Alexander Harms
@aharms485.bsky.social
Bacteriophages, dormant bacteria, and bacterial immunity. Assistant Professor of Molecular Phage Biology at ETH Zürich.
Reposted by Alexander Harms
#microsky #phagesky
A DNA-mimicking protein antagonises #phage SPbeta’s repressor and connects SOS response to the control of lysis-lysogeny
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A DNA-mimicking protein antagonises #phage SPbeta’s repressor and connects SOS response to the control of lysis-lysogeny
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
An unprecedented DNA recognition–mimicry switch governs induction in arbitrium phages
Temperate phages integrate multiple information sources to regulate lysis-lysogeny transitions. SPBeta-like phages use arbitrium signalling and DNA damage to control repressor activity during lytic in...
www.biorxiv.org
December 3, 2025 at 8:27 PM
#microsky #phagesky
A DNA-mimicking protein antagonises #phage SPbeta’s repressor and connects SOS response to the control of lysis-lysogeny
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A DNA-mimicking protein antagonises #phage SPbeta’s repressor and connects SOS response to the control of lysis-lysogeny
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
🦠🧪🧬🚨 New paper and database alert: the new IMG/VR release is now MetaVR ! We have a new website - meta-virome.org - with quick search capabilities for the >24M viruses, >12M vOTUs, and >42M protein clusters (including >790k with predicted structures !). academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Meta-virus resource (MetaVR): expanding the frontiers of viral diversity with 24 million uncultivated virus genomes
Abstract. Viruses are ubiquitous in all environments and impact host metabolism, evolution, and ecology, although our knowledge of their biodiversity is st
academic.oup.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:34 AM
🦠🧪🧬🚨 New paper and database alert: the new IMG/VR release is now MetaVR ! We have a new website - meta-virome.org - with quick search capabilities for the >24M viruses, >12M vOTUs, and >42M protein clusters (including >790k with predicted structures !). academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026! The Microbial Ecosystems Lab @hot-mes-asu.bsky.social at ASU studies microbial interactions, spatial ecology, and imaging-driven microbiome science. If you love microbes, microfluidics, or single-cell analysis, let’s talk! www.microbialeco.systems
December 2, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026! The Microbial Ecosystems Lab @hot-mes-asu.bsky.social at ASU studies microbial interactions, spatial ecology, and imaging-driven microbiome science. If you love microbes, microfluidics, or single-cell analysis, let’s talk! www.microbialeco.systems
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Bioinformatics is in shambles at the Denver airport’s acronym game
December 1, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Bioinformatics is in shambles at the Denver airport’s acronym game
Reposted by Alexander Harms
New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
December 1, 2025 at 5:56 PM
New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial
the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’).
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...
Beautiful Christmas decoration crafted by talented PhD student Sophia Zimmermann - ready to put those phages up at our tree! 🎄🎅🏼🌟
December 1, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Beautiful Christmas decoration crafted by talented PhD student Sophia Zimmermann - ready to put those phages up at our tree! 🎄🎅🏼🌟
Reposted by Alexander Harms
#microsky #phagesky
Structural insights into non-tailed Vibrio #phages
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Structural insights into non-tailed Vibrio #phages
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Structure of NO16, a marine non-tailed vibriophage with a global distribution
Non-tailed phages remain an underexplored group in marine environments, as tailed phages have dominated sequence and culture collections. However, recent surveys indicate that non-tailed phages might ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 29, 2025 at 7:17 PM
#microsky #phagesky
Structural insights into non-tailed Vibrio #phages
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Structural insights into non-tailed Vibrio #phages
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Stunning illustrations and figures. Take that, AI slop
While birds and bats both developed adaptations for flight, the way they went about it is so fundamentally different it affects their possible ecological adaptation. Specifically, birds can easily shift to a walking lifestyle, bats can't. 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 29, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Stunning illustrations and figures. Take that, AI slop
Reposted by Alexander Harms
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thrilled to share our new study! We show that mirusviruses include lineages packed with spliceosomal introns and likely replicating in the nucleus of unicellular eukaryotes—a sharp contrast to most large and giant eukaryotic viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm.
Thrilled to share our new study! We show that mirusviruses include lineages packed with spliceosomal introns and likely replicating in the nucleus of unicellular eukaryotes—a sharp contrast to most large and giant eukaryotic viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm.
Widespread and intron-rich mirusviruses are predicted to reproduce in nuclei of unicellular eukaryotes - Nature Microbiology
Environmental metagenomic explorations show that Mirusviricota lineages lack essential replication and transcription genes and contain spliceosomal introns, suggesting nuclear reproduction.
www.nature.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:21 PM
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thrilled to share our new study! We show that mirusviruses include lineages packed with spliceosomal introns and likely replicating in the nucleus of unicellular eukaryotes—a sharp contrast to most large and giant eukaryotic viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm.
Thrilled to share our new study! We show that mirusviruses include lineages packed with spliceosomal introns and likely replicating in the nucleus of unicellular eukaryotes—a sharp contrast to most large and giant eukaryotic viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm.
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Reposted by Alexander Harms
The host range of generalist and specialist phages in capsule-diverse Klebsiella hosts is driven by the evolvability of receptor-binding proteins
@plosbiology.org from @pilardomingoc.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@plosbiology.org from @pilardomingoc.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
The host range of generalist and specialist phages in capsule-diverse Klebsiella hosts is driven by the evolvability of receptor-binding proteins
Capsule diversity limits phage host range by affecting RBP interactions in capsulated bacteria. This study shows that generalist phages evolve host range through RBP mutations and recombination, while...
journals.plos.org
November 27, 2025 at 12:28 PM
The host range of generalist and specialist phages in capsule-diverse Klebsiella hosts is driven by the evolvability of receptor-binding proteins
@plosbiology.org from @pilardomingoc.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@plosbiology.org from @pilardomingoc.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Type VII ABC transporters underpin many core activities in the bacterial cell envelope - including efflux, cell division and lipoprotein trafficking.
A new paper in PLOS Biology reveals YbbAP-TesA as a novel Type VII system in E. coli.
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
A new paper in PLOS Biology reveals YbbAP-TesA as a novel Type VII system in E. coli.
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Structural characterization of the YbbAP-TesA ABC transporter identifies it as a lipid hydrolase complex that extracts hydrophobic compounds from the bacterial inner membrane
In E.coli, three of the four Type VII ABC transporter systems have been structurally characterized. This study solves cryo-EM structures of the fourth Type VII ABC system, YbbAP-TesA, and suggests tha...
dx.plos.org
November 26, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Type VII ABC transporters underpin many core activities in the bacterial cell envelope - including efflux, cell division and lipoprotein trafficking.
A new paper in PLOS Biology reveals YbbAP-TesA as a novel Type VII system in E. coli.
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
A new paper in PLOS Biology reveals YbbAP-TesA as a novel Type VII system in E. coli.
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Its only been two months and our new PhD student is already making memes of me.
November 26, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Its only been two months and our new PhD student is already making memes of me.
Mindblowing tenure lecture of Nicholas Bokulich from our institute at ETH Zürich @ethz.ch on microbial ecosystems "from farm to flush"! 🍷🥖🦠
November 26, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Mindblowing tenure lecture of Nicholas Bokulich from our institute at ETH Zürich @ethz.ch on microbial ecosystems "from farm to flush"! 🍷🥖🦠
Reposted by Alexander Harms
So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵
#protistsonsky 🧵
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵
#protistsonsky 🧵
Reposted by Alexander Harms
New preprint from our lab! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@aiswarya.bsky.social tested the role of priority effects in shaping the honeybee gut microbiota using an elegant combinatorial experimental design. A thread🧵....
@aiswarya.bsky.social tested the role of priority effects in shaping the honeybee gut microbiota using an elegant combinatorial experimental design. A thread🧵....
| bioRxiv
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
www.biorxiv.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:29 PM
New preprint from our lab! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@aiswarya.bsky.social tested the role of priority effects in shaping the honeybee gut microbiota using an elegant combinatorial experimental design. A thread🧵....
@aiswarya.bsky.social tested the role of priority effects in shaping the honeybee gut microbiota using an elegant combinatorial experimental design. A thread🧵....
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Arbitrium systems control lysis/lysogeny through the regulation of small antirepressor proteins www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 25, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Arbitrium systems control lysis/lysogeny through the regulation of small antirepressor proteins www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
🚨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
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
November 20, 2025 at 8:40 PM
🚨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
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
Reposted by Alexander Harms
#microsky #phagesky #phage
Anyone who’s tried deleting prophages in the lab by HR knows the difficulties of the task. Here we have an example of how HR-mediated natural transformation might hit the same hurdle in a more native context.
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Anyone who’s tried deleting prophages in the lab by HR knows the difficulties of the task. Here we have an example of how HR-mediated natural transformation might hit the same hurdle in a more native context.
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Chromosomal Curing Drives an Arms Race Between Bacterial Transformation and Prophage
Abstract. Transformation occurs when bacteria import exogenous DNA via the competence machinery and integrate it into their genome through homologous recom
academic.oup.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM
#microsky #phagesky #phage
Anyone who’s tried deleting prophages in the lab by HR knows the difficulties of the task. Here we have an example of how HR-mediated natural transformation might hit the same hurdle in a more native context.
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Anyone who’s tried deleting prophages in the lab by HR knows the difficulties of the task. Here we have an example of how HR-mediated natural transformation might hit the same hurdle in a more native context.
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Reposted by Alexander Harms
🚀New preprint from our lab!
I am very excited to finally share what has been the main focus of my PhD for the past almost 3 years! It is about viral dark matter and a powerful tool we built to shed light on it. 🧬💡
Continue reading (🧵)
I am very excited to finally share what has been the main focus of my PhD for the past almost 3 years! It is about viral dark matter and a powerful tool we built to shed light on it. 🧬💡
Continue reading (🧵)
November 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
🚀New preprint from our lab!
I am very excited to finally share what has been the main focus of my PhD for the past almost 3 years! It is about viral dark matter and a powerful tool we built to shed light on it. 🧬💡
Continue reading (🧵)
I am very excited to finally share what has been the main focus of my PhD for the past almost 3 years! It is about viral dark matter and a powerful tool we built to shed light on it. 🧬💡
Continue reading (🧵)
🚨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
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
November 20, 2025 at 8:40 PM
🚨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
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
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Nature research paper: Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup
go.nature.com/486YtjW
go.nature.com/486YtjW
Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup - Nature
The discovery of an unusual protist named Solarion arienae, which has a mitochondrial genome with some intriguing features, provides insight into the early radiation of eukaryotic groups.
go.nature.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Nature research paper: Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup
go.nature.com/486YtjW
go.nature.com/486YtjW
Reposted by Alexander Harms
Bacterial networks #BacNet26 in September 2026 will be chaired by @lalouxlab.bsky.social and co-chaired by @s-lab.bsky.social with @coralietesseur.bsky.social
Sneak peak on invited speakers and preliminary program:
meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...
Sneak peak on invited speakers and preliminary program:
meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...
November 20, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Bacterial networks #BacNet26 in September 2026 will be chaired by @lalouxlab.bsky.social and co-chaired by @s-lab.bsky.social with @coralietesseur.bsky.social
Sneak peak on invited speakers and preliminary program:
meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...
Sneak peak on invited speakers and preliminary program:
meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...
Meeting some colleagues in Lucerne today ☀️🏔🍂 #sciencetravels
November 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Meeting some colleagues in Lucerne today ☀️🏔🍂 #sciencetravels
Reposted by Alexander Harms
🚨 PhD Opportunity 🚨
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
November 15, 2025 at 3:30 PM
🚨 PhD Opportunity 🚨
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...