Out now in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Bacillus subtilis builds protein filaments that act as a pseudomembrane, pulling quinone out of the bilayer and carrying it into the cytosol for reduction by NADH dehydrogenase, well away from the membrane itself. doi.org/10.1038/s415... 1/5
Constitutive, endogenous, fluorescent membrane reporters for dynamic cell cycle analysis in Bacillus subtilis in Appl Environ Microbiol from Stephen Jacobson, Dan Kearns journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Constitutive, endogenous, fluorescent membrane reporters for dynamic cell cycle analysis in Bacillus subtilis | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Bacterial cells are fully divided when the new membrane separates the cytoplasm of each daughter. Reproducible staining of bacterial membranes with exogenous labels for fluorescence microscopy can be ...
journals.asm.org
Do you need to analyze bacterial microscopy data and are looking for an all-in-one tool for Windows or macOS? Check out BactoMate by Lasse Hallenga and Philipp Popp! I'm happy that we were able to contribute to this great work. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
BactoMate: an integrated platform for reproducible bacterial microscopy analysis
Quantitative microscopy of microorganisms increasingly produces large, multidimensional datasets, yet their analysis often depends on fragmented workflows spanning file conversion, segmentation, quali...
biorxiv.org
Vibrio cholerae VgrG1-ACD Targets E. coli MreB and Regulates Cellular Morphology https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.07.743456v1
Save the date! The 23rd International Conference on Bacilli and Gram-Positive Bacteria will take place from June 29 to July 2 in Ljubljana, Slovenia! #pogacar #pogi #subtiwiki
And two more pre-prints from the lab, focusing on MreB polymerization cycle and dynamics! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A genetic screen unveils the polymerization cycle of the bacterial actin-like MreB
MreB, a bacterial actin homologue that organizes cell wall synthesis in most rod-shaped bacteria, assembles into membrane-associated filaments through mechanisms that have remained elusive despite dec...
biorxiv.org
Outer membrane remodeling via lipid-peptidoglycan crosstalk enables lipooligosaccharide-deficient colistin resistance
Outer membrane remodeling via lipid-peptidoglycan crosstalk enables lipooligosaccharide-deficient colistin resistance
Olea-Ozuna et al. show that outer membrane lipid asymmetry acts as a checkpoint controlling lipooligosaccharide-independent survival in Acinetobacter baumannii. Disrupting phospholipid homeostasis creates a permissive state enabling LOS loss under colistin selection, while reduced PBP1A activity stabilizes this transition, defining a three-state model of envelope remodeling and resistance.
dlvr.it
New pre-print from the lab, about impact of cell wall antibiotics on PG elongation machineries. Any comments and (constructive) criticism are welcome!
bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 4w agoDifferential impact of cell wall antibiotics on the Rod complex and aPBPs in Bacillus subtilis: Insights into the peptidoglycan elongation machineries https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.24.740396v1
A post about how to make microscopy images as accessible as possible. quantixed.org/2026/07/21/c...
Colorblind II: Microscopy images and colour blindness – quantixed
quantixed.org
I have always wanted to be able to view the genome, protein, and protein structure at the same time. Last week I built this utility with Claude Science. Click protein domain to zoom to structure and genomic region. I hope you find it as revealing and useful as I do. github.com/DavidSternLa...
High-fidelity fast fluorescence lifetime imaging by event-based denoising - @tsinghuauniversity.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
High-fidelity fast fluorescence lifetime imaging by event-based denoising - Nature Biotechnology
Event-based first-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging enables fluorescence lifetime imaging below one photon per pixel.
nature.com
Fresh out of the lab! Our new preprint is now up on BioRxiv, exploring how the beneficial bacterium Pseudomonas putida controls its T6SS nanoweapon. It turns out the Gac/Rsm pathway acts as a strict molecular brake on the system. 👇 (1/4) Read the full preprint here: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Excited to see our story published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com today! It’s been a long journey. We answered a major outstanding question: why does E. coli encode two aPBPs, yet only one plays a critical role in ensuring reliable PG fortification during cell division?
Paula Navarro@navarropaula.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨 New in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We reveal how the antibiotic target PBP1b fortifies the E.coli division site against osmotic rupture. Proud this was completed in our independent labs @dmf-unil.bsky.social, with @avettiger.bsky.social. Congratulations to all authors! 🦠❄️🔬 #teamtomo bit.ly/3SCbOg1 👇
GpsB acts as an adapter for MacP-mediated activation of class A penicillin-binding protein aPBP2a in Streptococcus pneumoniae, independently of MacP phosphorylation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.26.734906v1
Staphylococcus aureus uses a eukaryotic-like uridyltransferase to make UDP-GlcNAc for cell wall synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.23.733835v1
Another chapter of my thesis is out! We asked whether we could pair proteome-wide AlphaFold screening with Tn-seq to identify biologically relevant protein-protein interactions. We identify ClcR (formerly YerH) as a component of the Rod complex in Gram-positive bacteria. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A broadly conserved gram-positive lipoprotein regulates cell elongation | PNAS
The cell wall peptidoglycan (PG) protects virtually all bacteria from osmotic lysis and specifies cell shape. Synthesis of this exoskeleton is carr...
pnas.org
1/ Out today in Science (@science.org): a result a decade in the making, and one that changed how I think about what cells are doing when they grow. We found a bacterium that grows slower than it could. And we found the molecular switch that lets us reverse it.
A metabolic checkpoint coordinates bacterial cell envelope biosynthesis and c-di-GMP signaling https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.11.731730v1
I am very happy to be in the part of this work! Congratulations @abarbotin.bsky.social @carballido-lab.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Two temperature-dependent membrane fluidity regimes in gram-positive bacteria | mSphere
Temperature changes affect the physical properties of the plasma membrane. Typically, a reduction in temperature causes a less fluid and thus more viscous, membrane. It has been long established that ...
journals.asm.org
@vanipande.bsky.social presenting her work at #ASMicrobe today.... Check out her recent preprint about a spontaneously inserting integral membrane protein that localized by recognizing a lipid cue
Kumaran Ramamurthi@ramamurthilab.bsky.social · 3mo agoBacterial transmembrane proteins usually localize inside the cell by "finding" a pre-localized protein, but how did the 1st protein get there? @vanipande.bsky.social found a protein in #B.subtilis that localizes by recognizing a *lipid* localization cue. #Microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Decoding the interactome for cyclic-di-AMP-producing enzyme diadenylate cyclase -in #mSystems journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Decoding the interactome for cyclic-di-AMP-producing enzyme diadenylate cyclase | mSystems
Mapping the DacA interactome reveals how environmental and intracellular cues tune c-di-AMP signaling to control stress adaptation, ion balance, and virulence traits in Streptococcus mutans. By identi...
journals.asm.org
New @natcomms.nature.com paper by @katebowie.bsky.social @markgerstein.bsky.social, where we study how disinfection shapes microbes in hospital sink drain biofilms. Biofilms regrew in 4 days, enriched for carbapenem-resistant bacteria and multidrug efflux pump genes: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Out Now! Wall teichoic acids regulate peptidoglycan synthesis to maintain rod shape in Bacillus subtilis #MicroSky
Wall teichoic acids regulate peptidoglycan synthesis to maintain rod shape in Bacillus subtilis
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 26 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02368-6Wall teichoic acids confer rod shape in the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis by occluding pores in the cell wall, thereby preventing runaway isotropic (non-oriented) peptidoglycan synthesis.
go.nature.com
"compact pooled CRISPRi library targeting all protein-coding genes in B. subtilis and test its growth in ~150 stress conditions" The phenotypic landscape of the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis bioRxiv from Carol Gross www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The phenotypic landscape of the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis
Firmicutes are gram-positive bacteria with important roles in human health, disease, and industry. However, more than a quarter of genes in the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis remain completely uncharacterized, including numerous core phylum-specific genes. Here, we design a compact pooled CRISPRi library targeting all protein-coding genes in B. subtilis and test its growth in ~150 stress conditions. Using data from this screen as a hypothesis generator, we perform targeted experiments that reveal that YneF, a conserved essential firmicute protein, plays a role in the SRP co-translational protein secretion pathway. We also demonstrate that ECF-transporters play a previously unknown but broadly conserved role in cell wall homeostasis, perform an unbiased analysis of amino acid crossfeeding, and make additional discoveries about bacterial competition and about the cell wall of B. subtilis. In addition to these major contributions to our understanding of B. subtilis (and gram-positive firmicutes in general), this work provides a rich dataset that will nucleate future studies of uncharacterized genes and presents a framework for accessible full-genome functional genomic screens in other bacteria. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, https://ror.org/01cwqze88, R35 GM118061 The University of Queensland, https://ror.org/00rqy9422
biorxiv.org
𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀? If so, I recommend diving into this FREE microscopy course 👉 www.ibiology.org/online-biology-courses/microscopy-series/
Mutations in MreB suppress β-lactam sensitivity upon c-di-AMP accumulation in Listeria monocytogenes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.14.724990v1
📢 Applications are open! Join us in October to explore next-generation fluorescent proteins, biosensors & imaging advances + machine learning and computational approaches to accelerate design. 🛏️ Meals & lodging covered; no registration fee Apply by May 21 ➡️ janelia.news/FPS26 @agtebo.bsky.social
A new weapon against stubborn bacteria: study shows that disrupting two cell-wall pathways at once can overload bacterial metabolism, causing oxidative damage and cell death – even in wall-free L-forms that evade many antibiotics. Via Sydney Mass Spectrometry CRF. Paper 👉 go.nature.com/4tgbBeV
