New online! Shared signals shape phages’ lifestyles

We are recruiting postdocs to work on antimicrobial resistance and bacterial cell envelope biology. PLEASE SHARE.

New in JB: In the CF airway, P. aeruginosa transitions from an acute to chronic pathogen. Roxana Flores-Vega, Roberto Rosales-Reyes et al. review the role of 2-component systems in this crucial adaptation. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriology

What a fascinating story is hiding in bioRxiv!! An elaborate work of @doylemt1.bsky.social an co-workers to understand the function of the bacterial TAM machinery ❤️‍🔥 and here it is, a rich body of evidence for the "ancient" bridge for the lipid transfer 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Here is it! Super new science from us on horizontal gene transfer & bact defense systems! Liyana OW YONG discovered the first-of-its-kind defense factor AbjA that triggers 'abortive conjugation' as a defense mechanism, by targeting the T4SS! How neat?! #MicroSky 1/7 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

YdbL directly modulates YdbH-YnbE bridge formation to maintain Escherichia coli outer membrane homeostasis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper showing how tailed #phages recognize diverse #Pseudomonas #T4P! Outstanding work by PhD candidate Ikram Qaderi, building on work started a decade ago during my sabbatical in the McArthur lab and in collaboration with the Guarné lab, now at #McGill. @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social

Final version of our last paper is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A potential role for acyl-phosphate in the coordination of phospholipid and lipopolysaccharide synthesis in Escherichia coli https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.13.711678v1

Our story on the evolution of colistin resistance is just out on @plosbiology.org (journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... Evolution doesn’t happen in isolation. We show that competing fungi can rewire the evolutionary trajectory of colistin resistance in P. aeruginosa. Great teamwork with the Ernst lab

🚨Preprint! Happy to share the research from my PhD “Genome delivery of a contractile tailed phage and its superinfection exclusion mechanism”. We use cryoEM to study the genome ejection of the phage T4, revealing how the tape measure protein regulates the process. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Anti-Quorum Sensing Phages Disarm Pseudomonas aeruginosa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.16.706229v1

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Two Postdoctoral Research Associates in the Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Biogenesis BEN BERKS lab 🤩

New online! Predicting phage–host specificity

A surface-exposed cardiolipin synthase provides an unexpected paradigm for maintaining the Gram-negative outer membrane | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen -in PNAS from @anukharelab.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Enterococcus fans: Check out our latest on E. faecalis EET, advancing our understanding of both the fundamental physiology of this bug and new mechanisms of its virulence. This is the product of a thrilling collaboration with friends in Singapore @gthibault.bsky.social led by @aarontan.bsky.social.

Metabolic control of porin permeability www.nature.com/articles/s41...

YfgH is a transmembrane glycine-zipper containing lipoprotein that stabilizes excess cardiolipin and outer membrane proteins during envelope stress https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.696046v1

Peer-review practices of psychological journals: The fate of published articles, submitted again. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

📣 New MicroBites! Security hacked: How phages slip past bacterial defenses 🦠 Phages rely on diverse anti-defense proteins to neutralize bacterial defense systems and successfully infect their host. 👇

A chimeric Mla-Pqi lipid transport system is required for Brucella abortus survival in macrophages www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

#NewResearch Outer membrane attachment to peptidoglycan enables periplasmic pressure to build up and oppose cytoplasmic turgor pressure, preventing lysis during osmotic challenge in Gram-negative bacteria @michaeldeghelt.bsky.social #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A recent paper reveals that while LPS deficiency shields bacteria from phage infection (they lack receptor), it heightens vulnerability to T6SS contact-dependent antagonism, highlighting a critical evolutionary constraint. by @seeyeunting.bsky.social www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

just like among humans, 𝗺𝗼𝗯bing is rampant in the microbial world. here 👇 Maria Pilar Garcillán-Barcia , Fernando de la Cruz, and Eduardo Rocha review the extended 𝗺𝗼𝗯ility of plasmids... #MicroSky

Just as our bodies have evolved to defend us against bacterial and viral pathogens, bacteria face the same challenges. They must deter their own viruses, chemically compete with other microbes, and deal with challenges from eukaryotic hosts 1/n 🧪

weekend is here! comes with a most welcome recording on youtube 👇 and if you need a less crick-heavy read, from the same author: DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.032 #MicroSky

Molecular interplay between peptidoglycan integrity and outer membrane asymmetry in maintaining cell envelope homeostasis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.19.660527v1

#MicrobiologyMonday: Pseudomonas aeruginosa releases a surfactant that displaces Klebsiella pneumoniae from solid surfaces. By pushing K. pneumoniae away, the detergent allows P. aeruginosa to better compete for limited iron. Learn more in #mBio: asm.social/2sH

Just in case you missed it, watch our video ‘What is AMR?’, which explains the fundamentals of Antimicrobial Resistance and the strategies and solutions to mitigate its threat. Watch the full video now -https://youtu.be/hXr2Rn9OTOg #KnockingOutAMR

Very happy to share that a large part of my thesis work is out today: B. subtilis uses the second messenger c-di-AMP to modulate its turgor pressure in response to the state of its cell envelope. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A connection between two ancient and essential cellular processes, iron-sulfur protein biogenesis and fatty acid synthesis, in Escherichia coli https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.16.659903v1

Impaired envelope integrity in the absence of SanA is linked to increased Lipid II availability and an imbalance of FtsI and FtsW activities https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.10.658892v1

How to read a paper PDF download ccr.sigcomm.org/online/files...

Latest paper drop from Yale Phage Center @paulturnerlab.bsky.social

It's Thursday: Episode 89 of #MattersMicrobial is up, with Dr. Amir Mitchell of University of Masschusetts Medical School! Today, the #QualityQuorum discussed using AI to identify new antibiotics. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord? @profvrr youtu.be/Wa0zd-TRCO8?...

"That telomere phages are so prevalent means that they are a selective force, one that we know little about. We now want to understand how the telomere-toxin is secreted and also understand how this ‘telocin’ wheedles its way into unsuspecting bacterial neighbors” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Groundbreaking study in Cell from @leventallab.bsky.social: phospholipid asymmetry is a defining feature of the plasma membrane and cholesterol fills the holes — major implications for how this membrane works. A #lipidtime must-read! www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

📣 New MicroBites! The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend 🦠 How one bacteria befriended an old foe to take down a thriving competitor 👇

Overlooked signals: Highly stable quorum sensing molecule in phage lysates induces quorum sensing response https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.11.648453v1

High-throughput LacZ/CPRG screen identifies novel potential antibiotics targeting Gram-negative bacterial envelopes to combat resistance https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.648071v1

Structural Basis of Lipopolysaccharide Assembly by the Outer Membrane Translocon Holo-Complex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.10.648201v1

The bacterial HflK-HflC membrane complex plays a key role in cell #membrane organization. This study shows that HflK-HflC is important for aerobic #respiration, stabilizing proteins like IspG & TonB; reduced IspG activity impairs respiration & energy production @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3XPFENO

Bacillus subtilis MurJ and Amj Lipid II flippases are not essential for growth journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Striking new study from @archaeon-alex.bsky.social's lab just out in @science.org on multicellular development induced by compression in Archaea: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

chemical crosstalk at a distance of 𝘗𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘦 with 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘮 amoebae. oh nos, this does not end well for the amoebas... www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... #MicroSky

Andreas Sichert explores a @plosbiology.org study showing that a single #HGT event allowed the #diatom Nitzschia to evolve a complete enzymatic machinery to break down alginate from brown algae, unlocking a new ecological niche🧪 Paper: plos.io/41WaW8e Primer: plos.io/4j1Ovog

How does the lysogenic-lytic cycle work in intestinal #bacteriophages? @sol-uble.bsky.social @dbikard.bsky.social @jmghigolab.bsky.social &co show that hankyphage produces defective viral particles & identify RepCHP as master repressor of this #phage's lytic cycle @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/41Rr22S