Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab

@bstevensonlab.bsky.social

3K followers 2K following 710 posts

Mostly about bacterial gene/protein regulation & function, esp. with Borrelia burgdorferi and Lyme disease. Professor at U Kentucky, views are my own. He/him Lab= http://microscopist.net/Stevenson_Lab.html UK= https://medicine.uky.edu/users/bstev0

microscopist.net

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · Mar 14

Recently interviewed by Mark Martin for his “Matters Microbial” podcast!

m.youtube.com/watch?si=O6w...

Matters Microbial #31: Spirochetes do things...differently

Today, Dr. Brian Stevenson of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss a twisty twirling form of life, spirochetes,...

m.youtube.com

10 37

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 23h

HI EARTH

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 6d

On the way to Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference 2025, in St Charles, Illinois!
Hosted by Loyola University Chicago
#MMPC2025
#MicroSky

www.mmpconference2025.com

2 2 18

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 7d

And a second colleague!

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 7d

A colleague will be in touch with you soon!

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 7d

Hi Mark, note that the person who responded to your message has a different user name. Likely a scammer

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 7d

Freakin’ cool anti-anti-phage mechanism!
#MicroSky

Erin Doherty @erinedoherty.bsky.social · 8d

Now online at @nature.com we show how the Panoptes defense system protects against viruses that attempt immune evasion - and expands our understanding of the role of oligonucleotides in immunity.

Check out this work co-led with @benadler.bsky.social here:

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

A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature

Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.

www.nature.com

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 8d

#MicroSky

Rosana Zenil-Ferguson @roszenil.bsky.social · 8d

The Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky is hiring a Microbiologist (broadly defined). Microbial eco-evo folks, this is your sign to come work with us. Not in the search committee, but happy to answer questions.
ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
#microbiology #ecology

Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology

The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...

ukjobs.uky.edu

6 3

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 8d

Antigenic variation is caused by long plasmid segment conversion in a hard tick-borne relapsing fever Borrelia miyamotoi

important new paper by Takeuchi, Gotoh, Hayashi, Kawabata, and Takano

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

#MicroSky

From the publication:
Fig 7. The mechanism to change the expression vmp cassette in B. miyamotoi.
The expression vmp cassette on the lp4 plasmid is altered by the conversion of the expression locus segment, in which the expression locus segment is replaced by a duplicated segment of other plasmids carrying the cluster of archival silent cassettes (lp5, lp6, and lp10.1). The replacing segment starts from one of the silent cassette and ends at the right end of the plasmid; thus the first silent cassette on the replacing segment is expressed after conversion. As the lengths of the replacing segment are variable (ranged from 6.9 kb to 15.3 kb in the reisolates analyzed in this study), leading to the change in the length of lp4. Although the molecular mechanism underlying the conversion of the expression locus segment is not known, it appears that the clustering of vmp cassettes and their tail-to-head cassette organization in each cluster allow the effective switching of the expression vmp cassette by the conversion of long plasmid segment. Notable structural features of vmp-encoding plasmids and vmp cassettes on these plasmids are the sequence conservation of the right ends of the lp4, lp5, lp6, and lp10.1 plasmids and the presence of UHS-like sequences around the start codon of vmp genes. To understand the molecular mechanism underlying the conversion of the expression locus segment, it will be necessary to analyze the roles of these elements as well as identify the enzyme(s) involving the conversion.

1 3

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 9d

Restoration of the genus name "Borrelia" to Lyme spirochetes, while creating subgenera Borreliella subgen. nov. and Borrelia subgen. nov.

#MicroSky

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(open access)

Proposing a subgenus Borreliella

In 2014, it was proposed (validly published in 2015) that the genus Borrelia be divided into two genera, with a new genus Borreliella holding species …

www.sciencedirect.com

1 5

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 10d

The second half of the paper discusses bacteria that would be inside the ticks, ie what I would consider to be the true “microbiome”.
But the first half spends a lot of text and graphics on bacteria that were on the outside surface, and largely irrelevant to the biology of the ticks. Disappointing

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 10d

Unfortunately, these "microbiomes" include bacteria that happened to be on the outside surfaces of the ticks!
From the paper: Ticks were "surface sterilized" with "two successive washes of 70% ethanol, 30 s each".
That might have killed some surface bacteria, but wouldn't have eliminated their DNA!

1 1

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 10d

Sept. 29, 2010
Gala Dinner of the International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and other Tick-Borne Diseases, Ljubljana, Slovenia
with collaborators Peter Kraiczy & Claudia Hammerschmidt, and lab members Amy Bowman, Brandon Jutras & Cat Brissette
@brissettelab.bsky.social
@jutraslab.bsky.social

At the Gala Dinner of the International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and other Tick-Borne Diseases, Ljubljana, Slovenia
with collaborators Peter Kraiczy & Claudia Hammerschmidt, and lab members Amy Bowman, Brandon Jutras & Cat Brissette

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 10d

Submitted yet another grant proposal today, for a foundation, to be reviewed next month.
That’s 5 grant proposals in play for review before year’s end.

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 11d

Images from Cutter's 1878 patent application

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 11d

Cutter's 1878 patented "Box for Vaccine Matter".
For carrying and protecting smallpox scabs, which were to be used for vaccinations.
#MicroSky

images from my collection

Top view of a Cutter's Box for Vaccine Material

Bottom view of a Cutter's Box for Vaccine Material

Cutter's Box for Vaccine Material measures approximately 7/8 inches , 2.2 cm, in diameter

Inside of a Cutter's Box for Vaccine Material

3 3 14

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 11d

A reminder that levels of intracellular signals are controlled by both synthesis and degradation

#MicroSky

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 11d

A cyclic di-GMP phosphodiesterase in the VSP-2 island of Vibrio cholerae is regulated by zinc and quorum sensing

in mBio from Chris Waters, Thomas O'Halloran

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A cyclic di-GMP phosphodiesterase in the VSP-2 island of Vibrio cholerae is regulated by zinc and quorum sensing | mBio

Vibrio cholerae colonizes estuarine environments and human hosts, where it transitions between motile and sessile states using the second messenger cyclic di-GMP (cdG). cdG levels change in response t...

journals.asm.org

2 6

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 12d

A break from my usual science posts.
Brilliant rugby today, England dominated Canada 33-13.

Poster of the England Women’s Rugby World Cup team

1 3

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 12d

Thank you, we will reach out soon

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 13d

Exciting and inspiring work on regulating changes in bacterial chromosome structure.
Suspect that this underlies a phenomenon we see upon CRISPRi knockdown of an NAP.
Would love to discuss collaboration with someone experienced in Hi-C

#MicroSky

Renske van Raaphorst 🟥 @vrrenske.bsky.social · 14d

Happy to finally show our story of the connection between nucleoid conformation, transcription & predation in our favorite predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. 🧵 1/n

Géraldine Laloux @lalouxlab.bsky.social · 15d

📝New preprint! #MicroSky

🕰️We chart the full, synchronized lifecycle of a predatory bacterium using Hi-C, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq & microscopy.

🧬We uncover dramatic shifts in nucleoid architecture & transcription, tightly coordinated with predation.

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

1 1 2

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 13d

University and department surplus for as much equipment and supplies as possible. Ask around. I inherited many boxes of glassware when I started 27 years ago, and would love for a junior faculty member to take all of this stuff off my hands!

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 15d

I shared this a few days ago:

"Thrill"
The best-ever description of spirochete movement, likening the bacteria's flexing to a shiver down the spine when feeling thrilled.
R.C. Rosenberger, 1908, "The spirochaete found in syphilis", Am J Med Sci

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 15d

"Disgusting" or not is in the eye of the beholder. IMHO, these little buggers have a lot to teach us about how microbes evade and manipulate our immune systems. As well as how to survive in two radically different types of hosts (vertebrates and ticks), and how to efficiently move between them

1 1

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 15d

We used to give takehome tests in our graduate level micro class at UK. Last year, every student used AI to answer their tests. Never again. Only in-class tests from now on.
Damn shame that we can’t trust our own graduate students 😡

1 2

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 17d

scdailygazette.com/briefs/clems...

Clemson fires 2 professors, Coastal Carolina fires 1 employee over social media posts • SC Daily Gazette

Clemson fired two professors for inappropriate social media posts related to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

scdailygazette.com

Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · 17d

2 from Clemson

scdailygazette.com/briefs/clems...

Clemson fires 2 professors, Coastal Carolina fires 1 employee over social media posts • SC Daily Gazette

Clemson fired two professors for inappropriate social media posts related to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

scdailygazette.com

1 1