We are excited to share our new preprint, “Canonical pathoadaptive cystic fibrosis genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa are not CF-specific”! 🦠 Great project with @emehlferber.bsky.social and @brownlab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread below 🧵

Canonical pathoadaptive cystic fibrosis genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa are not CF-specific

Research on Pseudomonas aeruginosa adaptation in cystic fibrosis (CF) has historically relied on comparing chronic isolates to laboratory reference strains, or evolving reference strains in environmen...

biorxiv.org

Hey everyone! Happy to announce the completion of a longstanding project in partnership with @irisirby.bsky.social and @brownlab.bsky.social that I have been really excited about. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Canonical pathoadaptive cystic fibrosis genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa are not CF-specific

Research on Pseudomonas aeruginosa adaptation in cystic fibrosis (CF) has historically relied on comparing chronic isolates to laboratory reference strains, or evolving reference strains in environmen...

biorxiv.org

Thanks @markowenmartin.bsky.social, this was great fun to do, I really enjoyed our chat. Keep up the great work!

Mark O. Martin@markowenmartin.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It’s a day late, but worth the wait: on this episode of #MattersMicrobial, Dr. Sam Brown chats with the #QualityQuorum about generalists, specialists, and sociomicrobiology. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWorld. @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology @microbe.tv youtu.be/K_gEeazaCQM?...

It’s a day late, but worth the wait: on this episode of #MattersMicrobial, Dr. Sam Brown chats with the #QualityQuorum about generalists, specialists, and sociomicrobiology. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWorld. @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology @microbe.tv youtu.be/K_gEeazaCQM?...

Congrats @emehlferber.bsky.social and team! This is one of my fave visualizations: summarizing how PA “sees” some environments as more or less similar based on shared genomic signatures. Chronic infections cluster tightly, but are still distinguishable by a smaller set of features.

Eli Mehlferber@emehlferber.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Hey all! Happy to finally join everyone here on Bluesky, and also to share the culmination of my longest-running postdoc project, now on bioRxiv: “Apparent generalism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is underpinned by convergent cryptic specialization.” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Hey all! Happy to finally join everyone here on Bluesky, and also to share the culmination of my longest-running postdoc project, now on bioRxiv: “Apparent generalism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is underpinned by convergent cryptic specialization.” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I also often think "hang on, is this defence system actually there for phage defence?" Great work both!

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!

This was a really fun collaboration and I learnt a ton, including how much more we have to learn about defense mechanisms (or are they attack mechanisms? or alt-hypothesis-here mechanisms?). Such a great arena for interdisc. work. Thanks @ellinoralseth.bsky.social for getting me on board!

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!

Recent work from the lab showing how presence of O-antigen deficient Pseudomonas variants change aggregate assembly and microbiogeography of infection journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Whole-tissue imaging reveals intrastrain diversity shapes the spatial organization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a murine infection model | mSphere

Intrastrain genetic and phenotypic diversity within Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations is common in chronic pulmonary infections. While this intrastrain heterogeneity is a hallmark of chronic infection, its consequences for the spatial organization of P. aeruginosa within the airways remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the loss of O-specific antigen in a subpopulation of P. aeruginosa significantly alters the spatial architecture of P. aeruginosa, without changing the total population size or composition. Using a combination of tissue clearing and hybridization chain reaction RNA-FISH in a murine lung infection model, we mapped the localization of genetically distinct P. aeruginosa variants in mixed populations in vivo. These findings reveal that genetic diversification within a strain can reshape the infection landscape at the micron scale, highlighting the overlooked role of intrastrain dynamics in shaping the microbiogeography of infections and influencing host-pathogen interactions.

journals.asm.org

A bacterial predator, Halobacteriovorax, acts as a living "probiotic" that halts Vibrio-induced disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals. This shows microbial predators are promising new tools for coral disease therapy! #CoralReefs #MicrobialEcology #ISMEJ academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Halobacteriovorax halts disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals

Abstract. Predation is a top-down regulator of ecosystem integrity and a key driver of community structure and evolution in plants and animals. Despite our

academic.oup.com

Very happy to see this piece out in @plosbiology.org, on the bacterial immune systems and microbial communities. It was a great team effort with Rafael Custodio, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social , @brownlab.bsky.social, and Edze Westra! 🦠🧫 #phagesky #mevosky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Bacterial immune systems as causes and consequences of microbiome structure

Bacterial immune systems have evolved in response to diverse molecular "parasites", yet their ecological roles remain poorly understood. This Essay explores how interactions between mobile genetic ele...

journals.plos.org

The ecological roles of bacterial #immune systems are poorly understood. Rafael Custodio @ellinoralseth.bsky.social @brockhurstlab.bsky.social @brownlab.bsky.social & Edze Westra explore how mobile genetic elements and bacterial defenses shape #microbiome structure and function 🧪

Bacterial immune systems as causes and consequences of microbiome structure

Bacterial immune systems have evolved in response to diverse molecular "parasites", yet their ecological roles remain poorly understood. This Essay explores how interactions between mobile genetic…

plos.io

Thanks Andrew, @jrchandler.bsky.social and @ajaidandekar.bsky.social for great commentary! I totally agree, so much more to do. One exciting prospect is using regulatory wiring knowledge to improve our abilities to predict bug behaviors 'in the wild'. Our fig 7B is encouraging start, IMO.

Ajai Dandekar@ajaidandekar.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Andrew Frando, @jrchandler.bsky.social, and I wrote a primer about excellent work done in Sam Brown's group @brownlab.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Bacterial #QuorumSensing is often assumed to follow a strict hierarchy. @brownlab.bsky.social &co find that #Pseudomonas aeruginosa instead uses a reciprocal, cooperative system that enhances responsiveness to population density & environmental changes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3I7DhRG

I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv: CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/6 👇

Hello world! I'm starting out on bluesky with a job posting - we're looking for lab research tech who shares our love of bugs. More info here brownlab.biology.gatech.edu/opportunities/