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manudelbaq.bsky.social @manudelbaq.bsky.social · 4d

New @OneEarth_CP in the @BioFunLab !

Long-term climate warming substantially reduces global soil microbial richness

www.cell.com/one-earth/ab...

@irnase.bsky.social @csicandalextrem.bsky.social @csic.es

w/ Pengfei Dang, Ji Chen, @eisenhauerlab.bsky.social , @tedersoo.bsky.social and +!

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Biplab Bose @biplabbose.bsky.social · 10d

Does a cell have a 'mind' - say a proto-mind or basal cognition? Although it was once a fringe idea, recent experimental and mathematical works are accumulating in its support. Here is an interesting recent work: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #complexsystem #systemsbiology #sysbio

Engineering Basal Cognition: Minimal Genetic Circuits for Habituation, Sensitization, and Massed–Spaced Learning

Cognition is often associated with complex brains, yet many forms of learning—such as habituation, sensitization, and even spacing effects—have been observed in single cells and aneural organisms. The...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jordi Pla @jordiplam.bsky.social · 13d

OpenBSD 7.8 Released!
Featuring parallel TCP input, among numerous other significant improvements and fixes.

www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=a...

Changelog: www.openbsd.org/plus78.html

OpenBSD 7.8 release artwork, "Terraodontidae".

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Didier Mazel @amazeld.bsky.social · Oct 2

A fresh view on phage specificity, which challenges the traditional view of a narrow host spectrum of phages by unveiling that multihost associations are common across ecosystems kudos at @mmarbout.bsky.social &
@rkoszul.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phages with a broad host range are common across ecosystems - Nature Microbiology

Proximity-ligation-based sequencing from 111 samples and 5 environments reveals that a substantial proportion of phages infect multiple species.

www.nature.com

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Júlia Portell Montserrat @julsportell.bsky.social · Sep 17

My first first-author paper is out!🎉
Here we propose a model where a silencing complex, PIWI*, assembles on target RNAs to recruit effectors and shut down transposon activity.
Huge thanks to the Brennecke and Plaschka labs, especially Julius and Clemens, and all co-authors!

Julius Brennecke @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social · Sep 17

PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.

But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?

PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

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Ollie Rando @epididymosome.bsky.social · Sep 11

E. coli transcription factors regulate promoter activity by a universal, homeostatic mechanism | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

E. coli transcription factors regulate promoter activity by a universal, homeostatic mechanism

Transcription factors (TFs) may activate or repress gene expression through an interplay of different mechanisms, including RNA polymerase (RNAP) recruitment, exclusion, and initiation. However, depen...

www.science.org

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Sep 10

Can a single cell learn? Even without a brain, some microbes show simple forms of cognition. Can this basal cognition be engineered? Check our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social on the minimal synthetic circuits & their cognitive limits. @drmichaellevin.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Aug 5

How to deal with the multiscale nature of evolution, which displays different time scales of change? We need to replace classic genotype spaces with multiscapes. Here's a great paper by my friend Susanna Manrubia and coworkers @mncn-csic.bsky.social rsob.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royo... …

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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · Aug 1

Proud of this preprint with my friends Jonathan Bauermann and @artemyte.bsky.social, about chemical oscillators & phase separation! Main findings:
1. Phase separation controls frequency and amplitude of oscillations
2. If reactions are fast, spirals of droplets emerge!

arxiv.org/abs/2507.16030

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Jerónimo Rodríguez-Beltrán @jerorb.bsky.social · Jul 22

Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬?

In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments!

👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread!

Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Jul 8

Is there an ecology of genomes? Can we see ecological communities of genetic elements behaving like species in a rainforest? In this @plosone.org paper, the authors show how genetic elements (like transposons) occupy chromosomes as species fill space in in the wild journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Jun 3

What kind of cognitive complexity can a cell display? What is the role played by nonlinear dynamics of signalling networks? Check this wonderful review paper by Aneta Koseska @koseskalab.bsky.social & Philippe Bastiaens @jgojalvo.bsky.social @jordiplam.bsky.social www.embopress.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · May 6

What is possible in the space of organs, organoids and organisms? How can synthetic biology help designing new types of tissues and even novel organs? How can cognition be engineered from scratch? Check our paper @jordiplam.bsky.social @drmichaellevin.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Apr 28

How can biological systems anticipate future events? In our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social, we show how a simple genetic circuit can predict future trends through a simple (and perhaps widespread) mechanism @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @koseskalab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Dec 31

What are the limits to engineering multicellular systems? Can we invent new organs or synthetic behaviour? We discuss these and other ideas in our latest paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social @jgojalvo.bsky.social @drmichaellevin.bsky.social & cols www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Open problems in synthetic multicellularity - npj Systems Biology and Applications

npj Systems Biology and Applications - Open problems in synthetic multicellularity

www.nature.com

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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · Dec 31

The year ends with new, exciting research on synthetic biology and cognition, started at @sfiscience.bsky.social with my student @jordiplam.bsky.social . Reviewing the classic ideas (see my notebook) and moving them into single cells has been great—an excellent start for 2025.

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