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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 6h

#MicroSky

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 17h

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community

@natcomms.nature.com from @oventurelli2.bsky.social

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

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community - Nature Communications

Here the authors leverage a crossfeeding, engineered microbial community to demonstrate that strain abundance cycles are robust across environmental conditions. They pair this with a nonlinear dynamic model to elucidate population cycles.

www.nature.com

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 21h

#PhageSky

J.O.K.Emmanuel🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @emmanuelkuffo15.bsky.social · Jan 9

The original plan was to isolate >50 phage-host combos (I naively thought this would be the straightforward bit of the project—it wasn’t). Eventually we got 2 phages tripling the number of genome-sequenced, in vitro characterised Strep. suis phages! Read about Bonnie & Clyde👇🏿

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 22h

#PhageSky

Freya Harrison @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social · 22h

Very nice talk from @emmanuelkuffo15.bsky.social speaking about his hunt for Strep. suis phage at the @microbiologysociety.org young microbiologist of the year finals - and there's a pre-print up! #MicroSky

J.O.K.Emmanuel🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @emmanuelkuffo15.bsky.social · Jan 9

The original plan was to isolate >50 phage-host combos (I naively thought this would be the straightforward bit of the project—it wasn’t). Eventually we got 2 phages tripling the number of genome-sequenced, in vitro characterised Strep. suis phages! Read about Bonnie & Clyde👇🏿

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 1d

#MicroSky

Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s published version of our manuscript using GWAS to investigate tailocin sensitivity in Pseudomonas syringae. TL:DR pretty clear LPS is tailocin receptor but also that P.syringae often completely swaps out its entire O antigen biosynth pathway w/ recombination

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Genomic correlates of tailocin sensitivity in Pseudomonas syringae

Abstract. Phage-derived bacteriocins, also referred to as tailocins, are structures encoded by bacterial genomes and deployed into the extracellular enviro

academic.oup.com

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 1d

christoph: they're certainly more yummi, but they look like rutherford's atom model 😄

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 1d

indeed👍

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 1d

#PhageSky

The Daum Lab @daumlab.bsky.social · 2d

Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cryo-EM resolves the structure of the archaeal dsDNA virus HFTV1 from head to tail

This structure of an archaeal tailed virus (arTV) provides detailed insights into arTV assembly and infection mechanisms.

www.science.org

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 2d

who buys from amazon anyways? 😊

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 2d

until then, I'll be glad to help you 👍

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 3d

great work, congrats to all involved 👏👏👏

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 3d

#ProtistsOnSky

Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 3d

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 3d

btw this year, I didn't see any traces of the old METEOR graffiti on the pier wall in horta, faial that I hadn't screened last year (partly visible in the photo).

marina in horta, faial. viw of pico volcano (own photo, sep 2025)

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 3d

... and it could be fun to see if this is mirrored in the Endozoicomonadaceae or not. just fun, probably not really important as these dual-origins are just a few kb (~25 kb) apart and simultaneous firing is unlikely to mess-up the cell cycle in bugs with genome sizes in the 4 Mbp range

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 3d

christoph: do you think anyone would be interested in me seeing if I can identify 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘊 in these guys' genomes (by prediction)? I would of course also look at 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘶𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 😎

I recently found 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘊 in many of the (not-too-distantly) related Halomonadaceae (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) ...

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

christoph: this is an animation of RNase II at work from the perspective of its catalytic site. on the left, I can see clearly its CSD domain.

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

out of pure curiosity: can anyone confirm that nicole @nicoledubilier.bsky.social allegedly referred to 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 as the "𝘌. 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘪 of the oceans" at an ASM meeting earlier this year?
#MicroSky

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 4d

A genomic view of the bacterial family Endozoicomonadaceae in marine symbioses
www.nature.com/articles/s42... #jcampubs

A genomic view of the bacterial family Endozoicomonadaceae in marine symbioses - Communications Biology

This review explores the genomic diversity, ecology, and functional potential of the bacterial family Endozoicomonadaceae in marine symbioses, highlighting their mutualistic to parasitic spectrum and key gaps to be addressed in future research.

www.nature.com

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

bsky.app/profile/chri...

christoph_STCmicrobeblog @christophstc.bsky.social · 5d

luckily, there are alternatives to PubMed, see libguides.exeter.ac.uk/c.php?g=7252...

LibGuides: Alternatives to United States NLM Resources: Databases which use PubMed

libguides.exeter.ac.uk

Reposted by STCmicrobeblog

Microbetv @microbetv.bsky.social · 4d

Dr. Sean Gibbons, Associate Professor at the Institute for Systems Biology, returns to the Quality Quorum this week, to tell us about how he and his colleagues are able to listen very carefully to the microbiome to uncover important hints about health.
👇⬇️👇⬇️👇

Matters Microbial #110: Enumerating the Microbiome

YouTube video by MicrobeTV

youtu.be

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

absolutely wild, from the Small Molecules Considered (SMC) branch:
"...this work provides another piece in a complex biological puzzle aiming to understand the persistent and pervasive nature of 𝘞𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘢 endosymbionts." (doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...)
#MicroSky #SymbioSky

Rupinder Kaur, PhD @kaurr.bsky.social · 5d

#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Beyond Wolbachia—Can a small molecule control insect reproduction?

Kaur et al. demonstrate reduced histone acetylation as a key mechanism underpinning Wolbachia’s paternal-effect embryonic lethality trait in Drosophila melanogaster. Recapitulation of this trait by in...

www.cell.com

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

all tree 👉 ✔️

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

(christoph: exactly what I had in mind 👍)

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

(christoph: airplanes or highways, I always look first at the... )

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

it's rather an understatement to describe 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘶𝘴 as *halophilic*... as it thrives in ultra-salty water (200 g of salt per L, see below)

(pro tip: keep its preferred medium 𝘧𝘢𝘳 away from metallic laboratory equipment and public water pipes)
#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky #Archaea

screen capture from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12343721/

corroded water pipe cap in horta, faial, açores (own photo)

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

see movies S1 and S2 (movies + legends in the paper, Open Access)
👉 pnas.1320063111.sm01.mpg
👉 pnas.1320063111.sm02.mpg

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 4d

...but we lost a considerable number of the microbiology tweeps during the shift to 🔵bsky.

just as was shown for the glucose/cellobiose diauxic shift in 𝘓𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘴 by Solopova 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. (2014) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (👉ALT!)

L. lactis diauxic shift. Growth (OD600) of L. lactis M1 in chemically defined medium with 0.1% glucose (red line), 1% cellobiose (blue line), or a mixture of 0.1% glucose and 1% cellobiose (green line) is shown; maximal growth rates (r) measured along the growth curves of the cultures are shown in the right lower corner. During biphasic growth in a medium with a mixture of glucose and cellobiose, cells first consume glucose. The diauxie lag phase, which follows the switch point after glucose depletion, is generally thought to result from adaptation of the metabolism of cells to using the second sugar (in this case, cellobiose). During the second exponential growth phase, cellobiose is used.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1320063111

Putative mechanism underlying the phenotypic heterogeneity in L. lactis sugar utilization. At the moment of glucose exhaustion from the medium (the switch point), the CCR level in a cell decreases. Once the repression is relieved, a cell can start expressing to the cel cluster and switch to cellobiose consumption, but it must have sufficient energy (“metabolic state”) to do so. This switch, however, is only possible if the cell switches early enough. If the cell runs out of energy before it makes the switch, the stringent response locks the cell in a nongrowing state (Cel−). If a cell is able to make the switch, it continues to grow using cellobiose (Cel+).

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