Meriel J. Bittner

Missing the Company of Elio Paying tribute to Elio Schaechter, former TWiM host, blogger, and microbiologist extraordinaire, and review of the finding that Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria - a form of ...

Thanks @markowenmartin.bsky.social for choosing to highlight our recent article on archaeal-bacterial conflict in this week's episode of "This Week in Microbiology"! asm.org/podcasts/twi...

31.08.2025 11:44 — 👍 11    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

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

30.08.2025 13:53 — 👍 119    🔁 51    💬 4    📌 5

Supervisors and Projects

Please re-post: If you know (or are!) somebody who might fancy doing a PhD (Oct 2026 start) in my group @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social, working on chromatin evolution in prokaryotes (or other things we're interested in), please have a look at www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/supervisors-...

01.09.2025 09:27 — 👍 42    🔁 50    💬 0    📌 1

A scanning electron microcrograph of a cluster of bacteria forming a rosette. 12 bacterial cells form the rosette on a surface with a scale-bar showing that the cells are around 1 micrometer in length.

A scanning electron microcrograph of a bacterial cell. One long rod-shaped bacterial cell is shown with a scale-bar showing that the cell is around 10 micrometer in length and 1 micrometer in width.

New Phaeobacter species are now out! 🦠🔬 We found two new species - I am especially fascinated by the really, really long cells P. cretensis makes, something we have never seen in Phaeobacter before! Please comment your thoughts about why that is 🤔 1/2
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

01.09.2025 13:03 — 👍 11    🔁 6    💬 3    📌 1

Huge thanks also go to Arianna Krinos for taking the lead on this work! @akrinos.bsky.social

Let’s keep building inclusive and interdisciplinary research cultures! 🙌

27.08.2025 08:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Grateful for the shared vision, thoughtful discussions, and collective creativity that shaped this work.

Thank you to BioGeoSCAPES and the Santa Fe Institute for hosting us and providing such a great and collaborative environment!

@sfiscience.bsky.social
@biogeoscapes.bsky.social

27.08.2025 08:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Thrilled to share our #Comment in @natmicrobiol.nature.com
A collaborative effort by a fantastic group of researchers across disciplines!

💬We explored how interdisciplinary microbiology can thrive when early-career researchers are included and supported.

📄 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

27.08.2025 08:21 — 👍 4    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0

A call for early-career teams in interdisciplinary microbiology research - Nature Microbiology Early-career researchers play an integral role in building and maintaining interdisciplinary microbiological research.

#Comment

A call for early-career teams in interdisciplinary microbiology research

#MicroSky

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

26.08.2025 16:01 — 👍 13    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 3

Vitamin auxotrophies shape microbial community assembly on model marine particles Abstract. Microbial community assembly is governed by the flow of carbon sources and other primary metabolites between species. However, central metabolism

🌊🦠🧪 Delighted to share this work now out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1093/isme... The currency of microbial life is chemistry, but there’s so much still unknown about how metabolic interactions shape communities. 1/

25.08.2025 22:21 — 👍 29    🔁 17    💬 1    📌 1

Genome-resolved long-read sequencing expands known microbial diversity across terrestrial habitats - Nature Microbiology Nanopore sequencing of Danish soils and sediments yields genomes from over 15,000 microbial species, expanding the phylogenetic diversity of prokaryotes by 8%.

Genome-resolved long-read sequencing expands known microbial diversity across terrestrial habitats www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

24.07.2025 12:55 — 👍 36    🔁 13    💬 0    📌 1

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...

Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours.

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

#MicroSKy #Microbiology

13.06.2025 05:39 — 👍 131    🔁 71    💬 12    📌 2

Solid phase extraction to measure B-vitamins in aquatic systems - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Meriel Bittner explains how solid phase extraction can be used to concentrate B-vitamins for quantification in aquatic systems.

Solid phase extraction to measure B-vitamins in aquatic systems www.nature.com/articles/s43... #jcampubs

18.11.2024 15:20 — 👍 11    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0