Soil is hard to work with, polar areas are hard to work in and viruses are hard to work on, but Gary didn’t let any of these deter him. The full paper is now out in Nature Comms!

Opportunity! Anybody knows of young marine ecologists (within 7 years from earned PhD) that would like to come to Gothenburg, Sweden, for a nationally funded Assistant Professorship? It is highly competitive but well funded. (1) of (3)

Let's talk -80 freezers: Recommendations? Dis-recommendations? What do you suggest prioritising and why? Bonus points if you have input on buying one in Europe. * photo of Muffin for cat tax

Interested in RNA virus discovery? You can still register for the RdRp summit and attend remotely! We'll have some really nice talks and cutting edge discussions on best practices and new directions in the field. rdrp.io #phagesky #virosky #bioinformatics

EXCITING NEWS🥳! @isme-microbes.bsky.social is now sponsoring 3 travels grants worth EUR 500 each to support early career researchers presenting at the #RdRpSummit2025. Abstract submissions & registrations are still open!✍️ More info at RdRp.io

Calls for papers from FEMS Microbiology Ecology: Thematic Issue on Ecology of Soil Microorganisms Editors: @pbaldrian.bsky.social @jennihultman.bsky.social Petr Kohout Minna Männistö @tainapennanen.bsky.social academic.oup.com/femsec/pages... Submission deadline: 28 November 2025

RNA phages are phosphate limited, and possibly as implicated as their DNA counterparts in soil microbiome dynamics following soil wetup (first rain after the dry season). Out today in SBB! doi.org/10.1016/j.so... @soilmicrobes.bsky.social 1/n

Our paper is out and is open access! Phosphate amendment drives bloom of RNA viruses after soil wet-up. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @sieravirus.bsky.social @jeffinerca.bsky.social @graemenicol.bsky.social @christinahazard.bsky.social

Marine nitrifies are incredibly important for the global nitrogen cycle. Tangentially, I met Sookie at #ISME2024 and we had lots of fun testing out South African food and cocktails. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A beautiful initiative: crowdfunding to purchase and protect biodiversity hotspots worldwide via local NGOs. I'm so in! this-is-my-earth.org

Going to #ViBioM2025 ? Interested in discovery of RNA viruses? Consider joining us 2 days early (May 11-12) in Lisbon for the 2025 RdRp summit @rdrpsummit.bsky.social ! Program and abstract submission will be available soon. We'll talk advances in methodology from isolation to bioinformatics.

Using stable isotope probing in the lab and wondering how it compares to reality in the field? Look no further. Bottom line: microcosms are more prone to opportunists, but aren't a horrible approximation. Considering labor/price differences I'd say they're acceptable journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Definitely saw this in mediterranean grassland via metatranscriptomics www.biorxiv.org/node/4329066...

Wetting dry soil rapidly stimulates microbial activity and has important consequences for biogeochemical cycling. In our paper out today, we show that part of that response can be explained by how bacterial genomes are written (i.e. codon usage, nucleotide freq., genome size) doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

👋 Hi antiphage defense community, we are soon releasing an update of DefenseFinder. We are doing our best to include all the great discoveries from the community, but with so much going on we might miss things. Please answer wt preprints/papers with new systems or mail/git them to us. 🙏

Fungi and isotopes alert! Great paper to start off the new year. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#PhD #position #phage please repost! Recruiting a PhD student!

Cool! SAR11 phylogenomics and so many new (almost) complete genomes! Wish I could see the sup info for how 16S compares between them. Guess I'll have to be patient... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#PhD #position #alert 2 bioinfo PhD positions @ProbstLab @RESIST_CRC #1 on microbial & epigenetic stress response in rivers tinyurl.com/bdf8eu5a #2 on virus-host stress response in rivers tinyurl.com/43cjd6es (supervision Moraru) Please share!

Really, ISME journal? On Dec 22nd you sent me an invitation to review and I haven't replied by Christmas Eve? Shocker.

In addition to applied statistics, I have another repository on #DataVisualization: "quick data vis" (github.com/cxli233/Quic...). It used to be under "Online_R_learning" but now it has its own repository on GitHub. I have used this content to teach 1st year grad students for 3 years.

SIP friends: does anyone have experience with Eppendorf (formerly Koki) himac ultracentrifuges? I'm considering buying the CP80NX but only have personal experience with Beckman and Sorval. *Biscuit and Muffin pic provided for increased traffic

Interested in discovering new viruses from soil that may be affecting global carbon sequestration? Apply for a PhD position with me at Aarhus University in Flakkebjerg! Our group is very international, supportive and friendly. Applications due by February 1st 2025. phd.tech.au.dk/for-applican...

It's definitely about time I visit Helsinki. Let's hang out!

Cool to see new tools focusing on harder to identify viruses. Looking forward to giving BEREN a shot! Will Luthien be next? BEREN: A bioinformatic tool for recovering Giant viruses, Polinton-like Viruses, and Virophages in metagenomic data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

ZOMBIE CELLS!!! 😱🧟🦠 @janbruewer.bsky.social and colleagues discover how #viruses keep #SAR11 in check and even turn them into zombies! Out now @natureportfolio.bsky.social Nat Comms mpi-bremen.de/en/Zombie-ce... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great phage AMG session. At #ASMicrobe thanks to all the amazing speakers ! And if you want more of this excellent (unbiased opinion) phage/virus content, registrations are open for VEGA24, Nov 12-13 in Berkeley ! jgi.doe.gov/events/vega/

Uploading MAGs to NCBI

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

Good new alert: I've accepted a tenure track position in the agroecology department at @aarhusuni.bsky.social ! As of September you may find me in Denmark enjoying the mild weather, green scenery and English speaking people.

#JobAlert #microbiology #microbiologyjobs I am hiring a scientist to work with me at the US Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. Interested? Apply at www.usajobs.gov/job/783135100 starting April 1st (note that only 50 applications will be accepted). Applicants must be U.S. Citizens.

Ooh! A phage phestival! Wish I could be there...Sounds like phun

Please share: collaborative postdoc opportunity in microbial ecology and evolution at Indiana University Bloomington NSF Biology Integration Institute (BII) on "Genomics and Eco-evolution of Multi-Scale Symbioses (GEMS)”   @GEMS_BII: tinyurl.com/4vyf6erd indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/23270

Love me some 13C tracing of C all the way from the atmosphere into sequestration in mineral-associated organic matter in soil. Really excellent work! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Salivating over all the delicious science you could do when you have a giant phage in culture, but also happy for my friend Markus academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

I’m gonna put this out here again! I like reviewing! 👋🏼

I really want to apply because the lineup is amazing and I'm sure I have tons to learn from these people, but I should prioritise students, so here goes: If you're a Master's or PhD student with background in linux and R/python and an interest in virus-host dynamics - you should apply.

Nothing like trying to maintain composure and professionalism during a job interview while your cat yells for uppies and sticks her not-rose-smelling business end in your face. Thanks, Muffin.

A 20-year time-series of a freshwater lake reveals seasonal dynamics and environmental drivers of viral diversity, ecology, and evolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.06.579183v1

Gonna give this a try soon and report how it went. Curious to see the differences from published data.

Sometimes a paper's impact is in the amount of work that can be built on top of it. Prime example: the aggregation capacity of soil, even if disturbed, affects the amount of C it sequesters. Include soil types that represent the range of aggregation capacity! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Looking for FREE (!) and reusable scientific figures / illustrations / pictures of #plants ? ➡️ check out the #plantillustrations collections on #figshare. Made by scientist, for scientists 🧪 🌾 figshare.com/authors/Plan...

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for Summer 2024 RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES, BIOLOGY at the American Museum of Natural History. Application Deadline: January 31st 2024 www.amnh.org/research/ric...

A great "behind the paper" summary: codon usage bias underlies the rhizosphere effect go.nature.com/43W1gco

Things I did on my winter vacation: learned to knit, read 65 pages from a book in French, watched my first movie in French, adopted by the best family in Brittany, sang karaoke in Glasgow and spammed my entire contact list with a vacation alert. Thanks, Apple mail app. Happy new year, everyone!

Excellent news! Now if the BBC could use the same efficiency and high standards to uncover its own tendency to report fake news... But really, I don't want to take anything away from the importance of this story. Seems Russian bots pretty much control social media nowadays and it should scare us all

Check out our latest preprint on seagrass viruses 🦠 🧪 🧬 🧫 🌱 🦑 - using a degenerate primer set that picks up a broad diversity of potexviruses in terrestrial and aquatic plants, we show their diversity in Thalassia testudinum (turtle grass) in Florida

Wish I was a good fit for this one... ML peeps - this is a great opportunity!

What an enjoyable read! Also, if ever there was a paper demonstrating how hard it is to annotate viral proteins... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...