Sarah Svensson
@campy-bara.bsky.social
@uni-wuerzburg.de Formerly at the Shanghai Institute Formerly known as Pasteur. Vibrio, Campy, Helicobacter, sRNAs, ecospecies 🇨🇦
🚨 New preprint from our lab at NIAID! We discovered hundreds of sRNAs and mapped RNA–RNA interactions in the Lyme disease pathogen, revealing a dynamic regulatory network and OspR, an sRNA that directly binds and downregulates the mRNA encoding OspA, the antigen used in Lyme disease vaccines! 🧬
Global RNA-RNA interactome mapping in B. burgdorferi reveals base-pairing sRNAs that rewire gene expression across growth
Small RNAs (sRNAs) are prevalent across the bacterial kingdom and produce diverse regulatory effects when base pairing with target RNAs. To better identify sRNAs, we designed an experimental and compu...
biorxiv.org
Your monthly reminder that if you're using ChatGPT to do your science, you're failing your colleagues, community, and all of us. Here, ChatGPT makes up data and presents it as the real thing — then apologizes when confronted.
AltORF-encoded microprotein recruits primary-ORF-encoded dehydrogenase to cell poles upon heat shock https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.22.760973v1
Much of the functional biology encoded in genomes remains hidden in noncoding DNA. In a preprint out today, Patrick Hsu and team introduce COMPASS, a genomic language model-based approach to systematically map this underexplored sequence space.
After tRNA, rRNA, mRNA, RluA apparently also modifies phage RNA (E. coli) 🦠 A host enzyme pseudouridylates an RNA bacteriophage genome and accelerates virus production www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A host enzyme pseudouridylates an RNA bacteriophage genome and accelerates virus production
RNA modifications are prevalent and potent regulators of gene expression across all domains of life. However, whether they exist in bacteriophages and whether they impact phage-host interactions are l...
biorxiv.org
Do you like riddles(and molecular biology)? Maybe you can help me solve this one. We’ve found a short piece of DNA (a plasmid) present in almost all plague samples from the Second Plague Pandemic (1338-1840), but absent in all earlier or later plague cases. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A near-ubiquitous plasmid characterises Second Pandemic Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, crippled population across Eurasia in three well-described historical pandemics: The Justinianic plague (541-780), the Second Pandemic (1346-1840) and t...
biorxiv.org
@joethorntonlab.bsky.social and I are thrilled to co-organize the 2027 Molecular Mechanisms in Evolution GRC, June 13–18, in beautiful Portland, Maine! See our ⭐stellar⭐ lineup of speakers ⬇️ spanning evolutionary biochemistry, cell biology, development, behavior... www.grc.org/molecular-me... 1/n
2027 Molecular Mechanisms in Evolution Conference GRC
The 2027 Gordon Research Conference on Molecular Mechanisms in Evolution will be held in Portland, Maine. Apply today to reserve your spot.
grc.org
Interdependent mode of RNA recognition by the interacting KH-domain proteins KhpA and KhpB https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.12.757534v1
My final postdoc project is out today in Nature! We show microbes co-migrated with humans out of Africa; three independent methods agree, and timing matches archaeological / genetic evidence (Fig. 4c). Seeing Fig. 4c for 1st time was one of my most memorable "eureka" moments! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Prehistoric global migration of vanishing gut microbes with humans - Nature
Microbial species disappearing from industrialized populations have evolved with humans over millennia and migrated worldwide with them—this may have consequences for human health.
doi.org
Andre Geim is the only scientist to win both the Nobel Prize (Physics, 2010) and the Ig Nobel Prize (for levitating a frog in 2000). His secret? He says it was to set up an environment in his lab for doing experiments from a sense of play and a spirit for adventure!
🚀 We're Hiring! The Department of Genetics is seeking an Assistant/Associate Professor in Pathogen Genetics. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to teaching excellence, and join our world leading community in Genetics. 📢 Apply www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...
Assistant/Associate Professor in Pathogen Genetics
Applications are invited for an Assistant or Associate Professorship in Pathogen Genetics to be held in the Department of Genetics. We are searching for a talented individual with a track record of fu...
cam.ac.uk
Our new preprint is out! We show that genomically discrete and ecologically cohesive subspecies are a common feature in the global ocean microbiome, and represent a fundamental level at which ecological and evolutionary forces act to shape microbial diversity www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Genomically and ecologically cohesive subspecies as biologically meaningful units in the global ocean microbiome
Microbial diversity is organised into operationally defined species. However, it remains unclear whether these, or finer-scale groups represent biologically meaningful units in natural communities. He...
biorxiv.org
super cool from the @peterfineran.bsky.social et al Defining the essential genome of diverse phages with phage Tn-seq www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Defining the essential genome of diverse phages with phage Tn-seq - Nature Microbiology
Phage Tn-seq uses Tn5 transposon mutagenesis with anti-CRISPR-based selection and deep sequencing as a method to generate unbiased, genome-wide mutations across diverse phages
nature.com
Call for manuscripts on bacterial chemotaxis and swimming! I'm partnering with JoVE to assemble a new collection of method, reviews, and research. ➡️Abstracts due Nov. 23rd. I invite you to share your love (and knowledge) of swimming bacteria! www.jove.com/topical-coll... 🧪 🦠 🧫 #microsky
So happy to share our paper! We tackle a long-standing question: what shapes dominant microbiome signatures? Using synthetic gut communities, we uncovered a synergy between Enterobacteriaceae and dietary components that promotes Segatella copri in gut microbiomes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Synergy between Enterobacteriaceae and diet mediates competition between dominant Bacteroidales in the human gut - Nature Microbiology
Multiomic experiments using defined and native gut communities reveal that complex dietary glycans mediate the dominance of Prevotellaceae in non-industrialized gut metagenomes through signalling-medi...
nature.com
Hope your day was better than Darwin’s, on this day 165 years ago
Application review for the GRC in Microbial Population Biology will start October 15th! Please apply before then if you are keen on coming. www.grc.org/microbial-po...
The phenotypic landscape of the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis PNAS from Carol A. Gross www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The phenotypic landscape of the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis | PNAS
Firmicutes are gram-positive bacteria with important roles in human health, disease, and industry. However, more than a quarter of genes in the mod...
pnas.org
Our latest, spearheaded by the truly indefatigable @emderrick.bsky.social in which we search for selective sweeps in nature and genetic targets of selection within a species in the context of a diverse background community @isme-microbes.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/isme... 🧵 1/n
Validate User
doi.org
1/5 Do you use GFP to measure protein abundance? Be very careful. Our new bioRxiv preprint shows that, under translation inhibition, fluorescence can stop tracking how much reporter protein is actually there. Please share widely.
"A journal that grows older and stays young" - Wonderful look at Journal of Bacteriology from Editor Tao Dong, through the lens of different career stages and with a global eye. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
A journal that grows older and stays young | Journal of Bacteriology
Few journals in microbiology carry the history, continuity, and influence of the Journal of Bacteriology (JB). Since its founding in 1916, JB has published for more than a century and has served as a ...
journals.asm.org
#thefarside #farside #comic https://www.thefarside.com/2026/09/28/0 “C’mon, c’mon—it’s either one or the other.”
How do Burkholderia multivorans bacteria adaptively evolve during infections of the cystic fibrosis airway? A longtime collab and intensive study of 8 patients links bacterial adaptations to disease progression. Our findings also unite prior studies. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Convergent genetic evolution within Burkholderia multivorans chronic infections correlates with lung function decline in cystic fibrosis patients
The patterns and pathways of pathogen adaptation during chronic infections can reveal the gateways microbes must unlock to colonize and persist. In chronic lung infections of cystic fibrosis (CF) pati...
biorxiv.org
TT Assistant Professor position in Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease at University of Florida
University of Florida - Details - Assistant Professor of Biology
explore.jobs.ufl.edu