Last day #ISME20 with @ilafores.bsky.social Alma Dal Co Award plenary on host-microbe interactions in non-model plant systems. She reminded us of the importance of defining our identify as scientists and the value of publishing in society journals as a meaningful contribution to the community.

Today’s #ISME20 plenary: Noah Fierer (Winogradsky Award) on moving from genomes to traits in Antarctic soils. Genomes alone are not enough to determine microbial traits, metabolism and environmental preferences, we need more isolate culturing to better understand microbial diversity and ecology.

#ISME20 starts this morning with Wanda Markotter’s plenary on the key role of microbial ecology in preventing pathogen spillover into humans and future pandemics. Infection disease prevention requires holistic and transdisciplinary approaches.

#ISME20 kicks off in Auckland today! Great to have the meeting back to New Zealand after almost 50 years since the first meeting in Dunedin. Looking forward to a week full of microbiology. Say hi if you're around 😊 isme-microbes.org/public/confe...

Some bacteria do not live as individuals. They build multicellular filaments and connect neighboring cells through tiny cell-cell junctions. Cyanobacteria are among the most beautiful examples 😍 In our new paper, we reveal first molecuar insights on the cyanobacterial septal junction architecture 🧵

Japanese scientists have confirmed a monumental discovery: asteroid Ryugu contains all 5 nucleobases essential for DNA and RNA. By analyzing 5.4 grams of material returned by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, researchers identified adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil in similar proportions.

Share with anyone who might be interested in this opportunity #RNA

Selene FeRNAndez@selfdz.bsky.social · 5mo ago

To give back: I'm offering 6 one-hour mentorship sessions for students & ECRs from Latin America interested in building a career in RNA. DM me a short paragraph on why this would be valuable to you. 📩

These are the results of the poll at the @geneticsaus.bsky.social conference. Will do a new one soon, with perilogs included this time. Have your say!

Selene FeRNAndez@selfdz.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Hive mind - Carolina Puente-Lelievre (@cpuentelelievre.bsky.social) asks: How should we call homologs that are contained within the same protein? a. Plurilogs b. Polilogs c. Multilogs d. Perilogs Thoughts? Cool talk! #GSABrisbane26 @geneticsaus.bsky.social

First time at a GSA conference! Great to see the range of research being presented and connect with the community. Thank you @geneticsaus.bsky.social for the opportunity to present our work on the evolution of bacterial motility and structural phylogenetics.

Genetics Society of AustralAsia@geneticsaus.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#GSA2026 will be kicking off very soon ✨ We are looking forward to an amazing line up of talks over the next week! Please post your conference updates & photos and tag @geneticsaus.bsky.social to have them reposted by the official GSA account🚨

A new tool for structural phylogenetics: Folddisco makes connecting structural conservation to evolutionary signal beyond the twilight zone of protein sequence similarity a tractable problem. #StrPhy

Martin Steinegger 🇺🇦@martinsteinegger.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Folddisco is now published @natbiotech.nature.com. It’s a fast motif search for similar 3D DISCOntinuous residues like catalytic sites or zinc fingers across the entire protein universe. 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 💾 folddisco.foldseek.com​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 🌐 https://search.foldseek.com/folddisco

A new Save Science Coalition report documents 700+ science roles lost in NZ. That's a lot for a country of 5 million. Scientists are leaving for Europe, Australia and the US. NZ spends 1.4% of GDP on R&D — the OECD benchmark is 3%. img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2...

Looking forward to presenting our work on bacterial flagella and structural phylogenetics at @biologyanu.bsky.social Protein structure+evolutionary analyses is a powerful yet underexplored combination. Come along or join on Zoom. Always happy to connect. Thanks @corrylab.bsky.social for hosting me!

ANU Research School of Biology@biologyanu.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Join us on campus & online on Thursday, 23 April 2026 at 1pm for a seminar by Dr Caroline Puente-Lelievre, Research Fellow from the School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Computational Evolution, University of Auckland. @corrylab.bsky.social Details: rb.gy/ik3ep3

Commentary compiled by @smcnz.bsky.social examines New Zealand’s shift in research priorities toward advanced technologies. Perspectives highlight potential gains in innovation and competitiveness, and raise questions about funding distribution and research diversity.

Science Media Centre NZ@smcnz.bsky.social · 7mo ago

NZ’s research priorities shift towards advanced tech – Expert Reaction

A phylogeny-aware approach to detecting amino acid coevolution: PHACE. Instead of relying on sequence alignments only, it maps substitutions onto evolutionary trees and accounts for shared ancestry. A nice step toward more accurate models of protein evolution and structure.

Nurdan Kuru@nurdankuru.bsky.social · last yr.

Our new algorithm PHACE: Phylogeny-Aware Detection of Molecular Coevolution, by me and Ogün Adebali (@compgenomics.bsky.social), is now published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. Many thanks to @nehircanozdemir.bsky.social for the beautiful illustration of PHACE!

Great opportunity for anyone looking to get into science communication. Effectively communicating our research matters. It makes it accessible and useful beyond academia. It shapes public understanding, informs policy, and ensures research has real-world impact.

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Paid 12-month internship: Communications Officer. We have an exciting opportunity for someone looking to take their first step into a science communication or publishing role. Based Cambridge, UK (& wfh). See the full role description for further details at biologists.com/wp-content/u...

AlphaFold is moving beyond single proteins to predicting complexes. Millions of interactions with strong confidence. This kind of data will help uncover how protein interactions evolve, how new functions arise, and how complex biological systems are built over time. Exciting to see where this goes!

Martin Steinegger 🇺🇦@martinsteinegger.bsky.social · 8mo ago

AlphaFold database has entered the era of complexes. Together with NVIDIA, DeepMind and EBI, we use ColabFold, OpenFold and MMseqs2-GPU to predict ~31 million complexes (homo & hetro-dimers) resulting in 1.8 million high-quality predictions 📄 research.nvidia.com/labs/dbr/ass... 🌐 alphafold.ebi.ac.uk

The 2026 SMBE Australasian Protein Structural Phylogenetics Meeting took place last week in Brisbane (Australia) to discuss this rapidly growing field. Thank you to all participants and congratulations to the organizing team, who brought to life a fantastic event!👏 @strphy.bsky.social #StrPhy26

APSPM brought together protein evolution research from across the globe. @jtrinidad13.bsky.social used structural homology to predict the function of uncharacterised eukaryotic proteins and revealed deep conservation hidden from sequence alone. Thank you for sharing your work with us! #StryPhy

Juan Manuel Trinidad Barnech@jtrinidad13.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Wrapping up an incredible final day at the APSPM meeting! Huge thanks to the organizers @cpuentelelievre.bsky.social @proteinmechanic.bsky.social Jordan Douglas and all the speakers for the brilliant talks and rich discussions. Beautiful Brisbane! #StrPhy #StrPhy26 #StructuralPhylogenetics

Looking forward to working together in the future and further develop #StructuralPhylogenetics in viruses @spyroslytras.bsky.social #StrPhy26 #StrPhy

Spyros Lytras@spyroslytras.bsky.social · 9mo ago

What a great conference!! Leaving Brisbane inspired about the future of structural phylogenetics! Thanks again to the organisers @cpuentelelievre.bsky.social @proteinmechanic.bsky.social and Jordan Douglas for an amazing work putting it all together!

I am looking for wide-ranging mammalian DNA samples for a class I am developing. Especially sought-after would be parent-offspring paired samples. Please retweet (re-skeet?), thank you!

Great to chair the session on Virus Evolution at APSPM2026. Thank you to all the speakers for sharing their cool research with us 🦠 Mihnea Bostina, Cinthy Jimenez Silva, @spyroslytras.bsky.social @jonathonmifsud.bsky.social #StryPhy26

Hope to you see all you next year! @lorneproteins.bsky.social

Lorne Proteins@lorneproteins.bsky.social · 9mo ago

What an amazing group of people at the 2026 Lorne Protein Meeting. Hope we see many of you there again in 2027!

We want to make APSPM 2026 a vibrant and supportive space to share ideas, spark collaborations, and a great experience for everyone attending (in-person or remotely). Feel free to reach out @strphy.bsky.social with any questions/concerns you may have. See you in a few days!

Meet the APSPM 2026 organisers: Caroline, Jordan and Ashar. We're 3 ECRs based in Australia/NZ passionate about protein evolution and developing new approaches and applications to advance this exciting field. biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26/org... @official-smbe.bsky.social

Be part of Lorne Proteins history! Photo session today from 1-1:10 pm. See you there 🎉📷🤩 #lorneproteins2026

Frances Separovic@francesbiophys.bsky.social · 2y ago

Lovely photo taken at the 50th @lorneproteins.bsky.social conference last week. Gathering included some of the greats from the very first #proteins meeting held at Lorne.

Looking forward to sharing our work on the evolution of flagellar proteins! Session 7 - Light-Ning Talks 11am @lorneproteins.bsky.social

Archaeal cytoskeleton proteins provide new insights on the origin of cellular complexity and deep evolution.

Lorne Proteins@lorneproteins.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Sparrow Session kicking off with @kmichie.bsky.social ! Unusual proteins and cellular architecture in Asgard archaea: clues to eukaryotic origins. #lorneproteins2026

Great to see another talk on the bacterial flagellum and learn more about the proteins that make this specialised system in spirochetes.

Lorne Proteins@lorneproteins.bsky.social · 9mo ago

S3: Luca Troman-Spirochete flagellar motors rotate in opposite directions; periplasmic flagella are more complex. Treponema denticola. 2 motors, thick and thin flagella. SPA Native flagella isolation w optiprep cushion, inner core, outer sheath, mystery density - modelangelo! 🕵‍♀️ #lorneproteins2026

A great example of why we need an evolutionary framework to better understand protein function. @lorneproteins.bsky.social

Lorne Proteins@lorneproteins.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Session 3 Architecture of Infection and Defence. Kicking off with Colin Jackson on understanding protein evolution inspired by dunny budgies 🪰🤓 Neofunctionalization, Evolutionary Contingency and Epistasis.

❗⏰ Please remember that the deadline for submitting your applications for abstracts and awards for SMBE 2026 ends today. Join us in Copenhagen from June 28 to July 2 for a fantastic meeting! #SMBE2026

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution@official-smbe.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Abstract submission & Award applications for SMBE 2026 are now open! Submit your research and apply for SMBE awards via the submission portal. 📝 Read more & submit here: smbe2026.org/abstracts And symposium selection is now finalized! 👉 See all accepted symposia: smbe2026.org/programme #SMBE2026