So excited to share our new preprint! 🎉🤩 Check it out to discover how we investigated the role and spatiotemporal dynamics of an essential Tad nanomachine during the lifecycle of our favorite bacterial predator, B.bacteriovorus 🦠 Many thanks to everyone who made this work possible!

New preprint! We show that the bacterial predator B. bacteriovorus deploys a unipolar Tad nanomachine for irreversible attachment to prey and invasion. @coralietesseur.bsky.social used CRISPRi+microfluidics to overcome barriers associated with essential systems in an obligate predatory lifestyle 🦠

Today is the last day to submit your abstract for the EMBO Bacterial Networks (BacNet) meeting #EMBOBacNet! 🧫 Selected participants will be informed by June 30th. meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...

Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications. Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101

Apply now to attend the next EMBO Bacterial Networks meeting #EMBOBacNet 🗓️13-18 September 2026 📍Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain 📝Program and registration info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac... 👩‍🔬Organised with co-chair @s-lab.bsky.social and ECR @coralietesseur.bsky.social #MicroSky

ANNOUNCEMENT! Programme now LIVE on our website for the #ProkaryoticCellBio conference! Check it out here, a reminder that the registration deadline is 13 April!➡️https://bit.ly/4rEH9KP

#MicroSky Please RT @erc.europa.eu-funded postdoc position in my lab to identify the molecular basis of prey-predator interactions using our favorite micro-vampire Bdellovibrio exovorus as a model. Let's find what the bite is made of! 🧛 Flexible start date. Info: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/415877

Fantastic thread and data by @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social on how a single ATPase powers opposite pilus extension/retraction activities.

Just got word that we are a go for the Bacterial Cell Biology and Development GRS and GRC at Southern New Hampshire University! GRS will be on June 5-6, 2027 GRC will be from June 6-11, 2027 Block off your calendars Prokaryotic Cell Biologists! More details to come! Please repost!

academic.oup.com/nar/article/... Collaboration with Y. Yamaichi. Killing donor bacteria in conjugation mixes using water enables transcriptomic profiling of early plasmid genes ! Superb tool for studying zygotic induction of these early genes, which include anti-SOS and anti-RM factors. #microsky

Your societies need you #MicroSky! Editorial from the European Academy of Microbiology Task Force: Society journals matter—supporting science through renewed commitment: academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

Our preprint is now published in PNAS! This came together thanks to a great collaboration with Antoine Hocher and a strong team effort from the Le Lab. Thank you to the reviewers and to everyone who helped improve it. I hope ParB aficionados will enjoy it. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Apply now to attend the next EMBO Bacterial Networks meeting #EMBOBacNet 🗓️13-18 September 2026 📍Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain 📝Program and registration info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac... 👩‍🔬Organised with co-chair @s-lab.bsky.social and ECR @coralietesseur.bsky.social #MicroSky

The diderm cell envelope is not a stack of layers but a unified scaffold of Inner Membrane–Peptidoglycan–Outer Membrane. We discuss how tethering the OM to the PG in E. coli preserves integrity — and extend the concept across diderm bacteria. Curr Opin Microbiol: doi.org/10.1016/j.mi... #microsky 🔬

Great collaboration with @guo-lab.bsky.social to determine an in situ architectural model of the Tad pilus machine. Be on the lookout soon for a preprint on the same topic by Grant Jensen and @viollierpat.bsky.social. #microsky

📢 Postdoc position: Cell Biology of Cyanobacteria in my group, as part of the Excellence Cluster "Microbes for Climate" (M4C) in Marburg, Germany. More information at shorturl.at/wNnDT (see Project 2) 🔗Apply at shorturl.at/VsEDl 📅Deadline: Nov 16, 2025 Please repost. #Postdoc

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.10.680097v1

Happy to finally show our story of the connection between nucleoid conformation, transcription & predation in our favorite predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. 🧵 1/n

📝New preprint! #MicroSky 🕰️We chart the full, synchronized lifecycle of a predatory bacterium using Hi-C, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq & microscopy. 🧬We uncover dramatic shifts in nucleoid architecture & transcription, tightly coordinated with predation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨New paper out! #MicroSky Studying obligate predators like Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is tricky—essential genes for predation are also essential for survival. We expanded its genetic toolbox: 🧬promoters to fine-tune expression 🧬IPTG-inducible system 🧬CRISPRi for rapid knockdown bit.ly/46GUn2c 1/4

Another great contribution to the “Cell Regulation” themed issue of Current Opinion in Microbiology www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Bacterial cell wall & periplasm paradigm shift - important read #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Chromosome enthusiasts, York is calling! Join us at The Biology & Physics of Chromosomes www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f... Late breaking abstract deadline 📆 7 August @biophychrom.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social #microsky

#MicroSky Summer read! Predatory bacteria kill and eat other bacteria. Their deadly actions come in many flavors, often via direct physical contact between predator & prey 🧛 How do they do it? Our review 📖 @coralietesseur.bsky.social @ysantin.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We wrote 2 📕 chapters with tips & tricks to identify protein-protein interactions in bacteria 🦠 1) In vivo proximity labeling with miniTurbo link.springer.com/protocol/10.... 2) An adapted polar recruitment assay feat. E. coli as a test tube link.springer.com/protocol/10..... Enjoy #MicroSky 🧪

Please repost: PhD position with my lab and @weisslab.bsky.social in a great collaboration on bacterial adhesion #microsky. See drive.google.com/file/d/1GJD4...

1/ Excited to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs) in Caulobacter crescentus, led by Emma Banks in collaboration with Pavol Bardy and Mai Nguyen from York!!! See a brief thread below. shorturl.at/o6S1w

#Postdoc position - at the University of Marburg (Germany), funded within our ERC Advanced Grant "C-SWITCH" Focus: CTP-dependent molecular switches as a new principle of cellular regulation in bacteria (including bacteriophages) Apply by 04 May: stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/2...

I’m very happy to share our latest work on the ParABS system. We investigated the dynamic interaction between the ATPase ParA and the CTPase ParB mediating chromosome segregation in Myxococcus xanthus. I would like to thank all the people involved.

Please repost: Postdoc position in antibiotic discovery in a large multidisciplinary project combining high-throughput approaches, microscopy, AI, and hit-to-lead optimization at @umontreal.ca and @mila-quebec.bsky.social. Apply to [email protected]. See lnkd.in/dVVk4N3s. #microsky

In @molecularmicro.bsky.social: two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization. Many excellent contributions, including a vision article: 'Future directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field', outcome of BioPhyChrom 2023 @biophychrom.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A million thanks to the ERC for the opportunity to explore bacterial predatory attacks and cell cycle switches with our VAMPIRE Consolidator grant @deDuveInstitute @UCLouvain_be @frsFNRS 🦠 🔬 🧛

2 days left. Asst/Assoc Prof position in bacteriology, Université de Montréal. Deadline ***Nov. 15*** come join our growing community of bacteriologists. BTW Canada is the USA’s Bluesky!

New job offer: we search a postdoc (bioinformatics) to work on mobile genetic elements and gene flow in bacteria, with a focus on antibiotic resistance within a consortium including bioinformatics, synthetic biology, epidemiology & biochemistry. See research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd... #MicroSky

Former PhD student Ophélie Remy and I are cell poles enthusiasts, so we were delighted to offer a brief perspective on bacterial polarity for the Special Issue on Cell and tissue polarity in the Journal of Cell Science. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article-.... #MicroSky

Our last story on cell polarity in Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is now published in Journal of Bacteriology! Feat. a protein that marks the "head" of future daughter cells before non-binary division, a new DivIVA pattern, and 1st use of proximity labeling in Bdello! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

cell divisionist take note 👇 meetings.embo.org/event/24-z-r...

MRC- funded PhD project at the interface between biology & physics to investigate the segregation of an antibiotic resistant plasmid. Interdisciplinary training with super supportive supervisors. In the beautiful historic city of York. Please re-post, thanks! #microsky 🦠🧫🧪 📆17 December

New preprint! We delved into how bacterial cells establish their polarity, a task that is even more challenging when they produce >2 daughter cells by non-binary division: how to distinguish the head and the tail in all these progenies? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #MicroSky

🧫The lab is on a roll! 🦠How do you work out what's front & back when cells don't divide in two but in roughly 2-21? read Ophelie's quest to find clues --> www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Vampire bacteria strike back in this new inspiring piece by @christophstc.bsky.social for @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social #MicroSky

A vampire-themed perspective on our recent preprint 🧛, written by Christoph @christophstc.bsky.social for the fantastic microbiology blog "Small Things Considered" @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social. Link to the blog post below👇 and to our preprint here 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #MicroSky

Fantastic work by @GoldlustKelly and the @tacc_c Lesterlin lab demonstrating distant conjugative transfer of ssDNA through the F pilus. 👏 #MicroSky www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A super useful method to identify the network of your favorite protein, working like a charm in bacteria 🦠 🧫 👏 Ophélie Remy & Yoann Santin #MicroSky link.springer.com/protocol/10....

"Dual function of OmpM as outer membrane tether and nutrient uptake channel in diderm Firmicutes" Congratulations @augustsilale.bsky.social for this beautiful work on Veillonella, together with C. Beloin, B. van den Berg (soon on bsky) and @sykhalid.bsky.social ! #MicroSky Free pdf 👇👇 rdcu.be/dqp33

Congratulations again to Milos Tisma (Dekker lab) and our former PhD student Jovana Kaljevic for their well deserved « emerging talent in molecular microbiology » award🥇 🧫 🦠! Read Jovana interview in Molecular Microbiology here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/do/10.1111/m...

🦠 🧫 Halloween preprint 🎃 from our lab! Live-cell + cryoEM imaging of the lifecycle of B. exovorus, a predatory bacterium that feeds on Caulobacter (+ close relatives) while firmly attached to the prey surface. The S-layer does not protect against vampirization… and B.exovorus divides into triplets 😮