Patrick R. Secor
@prsecor.bsky.social
Associate Professor at Montana State University. Studying bacteria and their viruses with a focus on phage-host-microbe interactions.
Lab Website: https://secorlab.org
Faculty profile:
https://www.montana.edu/mbi/directory/2553333/patrick-secor
Lab Website: https://secorlab.org
Faculty profile:
https://www.montana.edu/mbi/directory/2553333/patrick-secor
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Are you a graduate student or postdoc who wants to apply your science to policy?
The Gulf Research Program’s Science Policy Fellowship provides experience for one year on the staff of federal, state, local, NGO in the Gulf region and impt networking.
www.nationalacademies.org/programs/GUL...
The Gulf Research Program’s Science Policy Fellowship provides experience for one year on the staff of federal, state, local, NGO in the Gulf region and impt networking.
www.nationalacademies.org/programs/GUL...
Gulf Research Program Science Policy Fellowships
The Gulf Research Program’s Science Policy Fellowship helps scientists hone their skills by putting them to practice for the benefit of Gulf Coast communities and ecosystems. Fellows gain first-hand e...
www.nationalacademies.org
January 15, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Are you a graduate student or postdoc who wants to apply your science to policy?
The Gulf Research Program’s Science Policy Fellowship provides experience for one year on the staff of federal, state, local, NGO in the Gulf region and impt networking.
www.nationalacademies.org/programs/GUL...
The Gulf Research Program’s Science Policy Fellowship provides experience for one year on the staff of federal, state, local, NGO in the Gulf region and impt networking.
www.nationalacademies.org/programs/GUL...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Here, we find that many Genomic islands have origins of transfer (oriT) mobilisable by conjugation, incl. known Pathogenicity & defense islands. iOriT use only an oriT for transfer by hitching on conjugative elements: they make abundant, diverse, ancient families of mobile genetic elements. See🧵
Bacteria chromosomes contain Genomic Islands that provide virulence, antibiotic resistance, MGE-defence,... They transfer between cells, but the mechanism of most remains elusive.
Here we explore the conjugative capacity of these mysterious Genomic Islands.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Here we explore the conjugative capacity of these mysterious Genomic Islands.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
January 14, 2026 at 11:26 AM
Here, we find that many Genomic islands have origins of transfer (oriT) mobilisable by conjugation, incl. known Pathogenicity & defense islands. iOriT use only an oriT for transfer by hitching on conjugative elements: they make abundant, diverse, ancient families of mobile genetic elements. See🧵
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
🚨Call for papers🚨
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health
in the society journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Guest Editors: Bob Woods, Silvie Huijben & Camilo Barbosa
EIC: me
This will be great, please submit and share!
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/m...
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health
in the society journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Guest Editors: Bob Woods, Silvie Huijben & Camilo Barbosa
EIC: me
This will be great, please submit and share!
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/m...
January 9, 2026 at 4:49 PM
🚨Call for papers🚨
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health
in the society journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Guest Editors: Bob Woods, Silvie Huijben & Camilo Barbosa
EIC: me
This will be great, please submit and share!
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/m...
Microbial Evolution: Impacts on Human Health
in the society journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Guest Editors: Bob Woods, Silvie Huijben & Camilo Barbosa
EIC: me
This will be great, please submit and share!
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/m...
🚨New paper!
A prophage-encoded sRNA limits lytic phage infection in adherent-invasive E. coli.
Huge thanks to members of the Round Lab, @duerkoplab.bsky.social, Wiedenheft Lab, and phage legend Sherwood Casjens.
#microsky 🦠🧫🧪🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A prophage-encoded sRNA limits lytic phage infection in adherent-invasive E. coli.
Huge thanks to members of the Round Lab, @duerkoplab.bsky.social, Wiedenheft Lab, and phage legend Sherwood Casjens.
#microsky 🦠🧫🧪🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
January 5, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
A prophage-encoded sRNA limits phage infection of adherent-invasive E. coli
#PLoSPathogen from @prsecor.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
#PLoSPathogen from @prsecor.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
A prophage-encoded sRNA limits phage infection of adherent-invasive E. coli
Author summary Prophages—viral genomes integrated into bacterial chromosomes—are common in enteric bacteria and can profoundly influence bacterial physiology and ecological fitness. Here we show that ...
journals.plos.org
January 3, 2026 at 11:18 AM
A prophage-encoded sRNA limits phage infection of adherent-invasive E. coli
#PLoSPathogen from @prsecor.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
#PLoSPathogen from @prsecor.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
The final form of my 2nd postdoc paper with the Bassler Lab! Turns out our favorite quorum-sensing phage isn’t a one-off, but rather a member of a globally dispersed family of phages that sense a universal autoinducer.
#phagesky #microsky
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
#phagesky #microsky
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
A family of linear plasmid phages that detect a quorum-sensing autoinducer exists in multiple bacterial species | mBio
The discovery of quorum-sensing responsive linear plasmid phages has transformed understanding
of phage-bacterial interactions by demonstrating inter-domain chemical communication.
To date, however, e...
journals.asm.org
December 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The final form of my 2nd postdoc paper with the Bassler Lab! Turns out our favorite quorum-sensing phage isn’t a one-off, but rather a member of a globally dispersed family of phages that sense a universal autoinducer.
#phagesky #microsky
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
#phagesky #microsky
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Bacterial genomes encode a rich repertoire of antiphage systems, but we still know surprisingly little about when these systems are actually expressed.
In this preprint, Lucas Paoli et al, ask what shapes antiphage systems expression in native contexts.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
In this preprint, Lucas Paoli et al, ask what shapes antiphage systems expression in native contexts.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Environment and physiology shape antiphage system expression
Bacteria and archaea encode on average ten antiphage systems. Quorum sensing, cellular, or transcription factors can regulate specific systems (CRISPR-Cas, CBASS). Yet, a systematic assessment of anti...
www.biorxiv.org
December 15, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Bacterial genomes encode a rich repertoire of antiphage systems, but we still know surprisingly little about when these systems are actually expressed.
In this preprint, Lucas Paoli et al, ask what shapes antiphage systems expression in native contexts.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
In this preprint, Lucas Paoli et al, ask what shapes antiphage systems expression in native contexts.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The Gallatin Range, Montana
December 14, 2025 at 10:05 PM
The Gallatin Range, Montana
Congrats Nanami! It was a pleasure to be on your committee 🎉🥳🍾
Happy to announce that I successfully defended my PhD thesis today! Thank you those who attended in person and virtually.
December 8, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Congrats Nanami! It was a pleasure to be on your committee 🎉🥳🍾
Had our lab holiday party and this was one of the white elephant gifts 🤣🫡
@dominickfaith.bsky.social
#microsky
#phagesky
@dominickfaith.bsky.social
#microsky
#phagesky
December 8, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Had our lab holiday party and this was one of the white elephant gifts 🤣🫡
@dominickfaith.bsky.social
#microsky
#phagesky
@dominickfaith.bsky.social
#microsky
#phagesky
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Phages are full of genes of unknown function that are likely adaptive in specific conditions.
New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out
tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh
New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out
tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh
December 8, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Phages are full of genes of unknown function that are likely adaptive in specific conditions.
New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out
tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh
New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out
tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
🦠🧪🧬🚨 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 Patrick R. Secor
Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed)
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
SISB2026
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
December 1, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed)
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Check out our latest paper on mirusviruses, one of the most remarkable new groups of protist viruses - extremely diverse, carry lots of spliceosomal introns (including new homing introns) and are at the evolutionary crossroads between tailed phages and herpesviruses! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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 4:43 PM
Check out our latest paper on mirusviruses, one of the most remarkable new groups of protist viruses - extremely diverse, carry lots of spliceosomal introns (including new homing introns) and are at the evolutionary crossroads between tailed phages and herpesviruses! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Identification of Previously Unknown DNA-Binding Proteins Using DNA Affinity/Pull-Down Methods Followed by Mass Spectrometry
Jutras, Babb, Jusufovic, Krusenstjerna, Saylor, Verma, and Stevenson
Current Protocols 2025, 5:e70264
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.70264
#MicroSky
Jutras, Babb, Jusufovic, Krusenstjerna, Saylor, Verma, and Stevenson
Current Protocols 2025, 5:e70264
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.70264
#MicroSky
November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Identification of Previously Unknown DNA-Binding Proteins Using DNA Affinity/Pull-Down Methods Followed by Mass Spectrometry
Jutras, Babb, Jusufovic, Krusenstjerna, Saylor, Verma, and Stevenson
Current Protocols 2025, 5:e70264
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.70264
#MicroSky
Jutras, Babb, Jusufovic, Krusenstjerna, Saylor, Verma, and Stevenson
Current Protocols 2025, 5:e70264
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.70264
#MicroSky
Want to see something that will fry your brain? Disappearing reappearing plaques on P aeruginosa @dominickfaith.bsky.social
🧫🦠🧪
🧫🦠🧪
November 25, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Want to see something that will fry your brain? Disappearing reappearing plaques on P aeruginosa @dominickfaith.bsky.social
🧫🦠🧪
🧫🦠🧪
Snowing at the lab today here at Montana State ❄️🦠🧫
November 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Snowing at the lab today here at Montana State ❄️🦠🧫
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
📣 New preprint from us at phagefoundry.org 📣
A solid machine learning framework & to predict strain-level phage-host interactions across diverse bacterial genera from genome sequences alone. Avery Noonan from the Arkin Lab led this massive effort
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A solid machine learning framework & to predict strain-level phage-host interactions across diverse bacterial genera from genome sequences alone. Avery Noonan from the Arkin Lab led this massive effort
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Phage Foundry
phagefoundry.org
November 16, 2025 at 5:58 PM
📣 New preprint from us at phagefoundry.org 📣
A solid machine learning framework & to predict strain-level phage-host interactions across diverse bacterial genera from genome sequences alone. Avery Noonan from the Arkin Lab led this massive effort
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A solid machine learning framework & to predict strain-level phage-host interactions across diverse bacterial genera from genome sequences alone. Avery Noonan from the Arkin Lab led this massive effort
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
Just got an email from my SRO for the study section that was missed in October. Good news is that they are trying to reschedule ASAP (Dec/Jan). The bad news is that CSR is mandating that only the the top third (not half) of applications will get discussed for the next 2 rounds.
November 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Just got an email from my SRO for the study section that was missed in October. Good news is that they are trying to reschedule ASAP (Dec/Jan). The bad news is that CSR is mandating that only the the top third (not half) of applications will get discussed for the next 2 rounds.
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
New lab paper!
Andrew Frando describes how MexT alters the quorum sensing cascade in P. aeruginosa. /1
With Nicole Smalley; two undergraduates, Jamal Omar and Bobby Parsek; and @dezieleric.bsky.social, @mariecg.bsky.social, and Mylène Trottier at INRS in Montreal
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Andrew Frando describes how MexT alters the quorum sensing cascade in P. aeruginosa. /1
With Nicole Smalley; two undergraduates, Jamal Omar and Bobby Parsek; and @dezieleric.bsky.social, @mariecg.bsky.social, and Mylène Trottier at INRS in Montreal
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Modulation of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing cascade by MexT-regulated factors | mBio
Bacteria interact with both abiotic and biotic factors in their environment. Quorum
sensing (QS) is one mechanism that bacteria use to communicate with other bacteria
and coordinate behaviors in the p...
journals.asm.org
October 23, 2025 at 5:52 PM
New lab paper!
Andrew Frando describes how MexT alters the quorum sensing cascade in P. aeruginosa. /1
With Nicole Smalley; two undergraduates, Jamal Omar and Bobby Parsek; and @dezieleric.bsky.social, @mariecg.bsky.social, and Mylène Trottier at INRS in Montreal
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Andrew Frando describes how MexT alters the quorum sensing cascade in P. aeruginosa. /1
With Nicole Smalley; two undergraduates, Jamal Omar and Bobby Parsek; and @dezieleric.bsky.social, @mariecg.bsky.social, and Mylène Trottier at INRS in Montreal
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Patrick R. Secor
For what it’s worth, The Wyoming Worm lab has funding for 5 years along with exciting projects with solid foundations. We are is still looking for capable, dedicated, and fun-to-work-with lab members at all career stages. [email protected]
scholar.google.com/citations?us...
scholar.google.com/citations?us...
October 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM
For what it’s worth, The Wyoming Worm lab has funding for 5 years along with exciting projects with solid foundations. We are is still looking for capable, dedicated, and fun-to-work-with lab members at all career stages. [email protected]
scholar.google.com/citations?us...
scholar.google.com/citations?us...