Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 21d

Open Call for Expressions of Interest: become a Max Planck Director & redefine what’s possible in science! We offer scientific independence, long-term stable funding & exceptional infrastructure. Lead your own department & open new frontiers of research. Apply by 31 Oct 2025 → www.mpg.de/directors

Directors

The Max Planck Society offers Directors a unique platform for groundbreaking research and leadership in diverse scientific fields.

www.mpg.de

38 38

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 23d

Early-career researchers: want to run your own lab? 🌟Max Planck Research Groups offer 6+ years, up to €2.7M in funding, open-topic freedom, team support & tenure-track opportunities. Intrigued? 😃Apply by Oct 14, 2025! www.mpg.de/max-planck-r...

Graphic with a blue background and light green dots. The text 'call for applications' appears in green, and 'Ausschreibung' in white. A white arrow on the right points diagonally upward.

100 92

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · Sep 8

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) could cause 10 million deaths by 2050. At PLAS-FIGHTER, we are working to change this!
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/

#AntibioticResistance

Project - Plasmidlab

PLAS-FIGHTER Exploiting plasmid-bacteria interactions to fight

plasmidlab.es

8 19

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Paula Ramiro-Martínez @paularamiro.bsky.social · Jul 22

New paper alert! 🚨

Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate.

We combine theory, simulations, experimental evolution, and bioinformatics to demonstrate that mutation rates scale with plasmid copy number.

Let's dive in! 🧵👇

Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate

Plasmids are autonomously replicating DNA molecules that stably coexist with chromosomes in bacterial cells. These genetic elements drive horizontal gene transfer and play a fundamental role in bacter...

www.biorxiv.org

2 35 73

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

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)

2 39 71

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Loraine Hablützel @lorhab.bsky.social · Apr 3

Check out my first PhD paper on between-species genetic interactions (intergenomic epistasis) with @cbank.bsky.social 🌿↔️🦠✨ We define intergenomic epistasis mathematically and highlight its potential in understanding co-evolution :)

Oikos @oikosjournal.bsky.social · Mar 6

Studying the genetic basis of ecological interactions with intergenomic epistasis

https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.10835

#GxGInteractions #SpeciesInteractions #CoEvolution #HostPathogenInteractions #Epistasis #EcoEvolutionaryDynamics

1 5 13

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Anne Grießhammer @ghammeranne.bsky.social · Jul 17

Seeing this published is even better than eating sweets! I am so happy and proud of whole @lisamaierlab.bsky.social, especially Lisa and @jdlcz.bsky.social who walked the funny/exciting/rocky road with me until the very end. Check it out!
#science #microbiome #health

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

Non-antibiotics disrupt colonization resistance against enteropathogens - Nature

Non-antibiotic drugs from a wide range of therapeutic classes can alter the ability of gut commensals to resist invasion by enteropathogens, a previously underappreciated side effect of such drugs.

www.nature.com

1 13 35

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

SeppeKuehnLab @seppekuehnlab.bsky.social · Jul 17

New paper in @nature.com! With @kiseokmicro.bsky.social , Siqi Liu, Kyle Crocker, Jojo Wang, Mikhail Tikhonov & Madhav Mani — a massive dataset and simple model reveal a few conserved regimes that capture how soil microbiome metabolism responds to perturbations. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

2 30 64

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This paper by Belda et al makes the case for wine fermentation as a model system in microbial ecology and evolution, one which hits a sweet spot between experimental tractability and rich ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 1 4

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This paper by Shraddha Karve discusses how evolutionary novelties emerge in microorganisms, focusing on the different types of novel traits and the role played by the environment.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 1 2

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This piece by Orr, Armitage & Letten provides a nice & clear introduction to modern coexistence theory for microbiologists, discussing how it can be applied to microbial communities & highlighting its promise, limitations & opportunities.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Coexistence Theory for Microbial Ecology, and Vice Versa

Classical models from theoretical ecology are seeing increasing uptake in microbial ecology, but there remains rich potential for closer cross-pollination. Here we explore opportunities for stronger ...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 1 4

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This excellent article by @clsong.bsky.social‬ synthesizes research on the Assembly Graph, a useful conceptual & methodological tool to understand the dynamic assembly of microbial communities and multispecies coexistence.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Assembly Graph as the Rosetta Stone of Ecological Assembly

This paper introduces the assembly graph as an integrative lens to unify ecological assembly theories across dynamical, informational, and probabilistic approaches. In addition to theory, it also pre....

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 4 9

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This paper by Belda et al makes the case for wine fermentation as a model system in microbial ecology and evolution, one which hits a sweet spot between experimental tractability and rich ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 1 4

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This paper by Shraddha Karve discusses how evolutionary novelties emerge in microorganisms, focusing on the different types of novel traits and the role played by the environment.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 1 2

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This piece by Orr, Armitage & Letten provides a nice & clear introduction to modern coexistence theory for microbiologists, discussing how it can be applied to microbial communities & highlighting its promise, limitations & opportunities.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Coexistence Theory for Microbial Ecology, and Vice Versa

Classical models from theoretical ecology are seeing increasing uptake in microbial ecology, but there remains rich potential for closer cross-pollination. Here we explore opportunities for stronger ...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 1 4

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

This excellent article by @clsong.bsky.social‬ synthesizes research on the Assembly Graph, a useful conceptual & methodological tool to understand the dynamic assembly of microbial communities and multispecies coexistence.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Assembly Graph as the Rosetta Stone of Ecological Assembly

This paper introduces the assembly graph as an integrative lens to unify ecological assembly theories across dynamical, informational, and probabilistic approaches. In addition to theory, it also pre....

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 4 9

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

How may theoretical ecology & evolutionary theory push microbiology forward?
At Environmental Microbiology, I am commissioning a series of Perspectives exploring that question. Excited to share them in the 🧵 below
The series is open, so do get in touch if you'd like to propose a new contribution!

2 53 95

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Craig MacLean @craigmaclean.bsky.social · Jul 16

New paper with @rwheatley8.bsky.social and Cedric Lood

Actual title: Chromosomal capture of beneficial genes drives plasmids towards ecological redundancy.

Sensationalist title: Plasmids carry useless genes

academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...

Chromosomal capture of beneficial genes drives plasmids toward ecological redundancy

Abstract. Plasmids are a ubiquitous feature of bacterial genomes, but the forces driving genes and phenotypes to become associated with plasmids are poorly

academic.oup.com

4 30 75

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Jerónimo Rodríguez-Beltrán @jerorb.bsky.social · Jul 3

It was an honor and a joy to receive the National Research Prize for Young (!) Researchers. The highlight? My grandma greeting the King of Spain.

What a day!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQP...

Felipe VI, king of Spain, greeting my grandma

A selfie of some of the Prize Recipients

5 5 34

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Jerónimo Rodríguez-Beltrán @jerorb.bsky.social · Jul 2

🚨🚨New paper out in @natcomms.nature.com!!

Come for the first large-scale analysis of plasmid copy number across species,
stay for one of the most intriguing results of my lab: universal scaling laws in plasmid biology! 📈🧬

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Universal rules govern plasmid copy number - Nature Communications

Plasmids exhibit a broad range of sizes and copies per cell, and these two parameters appear to be negatively correlated. Here, Ramiro-Martínez et al. analyse the copy number of thousands of diverse b...

www.nature.com

4 84 180

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Will Shoemaker @shoestrapped.bsky.social · May 27

Happy to have this out! Thanks to @asanchezlab.bsky.social and @jacrickets.bsky.social for their mentorship on this project. Below is the thread I previously posted on then-Twitter

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · May 27

Macroecological patterns in experimental microbial communities, led by Will Shoemaker & Jacopo Grilli
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Macroecological patterns in experimental microbial communities

Author summary Determining whether an empirical pattern can be manipulated is a crucial step towards building a predictive theory. Our study aimed to determine the extent that experimental manipulatio...

journals.plos.org

1 5 12

Alvaro Sanchez @asanchezlab.bsky.social · May 27

Macroecological patterns in experimental microbial communities, led by Will Shoemaker & Jacopo Grilli
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Macroecological patterns in experimental microbial communities

Author summary Determining whether an empirical pattern can be manipulated is a crucial step towards building a predictive theory. Our study aimed to determine the extent that experimental manipulatio...

journals.plos.org

12 34

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Guim Aguadé-Gorgorió @guimaguade.bsky.social · May 20

Microbial communities can harbor many species that do not coexist in pairs, yet can coexist in the full community. Here we provide the mathematical foundations of emergent coexistence, and explain why it can't be predicted from pairwise tests www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

2 35 98

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · May 10

How can we understand ecosystem dynamics using information theory? Using Shannon's entropy, this paper by Chuliang Song gives a clever introduction to IT within the context of assembly graphs. @longcy.bsky.social @guimaguade.bsky.social @blaividiella.bsky.social
www.clsong.com/assets/pdf/s...

1 9 42

Reposted by Alvaro Sanchez

Jose A Escudero @jaescudero.bsky.social · May 8

🧪
Finally out after peer review, our work showing that "Mobile #Integrons carry Phage Defense Systems" is now published in Science 🎉

Short 🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems

Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that capture, stockpile, and modulate the expression of genes encoded in integron cassettes. Mobile integrons (MIs) are borne on plasmids, acting as a vehicle ...

www.science.org

15 80 140