Some of our earliest microbial ancestors, the Asgard archaea, were able to use oxygen, says new study in @nature.com. It may solve a mystery about how complex life first arose. #AsgardArchaea #MicrobialEcology #Eukaryogenesis #TexasScience @utmsi.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social

Polyomaviruses are masters of persistence and dissemination: we show there are two forms of long-term persistent PyVs in the kidney: the majority being cryptic (non-shedding) and a minority that actively shed, and these fates are determined shortly after infection. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

3 papers in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social today exploring the mechanistic connection between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis #MultipleSclerosis cell.com/cell/fulltex... cell.com/cell/fulltex... www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

I chatted with @philiprlang.bsky.social on his podcast about how a virus might be involved in bladder cancer. Since "Phil Lang is Not a Scientist", we made this really accessible. If you're interested in how small sneaky DNA viruses might contribute to the origins of cancers, give it a listen.

Our tiny review on exciting new findings on how polyomaviruses persist: journals.asm.org/eprint/MGEK6...

Check out @lizthayer.bsky.social's new preprint exploring factors that influence cell-to-cell heterogeneity in interferon (IFN) induction potential!

Vesicle and non-vesicle-mediated inter-kingdom delivery of an Argonaute from nematode to mouse link.springer.com/article/10.1...

How long-term persistent virus infection could cause inflammatory-associated cancer in uninfected cells: Polyomavirus BKPyV www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

BK Polyomavirus (BKPyV) linked to bladder cancer via APOBEC. “Common Childhood Virus Causes DNA Damage Driving Bladder Cancer” www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/topics/oncol...

🚨Preprint alert! Kind of a late notice, but here is our latest work on bat Dicer and viral infection. Work led by @leagaucherand.bsky.social and Hugo Marie in the lab. @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social @unistra.fr @frm-officiel.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

If anyone is at #RNA2025, please stop by my lab’s posters on triphosphate balance and virus infection and tracking persistent infection with precision to identify viral miRNA functions. Authors Szymanik and Mojumder are really great and are presenting in the second session this Friday from 8-10.

Small DNA viruses can concurrently shed via two different patterns: continuous low-level shedding of numerous reservoirs and punctuated rare high shedding from one or a few reservoirs. We hope tools presented here are useful to study other persistent pathogens. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Stop for a second and try to imagine this: a heat shock protein relocalizes to the cell surface and mediates dsRNA binding and internalization! Intrigued? Read our newly minted paper in Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to all the authors and thanks to reviewers and editor!

Newest: Virologs mark #RNA metabolism as an evolutionary battleground during infection - Great collaboration w/@sullivanlab.bsky.social & Kayla Szymanik @plos.org journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

New Resource Article: Joseph Ziegelbauer @drjz.bsky.social and colleagues profile cis- and trans-acting elements of viral circRNAs and identify noncanonical mechanisms underlying back-splicing - utilizing their custom-built “CHARLIE” pipeline www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Another nice example of a host-acquired gene in poxviruses, which modulates the host immune response. dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Previously, KO and overexpression showed host RNA 5’ triphosphatase DUSP11 can reduce RIG-I sensitivity. Here, we show poxviruses code for viral DUSP11 that can regulate host RNP III transcripts and RIG-I, providing evolutionary support DUSP11 can be pro-viral. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Happy to share our manuscript showing that a small DNA virus can concurrently shed via two different patterns: continuous low-level shedding of numerous reservoirs and punctuated rare high shedding from one or a few reservoirs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...