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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Sep 8

Very cool story! Congrats!

See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Sep 5

Be our IMB colleague! Join us for cool science!

[open faculty position at the institute of molecular biology, academia sinica in taiwan]

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

OPEN FACULTY POSITION, INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, ACADEMIA SINICA, TAIWAN - 128 Academia Road, Section 2, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan job with Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan ...

One tenure-track faculty position is open for a qualified individual to establish an active research program at the IMB.

www.nature.com

See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 28

Thanks Dor!

See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 27

Overall, our findings expand our understanding of how bacteria outcompete one another in crowded environments. Check out our story! 💪

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 27

Interestingly, we found that the bacteria secreting Cpe1 are protected from self-poisoning by a protein called Cpi1. Cpi1 blocks the toxin using a unique mode. Unlike many other immunity that block the toxin’s active site, Cpi1 inhibits Cpe1 by blocking the substrate-binding site.

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 27

Using structural and mass spec approaches, we pinpointed the exact cleavage target sequences of Cpe1: in the short “double-glycine” motifs, specifically LHAGGKF, in GyrB and ParE!

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 27

This interbacterial toxin is called Cpe1. It acts like molecular scissors✂️, cutting the ATPase domains of essential topoisomerases, GyrB and ParE, in competing bacteria. Without the critical proteins, the rival cells can't properly copy their genomes, leading to growth stalls.

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 27

Link to the story: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Bacteria are constantly fighting for survival—not just against bacteriophages, but also against each other. In our new study, we uncover an antibacterial protease toxin that bacteria frequently use to disable their rivals.

An interbacterial cysteine protease toxin inhibits cell growth by targeting type II DNA topoisomerases GyrB and ParE

Bacteria use toxic effectors to outcompete other bacteria, influencing the composition of microbial communities. This study shows that the cysteine protease Cpe1, a widespread toxin in Gram negative b...

doi.org

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · May 27

Excited to learn that our story on characterizing an interbacterial protease toxin is finally out @plosbiology.org
"An interbacterial cysteine protease toxin inhibits cell growth by targeting type II DNA topoisomerases GyrB and ParE". Led by my wonderful team at Academia Sinica!

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

Uli Klümper @ulikluemper.bsky.social · May 25

Always love a good bacterial warfare study:

"Horizontal gene transfer of molecular weapons can reshape bacterial competition"

by @prokaryota.bsky.social, @jdpal.bsky.social, et al. in @plosbiology.org

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Horizontal gene transfer of molecular weapons can reshape bacterial competition

Bacteria use molecular weapons such as toxins to outcompete rivals, but their horizontal gene transfer can undermine this advantage. This study shows that horizontal gene transfer of toxin plasmids is...

journals.plos.org

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Mar 27

OUT NOW: Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice

#microsky 🧪

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

Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice - Nature Microbiology

InducTn-seq, a method for inducible mutagenesis followed by transposon insertion site sequencing, enables temporal control of transposition to bypass population bottlenecks and enable the quantificati...

www.nature.com

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

n summary, our findings show that while phage resistance helps bacteria avoid viral infection, it can come at the cost of losing the battle against other bacteria in the environment. A double-edged sword! ⚔️🔬

See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

More interestingly, even when Salmonella was treated with an enzyme from phages that degrades LPS, it also became vulnerable to bacterial attacks, demonstrating that phages can indirectly weaken bacteria and affect bacteria-bacteria interaction.

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

Further experiments revealed that the O-antigen, a part of the LPS structure, is crucial for protecting Salmonella against these bacterial attacks. Without it, they became easy targets.

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

The reason why Salmonella lose their ability to compete is due to mutations in genes related to their cell membrane, specifically in a structure called LPS (lipopolysaccharide), which normally protects against external stresses. Bacteria with damaged LPS became vulnerable to T6S.

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

We used Salmonella phage-resistants as the model for the question. Interestingly, while resistant strains grew and competed normally in liquid media, they struggled when grown on solid media with bacteria with the specialized weapon: type VI secretion system (T6SS)

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

Bacteria can become resistant to phages that infect them, but this resistance might weaken their ability to compete with other bacteria. Here, we start by asking how phage-resistant bacteria perform in competition with other competitor bacteria.

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Mar 10

Our Phage infection/T6S story is finally out @embojournal.org! "Surface-mediated bacteriophage defense incurs fitness tradeoffs for interbacterial antagonism" Led by my wonderful team at Academia Sinica!
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Feb 14

A҉L҉T҉R҉U҉I҉S҉T҉I҉C҉ ҉Z҉O҉M҉B҉I҉E҉ ҉B҉A҉C҉T҉E҉R҉I҉A҉🦠🧟

Fascinating Nat Comm paper Martin Cann Lab Durham UK

Dead bacteria encode post-mortem protein catabolism via Lon protease—provides nutrients promoting growth of surviving bacteria

No benefit of Lon to live bacteria to account for this

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

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · Feb 6

Check it out! Another novel RNA modification - ADP-ribosylation - that was previously only known on proteins. A cousin to #glycoRNA 👏

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

Graphic showing modification of mRNA with ADP-ribose mediated by bacterial enzyme cmdTAC

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Feb 2

Discovery of a distinct BAM complex in the Bacteroidetes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.31.636011v1

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Jan 25

A ubiquitin-like protein controls assembly of a bacterial Type VIIb secretion system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.24.634720v1

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

Enric Frago @enricfrago.bsky.social · Jan 20

Beautiful #symbiosis paper. Symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer promote herbivory in the megadiverse leaf beetles
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer promote herbivory in the megadiverse leaf beetles

Leaf beetles are among the most speciose herbivores on earth. Kirsch et al. show that multiple independent symbiont acquisitions and microbe-to-host horizontal gene transfers shaped the beetles’ reper...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允

Erik van Nimwegen @erikvannimwegen.bsky.social · Jan 15

What do bacterial cells do when they run out of nutrients? Although most bacterial studies focus on cells in exponentially growing states, in the wild bacteria likely spend most of their time slowly starving to death. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

E. coli prepares for starvation by dramatically remodeling its proteome in the first hours after loss of nutrients

It is widely believed that due to nutrient limitations in natural environments, bacteria spend most of their life in non-growing states. However, very little is known about how bacteria change their p...

www.biorxiv.org

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See-Yeun Ting 陳詩允 @seeyeunting.bsky.social · Jan 9

Breaking Barriers: Gender Equity in Science, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Together, stronger!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4GE...

Breaking Barriers: Gender Equity in Science at IMB Academia Sinica

YouTube video by Institute of Molecular Biology 中央研究院分子生物研究所

www.youtube.com