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

Exclusion systems, far from slowing down plasmid spread, are in fact essential to preserve host cell viability and thereby ensure the successful dissemination of conjugative plasmids and antibiotic resistance genes. @nfrk92.bsky.social @narjournal.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

✈️ Calling all grad students & postdocs in microbial ecology! Want to work, train, or collaborate abroad? ISME’s Scholar Mobility Fund can help you get there. 📅 Apply by 1 October 🌍 Open to applicants worldwide (esp. outside NA & Europe!) Details: isme-microbes.org/isme-scholar... #MicrobialEcology

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species. @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Mammoths in Mexico! A fascinating read by @rpocisv.bsky.social @science.org on the discovery and analysis of a massive Pleistocene fossil trove beneath an airport in Mexico City. 🧬 🦣 🇲🇽 www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

We are recruiting for an Editor to join the Journal of Medical Microbiology (JMM)! We’re looking for Editors with some previous editorial experience to handle JMM’s One Health - Emerging, Zoonotic and Environmental Disease section. Find out more and apply here: microb.io/4lnPPBU 🦠

Does your lab perform killing assays? TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is. Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!  Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... 1/n

Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!

Have you ever wondered what increasing environmental stress will do to microbial communities? In our new preprint, @martinadalbello.bsky.social, Jeff Gore and I studied the impact of salinity on microbial community composition and function. 🧵 (1/5) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper on the transmission dynamics of Noro- and Enterovirus during the COVID-19 pandemic just came out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We measured wastewater viral loads, estimated Re and assessed the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the transmission of these pathogens.

Biologist folk (especially in evolutionary biology and/or ecology, but it don’t matter): Can you give me your favorite examples of trade offs in biology? Organism or system don’t matter. Primary literature or reviews preferred.

We are on the lookout for postdocs for two different projects at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and the human microbiome. See thread for more information and reach out!

I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!

Mutations generate variation, critical for #evolution, but #MutationBias restricts the choice of mutation type. @deepaagashe.bsky.social &co use #Ecoli strains with different mutation biases to show that changing an old bias should yield more beneficial mutations @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/46LjCRt

One of my favourite serendipitous results from the lab came about because we were long-read sequencing bacterial: Vibrio cholerae, which is "supposed to" have TWO circular chromosomes (3 + 1 million base pairs) often has just ONE fused chromosome (4 Mbp). www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/n)

‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Sang Woo (Daniel) Park and I are excited to share a new preprint, "Susceptible host dynamics explain pathogen resilience to perturbations" [1/8] www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Octopuses Use Microbial Signals to Guide Complex Behaviors 🧠🧪 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @nbellono.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @dulaclab.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social

The abstract submission deadline for Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics 2025 is soon approaching! Make sure to submit by 23:59 BST on 7 July 2025. microb.io/Abstracts #MicroEvo25

New tenure track assistant professor position in molecular microbiology in our department @dmf-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social! We are casting a wide net for an experimental molecular microbiologist. Apply here: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...

We have a new 3-year postdoc position in our group at the @hifmb.de to study plasmids and plasmids systems of the marine environment to survey their utility in microbial responses to environmental change. Please see the official job ad here, and spread the word: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...

🚨 Very excited to finally say… 🚨 The story of Noodlococcus - the contaminant that started ContamClub - is available to read 📖🍜🦠 Check it out ➡️ doi.org/10.1101/2025... 1/15 🧵

The Wadsworth Center is expanding it's research focus on #virology /vector-borne diseases! www.asmcareerconnections.org/job/research-scientist-5-g-31/78488664/ This is a unicorn assistant prof equivalent position with 12-month hard money salary and no teaching commitments (!) Reposts appreciated 🙏

Very exciting. College juniors and recent grads: note the approaching deadline for the 1st round, July 31.

🚨 Out now! Chronostrain - a method to profile low abundance strains in longitudinal microbiome samples 🦠💻 @travis.gibsonlab.io @younhk.bsky.social @gibsonlab.io @harvardmed.bsky.social @broadinstitute.org #MicroSky 🦠 #MicrobiomeSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wonderful new 5-year postdoctoral fellowship opportunity at the University of Cambridge on #Biodiversity: www.christs.cam.ac.uk/darwin-hamie...

🚨Out now! Risk-reward trade-off during carbon starvation generates dichotomy in motility endurance among marine bacteria #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

(1/7) Very excited to share my first PhD preprint on the interactions of two of my favorite mobile genetic elements: phages and group II introns! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧪 Finally out after peer review, our work showing that "Mobile #Integrons carry Phage Defense Systems" is now published in Science 🎉 Short 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our opinion piece on transmission timing in phages and plasmids graces the cover of @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social this month. Featuring the work of talented master student Andrina Bernhard, the illustration showcases cues that MGEs use to switch between horizontal and vertical transmission.

Postdoc opportunity alert! The group where I did my PhD is looking for independent postdocs. Great environment - can only recommend! 1) Mathematical modeling of infectious disease dynamics jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP... 2) Experimental microbial population biology jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

This study deduces from first principles how sea ice and seawater shape light spectra in fundamentally different ways. The loss of sea ice may thus trigger changes in both the pigment and species composition of primary producers in #polar ecosystems. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are looking for a great colleague @mcgill.ca Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Global and Public Health mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

New publication from our Lesterlin lab in collab with lab of @knutdrescher.bsky.social We determined the spatiotemporal dissemination of conjugative plasmids within biofilms and found that they spread only in specific structural regions. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New postdoc position in our lab (2 y+): evolutionary genomics of integrons and MGEs with focus on vibrio-phage interactions. Great environment @pasteur.fr for science, career building. Super collaborators @celineloot.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @fredoleroux.bsky.social 3 weeks to apply!

Side note: you could, speaking purely theoretically, also fit every microbe onto an SD card, which is within the weight limit for a carrier pigeon. For some distances, it would be faster than the internet for transmitting sequence libraries 7/

Please share with people interested in arbovirology. We are looking for an enthusiastic colleague to strengthen our team please share if you know of scientists interested in arbovirology, ready to make a move to Rotterdam! www.academictransfer.com/en/jobs/3508...

New paper: long-term trends in antibiotic resistance show signs of stabilisation (thread). journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

"When I said I'd published 5 articles during my PhD, I meant stickers" Check out my new stickers! 📄⬇️ pinkpetri.etsy.com

Join our favorite microbiology meeting! Fantastic talks, poster sessions, new technologies, and all the hot areas of microbiology in a great environment - experts in cell & systems biology, microbiomes, environment & evolution, pathogenesis, phage & antibiotics DON’T MISS abstract deadline, April 1

Job alert ‼️ 2x professorships available @uniofmanchester.bsky.social - ecology www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - organismal biology (inc genomics, evolution etc.) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMI506/s...

Fresh in @NatureBiotech! We developed a synthetic biology tool for tracking gene transfer in microbial communities and applied it to study plasmid hosts in a wastewater microbiome. Awesome collab with James Chappell & @joffsilberg.bsky.social and incredible students. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fungi are extraordinary at solving complex problems. Incredible to see their strategies highlighted in @nytimes.com by @alanburdick.bsky.social The article is a visual journey of what we have been documenting in the lab over last few years with our imaging robot www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/s...

I first read the famous 1925 Yule paper at its 80th birthday - during my Master thesis work, and it shaped my research profoundly. It was a pleasure and honour to lead this special 100 anniversary issue celebrating Yule's legacy and phylogenetic models with @noahrosenberg.bsky.social and Mike Steel!

I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics! (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...

Should I stay or should I go: transmission trade-offs in phages and plasmids @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social Opinion by @jhuisman.bsky.social, Andrina Bernhard and @claudiaigler.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/micro...

New paper alert!! Survival of the resistant: When Myxococcus xanthus dies, antibiotic-resistant microbes rise, even without drug exposure. Our manuscript is now online at @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Experimental evolution of evolvability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our Opinion on the balance between horizontal and vertical transmission in plasmids and phages is up and looking pretty at Trends in Microbiology! Work with Andrina Bernhard and @claudiaigler.bsky.social