Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Louis Berrios

DC Environmental Film Festival @dceff.bsky.social · 9h

Big congratulations to @spun.earth’s Toby Kiers on being awarded a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant! You may remember Toby from our 2024 selection FLORA FAUNA FUNGA.

You can read the announcement here: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/arts/design/macarthur-foundation-2025-genius-grant-winners.html

3 4

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Andressa M. Venturini @aventurini.bsky.social · 5d

Curious about how anthropogenic actions reshape microbial communities and their role in ecosystems and public health? 🌎

I’m looking for a PhD student to join my lab at AU. Admission would be through our Biomedical & Environmental Health Sciences program, which offers five fully funded fellowships.

1 3

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Andressa M. Venturini @aventurini.bsky.social · 5d

Assembling MAGs from Amazonian soils is a challenge, but it has become one of our most useful tools to understand these complex communities. Check out our new paper at MRA @asm.org doi.org/10.1128/mra.... in collaboration with @louberrios.bsky.social @jubgontijo.bsky.social @mykophile.bsky.social

A catalog of metagenome-assembled genomes from Amazonian forest and pasture soils | Microbiology Resource Announcements

Our group previously recovered 64 bacterial and 5 archaeal metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from Amazonian forest and pasture soils and evaluated their genomic traits (1). Here, we formally announc...

doi.org

3 7

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Adriana Corrales @adricorrales.bsky.social · 5d

This is a beautiful volume in the Current Biology magazine about Fungi with gorgeous illustrations! highly recommended 🧡 🍄🍄 🤩 www.currentconservation.org/issues/19-3/

19.3 | Current Conservation

Before their ecological relevance and unique properties were revealed to me, my earliest memory of fungi was as a whimsical toadstool in the background of a fairytale book. Growing up, I also saw them...

www.currentconservation.org

1 3 10

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Martin A. Nuñez @martin-nunez.bsky.social · 9d

New paper!
I am excited about it, since it has some very cool contributions on:
-Status of Invasive ectomycorrhizal fungi
-Definition of what is a invasive mycorhizal 🍄
-Cool picture of trees being brought from Europe in 1920!
Lead by @nahpo.bsky.social! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Invasive ectomycorrhizal fungi: belowground insights from South America

Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are essential for nutrient cycling and plant symbiosis, yet their invasions remain understudied, particularly in South America. Large-scale forestry introductions have spr...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

2 20 53

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Kelly Zamudio @kzutaustin.bsky.social · 9d

laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

Petition to NSF to Restore Eligibility for the 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program Competition

laurenkuehne.github.io

8 13

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Microbes.Info @microbesinfo.bsky.social · 9d

Bacteria attached to charcoal could help keep an infamous ‘forever chemical’ out of waterways

An environmental engineer explains how his research team is developing a system containing bacteria, biochar and gel to break down pollutants in waterways.

theconversation.com

1 3

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) @spun.earth · 12d

Led by SPUN's @adricorrales.bsky.social, we visited Huila, Colombia with -196°C liquid nitrogen to collect fungal RNA.

RNA offers a look into the function of fungal genes, but it degrades quickly, so all samples had to be frozen immediately.

Full field update from Colombia coming soon.

4 14

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Global Soil Biodiversity Conference 2026 @gsb2026.bsky.social · 14d

👏🏾 A big shout out to @spun.earth and the Global Initiative of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment for sponsoring 9 students to attend our conference!

Students who applied for our travel grants, check your email inbox.

@thegsbi.bsky.social @lindolab.bsky.social @carlosbarreto.bsky.social

4 7

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge @jeffinerca.bsky.social · 15d

Microbiome sequencing has come so far in 2 decades. In my PhD— I used TRFLP…. am now doing long read sequencing of entire soil metagenomes! This review was great fun- thanks Gitta Szabó @emileyeloe-fadrosh.bsky.social Tanja Woyke of @jgi.doe.gov

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

A genomic view of Earth’s biomes - Nature Reviews Genetics

Genome-wide approaches have uncovered the vast microbial and viral diversity across ecosystems. This Review explores advances in metagenomics, single-cell sequencing and functional profiling to elucid...

www.nature.com

24 60

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 19d

In these trying times, all the more important to keep attention to all the ways in which our world is affected by #climatechange Join us next week at #NYCW for a session on how biodiversity, water, food and health intersect with climate!

Poster on IPBES Nexus Assessment event at New York Climate Week on Thursday Sept 25 at 1:30pm, CURE building 12th floor, 345 Park Ave S

1 8 10

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Traxler Lab @traxlab.bsky.social · 19d

Our latest review is now live! Check out our thoughts on how the filamentous lifestyle of Actinomycetes and their ability to make a diverse array of natural products may be connected 👇: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Why Do Filamentous Actinomycetota Produce Such a Vast Array of Specialized Metabolites? | Annual Reviews

Bacteria of the phylum Actinomycetota are extremely diverse: They inhabit niches ranging from soils and ocean sediments to the normal human microbiota, and they cause tuberculosis, one of the most pre...

www.annualreviews.org

11 22

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Martin Dovciak🌳🌱🌻 @dovciak-lab.bsky.social · 18d

🥁New paper from Northeastern Mtn🏔️ Network❗️The patterns of herbivory & resource utilization vary along elevational gradients & affect tree seedling 🌱 survival, thus shaping species range shifts. @sunyesf.bsky.social @sunyofficial.bsky.social
@appmtnclub.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1007/s100...

Patterns of Herbivory and Resource Utilization of Tree Seedlings Along an Altitudinal Gradient - Ecosystems

In montane areas, climate change can shift tree species distributions upslope over time which can affect forest ecosystem structure and functioning. Seedlings of low-elevation temperate broadleaf tree...

doi.org

1 6 25

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · 18d

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

#phagesky #phage

Phages with a broad host range are common across ecosystems - Nature Microbiology

Proximity-ligation-based sequencing from 111 samples and 5 environments reveals that a substantial proportion of phages infect multiple species.

www.nature.com

8 19

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Francis M. Martin @fmartin54.bsky.social · 18d

Charles Cockell said that “without lions there is life, but without microorganisms there can be no higher life forms” …

Microbial conservation is essential for sustaining ecosystem functions and services | PNAS

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Microbial conservation is essential for sustaining ecosystem functions and services | PNAS

Microbial conservation is essential for sustaining ecosystem functions and services

www.pnas.org

12 29

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Martin A. Nuñez @martin-nunez.bsky.social · 18d

3 7

Louis Berrios @louberrios.bsky.social · 19d

A little wine with your mycorrhizal symbiosis? link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Mycorrhizal symbiosis benefited yield and fruit quality in Cabernet Sauvignon facing high temperatures combined with elevated CO2 in its first productive year - Plant and Soil

Aims Our objective was to assess whether mycorrhization could enhance the resilience of young Cabernet Sauvignon in its first year of production to elevated temperatures under current and future atmos...

link.springer.com

5 21

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Colautti Lab @colauttilab.bsky.social · 20d

Now published in @newphyt.bsky.social, @1pantunes.bsky.social and I review evidence for the "Novel Weapons Hypothesis" and the role of allelopathy during invasion. Bottom line: there is very good reason to be skeptical.
dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Experimental approaches and key outcomes supporting the Allelopathy Postulates relevant to competitive interactions and the novel weapons hypothesis (NWH). Numbers in red correspond to the 11 postulates summarized in Table 1. The full experimental framework comprises five sequential steps: (a) assess the natural concentrations of a potential allelopathic compound; (b) demonstrate its ability to suppress native vegetation; releasing resources that enhance growth and reproduction of the invader (e.g. light, nutrients, water); (c) confirm that the compound has limited autotoxicity to the invading species; (d) investigate the biogeographical basis of the allelopathic compound as a ‘novel weapon’ by demonstrating that native communities coevolving with the invader in its home range are significantly more resistant to the allelopathic compound compared to those in the introduced (away) range; (e) confirm that genotypes producing higher concentrations of the allelopathic compounds experience a fitness cost in the context of intraspecific competition but gain a fitness advantage under interspecific competition. Investigating the role of soil-mediated interactions (11) is transversal across different components of the framework

1 9 10

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 20d

Transient microbial architects: tracing the legacy effects of ephemeral taxa during plant microbiome assembly

Current Opinion in Microbiology by @logansuteau.bsky.social et al from @microbialmarie.bsky.social

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

6 13

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Adam Frew @frewecologist.bsky.social · 22d

Most of us use rDNA for community analyses of AM fungi. Intragenomic variation in rDNA of AM fungi can be pretty huge, depending on the region.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The pitfalls of rDNA‐based AMF identification: a comparative analysis of rDNA and protein‐coding genes

Intragenomic polymorphism of rDNA in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has been largely overlooked in ecological and taxonomic studies, and the reliability of nuclear rDNA regions for species ident.....

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

8 12

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 22d

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social.

This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more!

🧵

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

2 47 110

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Susana C. Gonçalves 🍄🧪🌍👩🏻‍🔬💪💬 @cfemycolab.bsky.social · 23d

Thrilled to launch yet another #CitizenScience campaign for @fundive-fungi.bsky.social ‪🙃

The campaign' accompanying flyer is published in the open-access platform Zenodo, free to download, share, and cite: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

#UrbanBiodiversity #FunDive #Mycology #Conservation #iNaturalist

2 8 14

Reposted by Louis Berrios

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

Scanning electron microscopy of hyphal ectobiont bacteria within mycelial extracellular matrices

Bacillus subtilis on Basidiomycete fungus Hericium erinaceus

-in Biophysical Reports

doi.org/10.1016/j.bp...

Redirecting

doi.org

1 2 3

Reposted by Louis Berrios

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

Reposted by Louis Berrios

Camille Roux @crouxevo.bsky.social · 26d

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

3 110 190