For a broader analysis of Tiamat homologs in Eukaryotes, @asantiagofrangos.bsky.social pre-printed their story back-to-back with us 😀

The bacterial antiphage protein Tiamat is an ATPase and DNase whose homologs are found across the tree of life

Bacteria and archaea encode hundreds of antiviral defense systems, some with homologs found in eukaryotic innate immunity. GHL ATPases like plant MORCs and prokaryotic Tiamat defend against viruses an...

biorxiv.org

A new plant-bacteria immunological connection in the first preprint of our group at @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social @plantevolution.bsky.social! Straight from the top of Mt. Olympus ⛰️🦅 Led by Eirik @eiriklag.bsky.social, in collaboration with @geminiteamlab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Gal Ofir & colleagues provide additional evolutionary insights into Tiamat and determine its role during plant viral infections! See thread here:

Eirik Lågeide@eiriklag.bsky.social · last mo.

Very excited to share the first preprint from my PhD with the community! This is also the first paper from the Plant Immunogenomics group with @galofir.bsky.social, so stay tuned for more! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n 🧵

Very excited to share the first preprint from my PhD with the community! This is also the first paper from the Plant Immunogenomics group with @galofir.bsky.social, so stay tuned for more! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n 🧵

NO VEIN is an ancestral immunity protein involved in plant-virus interaction

The conservation of immune systems from prokaryotes to eukaryotes can guide discovery of immunity genes across the tree of life. Most studies to date have focused on metazoan systems, while the extent...

biorxiv.org

Andrew Santiago-Frangos and colleagues characterize Tiamat, a giant bacterial defense protein originally detected in the Millman 2022 study, and show that homologs of Tiamat are encoded in animals and plants. Nice to see the mystery of Tiamat starting to unravel

Andrew Santiago-Frangos@asantiagofrangos.bsky.social · last mo.

Our lab's first preprint! The antiphage protein Tiamat is an ATPase and DNase with homologs across the tree of life. What started as undergrad Shirley Yuan's summer project grew into a paper and a collaboration with @jpkbravo.bsky.social's group. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

And… I am SO excited to share the first research preprint from my group! In this paper we determined several cryoEM structures to visualize the entire cell-to-cell bridging complex formed by TAM receptor and ligand, bringing into 3D a common graphical depiction. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our lab's first preprint! The antiphage protein Tiamat is an ATPase and DNase with homologs across the tree of life. What started as undergrad Shirley Yuan's summer project grew into a paper and a collaboration with @jpkbravo.bsky.social's group. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

First cryo-EM data collection of the Santiago-Frangos Lab, by Briana Cruga! Looking forward to visualizing how this DNA is folded to promote CRISPR adaptation 🔬🧬🦠

Please re-post: Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo... Abstract deadline: 30 September

EvoChromo: Evolutionary approaches to research in chromatin

Chromatin is the complex of DNA, RNA and protein that is found making up the chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Chromatin is essential for proper genome function and is involved in chromosome segregati…

meetings.embo.org

PhD student @lainahall.bsky.social will be giving a talk about our measurements of FIB-milling damage in cryo-lamellae (with new data!) at M&M on Tuesday next week.

Awesome structural biology with a unique Cas interference-adaptation supercomplex to understand how these systems adapt to phage infection!

@giedriussasnauskas.bsky.social · last yr.

'Structural insights into Cas9-mediated prespacer selection in CRISPR-Cas adaptation' Check out our preprint on #bioRxiv on the #Cas9-Cas1-Cas2-Csn2 supercomplex involved in #CRISPR spacer acquisition: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... Thread below.

News from the world of pAgos: We explored a distinct clade of short pAgos associated with HNH nuclease partners, which we named SPARHA, and discovered that they protect bacteria from phages and plasmids via abortive infection. Upon activation, SPARHA oligomerizes, forming filaments. A long 🧵

New cryo-EM ❄️🔬 structures shine light on key steps in CRISPR-based adaptive immunity! Viral DNA binding to the Cas1-2/3 integrase induces a conformational change needed to recruit the integrase to the CRISPR. We capture how CRISPR repeat is unwound to allow complete integration. Congrats Will + co!

henriqueswill.bsky.social@henriqueswill.bsky.social · last yr.

New preprint from the Wiedenheft lab! We used #cryoEM to show how a type I-F #CRISPR integrase captures, delivers, and integrates foreign DNA. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hello BlueSky! Inaugural post here from the Sternberg Lab. We're excited to share our latest work, in which we teamed up with the @WiedenheftLab to study how DRT9 reverse transcriptases provide antiviral immunity. Here’s what we found: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Protein-primed DNA homopolymer synthesis by an antiviral reverse transcriptase

Bacteria defend themselves from viral predation using diverse immune systems, many of which sense and target foreign DNA for degradation. Defense-associated reverse transcriptase (DRT) systems provide...

biorxiv.org

Scientists, now more than ever, need to explain their work to the public. Many years ago now, I gave a TEDMED talk about my lab’s research. 🧠 🧪 www.tedmed.com/talks/show?i...

How an ancient virus spread the ability to remember

Do you remember your oldest memory? Jason Shepherd clearly recalls a childhood filled with questioning the world around him, which naturally lead to a life of scientific discovery. As a Neurobiologist...

tedmed.com

Published on my birthday 🎉 Another paper in collaboration with @themaxwelllab.bsky.social Phage reprogramming of Pseudomonas aeruginosa amino acid metabolism drives efficient phage replication doi.org/10.1128/mbio... 🦠🧫🧪🧬

As my first on Bluesky post, I'm glad to announce my work on PFOA has been published! Please check it out! During our work we have uncovered a new mechanism which implicates PFOA in hyperandrogenism, as has been speculated in the past! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Just because it's a homo-oligomer, don't assume it's symmetric! @benjabsnt.bsky.social & collaborators used cryo-EM to study the transthyretin (TTR) tetramer (55 kDa), shedding light on its misfolding pathways linked to amyloid disease. Now in peer-reviewed form: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Here’s my spreadsheet of starter packs (>80!) related to broadly ‘mechanistic biology’ plus some intriguing extras Complete with collective nouns I’ve been tracking these but now can’t keep up Hope it’s helpful 2/2 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

@mjafreeman.bsky.social's BlueSky starter packs for 'mechanistic' biologists

docs.google.com

If you work on bacterial immune systems, this founding paper by Burroughs and Aravind is a must-read (and must-cite). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32868406/

I started a list of MOSAIC scholars to help find and support each other. I'm sure I've missed many people, lmk if you want to be added! go.bsky.app/9Ui711k

Bacterial DNA encapsidation by viruses and virus-like particles appears to be widespread in the microbiome with up to 5.4% of capsid-packaged DNA in the gut virome being of bacterial (non-prophage) origin. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 2/2

Large scale capsid-mediated mobilisation of bacterial genomic DNA in the gut microbiome

Here, we present a novel approach to study packaging and mobilisation of bacterial DNA in complex microbial communities, such as the human gut microbiome, by viral or virus-like capsids. Transducing b...

biorxiv.org

Hello 👋🏼—I’m a first-gen college student from Puerto Rico & currently serve as an Associate Dean at a major medical center. I’ve dedicated my career to developing programs focused on recruiting/training STEM leaders. I’m passionate about mentoring & providing opportunities for all to thrive.

Excited to be going to ABRCMS this year! Looking forward to meeting new (and old) friends and sharing work! :D

📢I'm hiring a Postdoc to join me at Dept. of Biology at UPenn! We'll use bioinformatics 🖥️, biochem 🧪, and cryo-EM ❄️🔬, to study how CRISPR systems work & applications. Work on cool science with a supportive mentor! I'm still building up my Bluesky profile, so Reposts are appreciated!!!

The Santiago-Frangos lab is open and ready to do some exciting research on CRISPR biology and CRISPR applications! Ecstatic to be on UPenn's campus amongst such a supportive group of excellent scientists! 🤓