See our @natmicrobiol.nature.com News&Views on the publication from Yun Chen laboratory A rapid writing exercise for María Negre Rodríguez, a PhD student in my group Ecological function of phenazine in soil www.nature.com/articles/s41... #MicrobiomeEcology at #LeidenBiology

🚨 New Preprint Alert 🚨 Our latest work, A Zur-dependent regulatory RNA involved in maintaining zinc homeostasis in Staphylococcus aureus, is now live on bioRxiv! 🧬🦠📄 Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A new methods paper from us, this time with a focus on reliable monitoring membrane potential and cell lysis at different growth stages and cell densities. Also, note the surprisingly high level of background lysis in seemingly healthy B. subtilis cultures. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

RagB stimulates the activity of the peptidoglycan polymerase RodA in Bacillus subtilis [RagB = YrrS] @emboreports.org by Frédérique Pompeo et al www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

A ptsH mutation (encoding the HPr-G54D variant) suppresses growth defects and antibiotic sensitivity in a Bacillus subtilis cpgA mutant defective in metabolite proofreading! Where? In Journal of Bacteriology! 🫳 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... #subtiwiki #subtilis #CCR

Elio Schaechter was one of my heroes. His 1958 paper with Ole Maaløe and Niels Kjeldgaard (fondly known as “SMK”) is a North Star for so much work in my group. A wonderful scientist, great communicator, and a very kind person. May his memory be a blessing.

This first-author publication is my… first! Archaea kill bacteria by targeting their Achilles’ heel: peptidoglycan. Big shoutout to @ahocher.bsky.social‬, @valeriesoo.bsky.social‬, Pauline Misson, @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social‬ and MRC LMS Proteomics. A thread 🔽 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

New cool work from French friends and colleagues: identification of Rho termination sites in B. subtilis! academic.oup.com/nar/article/... #SubtiWiki @narjournal.bsky.social @inrae-france.bsky.social

The B. subtilis histidine-containing phosphocarrier protein (HPr) supports PTS-sugar import, interacts with GAPDH, and helps mediate carbon catabolite repression (CCR). Here, a mutant HPr protein is shown to alleviate metabolic intoxication in a cpgA mutant. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Metal ions are universally required for life, and many of the foundational principles of metal homeostasis have emerged from studies of microbial systems. In this review, I provide a introductory overview targeted to those new to the field. #MicroSky #Metals rdcu.be/eycU2

Copper acquisition in Bacillus subtilis involves Cu(II) exchange between YcnI and YcnJ #JBiolChem from @fisherlab.bsky.social with @johnhelmann.bsky.social www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Now published, congrats Bevika, Kinki, Vincent, Florian and Paddy! #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

must-read for phageophiles 👇 from sigal ben-yehuda's lab "𝗬𝗷𝗯𝗛 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀" in Gram-positives (𝘉. 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘴) 🙏 @bacteriophile.bsky.social for pointing this out #PhageSky #MicroSky

Happy to share this detective work by Rune Overlund Stannius now published in #mSystems phenotype+genomes▶️GWAS▶️gene cluster for pigment production Identification of widely conserved biosynthetic gene cluster involved in pigment production of Bacillus subtilis journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A new paper led by Ahmed Gaballa and Yesha Patel explores the pathways that reduce the dithiolopyrrolone (DTP) antibiotic thiolutin in B. subtilis. The active dithiol chelates intracellular Zn ions to impede growth. #MicroSky #Zinc #Antibiotics journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The iron chelator pulcherriminic acid mediates the light response in Bacillus subtilis biofilms @natcomms.nature.com by Kazuo Kobayashi and colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tiffany Zarrella et al. provide new insights into the role of the bacterial second messenger cyclic di-adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP) in maintaining cell envelope homeostasis in Streptococcus pneumoniae. #MicroSky #cyclic-di-AMP onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

👉 Cyclic Di-AMP Affects Cell Membrane Integrity of Streptococcus pneumoniae! Molecular Microbiology | Microbiology Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #cdiAMPl @molecularmicro.bsky.social

Stevens et al. describe the molecular basis for increased antibiotic tolerance in S. aureus COL: a prs mutation that reduces PRPP synthetase activity (leading to downregulation of pyrimidine, histidine, and tryptophan synthesis) plays a major role. #MicroSky onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Jinich et al. present an important new resource for the Mtb community! The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transposon Sequencing Database (MtbTnDB) is an interactive web resource summarizing 150+ published screens. #MicroSky #Mycobacterium #tuberculosis onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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...

Regulation of the main structural element of Lyme spirochete flagella "The Flagellin-specific chaperone FliS of Borrelia burgdorferi controls the cytoplasmic pool of Flagellins at the level of translation initiation, secretion, and proteolysis" pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40491023/ #MicroSky

Time for Episode 95 of #MattersMicrobial! This time, Dr. Tory Hendry of Cornell University joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss aphids, symbiosis, and fluorescent bacteria. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord? microbe.tv youtu.be/i9xoWApANNM?...

Bacterial sporulation (endospore formation) is complicated,but it turns out a lot of steps are regulated by classically defined developmental "checkpoints", and not events that are intrinsically required for the next step to occur. Zac Park reviews these in #Bacillus subtilis doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Excited to share our latest review! Check it out to see what we know so far about how Staphylococcus aureus coordinates key processes during its cell cycle

All metabolites have now been assigned to categories in #SubtiWiki! This helps to get a rapid overview on all molecules that are Part of a pathway or that group together for other reasons, Check it out! Thank you, @c-elfmann.bsky.social @unigoettingen.bsky.social @imprsgs.bsky.social

Our new paper on FtsN is out! Now there are three tracks for organized cell wall constriction-- the old, boring E. coli always manages to surprise us. A special shout-out to all the people who made this work possible, especially Dr. Jason Lyu, and Dr. David Weiss. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

👉 c-di-AMP is synthesized in eukaryotes: The second messenger activates the NLRP3 inflammasome! 👇👇👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natchembio.nature.com #cdiAMP

This took us a while and I am all the happier it is finally out! I thought that simply adding ATP to purified potassium channel KtrAB should be sufficient to stabilize its active state. I was so wrong... Read the full story on how an IDR facilitates channel opening upon membrane interaction.

Finally, we're recruiting! If you'd like to do a PhD using NMR structures to study the dynamics of a metalloenzyme, then you're in luck! Come to Warsaw for this project, in collaboration with Simone Ciofi-Baffoni's group at CERM, Florence: ibb.edu.pl/app/uploads/...

A 1996 article on the same question 👉🏻 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

SNEAKY LEAKY 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 Typhi’s 🦠 toxin selectively hits endothelial cells, compromising the BBB This disruption—not direct neurotoxicity—drives typhoid-associated encephalopathy Corticosteroids offer protection Zhao et al, Galán Lab, Yale in 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share Christoph Elfmann's new paper that is now out in Trends in Microbiology! Discover tools to make the most out of AlphaFold and its iterations! @c-elfmann.bsky.social @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social @unigoettingen.bsky.social @imprsgs.bsky.social #subtiwiki www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Latest work from the lab - we identify a translation factor, YebC2, that reduces ribosome stalling in B. subtilis! Congrats to co-first authors: grad students Hye-Rim Hong & Cassidy Prince & undergrad Dennis Wu @denniswu02.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

The TerC family metal chaperone MeeY enables surfactin export in Bacillus subtilis #JBacteriol from @johnhelmann.bsky.social with Dan Kearns lab journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

In B. subtilis, TerC proteins function in Mn export to support the metalation of exoenzymes. MeeY is also required (directly or indirectly) for production of surfactin, a lipopeptide required for swarming motility! (collab. with Dan Kearns' lab @IU). #MicroSky journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Two ERC-funded postdoc positions available in the team - one here and second to follow - please repost! jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

Consider *Molecular Microbiology* for your next submission! To read more re: journal scope and additional information: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1365... Authors can reach out to any of our nine academic editors with pre-submission inquiries! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal... #MicroSky

How Staph. lugdunensis controls production of its anti-S. aureus effector lugdunin @cmfi.bsky.social @dzif.bsky.social The human microbiome-derived antimicrobial lugdunin self-regulates its biosynthesis by a feed-forward mechanism journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Learn how Bacillus subtilis copes with Photo-leucine, by stopping import, activating export and by increasing the selectivity of Leu-tRNA synthetase! @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social #SubtiWiki www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How does MntR function as both repressor and activator with different Mn(II) sensitivity and cooperativity? Led by the remarkable Prof. Shivani Ahuju (Reed), our long-time collaborator Arthur Glasfeld, and Reed undergraduates! #MicroSky #ChemSky #cryoEM www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new role for pyruvate kinase in Bacillus subtilis! #SubtiWiki journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

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/...

Very excited about this work from graduate student Laura Chacon Machado now published in Mobile DNA, "A family of Tn7-like transposons evolved to target CRISPR repeats"! #TESky

A newly described plant growth promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) B. velezensis 118. SigX supports biofilm formation and disease prevention (e.g. Fusarium/bananas; bacterial wilt/tomatoes). Prof. Yanfei Cai (Guangzhou) led this work as a visiting scientist. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very excited to be part of this great work spearheaded by Nick Wierckx and his team @fz-juelich.de, @hhu.de enabling microbial upcycling of nylon published in Nature Microbiology! www.nature.com/articles/s41... @mibinet.bsky.social

Excited to share! @yeshapatel.bsky.social and I report... Mutations in RNAP confer antibiotic resistance via transcriptome remodeling. Repression of branched chain amino acid and Pyr pathways increases β-lactam resistance in B. subtilis. #MicroSky #AMR #antibiotics www.cell.com/cell-reports...

BLAST XVIII was a great success! Molecular Microbiology invites research articles related to: "Bacterial Locomotion and Signal Transduction" Join us! see... www.blastmeetings.org/people Published articles will be collected as a virtual "special issue" prior to the next BLAST meeting. #MicroSky

Congratulations to our long-time collaborator Eric Skaar on receiving this prestigious Award in Molecular Biology from the National Academy of Sciences! www.nasonline.org/award/nas-aw...