Latest from the lab! Analysis of everyone’s favorite regulatory mechanism in bacteria — the RF2 programmed frameshift! Likely present in the ancestor of bacteria, use of this mechanism is influenced by stop codon usage! Big congrats to @cassidyprints.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The report estimates that mRNA vaccines could avert over $75 billion in economic costs annually. 2/3

🚨 Surprise podcast episode alert! 🚨 This week on Tiny Living Beings, I interviewed @oliverio.bsky.social and @hbrappap.bsky.social who led the discovery of the ‘fire amoeba’, that can reproduce at the highest temperature ever recorded for a eukaryote! 🌋 #protistsonsky

The final form of my 2nd postdoc paper with the Bassler Lab! Turns out our favorite quorum-sensing phage isn’t a one-off, but rather a member of a globally dispersed family of phages that sense a universal autoinducer. #phagesky #microsky journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A major challenge in RNA delivery is overcoming poor loading efficiency into nanoparticles. F. Machinandiarena solves this by using "SSHELs", our particles inspired by bacterial spores, to deliver RNA specifically to HER2+ ovarian cancer cells. kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Microbes weaponizing secondary metabolites to make rivals vulnerable to phage attack 🧪🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Do viruses use RNA to rewire bacteria? Yes! In our paper in @cp-molcell.bsky.social RIL-seq reveals interkingdom RNA interactions during λ infection. Phages don’t just encode proteins, they use small RNAs to hijack bacterial replication and fine-tune infection. #RNA #Phage doi.org/10.1016/j.mo...

NSF Divisions going away, this is what it means: Reorganizing bc mandate to change from OPM for efficiency of effort and people (BIO lost 40% of workforce) Changes can be positive to facilitate cross disciplinary sciences and create more efficiency of reviews and bureaucracy

Pete Greenberg's view in #JBacteriol: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, my model for research on quorum sensing, biofilms, and opportunistic infections journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Born #OnThisDay in 1922, Esther Lederberg was the first to isolate the lambda phage in 1951. She characterised the lysogenic phase, whereby the phage are able to integrate into the bacterial genome, staying dormant. This discovery made them a model tool of study, leading to many more breakthroughs.

One of the biggest moments of my career: USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!

Bacterial genomes encode a rich repertoire of antiphage systems, but we still know surprisingly little about when these systems are actually expressed. In this preprint, Lucas Paoli et al, ask what shapes antiphage systems expression in native contexts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Identification of sporulation genes in Bacillus anthracis highlights similarities and significant differences with Bacillus subtilis @plosbiology.org from David Rudner journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

New paper! We’ve found that Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron deploys extracellular vesicles to scavenge and deliver vitamin B12, driven by a newly identified high-affinity binding protein, BtuJ. The system functions analogously to microbial siderophores. #microbiology #microbiome #extracellularvesicles

A 3UTR-derived small RNA modulates the life-cycle of the cholera toxin-encoding filamentous phage, CTXphi https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.02.691856v1

New preprint! Do you like ocean waves? We found similar waves on bacterial colonies! We found that this collective behavior, known as rippling, is nothing but surface waves on an active nematic. @princeton.edu @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @icreacommunity.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Regulatory Rewiring Drives Intraspecies Competition in Bacillus subtilis bioRxiv from @bacteriacities.bsky.social #competition #rapP #comP www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

GlcNAc build-up acts as a key metabolic signal in #Streptomyces, but how does it triggers developmental responses? @gillesvanwezel.bsky.social &co show that the enzyme NagS dehydrates GlcNAc-6P into a reactive intermediate, triggering a toxicity-based checkpoint @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/44pE08I

#microsky #phagesky Transposon mutagenesis of jumbo #phage using an anti-CRISPR factor as selectable marker www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This week is World #AntimicrobialResistance Awareness week To mark the occasion, Dr Scott-Dearing reflects on her @natcomms.nature.com#AntimicrobialResistancepaper published in January, noting the setbacks and progress made in tackling #AMR since

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Experimental phage evolution results in expanded host ranges against antibiotic resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates -in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two unrelated Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages require the exopolysaccharide Psl for infection NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes from Courtney Reichhardt and @micheleleroux.bsky.social and colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Did you know that some fungi are CARNIVOROUS? There are lots of species that do this, but I think Arthrobotrys oligospora is especially bonkers. These fungi sense when their prey (nematodes) are nearby by eavesdropping on the chemical signals that the nematodes use to communicate with each other 🧪🪲🍄

Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows

#NewResearch A bile acid-bound structure of toxin TcdB revealed the mechanism of inhibition and guided the design of a synthetic bile acid that alleviated C. difficile infection in mice. #MicroSky 🦠💊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Join the Micro PI Slack if you haven't already! Microbiologists unite 🔬

Genome synthesis, assembly, and rebooting of therapeutically useful high G+C% mycobacteriophages. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2523871122 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41213020/

A Two-Component Regulatory System Mediates Quorum Sensing-Dependent Morphology and Motility Transitions in the Archaeon Haloferax volcanii https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.10.687552v1

Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.

#ISMEJournal paper from Simon Heilbronner Competitive fitness of Staphylococcus aureus against nasal commensals depends on biotin biosynthesis and acquisition academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

M. smegmatis uses new types of biofilm to enclose a liquid core and expand outwards in a weird new way.

note, gliding is not comparable to sliding the here described spreading is very similar to sliding (=spreading by growth and facilitating compounds, like polysaccharides), which was known for Salmonella - the authors are not fully correct stating that sliding always depends on surfactant

bacteria move by swimming, twitching, gliding/sliding, ...and now by 'swashing' go figure! #MicroSky

One transcript, two functions: the emerging roles of dual-function RNAs microLIFE review by @lizmarialuke.bsky.social and Kai Papenfort at @uni-jena.de academic.oup.com/microlife/ad...

Come join us in Knoxville! The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.). Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #microsky

academic.oup.com/nar/advance-... #microsky a database of bacterial small RNA experimental data

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

De-DUFing the DUFs 🧩 @franznarberhaus.bsky.social lab uncovers how small DUF1127 proteins regulate #phosphate uptake by binding the sensor kinase PhoR. Their conserved role from Agrobacterium to E. coli highlights how even small DUFs can shape bacterial physiology 🦠 buff.ly/jJd9Eho

A choline-sensing regulator coordinates metabolic adaptation and pathogenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa pulmonary infections -n Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why Do Filamentous Actinomycetota Produce Such a Vast Array of Specialized Metabolites? www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Exciting news! 🎉 In Jan 2026, I’ll be starting as an Assistant Professor at Mass General Hospital in Boston. The lab will study host–pathogen co-adaptation during chronic lung infections, and how it shapes treatment outcomes and disease progression. 🔗 Check out open positions: meirelleslab.org

🧪An important read by @ianlmorgan.bsky.social about the plight of research. Reduction of force includes essential purchasing & communication staff. Cancelation of 35% in contract spending = hiring freezes & job insecurity. Jay Bhattacharya is not interested in a solution. This affects all of us.

new preprint from our group & Antoine Hocher: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A fantastic collaboration with Antoine, with Jovana Kaljevic' initiated the collaboration and drives the project.

They have fired the staff of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, who are disease detectives that respond to outbreaks around the world. I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous it is to dismantle our disease surveillance infrastructure.

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

NIH cuts save $9-10B short-term, but they’re killing 202K jobs & $46B in red-state economies (TX, FL, OH). $8T healthcare disaster loom, no cancer/Alzheimer’s cures, pricier drugs. Scientists fleeing to China? Bad deal. Fight for NIH! www.the-scientist.com/nih-leadersh... #AmericaFirst

A ubiquitous Streptomyces biosynthetic megacluster encodes an arsenal of synergistic biotin-targeting antibiotics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.09.681295v1

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE