Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 12d

Microbiologist Paula Welander studies fossils, but not dinosaur bones or ammonite imprints. Instead, she looks for microscopic clues left behind by microbes that lived millions of years ago.

The Humble Microbe Could Help Us Understand Life Itself

Unlocking the basic science of microbes, especially those that live in extreme environments, could help us find life elsewhere in the universe.

buff.ly

1 16 89

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Carolyn Ibberson @cbibberson.bsky.social · 22d

My department at UTK is hiring! 🧪🧫 We are hiring two Assistant Professors, one in Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease and one in Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions! Come join our growing department of microbiologists. Knoxville is a great place to live!

17 7

Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster.bsky.social · 12d

We had our first guest lecturer in my Ecology class @cmuscience.bsky.social today! Dr. Delaney Miller from the Handelsman lab at Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (@widofficial.bsky.social) & HHMI gave an absolutely beautiful talk on how microbes in the rhizosphere impact plant development.

1 2

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 15d

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper

We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...

www.linkedin.com

1 130 93

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Julie Le Bris @julielebris.bsky.social · 29d

How complex functions, with important physiological and evolutionary impacts get repeatedly and efficiently transferred across genomes?
That’s what we explored using one of the fastest-evolving loci in Bacteria: the capsule locus.
The paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread👇

Serotype swapping in Klebsiella spp. by plug-and-play

Understanding how complex, multi-gene systems evolve and function across genetic backgrounds is a central question in molecular evolution. While such systems often impose costs through epistatic inter...

www.biorxiv.org

2 22 26

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 20d

‬‬Hexokinase 2 (HK2) is known for its metabolic role in #glycolysis. This study shows that it also functions as an #RNAbindingProtein that regulates mRNA translation, particularly of SOX10, promoting #melanoma cell proliferation independently of glycolysis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3ViI1qL

AlphaFold model of the complex formed between HK2 and the SOX10 5′UTR (189–204 nts). The predicted RNA structure is shown in cyan, and HK2 protein is shown in green. HK2 residues and SOX10 mRNA nucleotides at the interaction interface are highlighted in red. Inset: schematic representation of the secondary structure of the SOX10 5′UTR (189–204 nts) predicted by Mfold, with the putative HK2-binding region (194–198 nts) marked in red.

2 5

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 24d

Long-term monitoring of a North American cheese cave reveals mechanisms and consequences of fungal adaptation

Penicillium solitum over 8 years in a cheese cave => green-to-white shift

@currentbiology.bsky.social from @benwolfe.bsky.social with @kellerlab.bsky.social

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Long-term monitoring of a North American cheese cave reveals mechanisms and consequences of fungal adaptation

Using a unique longitudinal sampling approach, Louw et al. demonstrate how a cheese-associated Penicillium population has adapted in an artisan cheese production facility in Vermont, USA. Adaptation i...

www.cell.com

13 33

Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster.bsky.social · 24d

Neuroscientist Alison Barth @cmu.edu on the science behind Severance & work/life separation 🤓 www.cmu.edu/mcs/news-eve...

Alison Barth, Maxwell H. and Gloria C. Connan Professor in the Life Sciences in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, shared the science behind the popular Apple+ show "...

www.cmu.edu

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Fabrice Jean-Pierre @fabricejpierre.bsky.social · 26d

Happy to finally see this out! Bassam El Halfi (@bassamhafi.bsky.social - my first rotation student when I started my post-doc in @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social) did an amazing job investigating mechanisms of interspecies metabolic interactions. Check it out! #microsky

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

Pseudomonas aeruginosa supports the survival of Prevotella melaninogenica in a cystic fibrosis lung polymicrobial community through metabolic cross-feeding | mBio

Polymicrobial interactions impact disease outcomes in pwCF who suffer from chronic respiratory infections. Previous work established a CF-relevant polymicrobial community model that allows experimenta...

journals.asm.org

1 4 15

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Volker Rudolf @volkerrudolf.bsky.social · 26d

Awesome faculty position alert! Tenure-track assistant professor position in Evolutionary Biology, with a focus on organismal responses to environmental change.

Please help spread the word!
apply.interfolio.com/173889

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

1 33 27

Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster.bsky.social · Sep 7

On our way to the Parsek/Woz retreat in Leavenworth, WA!

1 2 6

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Mark O. Martin @markowenmartin.bsky.social · Sep 4

Here is a demonstration of ice nucleation protein made by Pseudomonas syringe in my #Bio350 #Micronauts in my #Microbiology course at @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology

5 21 85

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

The EMBO Journal @embojournal.org · Sep 4

Bacterial cell widening alters periplasmic size and activates envelope stress responses
Kerwyn Huang, @typaslab.bsky.social et al find that E. coli outer-membrane protein RcsF senses reduced periplasm thickness due to increased cell width, & activates Rcs signaling
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

2 14 31

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

ASM @asm.org · Sep 2

By comparing bronchial and nasal mucus, researchers find that mucus' ability to neutralize influenza A virus varies with the anatomical origin and correlates with the abundance of triglycerides & specific sialylated glycoproteins and glycolipids. #mSphere: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Differentiation of bronchial (BEpC) and nasal (NEpC) primary epithelial cells and mucus harvesting. (A) schematic overview of primary cell differentiation and mucus harvesting. Following a 4-week differentiation period at air-liquid interface (ALI), mucus was harvested in ultrapure H2O at 4, 6, and 8 weeks of ALI culture. The illustration was created at Biorender.com. B-C BEpC (B) and NEpC (C) from three different donors were differentiated and grown at air-liquid interface (ALI) for 28 days. Transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) was monitored at the time points indicated. Shown are means ± standard deviations from two independent wells.

1 3 7

Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster.bsky.social · Sep 3

www.aspcapro.org/resource/win...

Winter Shelter Bins for Community Cats FAQ

Help outdoor kitties stay warm this winter with inexpensive foam coolers!

www.aspcapro.org

2

Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster.bsky.social · Sep 3

The newish PI styrofoam box collection to winter cat shelter pipeline 👩‍🔬

1 4

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Thalia, PhD @thalia.bsky.social · Aug 25

I cannot fully put into words what publishing this Review has meant to me, so I leave you with how we closed the paper.

"The humble bacterium is still a relevant tool for the study of the underlying mechanisms that are conserved throughout life."

🧪🧫🧬📚
doi.org/10.1093/gene...

The nature of mutation: a legacy of bacterial genetics

Abstract. A central question in the fields of genetics and evolution was the nature and origin of spontaneous mutation. Bacterial genetic experiments throu

doi.org

3 38 120

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Joanne Flynn @joanneflynn19.bsky.social · Aug 20

We are hiring! The Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is looking for faculty at the Assistant or Associate professor level (tenure track). Please consider joining our vibrant microbiology and immunology community at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine

1 110 110

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · Aug 15

Our high-precision metagenomic strain caller, PHLAME, is now published in Cell Reports!! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

PHLAME works on tough sample types -- including those with coexisting strains of a species and low depth.

2 26 47

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Richard Lenski @relenski.bsky.social · Aug 12

Excited to share new #program, STEPS, which can simulate #dynamics of the E. coli Long-Term Evolution Experiment (#LTEE) or other microbes in serial transfer regime.

telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s...

STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.

STEPS To It

Announcing a new program, called STEPS, to simulate the dynamics of evolving microbial populations.

telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com

4 60 160

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · Aug 12

Environmental adaptations in metagenomes revealed by deep learning bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... #jcampubs

Environmental adaptations in metagenomes revealed by deep learning - BMC Biology

Background Deep learning has emerged as a powerful tool in the analysis of biological data, including the analysis of large metagenome data. However, its application remains limited due to high comput...

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com

1 7

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · Aug 11

Do you like coastal/estuarine microbiology, time-series data, and/or metagenomics? Have we got a dataset for you #NSFfunded

Metagenomes and 1,313 metagenome-assembled genomes from a northern Gulf of Mexico coastal time series www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Metagenomes and 1,313 metagenome-assembled genomes from a northern Gulf of Mexico coastal time series - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - Metagenomes and 1,313 metagenome-assembled genomes from a northern Gulf of Mexico coastal time series

www.nature.com

1 12 38

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · Aug 9

Engineering natural microbial communities: harnessing synthetic communities for bioremediation

#CurrOpinMicrobiol from Xihui Xu, Nanjing Agricultural University

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Engineering natural microbial communities: harnessing synthetic communities for bioremediation

Microbial bioremediation, a technology using microbial metabolism to degrade or transform environmental pollutants, has garnered significant attention…

www.sciencedirect.com

5 18

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

Tera Levin @teralevin.bsky.social · Aug 5

I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hypermutable hotspot enables the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium

Cells require highly polymorphic receptors to perform accurate self/non-self recognition. In the amoeba Dicytostelium discoideum, polymorphic TgrB1 & TgrC1 proteins are used to bind sister cells and e...

www.biorxiv.org

9 98 220

Reposted by Catherine Armbruster

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Aug 2

The evolutionary tale of tailocins in Pectobacterium show genus-wide homologous recombination and inversions of tail fiber genes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.30.667677v1

1 2