Our study on a mycovirus that boosts fungal virulence is now out — and beautifully covered in this Behind the Paper piece by Amariliz Rivera Huge thanks for capturing the heart of the story so thoughtfully. @natmicrobiol.nature.com rdcu.be/eB9yg

VERY INTERESTING AfuPmV-1M, a dsRNA mycovirus in 𝘼𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙨, boosts fungal stress tolerance, melanin, virulence In vivo, antiviral (ribavirin) treatment cut viral load and improved mouse survival—mycoviruses are hidden “backseat drivers” of fungal disease www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I thought the Aspergillus fumigatus pan-genome was pretty wild when we started this project. Aspergillus flavus said, "hold my beer..." Not only does it have a strong population structure with differences between environmental and clinical strains, only 58%of genes are conserved across the species!

Such a great story! A pathogen within a pathogen 🤯. Made me think of all Totiviridea family that infect protozoan parasites including Trichomonas vaginalis and Giardia lamblia. Always wondered if Tryps have these too and whether the pathology is partly due to a hidden bug.

4 years ago I was honored to host the legendary Elio Schaechter in the microbiology journal club, when he was only 93 yo... Elio told us about very peculiar microbes that travel 1 mm/sec, reside inside mitochondria, ride a microbial bus...He named my kids who also joined "micro microbiologists" RIP

🚨 Fungi + viruses + mammalian lungs? Buckle up! Our new paper in @natmicrobiol.nature.com uncovers the story of a deadly fungus and its gnarly viral hitchhiker — and how this duo may change how we diagnose & treat fungal disease 🍄🫁🚨 doi.org/10.1038/s415... ⬇️