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LauraMA

@laurama-2023.bsky.social

22 followers 76 following 11 posts

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Reposted by LauraMA

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 16d

See also the associated paper by Marcelo Torres, Fangping Wan & Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez

@delafuentelab.bsky.social

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

Deep learning reveals antibiotics in the archaeal proteome - Nature Microbiology

Use of artificial intelligence to mine proteomes of archaea led to the discovery of archaeasins, antimicrobials that kill drug-resistant bacteria in laboratory and animal models, offering a promising source of future antibiotics.

Reposted by LauraMA

Shamphavi Sivabalasarma @sshamphavi.bsky.social · 22d

Bacteria with archaella, who would have thought that this existed. Happy to share that it does 🎉and we just published it today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com 🎉🥳. Congrats to everyone involved! 🦠

Sonja-Verena Albers @archaellum.bsky.social · 22d

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

Reposted by LauraMA

Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · Jun 24

Manuscript/resource alert #microsky 🦠 My lab offers the community a collection of 30 E. coli (CloneFISH) cultures, each carrying a plasmid for the heterologous expression of a (near) full-length 16S rRNA gene from one of 30 lineages of archaea, including 19 yet uncultured ones.

List of 30 CloneFISH cultures available for free (requester is asked to pay shipping fees).

Reposted by LauraMA

Tobias Warnecke @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social · May 25

Joining the race to the bottom has never been cooler...
www.biorxiv.org/node/4580343...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A cellular entity retaining only its replicative core: Hidden archaeal lineage with an ultra-reduced genome

Defining the minimal genetic requirements for cellular life remains a fundamental question in biology. Genomic exploration continually reveals novel microbial lineages, often exhibiting extreme genome...

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by LauraMA

Geo Santiago-Martínez @geosantiagom.bsky.social · May 21

The Archaeacast! Yes, a podcast about #archaea!
by Priyanka Chatterjee, @cjhines.bsky.social, Alex Phillips, Theopi Rados & guests!
Sixth episode: Archaea and Us: Heroes or Villains?
rss.com/podcasts/arc...
@archaeapowerhour.bsky.social @archaeabio.bsky.social
#microsky

Reposted by LauraMA

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · May 9

1/ Excited to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs) in Caulobacter crescentus, led by Emma Banks in collaboration with Pavol Bardy and Mai Nguyen from York!!! See a brief thread below.
shorturl.at/o6S1w

A bacterial CARD-NLR immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents

Bacteria have evolved a wide array of immune systems to detect and defend against external threats including mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as bacteriophages, plasmids, and transposons. MGEs are ...

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

Thank you for reading and thanks to all co-authors!

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

Therefore, in complex systems, proteins can serve multiple roles. Our findings highlight the importance of studying viral functions in their full biological context, and not just in overexpression setups. (10/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

We also analyzed 24 other viral AcrIII-1 homologs in archaea. Most are not expressed early and lack strong promoters, making them unlikely to act as Acrs in vivo. (9/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

Our data show cA4 influences viral fitness even without CRISPR systems, suggesting non-defense roles for this molecule that deserve further attention. (8/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

In fact, ring nuclease activity isn’t required for this advantage. SIRV2 gp37 appears multifunctional, since it also interacts with host proteins and may modulate cA4-linked pathways in ways unrelated to defense. (7/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

So, what does gp37 actually do? It binds and inhibits a host protein methyltransferase, giving the virus a fitness advantage that’s independent of CRISPR immunity. (6/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

We confirmed this by engineering early gp29 expression using an inducible promoter. This restored Acr activity and allowed viral replication under CRISPR pressure. (5/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

The reason for this is timing: gp37 is expressed mid/late in infection—too late to stop CRISPR-Cas, which acts early. Early expression is crucial for anti-CRISPR function. (4/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

We tested the native homolog, gp37 from SIRV2, in its natural host. But when gp37 is expressed from the virus genome, it shows no anti-CRISPR activity. (3/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

AcrIII-1 is a ring nuclease that degrades cA4, a key signaling molecule in type III CRISPR-Cas immunity.
Earlier studies showed that AcrIII-1 (like SIRV1 gp29) inhibits CRISPR, but only when overexpressed from plasmids in non-native systems. (2/n)

LauraMA @laurama-2023.bsky.social · Apr 18

Our new paper on archaeal anti-CRISPRs is out in
@Nature (@SpringerNature)! 🔗 rdcu.be/eh1Ma
Using a native virus–host model (SIRV2–S. islandicus), we show that overexpression in foreign hosts can lead to false positives.
🧵(1/n) #CRISPR #archaea #antiCRISPR #virology

Natively expressed AcrIII-1 does not function as an anti-CRISPR protein

Nature - Natively expressed AcrIII-1 does not function as an anti-CRISPR protein

Reposted by LauraMA

Germán Bonilla-Rosso @germusthermophilus.bsky.social · Dec 15

♀️🇲🇽🧪🦠 This paper about the challenges of being a female microbiologist in México is authored by four women central to my career:
my PhD supervisor Valeria Souza
my PhD committee member Gabriela Olmedo
my PhD colleagues Esmeralda Lopez and Ana Escalante

doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Reposted by LauraMA

Christine Moissl-Eichinger @chmoei.bsky.social · Apr 4

New paper! We analyzed gut #microbiomes of 250+ individuals (ages 19–109).
#Centenarians often show a high-methanogen “human cow” phenotype 🐄, with #Methanobrevibacter smithii dominance and youth-like archaeal profiles. #Archaea may stabilize networks in aging.

Link: rdcu.be/egk03

@archaeasky

Age-related dynamics of predominant methanogenic archaea in the human gut microbiome

Reposted by LauraMA

Nature Reviews Microbiology @natrevmicro.nature.com · Apr 4

#weekendreading🔬📑

Tissue-like multicellular development triggered by mechanical compression in archaea

@science.org #microsky

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Tissue-like multicellular development triggered by mechanical compression in archaea

The advent of clonal multicellularity is a critical evolutionary milestone, seen often in eukaryotes, rarely in bacteria, and only once in archaea. We show that uniaxial compression induces clonal mul...

www.science.org

Reposted by LauraMA

BF Francis Ouellette @bffo.bsky.social · Mar 31

From the @commsbio.bsky.social journal | Advancing archaeal research through FAIR resource and data sharing, and inclusive community building | #Bioinformatics #FAIR #OpenScience
#OpenAccess #OpenData 🧬 🖥️ 🧪 🔓
⬇️
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Advancing archaeal research through FAIR resource and data sharing, and inclusive community building - Communications Biology

Archaeal research and its growing importance have benefited from a community that is engaged in various collaborative efforts, which are highlighted here with examples for the sharing of resources and...

Reposted by LauraMA

Christine Moissl-Eichinger @chmoei.bsky.social · Feb 13

Open PhD position! Do you want to work with the human #archaeome and understand the potential effect on the #immune system? Please check the call, including another exciting opening of @cdiener.com on #microbiome research www.medunigraz.at/doktoratsstu... #microbiomesky #archaeasky #microsky

PhD Application and Admission

www.medunigraz.at

Reposted by LauraMA

Daniela Barillà @danielabarilla.bsky.social · Feb 9

New preprint from our lab!
Story started long ago that took many years in the making.

Great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social & @tunglejic.bsky.social groups.

Generously funded by BBSRC @ukri.org & @leverhulme.bsky.social

How do #archaea segregate their chromosome?
#microsky #archaeasky

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Feb 9

Coupling chromosome organization to genome segregation in Archaea https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.07.637068v1

Reposted by LauraMA

Clément Madru @cryoclem.bsky.social · Jan 18

A new year, a new social network and a new article in @naturecomms.bsky.social ! It unveils how archaeal RPA orchestrates the recruitment of key players in 🧬 replication primase and polD through its WH domain, with structures of both complexes!!
rdcu.be/d6GAY

Communication between DNA polymerases and Replication Protein A within the archaeal replisome

Nature Communications - The single stranded DNA binding protein RPA plays a pivotal role in DNA replication. The archaeal RPA hosts a WH domain that interacts with the DNA primase and the...