And we’re back! The second funding period of #SPP2389 started this week with our kickoff meeting in Grimma Stay tuned in the next few weeks/months to get to know both the old and new members working on projects centered around the fascinating world of bacterial multicellularity! 🦠

Our latest paper on Guanidine metabolism in #Cyanobacteria is out @pnas.org (it's useful as N nutrient but toxic at the same time) A great collaboration w Klähn lab w small part from us on toxicity😅 @hhu.de @spp2389.bsky.social @sfb1381.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Last chance to visit Bakteriopolis at the @tudresden.bsky.social Excellence Days event!

Surface matters! Chitin alters both intraspecies interactions and biofilm architecture in Vibrio cholerae in marine snow Preprint on @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social ⬇️

Cellulose is a critical component in the cell wall of Streptomyces, and accessory proteins involved in its biosynthesis support both its unique cell envelope and multicellular filamentous growth From Daniel Claessens’ lab in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social #microsky #streptomyces #multicellularity

Bakteriopolis is in Halle at the #SilbersalzFestival this week! Even Come try water kefir, make your own bacterium, and learn about the hidden world of multicellular microbes! #SPP2389 #microsky #wisskomm Danke an Mainzelmännchen Det für den Besuch! @zdfde.bsky.social

@kostchristian.bsky.social has an open PhD position as a part of #SPP2389 ! #microsky #mevosky

Evolution of One Species Increases Resistance to Invasion in a Simple Synthetic Community Microbial Ecology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Interested in working on microbial interactions and cooperative cross-feeding? Join @kostchristian.bsky.social as a part of #SPP2389 !

From polymicrobial water kefir grains to PCD in biofilms, microorganisms are magnificently multicellular! Thanks to @embo.org @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social for having Lena Friebel and Thorsten Mascher @tudresden.bsky.social as well as @escolizzi.bsky.social at the #Multicellverse workshop

You can’t talk about microbial multicellularity without mentioning Streptomyces - check out our collaborator Daniel Rozen’s experimental evolution of these filamentous bacteria! Thanks @martaalvarez.bsky.social for snapping a pic! @embo.org #Multicellverse

Our head of #SPP2389 Thorsten Mascher also put the spotlight on the multicellular microbial communities of water kefir - thanks again @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social ! @embo.org #Multicellverse

Lena brought her research on cannibalism in Bacillus biofilms to the @embo.org multicellularity workshop! Thanks @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social for the picture! #Multicellverse

All cells – from mammalian cells to microbes – can follow different biological paths. Whether they grow and divide, specialise, age or die depends on the pathway they take. New findings by researchers at ETH Zurich could help influence a cell’s decisions to target diseases such as cancer.

A bit late 🙃 but happy to share our recent findings on #cdiAMP signaling in controlling #cyanobacteria #diurnal rhythm in @cp-iscience.bsky.social www.cell.com/iscience/ful... #cdiAMP is involved in almost all cellular processes, explaining it's essentiality in #cyano @hhu.de @mibinet.bsky.social

PhD position on Regulation and Evolution of Bacterial Multicellularity ( #Streptomyces ) within @spp2389.bsky.social supervised by Natalia Tschowri (Hannover 🇩🇪) and Danny Rozen (Leiden 🇳🇱) with research at both locations deadline: October 31, 2025 www.uni-hannover.de/en/jobs/id/802

Streptomyces and other filamentous actinomycetes are treasure troves of a vast collection of antibiotic compounds - an evolutionary feature linked to their unique multicellular lifestyle

Curious about kin recognition systems? Take notes from Proteus and Myxococcus! @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social

Congratulations to our Matthias for winning the @femsmicro.org international microorganism day microbe art contest for best photo and best overall! 🎉🦠 Biofilms truly are beautiful works of multicellular microbial architecture 🏛️ www.internationalmicroorganismday.org/microbeart

A bit late to the party, but happy belated international microorganism day!

The what, when, where, and why of wrinkly morphology in biofilms -in Biophysics Rev pubs.aip.org/aip/bpr/arti...

We loved hearing @khammerschmidt.bsky.social talk about evolution at the #MultiBac2025 conference this January - check out the @asm.org report on the origins of early microbial life!

A very interesting study by @cyanofur.bsky.social Lab on biofilm formation by filamentous #Cyanobacteria Nostoc Could be interesting for @spp2389.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Congrats to @mcaroec.bsky.social on winning a talk prize at #BACELL2025 !

Our #SPP2389 associated PhD student Luis gave a great talk on the effects of experimental evolution on Streptomyces aggregates and colonies at the #ISBA2025 !

Another #SPP2389 PhD student Martha with a great talk on phase transitions in B. subtilis macrocolonies! Thanks again to @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social for capturing the moment! #BACELL2025

One of our SPP PhD students Lena presented her research on cannibalism in B. subtilis biofilms at the #BACELL2025 today! Thanks to @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social for snapping a pic!

Only 2 more days until the ISBA! Genna's looking forward to 5 days of nothing but actinomycetes and the beautiful North Sea. Tot snel! www.universiteitleiden.nl/isba2025

Antimicrobial efflux and biofilms: an interplay leading to emergent resistance evolution @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social from Rosalind Allen, Frank Schreiber groups (within @spp2389.bsky.social and @microverse.bsky.social) www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Only a few more weeks until the Long Night of Science (Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften) here in Dresden! www.wissenschaftsnacht-dresden.de

Bacterial colony architecture is heavily influenced by the strain and its environment - how can we study the spatial organization of these heterogeneous groups? Susann Müller's group developed a method for biopsies on the microscale! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We heard Stefan talk about his work on multicellularity in Stenotrophomonas at our conference this January, check out his latest preprint!

The page for the EMBO multicellularity meeting organized by @multicellgenome.bsky.social , @martaalvarez.bsky.social and colleagues is online! #multicellularity #protists meetings.embo.org/event/25-mul...

The Type Strain Genome Server (TYGS) is struggling due to system problems and resource distribution - help save this widely used and crucial taxonomic tool! www.ipetitions.com/petition/dsm...

From cell-cell communication in cyanobacteria to unraveling bacterial biofilm structures - check out all of the publications from our groups! tu-dresden.de/mn/biologie/...

When the pressure is on, Archaea go multicellular! A new @science.org study reveals surprising organizational capacity in archaea. 🍞“It’s like rising sourdough loaf”: tinyurl.com/yc2nxmr6 #Archaea #Multicellularity @archaeon-alex.bsky.social @tbharat-lab.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social

Throwback Thursday to our international conference in January! 120 PhD students, PIs, and guest speakers met in Berlin to present their amazing research on multicellular bacteria (and some archaea!) Congratulations to our poster prize winners Ruth Viveros, Miriam Epping, and Danielle Lange!

Hi everyone and welcome to our profile for the DFG-funded SPP 2389 on emergent functions of bacterial multicellularity! A lot has happened recently and we're looking forward to sharing all things bacteria, biofilms, and beyond with all of you! Genna & Matthias