Biology has plenty of data—the challenge is making it usable. AllTheBacteria transforms 2.44 million public bacterial and archaeal genomes into an open, uniformly processed, searchable, AI-ready resource. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Why are there still so many unknown function genes in microbial genomes? Are they as an "epistemological mirror", silent on classical microbiology (pure culture) test. Perspective paper in Heredity from the lab @francescavaccaro.bsky.social and Camilla Fagorzi nature.com/articles/s41437-026-00870-5

We are excited to announce ICMB 2026 keynote speakers!🎉 ICMB 2026 is bringing together three pioneers who are redefining how we understand life Prof. Dr. Eva Kondorosi, Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Rajewsky and Prof. Dr. Andrei Lupas. Take a look at our website: icmb2026.stiinta-cercetare.ro

I have some news! Fabio Fornara and I published a book! We are very happy of it!

Excited to see our work out in Science today! Using machine learning to identify prokaryotic immune systems www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We sequenced the genome of 'desert ginseng' (Cistanche deserticola) - a leafless parasitic plant that gave up photosynthesis - and found it lost huge chunks of its own genome…but started stealing genes from its host! Thanks to my collaborators Prof Huang + her talented team👏🏻 lnkd.in/evF5iU9G

Office.eu è un’alternativa completamente europea alle popolari suite come Microsoft Office e Google Workspace ed è stata lanciata ufficialmente

The I2BC is now accepting applications for new group leader positions. Explore our research at the Institute in our Journal: www.scoop.it/u/institut-d... Deadline: April 22, 2026 @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social

Similar microbes, different outcomes. Why do some rhizobial bacteroids fix nitrogen in legumes better than others? Check out the online version of our latest work by @poolelaboxford.bsky.social, an historical lab project showing how this comes down to differentiation 😉 ➡️ doi.org/10.1093/plph...

memod-s is a Snakemake-based workflow that streamlines analysis of prokaryotic DNA methylation from Nanopore sequencing data. The pipeline integrates basecalling, quality control, genome assembly, annotation, & methylation profiling to generate genome-wide methylation statistics & visualisations.

🧪 The memod-s workflow is available at

🧬 New in Bioinformatics Advances: "Memod-s: A standardised workflow to explore and analyse prokaryotic methylation patterns for Nanopore sequencing data"  Explore the study: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbag072  Authors include: @alessiome.bsky.social, @jaimemurtaza.bsky.social

Do you like blueberries? I do, but what's going on in declining wild populations of blueberry of Italian Apennines? Of course from the microbiota perspective! If you are curious see here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Another nice paper from @francescavaccaro.bsky.social and Camilla Fagorzi

So glad and happy to be at the Biotechnology Summer School "The Green Side of One Health: From Basics to Industrial Applications” in wonderful #Kaszuby, Poland bss.ug.edu.pl One week of science, fun and inspiration from young scientists. With @francescavaccaro.bsky.social and Camilla Fagorzi

Glad to participate to the 🌞 school in #Padua on "Why do we study plants". Tnx to @lorellanavazio.bsky.social and Barbara Baldan for inviting me. @unipd.bsky.social Fantastic lectures by @christhorogood.bsky.social @oxforduni.bsky.social on the #Rafflesia flowers

Happy to repost on my new Bluesky profile 🌱 In our study published on May 8,we successfully adapted the #PhenotypeMicroarray approach to plant #protoplasts, opening new possibilities for high-throughput metabolic phenotyping at cell level! 🔗 📖 rdcu.be/ek5iH @springernature.com @alessiome.bsky.social

New paper from the lab. Take-away message: redundancy of functions in consortia led to more effective lab-to-the-field translation. Great collaboration with IBBR-CNR and Univ. Palermo. With contribution by L. Cangioli, @francescavaccaro.bsky.social , C. Fagorzi www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New from the lab 📰 Toward deciphering the molecular dialogue in the rhizomicrobiota: Transcriptomic profiling of Trichoderma in rhizobia interaction. Work led by @francescavaccaro.bsky.social just few weeks before defending her PhD and Camilla Fagorzi! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"We infer that the earliest aerobic bacteria emerged in the Archaean, predating the GOE by 900 million years." Oxygen tolerance may have been a prerequisite for, rather than a consequence of, the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

academic.oup.com/plphys/advan... Flowering time and cell wall

We also offer travel grants for Early Career Researchers thanks to the support of @amiposts.bsky.social & @jxbotany.bsky.social. Applications open until 15/04. Check all the info in our website and stay tuned for all the upcoming news and a very exciting programme! ➡️ web.cvent.com/event/aa2ad9...

We are looking forward to hosting the next European Nitrogen Fixation Conference in Oxford the 26th-29th August. We have already announced our invited speakers and are now excited to receive your abstracts! Keep an eye on our key dates: 🗓️ 30/04 Early bird registration 📝 01/05 Abstract submission

Sinorhizobium meliloti FcrX coordinates cell cycle and division during free-living growth and symbiosis by a ClpXP-dependent mechanism -in PNAS from Emanuele Biondi www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

We are very happy to share our latest preprint! 📣 H-NS is a xenogeneic silencer that prevents the costly expression of horizontally acquired genes. In Salmonella, H-NS silences several Pathogenicity Islands (SPIs), including SPI-1, which is essential for host invasion. 🧵⬇️

Probabilmente no, perché hanno agito di notte col passamontagna. E perché sia i media che la politica hanno speso ben poche parole quando questi episodi sono accaduti, nel giugno 2024 ai danni dell’Università di Milano e nel febbraio del 2025 ai danni dell’ateneo di Verona 2/3

A controlled study on the sociology of science: We published last year two papers on bacterial toxins in the same journal ("Molecular Systems Biology"), edited by the same editor, both describe discovery of toxins associated with secretion systems that were predicted computationally and validated

📣Just 1 week left to apply for 2x 5-year researcher posts in experimental evolution #mevosky #microsky in @mermanchester.bsky.social @official-uom.bsky.social + 3-year research tech post www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... ERC project: how MGEs and defence systems control genome evoluton

Eco-vandals target gene-edited Chardonnay in Italy. Antiscience stupidity strikes again: two experimental fields have been launched in the country, and both have been attacked #CRISPR #agriculture #vandalism (link below)

Due campi sperimentali avviati, due campi vandalizzati da ignoti. C'è la volontà politica di contrastare questi reati? #CRISPR #agricoltura #TEA #ecovandali crispr.blog/2025/02/16/v...

Our paper describing the microGWAS pipeline was published yesterday in Microbial Genomics. Lots of fixes and additions to the code/documentation since the preprint, including a hard to reproduce bug that only showed up in a specific HPC 🥵 www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

We found this gene that is important for correct carpel development in rice. It encodes for a plant mobile protein. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Il mio intervento a Effetto Giorno sugli incendi in California. Minuto 35:14 www.radio24.ilsole24ore.com/programmi/ef...

Atomic spaghetti, an Italian story #mutationbreeding mycrispr.blog/2025/01/09/a...

"The Complex Epigenetic Panorama in the Multipartite Genome of the Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti" After many rounds of revision and re-analysis I'm very happy to share the paper on genome-wide methylation analysis of S. meliloti. academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Good piece by @natureportfolio.bsky.social. The erosion of thinking time—driven by admin, bureaucracy, industry agendas, and unrealistic output targets—stifles curiosity-led science. These pressures undermine innovation and the intellectual freedom vital for real progress. 🧪🌱🌍 #ScienceIsNotBusiness

The rhizosphere has been called “one of the most complex ecosystems on earth” But how do host plants control benefits derived from their microbial partners? Read our paper in Nature Microbiology on how legumes mediate conflict & cooperation with N2-fixing symbionts. Here: tinyurl.com/4y4tjx6k

Per chi volesse il 12 dicembre alle ore 21.00, presso la biblioteca delle Oblate, a Firenze, parlerò di Meteorologia nell'Arte. Organizzatore: Caffè Scienza. Entrata: rigorosamente gratuita

I have an open Postdoc position in Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zürich! The project is about the conservation of transcription factors functions between strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa 🧬🦠 More details and application at: jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP... Please share!

Keeping your symbiosis genes on a plasmid is a smart move if you have multiple potential hosts. Here a gut bacterial symbiont, but same is true for N-fixing Rhizobia. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

With Roberto Defez we tried to describe what's going on in Italy with GMOs and NGTs. And how we see it in the European scenario. Out today in EMBO Reports www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Se fosse una serie Netflix potremmo dire che il 2024 delle biotecnologie agrarie in Italia si chiude con un ottimo finale di stagione e un po' di suspense. Il nuovo regolamento UE dividerà finalmente i destini di OGM e NGT/TEA? Dopo l'apertura alla sperimentazione arriverà la commercializzazione?

🚨 PhD opportunity 🚨 The Whelan lab, along w @brockhurstlab.bsky.social, are looking for a PhD student w bioinformatic experience/interest to investigate the evolution of transmissibility in bacterial pathogens, with a focus on P. aeruginosa. More info & link to apply below. Please spread the word!

#PhD Advert: Please share! Are you looking for a PhD studentship in comparative- or population-genomics, using 300+ species of #Drosophila and 1000+ genomes of #melanogaster? #Entomology #Genomics #PopGen #Phylogenetics

🎨 In case anyone need… The NIH BioArt Source is an awesome library of *free* professionally drawn illustrations for scientific presentations or figures. Downloadable in HD. Thank you NIH for this invaluable tool 🙏! Check it out 👇 bioart.niaid.nih.gov

Root hair developmental regulators orchestrate drought triggered microbiome changes and the interaction with beneficial Rhizobiaceae www.nature.com/articles/s41... #plantscience

Fun new paper led by @greghurst.bsky.social &co using genomics to show that facultative symbiont genomes get bigger as they adapt to life inside a host (through HGT & loss of CRISPR) before undergoing genome reduction as they become obligate #symbiosky #microsky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Re-sharing our last paper on the effect of restriction-modification systems on conjugative plasmids: doi.org/10.1093/nar/... #MicroSky