christoph_STCmicrobeblog
@christophstc.bsky.social
72, PhD, micro- + molecular biology. associated blogger @STCmicrobeblog. opinions my own.
I like the term "intercellular biodiversity" (much more than the old trope of "parasitism") #MicroSky
According to the microbial ecologist Puri López-García, pictured here at a salt flat in the Chilean Andes, some 25% to 50% of all bacterial cells may be parasites of other cells.
A Cell So Minimal That It Challenges Definitions of Life | Quanta Magazine
The newly described microbe represents a world of parasitic, intercellular biodiversity only beginning to be revealed by genome sequencing.
www.quantamagazine.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
I like the term "intercellular biodiversity" (much more than the old trope of "parasitism") #MicroSky
RIP Jimmy Cliff (1944–2025)
Jimmy Cliff - I Can See Clearly Now
YouTube video by JimmyCliffVEVO
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 1:27 PM
RIP Jimmy Cliff (1944–2025)
do you enjoy traveling to islands? perhaps even volcanic islands? are you interested in microbiology? Then this old STC post might be of interest to you...
#MicroSky
#MicroSky
Island Stories and Venus's Hair
by Christoph — El Hierro is the last in a row of islands in the Canary archipelago, Atlantic Ocean: the farthest west and farthest south, the smallest, and youngest. Its geographic coordinates 27°…
smallthingsconsidered.blog
November 24, 2025 at 12:14 PM
do you enjoy traveling to islands? perhaps even volcanic islands? are you interested in microbiology? Then this old STC post might be of interest to you...
#MicroSky
#MicroSky
adios helme heine 👋
November 21, 2025 at 11:42 PM
adios helme heine 👋
#Ukraine
it reeks like a the munich agreement 2.0. who will play chamberlain this time?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_...
it reeks like a the munich agreement 2.0. who will play chamberlain this time?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_...
November 21, 2025 at 9:15 PM
#Ukraine
it reeks like a the munich agreement 2.0. who will play chamberlain this time?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_...
it reeks like a the munich agreement 2.0. who will play chamberlain this time?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_...
Reposted by christoph_STCmicrobeblog
...when your grain stalk (𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦) is simply too damn long to print out its image or display it on a screen.
November 18, 2025 at 10:35 AM
...when your grain stalk (𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦) is simply too damn long to print out its image or display it on a screen.
Reposted by christoph_STCmicrobeblog
All nations committed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degC for good reason. Instead many governments are beholden to the fossil fuel lobby and even subsidize fossil fuel use with your money. We’re now at 1.4 degC & emissions are rising not falling.
unfccc.int/process-and-...
unfccc.int/process-and-...
November 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
All nations committed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degC for good reason. Instead many governments are beholden to the fossil fuel lobby and even subsidize fossil fuel use with your money. We’re now at 1.4 degC & emissions are rising not falling.
unfccc.int/process-and-...
unfccc.int/process-and-...
And vice versa, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria are masters of colonizing marine hosts!
This was a wonderful collaboration with Sam Vohsen, Eslam Osman, Mandy Joye, Matt Saxton, grubervodicka.bsky.social, @ibaums.bsky.social
This was a wonderful collaboration with Sam Vohsen, Eslam Osman, Mandy Joye, Matt Saxton, grubervodicka.bsky.social, @ibaums.bsky.social
Corals are masters of obtaining nutrition via symbioses, in the light and in the dark: deep sea corals can associate with sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs, expressing pathways that oxidize sulfur and fix C. Corals hosting them derive some carbon from chemosynthesis. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
November 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
hi tanmay, this is definitively worth giving it the #MicroSky hashtag, why not doing it yourself? well, I did 😉
Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers
Review article published in @natrevmicro.nature.com with @bupbuse.bsky.social, Andriko von Kügelgen and @vikramalva.bsky.social.
S-layers are everywhere!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Review article published in @natrevmicro.nature.com with @bupbuse.bsky.social, Andriko von Kügelgen and @vikramalva.bsky.social.
S-layers are everywhere!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers - Nature Reviews Microbiology
Surface layers (S-layers) are ubiquitous protein assemblies that coat prokaryotic cells, with their functional roles increasingly coming into focus. In this Review, Isbilir and colleagues discuss rece...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:01 PM
hi tanmay, this is definitively worth giving it the #MicroSky hashtag, why not doing it yourself? well, I did 😉
cuando el pasado que no ha pasado vuelve con tanta fuerza...
November 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
cuando el pasado que no ha pasado vuelve con tanta fuerza...
#PhageSky of course
Fantastic paper by James Bean and colleagues on phage Bas63 - this has been one of the first phages I ever isolated just for fun as a PhD student (in 2012!). It's #2 on this plate of Rhine river water on an E.coli K-12 lawn....
How it started /// How it's going
How it started /// How it's going
November 13, 2025 at 7:46 PM
#PhageSky of course
does anyone need a couple of somersaulting, dancing letters? here you go...
from @republik.ch
from @republik.ch
November 12, 2025 at 12:19 PM
does anyone need a couple of somersaulting, dancing letters? here you go...
from @republik.ch
from @republik.ch
@arianebriegel.bsky.social would you mind if I come back to this image in a STC post planned for december? hope not...
November 11, 2025 at 11:37 AM
@arianebriegel.bsky.social would you mind if I come back to this image in a STC post planned for december? hope not...
who's that girl?
all friends of the color blue: try this > www.hirox-europe.com/gigapixel/gi...
@philipcball.bsky.social @kakape.bsky.social @yvesklein.bsky.social (!)
all friends of the color blue: try this > www.hirox-europe.com/gigapixel/gi...
@philipcball.bsky.social @kakape.bsky.social @yvesklein.bsky.social (!)
November 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
who's that girl?
all friends of the color blue: try this > www.hirox-europe.com/gigapixel/gi...
@philipcball.bsky.social @kakape.bsky.social @yvesklein.bsky.social (!)
all friends of the color blue: try this > www.hirox-europe.com/gigapixel/gi...
@philipcball.bsky.social @kakape.bsky.social @yvesklein.bsky.social (!)
Reposted by christoph_STCmicrobeblog
Hungary 1956
'Well over a 100k people fled the country seeking asylum. Among them was a young geneticist named George Rédei, who headed for the Austrian border with a small vial of seeds tucked in his pocket.
The seeds belonged to a spindly weed in the mustard family called Arabidopsis thaliana.'
'Well over a 100k people fled the country seeking asylum. Among them was a young geneticist named George Rédei, who headed for the Austrian border with a small vial of seeds tucked in his pocket.
The seeds belonged to a spindly weed in the mustard family called Arabidopsis thaliana.'
How a humble weed became a superstar of biology
Arabidopsis thaliana was always an unlikely candidate for the limelight. But 25 years ago, the diminutive thale cress launched the botanical world into the molecular era.
knowablemagazine.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Hungary 1956
'Well over a 100k people fled the country seeking asylum. Among them was a young geneticist named George Rédei, who headed for the Austrian border with a small vial of seeds tucked in his pocket.
The seeds belonged to a spindly weed in the mustard family called Arabidopsis thaliana.'
'Well over a 100k people fled the country seeking asylum. Among them was a young geneticist named George Rédei, who headed for the Austrian border with a small vial of seeds tucked in his pocket.
The seeds belonged to a spindly weed in the mustard family called Arabidopsis thaliana.'
sim, com certeza...
November 8, 2025 at 12:47 PM
sim, com certeza...
from 2021. A new family of globally distributed lytic roseophages with unusual deoxythymidine to deoxyuridine substitution www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @cyanoney.bsky.social
A new family of globally distributed lytic roseophages with unusual deoxythymidine to deoxyuridine substitution
Marine bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) are abundant biological entities that are vital for shaping microbial diversity, impacting marine ecosystem …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by christoph_STCmicrobeblog
Ray: Just a note to say STC is officially back up and running!! You can view our new home via smallthingsconsidered.blog
November 3, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Ray: Just a note to say STC is officially back up and running!! You can view our new home via smallthingsconsidered.blog
This paper has been a must! Great collaboration with @mkrupovic.bsky.social and @yifanzhou.bsky.social, a N&V by a legend of halophilic archaea tinyurl.com/yc3dcv72, and one picture of one of our expeditions to Dallol making the cover of the November issue of @natmicrobiol.nature.com
rdcu.be/eLtCH
rdcu.be/eLtCH
November 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM
November 2, 2025 at 1:56 PM
ferns are...
"Found in all parts of the world. The four habitats that ferns call home include moist, shady forests, 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘀, acidic wetlands such as bogs and swamps, and tropical regions."
[ ucanr.edu/site/uc-mari...
"Found in all parts of the world. The four habitats that ferns call home include moist, shady forests, 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘀, acidic wetlands such as bogs and swamps, and tropical regions."
[ ucanr.edu/site/uc-mari...
November 1, 2025 at 11:34 AM
ferns are...
"Found in all parts of the world. The four habitats that ferns call home include moist, shady forests, 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘀, acidic wetlands such as bogs and swamps, and tropical regions."
[ ucanr.edu/site/uc-mari...
"Found in all parts of the world. The four habitats that ferns call home include moist, shady forests, 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘀, acidic wetlands such as bogs and swamps, and tropical regions."
[ ucanr.edu/site/uc-mari...
plutôt la vie, bien sûr
(borrowed from @ParisAMDParis on 𝕏)
(borrowed from @ParisAMDParis on 𝕏)
October 30, 2025 at 8:38 PM
plutôt la vie, bien sûr
(borrowed from @ParisAMDParis on 𝕏)
(borrowed from @ParisAMDParis on 𝕏)
Agnès Vallier, @cmonegat.bsky.social , Baptiste Vierne, @nicolasparisot.bsky.social , Guy Condemine, Pedro Da Silva, Xavier Jaurand, @yschwab.bsky.social , @kaltenpoth-lab.bsky.social , Abdelaziz Heddi, and @annazaidmanremy.bsky.social
➡️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 5/5
➡️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 5/5
Bacterial tubular networks channel carbohydrates in insect endosymbiosis
Symbiosis is widespread in nature and plays a fundamental role in organism adaptation and evolution. In nutritional endosymbiosis, host cells accommod…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:23 AM
zeitmesser, 1962
hans hillmann (1925–2014)
hans hillmann (1925–2014)
October 27, 2025 at 8:17 PM
zeitmesser, 1962
hans hillmann (1925–2014)
hans hillmann (1925–2014)