Mike Travisano back at MSU to give EEB Distinguished Alumni Lecture on "The major consequences of micro-evolution" Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social

🌱🧬 Penn State’s @hockettlab.bsky.social and team discovered how tomato leaf microbiomes can suppress bacterial speck disease. Xanthomonas & Pseudomonas → less disease → possible microbial tools to protect crops. 🔗 Read more: www.psu.edu/news/agricul...

Check out the full thread on the preprint! bsky.app/profile/nana...

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness: Current Biology https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01198-4?rss=yes

Published in Current Biology! P. aeruginosa can use its filamentous phage to inhibit competitors but high phage production is susceptible to cheater miniphage invasion. Subsequent phage tragedy of the commons can lower bacteria and phage fitness. Link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...

let the gourd times roll

Two postdoc positions with @ajfedorec.bsky.social: one computational and one wetlab, for a 5 year grant on synthetic microbial communities Research Fellow in Computational Synthetic Biology www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... #PostDoc

Feel free to contact me for info about this open position and the project! Fully funded through @hfspo.bsky.social and in collaboration with @jacrickets.bsky.social and Shawn McGlynn

OK, here it is. Come work with me at the University of Liverpool making ALL THE AI models from ALL THE prokaryote pangenome data. Heck, we will make models from ALL the pangenomes, even eukaryotes!!! (link below👇) 1/4

Reading the 1975 paper as a graduate student and realizing they were the same person was absolutely mind blowing

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Does anyone know a gene in E. coli that duplicated "fairly recently", as to compare and contrast it's sequence divergence with that found in mobile elements? #sciencesky #microsky

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...

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change. Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

Using experimental evolution in host-mimicking media, researchers show that inflammation-like environments limit the loss of quorum sensing—a common adaptation during chronic infections—in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Learn more in #mSystems: asm.social/2vd

Long-term monitoring of a North American cheese cave reveals mechanisms and consequences of fungal adaptation Penicillium solitum over 8 years in a cheese cave => green-to-white shift @currentbiology.bsky.social from @benwolfe.bsky.social with @kellerlab.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

I'm recruiting two PhD positions in my lab for Fall 2026. 1) evolutionary genomics that will focus on constructing and utilizing pangenomes; 2) conservation genomics focused on pop structure and adaptation of Pacific coast Am. black bears. Details: puckettresearch.org/people/posit...

Nice summary from Songcan & Marc 🙏 on our discovery of a new microbial energy metabolism 🦠 🧫 ⚡ 🔌 Microbial Iron oxide respiration coupled to Sulfide Oxidation (MISO) @nature.com Research Briefing 😍 doi.org/10.1038/d415... 📰 Original paper www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #microbiomesky

Oh to be a little Tardigrade scratching its back on a bubble. 🫧🐻🧪

We are looking for a postdoc to study single-cell transcriptional heterogeneity in the human skin microbiome. We have a new protocol mostly developed, but need someone to see it through. Experience with protocol dev or RNAseq appreciated. Funded by a new grant from MIT-HEALS.

Strongly recommend working with Felix in amazing Berlin!

The Trump administration remains under a court order to spend billions in US foreign assistance funding set to expire later this month after a federal appeals court rejected the government’s request to immediately intervene

Here is a demonstration of ice nucleation protein made by Pseudomonas syringe in my #Bio350 #Micronauts in my #Microbiology course at @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology

The thing about living in a human society is you either decide that everyone (except those for whom it would be medically dangerous) has to take VACCINES into their bodies or everyone (with no exceptions at all) has to take VIRULENT PATHOGENS in from those around them and, look, the first is better.

What was antibiotic resistance like before we ever used antibiotics? How did we change what antibiotic resistance genes looked like over 100 years? Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen: www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

UCLA Health ended an NDM-1 Pseudomonas aeruginosa outbreak by tracing it to an ICU sink biofilm via whole-genome sequencing, then eliminating it with targeted disinfection, plumbing changes, and staff education—showcasing the power of diverse IPC measures. #AMR www.newswise.com/articles/the...

I have been a fan of @pleunipennings.bsky.social's videos for years and am so stoked to see a new one! Such a clear communication with the bonus of an optimistic message

Hey are you looking for a postdoc focusing on microbial ecology/bioinformatics? Hit me up - it’s not my lab but trying to help someone else staff their lab. If you have a student about to defend, this could be a great chance to get a ton of papers.

Really appreciated how @sethf.bsky.social described using AI in the evolution class that we co- teach: “ it’s like paying for a gym membership and then using a forklift to raise and lower your weights.”

Wowow amazing discovery!

Check out our new paper led by brilliant @jhuisman.bsky.social about how microbial communities cope with stress due to increasing salinity in their environment. We have all your favorites: isolate phenotyping, pairwise competitions, community propagations, and theory. #microsky #mevosky #ecosky

A must-read, must-share piece - clearly deconstructing the shoddy science of the Geiers (who are inexplicably in charge of studies at HHS). Consider this an early warning for what lies ahead. 🛟🩺🧪 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Making your titles the interpretation of the data is my #1 piece of advice for presenting and I had no idea it had a name! assertion-evidence slides ftw

Postdoc position is still open! Definitely reach out if you’re keen on tracking pathogen evolution and spread (especially using wastewater 😎)!

fun story about the evolutionary origin of a beloved carb www.npr.org/2025/08/13/n...

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.

Charlie Mo: generic trade off in phage resistance leads to betalactam susceptibility and down-regulation of virulence genes in phage-resistant #MRSA strains #phages2025 🦠 elifesciences.org/articles/102...

This is fascinating - the brain fires up immune cells when sick people are nearby 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Keep sciencing. We are living through a time when looking at a rock and wondering how old it is qualifies as an act of resistance.

Me (with a hose) and Glory doing our best impression of a laser pointer and a cat.

My friend is looking for methods advice on a meta-analysis! Any smart people out there with thoughts/feedback on how best to search the literature?

Scientists need to publish as much as they can, and in particular the minor results that may seem inconsequential or disappointing. clauswilke.substack.com/p/from-the-a...

For my birthday, enjoy this uncanny image of a barcoded bacteria party 🦠 🎉 from my wonderful lab mates

Rocks cracking deep underground can create energy for microbes to live on, even when nutrients from the surface run out. When iron is around, it goes through a cycle of changing forms, helping maintain this redox energy. This might not just be an Earth thing—it could happen on other planets, too....

Some news....Rome is not fully burned down. T32 PhD Training Grant was officially awarded, and two weeks ago, the NIH offered more support than requested to increase the # trainees in the unique program. Office chair with me in it levitated. Calling Microbime PhD'ers to @psumbiome.bsky.social 🎓

A decision with consequential scientific impacts, including the potential that decisions of expert panels are *commonly* ignored or superseded when misaligned with 'agency priorities', e.g., rejection of grants recommended for funding and/or approval of grants not recommended for funding.

The science was cutting edge, and the company was unparalleled- thank you everyone for such a welcoming and thrilling #GRCMicroPop! Looking forward to cyberstalking all your google scholar profiles ❤️

This week I am at the #GRC meeting for Microbial Population Biology. It is my favourite meeting. There is nothing like these small meetings for gathering a community together, and I learn a huge amount here every time. Here is to 40 more years of this incredible conference!

Today we wrapped up the 2025 Microbial Population Genetics GRC! 🧪🎊🧪 What a special meeting. The science was amazing but the people were even better @ckarakoc.bsky.social @nanamikubota.bsky.social @peachypotato.bsky.social @ellinoralseth.bsky.social @baym.lol and so many others!