Early nutrition can shape insects for life, but responses vary by genetics. This #ProcB study found larval diet affected growth, development and reproduction differently across eight black soldier fly lines, life stages and sexes doi.org/10.1098/rspb... | #Ecology #Evolution

Old-growth grasslands are slow to recover once destroyed. Characteristic plants of such grasslands are shorter and have smaller leaves with less nitrogen than plants in secondary grasslands, which are resource-acquisitive and more competitive. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/zOl950ZFVFu

🚀 We're excited to launch ISME Host Microbe—a new fully open access journal dedicated to the ecology of host–microbe interactions. Read the inaugural editorial & submit your best science: academic.oup.com/ismehm/artic... #MicrobialEcology #Microbiome #OneHealth

Apply for a #CPEP Clinical Fellowship & dive into a 2-yr postgrad training program in medical & public health lab microbiology or medical lab immunology. The deadline for most programs is Aug. 31. Time is running out—apply at asm.social/31i #ASMClinMicro

Happy birthday to Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), scientist and Augustinian friar who posthumously gained fame for establishing many of the rules of heredity, fundamental to modern genetics. 🧪🐡 #histsci By carefully crossbreeding pea plants and tracing seven characteristics (plant height,

What looks like a peaceful eelgrass meadow is full of high-stakes interactions. The "Bulletin" July cover image comes from a companion photo gallery to an "Ecology" study showing how seagrass habitat shapes predation risk for crustaceans Find the full issue: tinyurl.com/2mh64rpw

In coral reefs, dissolved organic matter (DOM) fuels microbial growth that harms corals. In #mSystems: new insights into how phages interact with DOM, showing that cell-associated phages are associated with more energy-rich organic compounds. asm.social/2ZL

(1/5) While I was standing at the door welcoming students into Botany lecture yesterday, another instructor walking by smiled and said, "That's cute." What they said felt a tiny bit dismissive, because welcoming students at the door is an important and very intentional part of my teaching. 🌱👩‍🏫

It's Tuesday! Time for a new episode of #MattersMicrobial! This time, Dr. Hannah Reich joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss phycosymbiosis: how bacteria and algae interact! This was recorded at ASM Microbe. @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology youtu.be/f6irLu3BWg0?...

Oxidative stress reshapes diatom-microbiome interactions by shifting benefits from mutualistic to opportunistic bacteria www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs 🌊

Can we use ecological principles to increase coexistence in synthetic bacterial communities? Our new paper is now out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: "Environmental complexity shapes maintenance of bacterial diversity through context-dependent interactions among niche axes" doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Environmental complexity shapes maintenance of bacterial diversity through context-dependent interactions among niche axes

Abstract. Microbial communities are often more species-rich than predicted from classical ecological models. The high levels of coexistence observed in nat

academic.oup.com

Happy PRIDE month! Here are just a few queer scientists who have changed history: Alan Turing, Modern computing Sally Ride, Space exploration Nergis Mavalvala, Gravitational waves Ben Barres, Neuroscience Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Cosmology Lynn Conway, Microchips & computing

New paper out! How do species coexist through invasion cycles (like the classic✂️🪨📄) in nature? We introduce a general framework linking the structure of species interactions to the emergence of complex ecological cycles esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Our new study is out, in which we used a gradient design to show how light and nutrients interactively shape the thermal traits of phytoplankton.🌊🌞🌡️🥗 Long story short: Interactions do matter - and #thermaltraits differ in their #resource-dependency. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really useful paper explaining why richness/diversity metrics are rarely informative when applied to microbial community sequencing data: enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Rethinking Alpha Diversity in Marker‐Gene Microbiome Studies: Dominance Matters More Than Richness

Marker-gene microbiome surveys systematically under-sample rare taxa, causing alpha diversity metrics to reflect dominance rather than true richness. This conceptual mismatch can lead to misleading e...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Wrapping up a great 5 days of learning and networking with all of the great researchers at #ASMicrobe @asm.org Before I fly home, I had to stop by @padilla.senate.gov’s office to share why microbes are so important. We need our leaders to advocate for us, funding basic and applied science! 🧬 🧫 👩🏻‍🔬 🌱

Listening to @benwolfe.bsky.social talk about microbial evolution in cheese making. Ben is an awesome thinker and communicator. Wow! #ASMicrobe

Hey #ASMMicrobe, if you are interested in bacterial coexistence come see my colleague Jess Gronniger present on her work testing ecological theory in a synthetic community! Saturday (today!) at 2pm 145AB. A sneak peek into our recently accepted research!! #ASMicrobe #MICROBE2026

"There's a lot of power in good vibes and positivity." A wonderful Q&A, if I do say so myself, with biology educator Alexander Eden, Ph.D. about how he creates creative assignments to help students engage with #biology through pop culture! www.fromthelabbench.com/from-the-lab... #sciart #STEM

How can we better engage students in biology? Hint: Superheroes. — FromTheLabBench

Alexander Eden is a biologist, science educator, and education scholar who is most adamant about having fun. He’s been teaching at Salem State University, but will soon join the University of Minneso...

fromthelabbench.com

Microbial Primer: Bacterial energy metabolism www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #jcampubs

Microbial Primer: Bacterial energy metabolism

All cells need energy to perform their functions. This primer introduces energy metabolism in bacteria, with a focus on key pathways and examples from model organisms, while acknowledging that bacteri...

microbiologyresearch.org

Excited to share our new paper, “Microbial ecology for all: A vision of accessibility, unity, and responsibility.” Thankful to the people I worked with on this and to be growing as an early-career researcher in the field!! 🍄 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Microbial ecology for all: A vision of accessibility, unity, and responsibility

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature, representing a significant portion of global biodiversity and playing vital roles in ecosystem functions, biogeochemical cycles, and organismal health. The gr...

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

#statstab #482 Introducing Causion: A web app for playing with DAGs Thoughts: A very cool app. Let's you see exactly what your assumptions and DGP mean for your causal model. #causal #causalinference #DAG #DAGs #dgp #tutorial #guide #education #pedagogy pedermisager.org/blog/causion...

Introducing Causion: A web app for playing with DAGs | Peder M. Isager

Personal website of Dr. Peder M. Isager

pedermisager.org

Bacterial Strain Identity and Community Composition Drive the Seed-to-Seedling Microbiota Assembly https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703190v1

DeepKOALA: A Fast and Accurate Deep Learning Framework for KEGG Orthology Assignment www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs

Approaches for accelerating microbial gene function discovery using artificial intelligence www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Approaches for accelerating microbial gene function discovery using artificial intelligence - Nature Microbiology

In this Review, the authors discuss how artificial intelligence can aid microbial gene function discovery.

nature.com

Every time I catch academic dishonesty, I require a re-write/re-do. Not only does this give students a chance to make up for their mistake, but they get a chance to see what they can do when they are held accountable. It's more work & stress on me but IMO it's worth it. 1/4

Localized nutrient colimitation of phytoplankton growth rates across the subtropical South Pacific Ocean www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs 🌊

Localized nutrient colimitation of phytoplankton growth rates across the subtropical South Pacific Ocean | PNAS

The simultaneous depletion of multiple nutrients in seawater potentially leads to colimitation of phytoplankton growth across large oceanic extents...

pnas.org

🧬🦠🚨 Another new paper alert, this time led by @maureenbug.bsky.social ! In collaboration with the Emerson lab and @titus.idyll.org lab (@taylorreiter.bsky.social), both at UC Davis. Asking the question: what are we missing in short-read metagenome assembly, and why ? doi.org/10.1093/narg...

Comparison of short-read and long-read metagenome assemblies in a natural soil community highlights systematic bias in recovery of high-diversity populations

Abstract. Comparisons of long-read and short-read (meta)genome assemblies typically show that short-read sequence assemblies are less error-prone, but stru

doi.org