What a Friday, finally seeing this published in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social! We hope this will be of interest to anyone working in the bacterial immune system field (or microbiology in general), and who wants an evolutionary take on it 🦠🧫 Open Access link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nllx,L%7E...

Ellinor Alseth@ellinoralseth.bsky.social · 4mo ago

When is an antiphage mechanism an evolved defence adaptation? This question has been on my mind for so long, because despite the field’s rapid progress there is currently no widely agreed framework in place to answer it. So @brownlab.bsky.social and I wrote this, and I'm happy to share the preprint!

A wonderful review by Stefano on 100 years of Lotka–Volterra models. Don’t miss the incredibly detailed Supplement, truly the “War and Peace” of LV models. I really wish it had existed when I was a grad student! doi.org/10.1146/annu...

One Hundred Years of Lotka–Volterra Models

Over the past century, the generalized Lotka–Volterra (GLV) model has grown from a mathematical curiosity to a cornerstone of theoretical ecology. Here we celebrate the enduring legacy of Lotka and Vo...

doi.org

Over the past year, I’ve been thinking a lot about functional redundancy. A concept that seems so intuitive it almost feels boring, until you really start thinking it through. So excited to see the results of this brain-twisting thought process now out 🥳 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Are you into mathematical modelling of ecological and evolutionary systems? Look at this job ad for a senior lecturer in Lund. I've visited many times, splendid compact city, splendid department! lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology

Lund University welcomes applicants with different backgrounds and experiences. Gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity are fundamental principles in all parts of the University’s activit

lu.varbi.com

Very grateful to the editorial board for the opportunity to write about a topic I care deeply about. This review is deliberately opinionated, a personal view of where theory in community ecology stands and where it might go next. Pushback and disagreement are very welcome! doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Toward a Conceptual Commons for Theory in Community Ecology

Community ecology has developed a rich and increasingly diverse body of theory, but its rapid expansion has outpaced efforts to compare and synthesize competing frameworks. As a result, semantic ambig...

doi.org

New 📃🚨! @rosetrappes.bsky.social & I explore how #environment & #niche concepts are understood & mobilized across the life sciences & beyond, highlighting similarities & differences through a rich range of examples! 👇 philsci-archive.pitt.edu/30940/ #HPbio #philsci #philsky #evobio #envhum #HPS

Come and work with us (the Kokkonuts) as a postdoc! Our research within (theory-evo-eco) is broad; let's say it's implicitly defined by the journal club papers we read. Which is why the application process includes a JC-related task, I hope it'll be a fun one for you! www.evoldir.net/brian/evoldi...

As I return to some of my bookmarks for the current manuscript, I also return to the words and images in the inaugural issue of Draught journal—an unceasing dialogue between past and present. draughtjournal.com/article/on-b...

On Bookmarks and Other Ruins

<p>There is something indescribably intimate about the act of interrupting one’s reading, the act of marking one’s place in a book, a subtle gesture t

draughtjournal.com

What happens when chaos meets noise in evolutionary game theory? 🌀🎲 We’ll explore the interplay between complexity and stochasticity in my upcoming talk at @juliacon.org Join us live on YouTube! 🔗 www.youtube.com/@TheJuliaLan... (Main stage - Tent) #ComplexSystems #EvoSky

As simulations grow in complexity, a set of non-trivial issues emerge: diminished identifiability as free parameters become too numerous relative to exp. constraints & difficulties grasping causality. In our new 📄, we point to potential avenues to move #CellBio forward 👇 arxiv.org/abs/2608.06998

Simulating is not always understanding: When model complexity obscures biology

In cell biology, computational models of biological systems range from minimal representations with a handful of parameters to whole-cell simulations tracking thousands of molecular species across a c...

arxiv.org

The Ramsey Lab@theramseylab.bsky.social · last mo.

New 📄 🚨! #CellBio is teeming with simulations comprising an extraordinarily high number of components. We argue that model complexity will not automatically lead to a better understanding of biological systems & discuss how modeling practices could be repurposed: arxiv.org/abs/2608.06998 #philsci

📣 We’re hiring a postdoc for @hot-mes-asu.bsky.social ! 🦠🔬 We’re looking for someone excited about microbial interactions, ecology & evolution, and using molecular genetics and microfluidics to understand microbial communities. Come do fun science with us! apply.interfolio.com/190859

Ever wondered how new evolutionary individuals arise? Wanted to engineer communities so the parts integrate to form a new whole? Or impose conditions that cause simple chemistries to become Darwinian? New MS shows how. Psst… don’t tell AI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Forging an evolutionary individual from separate replicators

A central puzzle in the evolution of individuality is the origin of heredity. Egalitarian transitions integrate formerly independent replicators into a higher-level individual, but this requires the c...

biorxiv.org

Looking for an Associate Prof position? Interested in behavioural ecology & cultural evolution? Come join us at the Dpt of Ecology and Evolution in Lausanne🇨🇭 @dee-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social! Great department & great place to live. Pls RP. Apply here: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...

wanna read the latest overview of “internal evolutionary conflicts” — scenarios where genes spread despite being organism-deleterious? and wanna learn how to model them? look at our new preprint! we introduce unifying ideas, and try hard to write accessibly. small 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Applications are open for SFI's 2027 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI is looking for recent Ph.D. graduates with strong quantitative and computational skills who want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research. Deadline: September 30, 2026 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Our paper unpacking "fitness" is out doi.org/10.1093/gene.... How to define fitness depends on what question you ask. Selection acts on organismal vital rates, longer-term outcomes make sense for genetic lineages, models link them. "Invasion fitness" = speed, but sometimes probability matters more.

Why there are so many definitions of fitness in models

Abstract. Evolutionary “fitness” is operationalized in many different ways in models. Its role is to quantify that which is favored by natural selection. G

doi.org

Joanna Masel@joannamasel.bsky.social · 2y ago

Our latest preprint doi.org/10.32942/X2V... explains why fitness can be defined in so many ways, and which version(s) you should use when. Fitness quantifies what natural selection favors. 1/

For those of you at #ISBE2026, I will be presenting some of my work tomorrow (Friday the 24th) at 13:15, in the Auditorium Agnelli. Would love to see you there!

1/4 Every good defence needs a backup! 🛡️⚔ Out now in @natrevmicro.nature.com our Comment on "𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴"! 🎉 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Immune safeguarding as a conserved principle of antiviral defence - Nature Reviews Microbiology

All organisms defend against viral infections through active immunity mechanisms that clear the virus or population-level mechanisms that cause regulated cell death. Recent research increasingly shows...

nature.com

Nostos: il ritorno (1989), Franco Piavoli.

Beautiful new pre-print by @lambdapp.bsky.social! Rather than asking whether microbial interactions are mainly positive or negative, Prajwal asks: how strong or weak are they and why? The answer: not Gaussian, but skewed. This is similar to larger organisms, but not for the same reason. Read it!

Prajwal Padmanabha@lambdapp.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Very happy to share that the work I've been doing with @saramitri.bsky.social is now out on biorxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We broadly ask how are microbial interactions distributed, is there a common shape across datasets, what drives it, and why it matters. Summary thread below 🧵 1/17

Excited to share that I've been awarded a 5-year NIH MIRA (R35) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences! The lab is growing! We're recruiting postdocs and research techs interested in microbial ecology, quantitative microscopy, microfluidics, and molecular biology. Please share!

🚨Join us at the University of Geneva! We're seeking an outstanding junior researcher to apply for an ERC or SNSF Starting Grant with our institutional support in host–pathogen interactions, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, or mycology. www.unige.ch/medecine/mim... Please share!

Discovery of bacterial immunity against plasmid conjugation. Massive effort, impressive work

Xavier Charpentier@labxc.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#microsky New preprint from the lab! Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Kudos to the extremely talented lead author Ludovic Poiré! Key contributions by @francoisrousset.bsky.social and also help from C. Lesterlin/TacC lab. 🧵⬇️

My department @eth-dbiol.bsky.social at ETH Zurich is hiring for a tenured professor in mol cell bio and biochemistry (associate/full). The position is within the Institute of Biochemistry (www.bc.biol.ethz.ch) and it is fairly open within their scope of research. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Professor of Molecular Cell Biology and Biochemistry - Zurich, Switzerland job with ETH Zurich | 12861386

The Department of Biology at ETH Zurich invites applications for the above-mentioned tenured professorship at the Institute of Biochemistry

nature.com

Have ideas for your own, independent research program in Theoretical Biology? Then come and join us as a Group Leader at the @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social in Plön, Germany!

Group Leader in Theoretical Biology (m/f/d)

Experience in Theoretical Biology, Applied Mathematics, Theoretical Physics

mpg.de

1/3 🚨New Perspective🚨 (@genetics-gsa.bsky.social) "When evolvability meets constraint: reflections on empirical fitness landscapes after Weinreich et al. (2006)" 20 years after a seminal study, I discuss the forces that both constrain evolution + make it possible academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

When evolvability meets constraint: reflections on empirical fitness landscapes after Weinreich et al. (2006)

Abstract. In 2006, a manuscript appeared with a provocative title: “Darwinian evolution can follow only very few mutational paths to fitter proteins.” Twen

academic.oup.com

Out Now! Epistatic interactions inform rational design of synthetic microbial communities for bioremediation #MicroSky

Epistatic interactions inform rational design of synthetic microbial communities for bioremediation

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 29 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02386-4By taking into account the impacts of species presence, absence and potential interactions, synthetic soil microbial consortia are designed to degrade the toxic environmental contaminant bisphenol-A.

go.nature.com

New #microsky#AMR Perspective paper with @penamiller.bsky.social rdcu.be/fqBJo ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE (IE MIC) AND TOLERANCE ARE NOT BACTERIAL TRAITS! Please read on if you want an explanation for this provocative claim.

Beyond resistance and tolerance: rethinking evolutionary responses to antibiotics from the perspective of individual bacterial cells

Nature Communications - Beyond resistance and tolerance: rethinking evolutionary responses to antibiotics from the perspective of individual bacterial cells

rdcu.be

🎉 Félicitations aux professeures 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗿𝗶 @saramitri.bsky.social @dmf-unil.bsky.social et 𝗧𝗮𝗻𝗷𝗮 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 au Département d’écologie et évolution @fbm-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social qui reçoivent chacune un ERC Advanced Grant @erc.europa.eu 👉 www.unil.ch/news/fr/1781...

Deux ERC Advanced Grants pour la FBM

Les professeures Sara Mitri, au Département de microbiologie fondamentale, et Tanja Schwander, au Département d’écologie et évolution de l’Unil, reçoivent chacune un ERC Advanced Grant de l’European R...

unil.ch

Eye-opening work by @olimeacock.bsky.social (former postdoc, now PI in Sheffield). He presents an exact mapping from steady-state consumer-resource to generalized Lotka-Volterra models, revealing that cross-feeding can lead to competition for other limiting resources. Feedback pls!

Oliver Meacock@olimeacock.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New preprint from @saramitri.bsky.social and me: tinyurl.com/3dsjnm4d The headline result - we derive a general way to connect mechanistic ecosystem models to the gLV equation. This reveals that strengthening cooperative mechanisms can make effective gLV interactions increasingly competitive. Weird!