Here it is. My manifesto for the 2026 Clacton By-Election. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Join me, clean up Clacton and let's make 13th August Bin Day! #VoteBinface #VoteyMcVoteface #YesWeTinCan

Biology has plenty of data—the challenge is making it usable. AllTheBacteria transforms 2.44 million public bacterial and archaeal genomes into an open, uniformly processed, searchable, AI-ready resource. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

AllTheBacteria: a community resource empowers biology and discovers novel peptide antibiotics

Public microbial genomes encode an immense record of biological diversity, evolution and molecular function, but much of this information remains difficult to reuse because raw sequencing data are not...

biorxiv.org

E. coli prepares for starvation by dramatically remodeling its proteome in the first hours after loss of nutrients link.springer.com/article/10.1... #jcampubs

E. coli prepares for starvation by dramatically remodeling its proteome in the first hours after loss of nutrients - Molecular Systems Biology

Although in the wild bacteria likely spend most of their time deprived of nutrients and slowly starving to death, very little is known about how bacteria adapt their phenotype to starvation. Here we c...

link.springer.com

New paper out today in Nature Microbiology: "Epistatic interactions inform rational design of synthetic microbial communities for bioremediation." 🧵https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-026-02386-4 @kiseokmicro.bsky.social @nitmb.bsky.social

@hifmb.de advertised 5 post-doc positions to work on social science / basic science interface, and here is a blog post to tell you why I care about this, and what it looks like: merenlab.org/blog/HIPP-on... Please spread the word if you can.

I'm happy to announce the release of GlobDB r232! This version contains 346,233 bacterial and archaeal genomes, based on 26 datasets. More info globdb.org 🦠🖥️🧬

Just as human communities are diverse, microbial ones are too 🌈 Fittingly for Pride Month, this rainbow "tent" maps all possible microbial interactions. Its corners reveal different ecological relationships, from specialization and commensalism to mutualism. @ds-vienna.bsky.social @univie.ac.at

Jürgen Zanghellini@juergenzanghellini.bsky.social · last mo.

What does a tent ⛺ have to do with microbial communities? A lot, actually! It describes the microbial playground. Its corners reveal ways they can interact: from specialization to commensalism to mutualism Check out how geometry reveals rules for microbial interactions doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

I'm hiring a #postdoc 🥳 and applications are open 🤩 Candidates with interests in EITHER statistical methodology or microbial ecology / microbiome are welcome to apply. The position / projects will be tailored to the candidate 🌟📈🎤 Thank you for sharing widely! apply.interfolio.com/188571

What does a tent ⛺ have to do with microbial communities? A lot, actually! It describes the microbial playground. Its corners reveal ways they can interact: from specialization to commensalism to mutualism Check out how geometry reveals rules for microbial interactions doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

🦠🧪Join us for a 12-month technician position where you'll be characterising strains and building defined microbial communities @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social Part of @microbesplanet.bsky.social tinyurl.com/inform-micro... Apply by July 19, starting September 2026!

With new law, European Union can more quickly greenlight gene-edited crops www.science.org/content/arti...

With new law, European Union can more quickly greenlight gene-edited crops

Final political hurdle overcome, easing regulation of certain modified plants

science.org

In a series of workshops last year, we discussed the term ‘synthetic community’ and its usage. It’s so loosely defined and is regularly used to define something which in my eyes isn’t a SynCom. The discussion was also touching on whether the term itself is appropriate.

And here it is: the final protocols for your future favorite 16S rRNA gene primer pair for anplicon sequencing studies -> V4EXT. P.S. Mighty are the small ones - metric💩tons of Patescibacteria everywhere. Except in 💩, that is. academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Revised 16S rRNA V4 hypervariable region targeting primers enhance detection of Patescibacteria and other lineages across diverse environments

Abstract. Primer bias in 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing can distort microbial diversity estimates by underrepresenting key taxa. We introduce a modified

academic.oup.com

The version of record of our revised preprint is finally out today. In it, we introduce a fast and reliable methdology for the full factorial design of microbial communities, i.e. constructing every monoculture, pair, trio, four-member,... n-member co-culture of N strains. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Full factorial construction of synthetic microbial communities

A rapid, inexpensive, and easy to implement experimental protocol enables the construction of combinatorially complete sets of microbial consortia.

doi.org

Hey y'all, exciting news! New paper in preprint :). Nucleocytoviricota discovery, virophages, polinton-like viruses with a touch of ecology and evolution! doi.org/10.64898/202... Let me know what you think (scary thing to say online, but well...)

Anouk Willemsen@willemsenanouk.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New Work out! A multilayered network reveals the centrality of newly discovered #Nucleocytoviricota in wastewater treatment plant communities w/ @dominikluecking.bsky.social & @amanzanom.bsky.social doi.org/10.64898/202... @erc.europa.eu @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social 1/4

Interested in working on the evolution of photosynthetic endosymbioses? Come join us! I have 2 open positions in my new group @cemess.bsky.social in Vienna 3yr postdoc info: tinyurl.com/4emkjpn4 4yr PhD info: tinyurl.com/mtxmsjpy Apply by 1st June! Please share/repost #Protists #Symbiosis #PhD

Growth costs of suboptimal protein allocation in nonlinear models of growing cells doi.org/10.64898/202...

GTDB release 11 based on RefSeq 232 (R11-RS232) is live at gtdb.ecogenomic.org. This release covers 901,341 genomes (23% increase) and has 199,923 species clusters (39% increase). Release notes at: forum.gtdb.ecogenomic.org/t/announcing.... Release statistics at: gtdb.ecogenomic.org/stats/r232.

What if universities used undergraduates to make biological reagents? No, I don’t mean melting the students. I mean training people in biomanufacturing to reduce research costs. Thread + diagram, hopefully thought-provoking

Es geht los! 🚀 Folge 1 unseres Podcasts „Die Welt der Mikroben“. Mit Florian Freistetter reisen wir zu den Anfängen: Von römischen Sümpfen bis zur Mundhygiene des 17. Jhd. Link im ersten Kommentar 👇 @fwf-at.bsky.social

Excited to share that our podcast 'Die Welt der Mikroben - The World of Microbes' launches tomorrow, March 27. Florian Freistetter (DE) & Rebecca Gallo + CoE Key Researchers (EN) explore the hidden world of microbes with MicroPlanet. New episodes every 2 weeks! #Microsky #Archaeasky #scicomm

We now provide environmental metadata for the GlobDB genomes! 🖥️🧬🦠 More info here: globdb.org/news 🧵

Slow and steady! After 15 years of continuous cultivation, we finally isolated the first psychrotolerant ammonia-oxidizing archaeon (AOA) from an arctic environment, Ca. Nitrosocosmicus articus! Our new article in Frontiers in Microbiology: doi.org/10.3389/fmic...

Available now on BBC radio "In our time: Archaea" with Christa Schleper, Thorsten Allers and Buzz Baum discussing the evolution of complex cells with Misha Glenny. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Archaea

How a discovery in the 1970s changed the theory of the origin of complex life on earth.

bbc.co.uk

Engineering synthetic co-cultures to be "needy" leads to unexpected consequences. We barely scratch the surface here, but get some interesting insights #biotech 🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Characterising complex metabolic responses in an engineered, cross-feeding microbial co-culture using quantitative proteomics

Microbial communities play a key role in biogeochemical transformations in a wide range of ecosystems, but they also hold significant potential to enh…

sciencedirect.com

Interested in microbial proteins and their diversity? 🖥️🧬🦠 We have recently released the Amino Acid Sequence Toolkit (AASTK). AASTK is designed to work with the GlobDB to create and work with datasets of protein sequences. AASTK currently consists of 4 tools: - CASM - PASR - CUGO - Meta 1/

Very excited about this, especially to work more closely with @patrickschimmel.bsky.social ! We will look at the establishment of gut and soil microbiomes following interventions through the lens of metabolic fluxes, and explore if there are shared principles of community assembly!

Cluster of Excellence 'MicroPlanet'@microbesplanet.bsky.social · 6mo ago

2/3 💩🌱CoE Postdocs @patrickschimmel.bsky.social from @gorkiewiczlab.bsky.social @medunigraz.at and @bcoltman.bsky.social from @kathikitzinger.bsky.social group @cemess.bsky.social @univie.ac.at are investigating if recovery principles are conserved across human guts and plant-soil microbiomes.

Both MRC and BBSRC responsive modes now withdrawn until further notice. Existing applications unlikely to succeed (late 2025 round expecting 1-5% success rate). Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating. Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky

MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News

Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls

researchprofessionalnews.com

We just released #anvio v9, "eunice" 🎉 This version represents over 2,000 changes in the codebase since v8, increasing the total number of programs in the anvi'o ecosystem to 176. Read the release notes: github.com/merenlab/anv... Visit our up-to-date web page: anvio.org

With the release of anvi'o v9, the 300k+ contigs databases available for download on the GlobDB website are now compatible with both the development version and the latest stable release (v9) of anvi'o. More info: globdb.org/news Thanks #anvio team! 🖥️🧬🦠

A. Murat Eren (Meren)@merenbey.bsky.social · 7mo ago

We just released #anvio v9, "eunice" 🎉 This version represents over 2,000 changes in the codebase since v8, increasing the total number of programs in the anvi'o ecosystem to 176. Read the release notes: github.com/merenlab/anv... Visit our up-to-date web page: anvio.org