Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Gitta Coaker @gittacoaker.bsky.social · 1d

UNC Chapel Hill is hiring an Assistant Professor in Plant Molecular Biology. Per Jeff
Dangl MPMI candidates are also highly desired in the search. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

Assistant Professor

The Department of Biology at UNC Chapel Hill (https://bio.unc.edu/) is searching to hire a tenure track Assistant Professor to study critical questions in Plant Molecular Biology.We seek candidates wh...

unc.peopleadmin.com

29 21

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 2d

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

1 11 35

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Gang Yu @gangyuplant.bsky.social · 3d

Chromosome architecture affects virulence and competitiveness in Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Chromosome architecture affects virulence and competitiveness in Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58

Chromosome architecture influences Agrobacterium fitness, competitiveness, and virulence, shaping its adaptation and evolution.

www.science.org

8 8

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 7d

Our story describing the Panoptes bacterial immune defense system is now finally peer-reviewed and published today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Panoptes system uses decoy cyclic nucleotides to defend against phage - Nature

The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

www.nature.com

4 43 85

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Leonor García-Bayona @lgbacteria.bsky.social · 9d

First publication from our lab!

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

The role of mobile genetic elements in adaptation of the microbiota to the dynamic human gut ecosystem

#CurrOpinMicrobiol from @lgbacteria.bsky.social

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

5 11

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Molecular Plant & Plant Communications @mplantpcom.bsky.social · 12d

ZmHSCF1 enhances Agrobacterium-mediated transformation frequency in commercial maize inbred lines by promoting embryogenic callus proliferation #correspondence #PlantCommunications cell.com/plant-commun...

4 6

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 12d

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/t...

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads

The solicitation for the 2025 submission dates for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is out, with the first deadline of November 10 for life-sciences disciplines. The big news is that el…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

4 14 17

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Sarah Svensson @campy-bara.bsky.social · 12d

Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria

Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...

www.science.org

23 58

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 13d

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n

14 150 300

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Luís M. Silva @luismsilva.bsky.social · 16d

Interested in #virulence? Not sure what it is - or how to explain it? Just curious? 🧐🦠🧬🦋

@kayla-king.bsky.social and I just wrote a Primer for @currentbiology.bsky.social on the ecology and evolution of virulence!

Check it below and share :)

#MicroSky #EvoSky #pathogens

Ecology and evolution of virulence

Silva and King discuss the concept of virulence and the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape it.

www.cell.com

2 26 60

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Charikleia Karageorgiou (Clio) @evobioclio.bsky.social · 14d

The formation and propagation of human Robertsonian chromosomes

Nature - Analysis of human Robertsonian chromosomes originating from 13, 14 and 21 reveal that they result from breaks at the SST1 macrosatellite DNA array and recombination between homologous...

rdcu.be

7 6

Alexandra Weisberg @weisbergaj.bsky.social · 15d

Ah interesting, I had not caught that.

Alexandra Weisberg @weisbergaj.bsky.social · 15d

If you are non-ESI and don't have an R01, you are a "New Investigator" and can apply for a MIRA: www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/mec...

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About MIRA PAR-22-180 | National Institute of General Medical Sciences

www.nigms.nih.gov

1

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Gitta Coaker @gittacoaker.bsky.social · 16d

My department at UC Davis is hiring a mycologist, broadly interpreted. Please repost, share, and consider applying. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07339

Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology

University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ucdavis.edu

1 91 71

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Olaya Rendueles @olayarendueles.bsky.social · 19d

This promises to be a great read!
“the pathogenicity island was horizontally transferred from Yersinia pestis to E. coli and other Enterobacterales approximatively 4,800 years ago” ⏩️ it then spread to Klebsiella and positively selected over the last 100 yrs ago

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 19d

Evidence for Neolithic acquisition of the high pathogenic island by Escherichia coli followed by recent selection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676721v1

5 13

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

nikogeldner.bsky.social @nikogeldner.bsky.social · 21d

Call for a tenure-track position at our Department of Plant Molecular Biology in Lausanne! We are searching for promising early-career researchers in the broad field of plant-organismal interactions. Deadline: November 30, 2025 - Please re-post!

career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

Career Opportunities: DBMV: Tenure Track Assistant Professor towards Associate Professor in the field of Plant-organism (22484)

career5.successfactors.eu

2 130 80

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Charlotte Wright @charlottewright.bsky.social · 27d

How many chromosomes can an animal have?

In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Constraints on chromosome evolution revealed by the 229 chromosome pairs of the Atlas blue butterfly

The genome of the Atlas blue butterfly contains ten times more chromosomes than most butterflies, and more than any other known diploid animal. Wright et al. show that this extraordinary karyotype is ...

tinyurl.com

4 99 210

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Dan Sloan @sloanevolab.bsky.social · Sep 8

The Department of Biology at Colorado State University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the area of plant-microbe interactions! Please spread the word!

jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...

Assistant Professor Plant-Microbe Interactions

We seek a creative, collaborative, and visionary plant biologist to establish an internationally recognized research program at the forefront of plant-microbe interactions aimed at understanding how t...

jobs.colostate.edu

140 73

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

David Lowry @davidlowry.bsky.social · Sep 8

Super excited about this new Open Rank tenure-track faculty search for the MSU Plant Resilience Institute. We successfully hired two excellent new faculty in our last search and we are hoping to build on that success with this search. careers.msu.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Tenure System - East Lansing, Michigan, United States

Working/Functional Title Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Tenure System Position Summary The Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) at Michigan State University invites applications for multiple tenure-st...

careers.msu.edu

51 33

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

James T. Stroud @jameststroud.bsky.social · Sep 7

Feel free to reach out to any of us here at GT if you have questions!

On bluesky: me, @wcratcliff.bsky.social, @benjaminfreeman.bsky.social, @sepl.bsky.social, @seananderson.bsky.social, @digglelab.bsky.social, and everyone else here:
biosciences.gatech.edu/people

8 4

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · Sep 7

For anyone who has used pling for comparing plasmids using rearrangement distances ("how many structural events apart are these plasmids"), here's how to tweak parameters, and integrate it with typing info, and the host phylogeny
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
github.com/iqbal-lab-or...

Clustering of plasmid genomes for genomic epidemiology by using rearrangement distances, with pling

Integration of plasmids into genomic epidemiology is challenging, because there are no clearly defined evolving-units (equivalent to species), and because plasmids appear to evolve as much by structur...

www.biorxiv.org

1 30 56

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Max Telford @maxjtelford.bsky.social · Aug 15

This true also of figure legends. "The Sky is Blue" not " "Graph showing principal colours of things above your head"

Claus Wilke @clauswilke.com · Aug 15

A simple design framework that will massively improve your slides and your public speaking
clauswilke.substack.com/p/slides-tha...

Slide designs that present themselves: The assertion–evidence template

Your slides are not your talk.

clauswilke.substack.com

9 17

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · Sep 5

Sequence data from the new Ebola outbreak in DRC suggests it is indeed a new spillover.

And just incredible to see the virus sequenced and the data publicly shared less than 24 hours after confirmation of the outbreak.
#IDsky 🧪

virological.org/t/the-16th-e...

The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host

Background The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing concurrent outbreaks including mpox, cholera and malaria (1-4). The Ministry of Public Health, DRC has declared the 16th Ebola...

virological.org

3 100 260

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

Bruno Ngou @brunongou.bsky.social · Sep 4

Very happy to share our latest work “Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants” out in @science.org !

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

Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants

Plants deploy a diverse array of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which perceive microbe-associated molecular patterns to activate immune responses. Leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase subgr...

www.science.org

7 56 100

Reposted by Alexandra Weisberg

闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD @minyaaa.bsky.social · Sep 4

My department is hiring a Plant-Fungal Assist Prof!! As the newest #NewPI here, don't get me started on how wonderful my colleagues, how smooth my onboarding has been, how supportive the school and the department are, how nice my brand new lab is, and how convenient living in Champaign Urbana is!

Steven Burgess @sjb287.bsky.social · Sep 4

We are hiring! The #PlantBio department at UIUC is looking to recruit an Assistant Professor in Plant-Fungal interactions. Application deadline is October 31st @dallingjim.bsky.social see the link below for more details:
illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Assistant Professor- Department of Plant Biology

Duties & Responsibilities

illinois.csod.com

1 42 50