I’ve started Academic Renewal, a Substack on research culture, scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge. The first post asks how private concerns about academic life might become an open conversation about incentives, assessment and responsibility. academicrenewal.substack.com/p/why-academ...

Why academic renewal?

From private concern to shared conversation

academicrenewal.substack.com

Join us for the next PopBio seminar this Thursday 28 May! Samay Pande (Indian Institute of Science) @iamsamayp.bsky.social will present a talk titled "Microbial predation as a driver of antibiotic resistance in natural communities" Sign up link: forms.gle/2x8kmq44fpZb...

My team at @cbitoulouse.bsky.social is recruiting a postdoc #bioinformatics with solid experience in metagenomic analyses. Interest in evolution, ecology & MGEs is important. The offer stands until the perfect candidate is found, and it could be you 🫵 🔁 🙏 #microSky #phagesky #UTIsky @cnrs.fr

Happy to share our new paper in PLOS Biology journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... Showed that population bottlenecks don't uniformly drive “cooperation” but rather selectively shape which cooperative traits evolve #evolution #ecology #microbiology @vishuguttal.bsky.social @iamsamayp.bsky.social

Bottleneck size drives the evolution of cooperative traits in an aggregative multicellular myxobacterium

Population bottlenecks shape the evolution of cooperative traits in Myxococcus xanthus through life cycle trade-offs. This study shows that stringent bottlenecks favor growth and sporulation, while re...

journals.plos.org

Very cool paper by Jyotsna Kalathera et al. from @iamsamayp.bsky.social 's-lab on Bottleneck size drives the evolution of cooperative traits in an aggregative multicellular myxobacterium just out @plosbiology.org Congratulations to all coauthors. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Bottleneck size drives the evolution of cooperative traits in an aggregative multicellular myxobacterium

Population bottlenecks shape the evolution of cooperative traits in Myxococcus xanthus through life cycle trade-offs. This study shows that stringent bottlenecks favor growth and sporulation, while re...

journals.plos.org

1/n New paper alert! Bottlenecks are common in life cycles, but how do they shape the evolution of multiple cooperative traits at once? We tested this in M. xanthus under stringent vs relaxed bottlenecks.

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 8mo ago

Population bottlenecks shape the evolution of #cooperative traits in #Myxococcus via #LifeCycle trade-offs. @iamsamayp.bsky.social &co show that stringent bottlenecks favor growth & sporulation, while relaxed bottlenecks favor predation & germination @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3N1nia7

Population bottlenecks shape the evolution of #cooperative traits in #Myxococcus via #LifeCycle trade-offs. @iamsamayp.bsky.social &co show that stringent bottlenecks favor growth & sporulation, while relaxed bottlenecks favor predation & germination @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3N1nia7

Population bottlenecks shape the evolution of #cooperative traits in #Myxococcus via #LifeCycle trade-offs. @iamsamayp.bsky.social &co show that stringent bottlenecks favor growth & sporulation, while relaxed bottlenecks favor predation & germination @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3N1nia7

📢 Postdoc position: Cell Biology of Cyanobacteria in my group, as part of the Excellence Cluster "Microbes for Climate" (M4C) in Marburg, Germany. More information at shorturl.at/wNnDT (see Project 2) 🔗Apply at shorturl.at/VsEDl 📅Deadline: Nov 16, 2025 Please repost. #Postdoc

New pre-print: Plasmid dependent phage effectively eliminate AMR bacteria and block plasmid transmission in the chicken gut microbiome Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester) #phagesky#microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Plasmid dependent phage eliminate pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance plasmids from the chicken gut microbiome

Conjugative plasmids are a key reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in commensal and pathogenic bacteria within the gut microbiome. Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are a promising therapeutic op...

biorxiv.org

Learn how Bacillus siderophore benefit various plant species and the role of the biofilm matrix: our collaboration with Zhihui Xu's group published in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social Siderophore-mediated iron enrichment in the biofilm matrix enhances plant iron nutrition www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Who would have thought: nitrogen-fixing vibrios 😱 that interact with Pokkali rice roots and promote plant growth in brackish water. Amazing! Wonderful to see this detailed and careful investigation out for all to oogle. Many congratulations Ramesh 🎉 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Intrinsic resistance pathways & #ResistanceBreaking. Study shows that inhibiting efflux pumps & cell envelope biogenesis sensitizes #bacteria to #antibiotics, but rapid evolutionary recovery may limit long-term effectiveness of resistance-breaking strategies #AMR @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4huAtvo

Multiple small, curved, predatory bacteria (Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus) lyse the bacterial prey remnants below. How are they doing this & which predator proteins are involved in this process? See our newly released research article 📑 => rdcu.be/eL6gu 🦠 #microsky #bacteria #PredatoryBacteria

New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!! With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature

Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...

cell.com

Evolution of One Species Increases Resistance to Invasion in a Simple Synthetic Community Microbial Ecology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Evolution of One Species Increases Resistance to Invasion in a Simple Synthetic Community - Microbial Ecology

The species that make up a microbial community determine its potential function. A major goal of microbial ecology is to make assemblages of microbes — synthetic communities — with targeted applicatio...

link.springer.com

A fun little side project I've been working on with @stepadenisov.bsky.social , Mato Lagator, and Andreas Wagner: "Strong promoters are mutationally robust". Briefly... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Strong promoters are mutationally robust

Mutational robustness is the persistence of a phenotype upon mutation. It facilitates molecular evolution and has been characterized in a variety of biological systems, but studies of prokaryotic prom...

biorxiv.org

#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social A PhD position is available in my lab to work on: Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria. Please RT Deadline: 12.11.25 More infos 👇 shorturl.at/rAKAT

New paper out in @pubs.acs.org Analytical Chemistry! We show that Raman spectroscopy can identify biochemical signatures of spores in Myxococcus xanthus, and that these signatures can predict germination efficiency across natural isolates. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Raman Spectral Predictors of Spore Germination Efficiency in Natural Isolates of Myxococcus xanthus

Due to the prevalence and importance of dormant microbial forms in regulating microbial ecosystems, the generation of dormant structures, like spores, has been extensively studied. However, several aspects of the exit of bacterial spores from dormancy, i.e., the germination of spores, remain relatively unclear. Since the biology of cells before transitioning into spores and the biology of the spores themselves could potentially influence the germination process, we used Myxococcus xanthus as a model organism to demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy can be used to characterize the factors that affect the ability of individual cells and spores to sporulate and germinate, respectively. M. xanthus is a Gram-negative soil bacterium that forms spore-filled multicellular fruiting bodies upon starvation. Single-cell Raman spectral profiling revealed lower Raman peak intensities of nucleic acids as a marker for the beginning of sporulation. Moreover, Raman profiles of sporulating cells of M. xanthus demonstrated that the lipid peaks increased during the initial sporulation phase before decreasing during the late sporulation phase. We also observed higher carotenoid peaks in spores than in cells, which might explain the reason for spores being more tolerant to oxidative stress than the cells. Significantly, the trends in Raman bands of nucleic acids and proteins observed in the lab strain were also observed in the natural isolates. Furthermore, partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis of peak intensities of the most significantly affected chemical groups demonstrated a strong correlation between Raman spectra and germination efficiencies of spores, suggesting that such spectral markers are potential indicators of the germination efficiency of the spore population.

pubs.acs.org

Not many positions offer this rare combination: exciting research questions, a highly supportive work atmosphere, and an exceptional mentor @KostChristian . If you’re in theoretical biology and want to collaborate closely with experimentalists, this is it!

Christian Kost@kostchristian.bsky.social · last yr.

I am excited to announce that the position of a senior postdoc (3 +3 years) in the field of theoretical biology is available in my group. The position provides the opportunity to closely interact with experimentalists and develop own research projects. Please RT. Details 👇: shorturl.at/iiiOv

Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #MicroSKy #Microbiology

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities

In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...

science.org

New paper alert! We show that adaptation to the bacterial predator Myxococcus xanthus shapes how prey bacteria like E. coli evolve antibiotic resistance. Now online at NPJ Antimicrobials and Resistance !! www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Coevolutionary history of predation constrains the evolvability of antibiotic resistance in prey bacteria - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Coevolutionary history of predation constrains the evolvability of antibiotic resistance in prey bacteria

nature.com

Fun to see our recent study featured in The Microbiologist. A short news article highlights our work on how predatory bacteria can drive antibiotic resistance—even in pristine soils, without antibiotics. www.the-microbiologist.com/news/antimic...

Antimicrobial resistance in soil bacteria without the use of antibiotics

Overuse of antibiotics is currently the primary reason for the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but researchers have shown that AMR can be found in soil bacterial communities due to microbial i...

the-microbiologist.com

1/ 🧬 New Research Alert! Discover how the actin-like protein MreB influences bacterial cell shape and fitness in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25. #Microbiology #BacterialShape

You want to learn about microbiology from a fantastic lineup of speakers on a beautiful Greek island? PhD students apply now for the @EMBO | @FEBSnews Lecture Course The New Microbiology! Registration: 1 Apr 2025 Course: 03 – 11 Sep 2025 | Spetses, Greece meetings.embo.org/event/25-new...

Post doc in Europe? 🇪🇺🔬💡 It’s open to anyone in the 🌍 Call open 9 April 25 marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/post...

1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment - Nature

In the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment, diploid yeast evolve to be tetraploid under selection for larger multicellular size, revealing how whole-genome duplication can arise due to its...

nature.com

New paper out in ISME Journal. Social interactions between strains shape bacterial communities. However, their impact on community functioning is lower compared to basic strain identity features. @joskramer.bsky.social @alexfig.bsky.social @simonmarech.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Strain identity effects contribute more to Pseudomonas community functioning than strain interactions

Abstract. Microbial communities can shape key ecological services, but the determinants of their functioning often remain little understood. While traditio

academic.oup.com

Two (!) perspective pieces published today involving people from our lab! @adelpanta.bsky.social on spatial patterning in microbial communities www.nature.com/articles/s41... and @salazarafra.bsky.social on microbial communities as evolutionary individuals www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities - npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities

nature.com

Nice to see how this project developed through the years & published in @currentbiology.bsky.social by Saheli Saha et al from @iamsamayp.bsky.social group 👏 Mass lysis of predatory bacteria drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mass lysis of predatory bacteria drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities

Saha et al. show that the predatory bacterium M. xanthus enriches the frequency of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in soil communities. This occurs because starvation-induced mass lysis of M. xanthus ce...

cell.com