asgard chromatin with both hypernucleosome and octasome-like forms! Brilliant work — congrats to all authors!

On this UN’s International #BiodiversityDay, we look fwd to celebrating the Institute’s Diversity Day (27 May). The 2025 talks include “DNA, Drama & (cell) Division,” “Plants & Pathogen Prediction,” “Algae Genomes & Diversity,” & “Plasticity & Communities.” Here’s a look back at 2024 events.

In our latest preprint we used cryoEM to solve the structure of A-ENA fibers and show that they are stabilized by 10 isopeptide bonds per monomer. A-ENA couples the spore to the cry-toxins, and in doing so increases the virulence of Bacillus thuringiensis: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

‪Come along to this Friday's Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series talk, this week to be delivered by Prof. Kevin Foster from the University of Oxford

▶️More info: shorturl.at/C9YIS
📆: Friday 23rd May at 3pm
📍: MPI-IS seminar room (ground floor)
#DSSS

Congrats @michaelborg.bsky.social and all co-authors on this exciting paper!

Schematic evolutionary tree showing DNA–histone complexes across Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya.

We hope this study advances our understanding of chromatin evolution, genome compaction, and the emergence of DNA packaging strategies in prokaryotes.