De novo engineered guide RNA-directed transposition with TnpB-family proteins reveals features of naturally evolved systems www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The RecBCD complex interacts directly with the DNA sliding clamp in Escherichia coli https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.20.671105v1

Great to have former lab member Mike Petassi for a seminar with our Replication, Recombination, and Repair group! Presenting some of his postdoc work in the @dnacurtain.bsky.social lab. cals.cornell.edu/microbiology...

Looking forward to this new installment of the Woods Hole Mobile DNA Meeting! Fantastic program, laid-back atmosphere, and gorgeous setting at the Marine Biological Laboratory ⛵️🪼🐋 Abstract submission closes Aug 7 but registration after that date is possible. www.eventsquid.com/event.cfm?ev...

Tn7 family transposons that include all of the guide RNA-directed transposons (CAST) are common in bacteria. We now find diverse representatives across archaea, with many in the Asgard group. Reviving an Asgard element confirmed the exciting behaviors of the family #MicroSky #TESky

Very excited about our work from @jordanthesier.bsky.social and @popomicro.bsky.social et al. We find that Tn7 family elements common in bacteria (that include all of the guide RNA-directed transposons, CAST) are also found across archaea including many in the exciting Asgard group! #MicroSky #TESky

Today is the last day to submit to be considered for a podium presentation at the EMBO transposon meeting this Fall. The organizers prioritized speaker slots sourced from submitted abstracts, we want to hear about your science!

Metal ions are universally required for life, and many of the foundational principles of metal homeostasis have emerged from studies of microbial systems. In this review, I provide a introductory overview targeted to those new to the field. #MicroSky #Metals rdcu.be/eycU2

We're hiring! Do you have experience engineering yeast and using CRISPR? Jose Avalos and I are hiring a joint postdoc to work on an exciting fast-paced DARPA project with a great team at Neochromosome, Fermeate, and @joepeterslab.bsky.social puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

Happy Transposon Day! 🧬➰🧬 Commemorating Barbara McClintock's birthday (June 16th, 1902-1992). #TransposonDay2025

Linking to #microsky #transposon

Exciting work from the Guarné lab indicating how the elusive TnsE pathway of prototypic Tn7 recognizes DNA replication features using an asymmetric dimer to integrate multiple signals at DNA replication forks linking target recognition to transposase recruitment doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

First podcast recording of the day. Guest is Dr. Tory Hendry of Cornell University, chatting about interactions between fluorescent Pseudomonas and aphids!

𝘢𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘴 & 𝘢𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘴 of chromosome ends (bacterial!) take note 👇 #MicroSky

wow, telomeric transposons in bacteria with linear chromosomes! (of course this was first figured out in flies, inc by Bob Levis, who i was happy to see few days ago at the fly meeting). 🪰 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A thread from the Postdoc who led the work on bacterial Telomeric transposons. A wonderful collaboration with the Barabas lab. Officially out in the journal today!

Did you know that two jumping sequences (LINE-1 and Alu) make up nearly 30% of our genomes? Ever wonder how they jump into new genomic sites? We have some exciting discoveries to share new in @science.org on the structural mechanisms of LINE-1 retrotransposition (aka jumping 🧬➡️🧬) 🧪 #ScienceResearch

Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our preprint is now published www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very excited about this work from graduate student Laura Chacon Machado now published in Mobile DNA, "A family of Tn7-like transposons evolved to target CRISPR repeats"! #TESky

AIR-BORNE EXCERPT! Louis Pasteur climbed a glacier to hunt for floating germs. There he discovered a fundamental truth about all life. Here's the story, from my new book. [Gift link] Artwork by Antoine Maillard. 🧪 1/2 www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/s...

I had the great pleasure of interacting with Bik Tye and her lab for many years at Cornell where she was one of the founding members of our DNA Replication, Recombination, and Repair (R3) group. It was wonderful to see this profile in PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Want to learn more about genetic tools for studying bacteria and phage, check out the summer ABG Course at CSHL. This will be the 80th anniversary of the original CSHL Phage course, so you'll also meet many additional visiting genetics gurus! <https://meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx?course=C-ABG>

If there's something we don't understand I assume transposons are responsible unless proven otherwise

Feeney also donated nearly 1 billion to Cornell Univ., which now has a street on campus named in his honor! news.cornell.edu/stories/2023...

We strongly endorse the naming of 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘺𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘦 (DSM 3412) in honor of Susan Gottesman #MicroSky #microbiology

Honouring Esther Lederberg’s outstanding work on bacterial gene regulation, recombination and exchange, DSMZ researchers named the strain Streptomyces lederbergiae (DSM 44399) after her. #herstory #WomenInScience #microbiology #genetics

#MicroSky undergraduates! Please check out our summer REU opportunity!

Review on guide RNA-directed transposition (CAST) with an eye to functional genomics, "The promise of CRISPR-associated transposons for bacterial functional genomics" (Note JM Peters is not me or a relative, but is a friend and former coauthor!). #TEsky #MicroSky doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...

A strange piece of mobile DNA, first discovered in clams, has spread itself throughout the oceans, jumping into the genomes of corals, fish, and more. Here's my piece on this shellfish gene. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-shellfish-gene/558131/?utm_source=twb

Excited to share the published version of our work by @ryanfeathers.bsky.social and @rvig.bsky.social on the structural basis for activation of Rab6 by the Ric1-Rgp1 complex! rdcu.be/d2mu3 Here is an updated thread about the paper we first shared on that older platform when we posted the preprint

Exciting times! Our latest preprint is now live 🤩! After nearly 16 yrs of running my lab, I truly believe this is one of the most significant contributions we've made. It offers fresh hypotheses about how pandemic Vibrio cholerae spreads globally. Let’s dive in!🧵..1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🔦 Spotlight! @ArturoCarabias & Guillermo Montoya (@g1_guillermo) highlight a recent study in @Nature by Rotem Sorek (@SorekLab) and colleagues describing 2 ways phages can reconstitute NAD+ to counter bacterial immunity http://dlvr.it/TGJtS8

Took quite a while during the publication cycle but pleased to see this work out. Diadema mass mortality in the western Indian Ocean (Reunion) was at least associated with the same ciliate, DaScPc, as in the Caribbean, Arabian Gulf and Red Sea. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

How do secreted and membrane-localized enzymes get appropriately metalated? ... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope... Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92

Check out this new review from our lab led by postdoc Pavan Silva! We explore the varied mechanisms by which gene amplifications lead to antibiotic resistance. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

First ever post here is our work now out in mBio! We show that E. coli is a WEIRDO for not using the RQC pathway to rescue its non-stop ribosomes. Given the chance, E. coli can use this pathway and it rescues the lethality of deleting ArfA and trans-translation! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Application deadline has been extended to January 10, 2025...

Please consider attending the 2025 ASM Microbe meeting! I will be talking about Tn7 and Tn7-like elements as a "Track Hub" talk and it would be great to see you there! asm.org/events/asm-m...

Eukaryotes have linear DNA and their telomeres are hotspots for transposons. Many bacteria are also known to have linear chromosomes and plasmids. We identified several families of independently evolved telomeric transposons in cyanobacteria and Streptomyces. 1/7 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thrilled to announce that the EMBO workshop «Mobile Genome» will be back in Heidelberg, Nov 4-7th 2025 @EMBLEvents @EMBO. Registration open soon but you can already register interest. Organized with fantastic colleagues @juliusbrennecke @GonzalezLab_BCN @JoePetersLab www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Mobile Elements Starter Pack on BlueSky! Interested in plasmids, phages, ICEs, transposons, integrons, and all things accessory genome? Follow this curated list of researchers and labs doing exciting work in mobile elements.

Recent work from the lab from graduate student Laura Chacon Machado describing a family of Tn7-like transposons that evolved to target CRISPR repeats now on bioRxiv 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very excited that this collaborative project is now published. This work was championed by Dr. Yu Tang(Tongji University School of Medicine) and started during a visit to my lab. doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

The Department of Microbiology at Cornell is searching for a new teaching position in Ethics of the Life Sciences. This exciting new opportunity will cross life sciences disciplines in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. tiny.cc/Lecturer_in_...

This story involved many hands over many years. Novel mechanisms of diversity generation in Acinetobacter baumannii resistance islands driven by Tn7-like elements academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

I am so grateful for my nominators and the Academy for this great honor. My academic work has been enriched in countless ways from my many different interactions with ASM over the years making this especially meaningful to me. asm.org/Press-Releas...

So great to have a visit from former PhD student Mike Petassi. Also allowed us to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of his exciting first CAST paper this month with co-author Shan-Chi (Popo) Hsieh

I have a text that I usually use in my reply:. I do not contribute or review for MDPI, among the various reasons, see for example: blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... racism: forbetterscience.com/2020/12/29/m... [1/2]

Folks, we have work to do! 🧪🧬 www.pewresearch.org/science/2023...