Make sure to put this in your calendars! events.seas.harvard.edu/event/alma-d...

Alma Dal Co Memorial Lecture: Team Bacteria versus Team Phage

events.seas.harvard.edu

A study by @oceanna.bsky.social et al. reveals a dynamic equilibrium: symbiotic communities in gutless oligochaetes remain highly stable on a micro-evolutionary scale, but change rapidly over short macro-evolutionary timescales as host species diverge. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Stability in flexibility: Shifting alliances stabilize the symbioses of marine animals over 150 million years

Many animals benefit from microbial symbionts that aid digestion, supply essential nutrients, or provide defense. When this dependence becomes obligate, as in gutless marine oligochaetes that have los...

science.org

The -other- participants of the study: @manuelkleiner.bsky.social @grubervodicka.bsky.social @vollandlab.bsky.social @nicoledubilier.bsky.social Christer Erséus Nikolaus Leisch Bruno Huettel Cecilia Wentrup Tanja Woyke Juliane Wippler Research paper is published on Science Advances.

3/17 Graduate students and postdocs: we strongly encourage you to apply! The Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), organized by Noah Houpt (@noahhoupt.bsky.social) and Duhita Sant (@duhitasant.bsky.social), runs June 26–27, immediately before the GRC.

2/17 Meet the GRC organizers: Will Ratcliff (@wcratcliff.bsky.social) and Heather Hendrickson (@drhhnz.bsky.social), with co-organizers Kate Baker (@ksbakes.bsky.social) and Dave Baltrus (@surtlab.bsky.social). We got our evo/eco, bacteria/eukaryote/virus, lab/field/theory bases covered.

1/17 Submissions are now open for the 2027 Microbial Population Biology GRC! We expect this meeting to be extraordinarily oversubscribed. If you want to come, time is of the essence--apply ASAP! June 27–July 2 • Andover, NH www.grc.org/microbial-po...

9/17 Evolutionary Dynamics of Genetic Mobility: what happens when genes move between microbes? Discussion leader: Eduardo Rocha (@epcrocha.bsky.social). With Nandita Garud (@nanditagarud.bsky.social), Ramunas Stepanauskas (@rstepanauskas.bsky.social) and Ami Bhatt.

8/17 Molecular Interactions and Signaling: the chemical conversations shaping microbial communities. Discussion leader: Karine Gibbs. With Deborah Hogan, Matt Traxler (@traxlab.bsky.social) and Leonor García-Bayona (@lgbacteria.bsky.social).

7/17 Symbioses Across the Tree of Life: living together changes evolution. Discussion leader: Britt Koskella (@bkoskella.bsky.social). With Nicole Dubilier (@nicoledubilier.bsky.social), Michael McDonald, Stephanie Porter and Benjamin Kerr (@evokerr.bsky.social).

Hiding in plain sight: Animals eat the natural bioplastic PHA We discovered that many animals can break down PHA. And many of these enzymes had been sitting unnoticed in genome databases. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Animal degradation of microbial storage polyhydroxyalkanoates - Nature Ecology & Evolution

This study shows that the degradation of microbial storage polyhydroxyalkanoates is not just restricted to microorganisms by finding that some animals also have the enzymes required to break down thes...

nature.com

Unexpected insight: Natural #bioplastic is food for animals! 🤩 #Biodegradable #PHA #plastics can be broken down by many different animals such as earthworms, seastars & oligochaeteas, a study @natureportfolio.nature.com reveals! DOI: 10.1038/s41559-026-03153-8 mpi-bremen.de/en/Page6746....

Da ich jetzt Morddrohungen bekomme für diesen Artikel (nachdem bild ihn skandalisiert) hier nochmal zur Klarstellung: gewaltfreier Widerstand hat eine lange prodemokratische und verfassungsschützende Tradition, und das befürworte ich. Gewalt ist antidemokratisch und hilft der AfD, ich lehne sie ab.

taz@taz.de · 4mo ago

Exakt 100 Jahre nach der NSDAP hält die AfD am Wochenende in Thüringen ihren Parteitag ab. Wo die Politik versagt, muss die Zivilgesellschaft einspringen.

Both totally unnecessary and extremely funny that the Guardian has an interactive graphic for you to change the color of the US flag's blue to the color of the Reflecting Pool from 8 to 19 June and counting

𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘹 - a honorary member of the #ProtistsOnSky club? @nicoledubilier.bsky.social @prakashlab.bsky.social

Raphaël Clément@raphclement.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Our work on Trichoplax locomotion and mechanosensing capabilities is out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social. Congrats Marvin Leria & all co-authors! authors.elsevier.com/c/1n8Ig3QW8S...

I predicted someone like Trump many years ago, in THE DEAD ZONE. So now I'm saying this--in the next 12-16 months, we're going to find out if the two machines for the removal of a man unable to fulfill his duties actually work. They are impeachment and the 25th amendment. He is deeply unwell .

Choanoflagellates — our closest animal relatives — form multicellular colonies in two ways: cell division AND aggregation. This previously unknown "mixed multicellularity" suggests our animal origins are more complex than thought. 📄 @thibautbrunet.bsky.social ↘️

Evolutionary biology: what an aquatic microorganism can tell us about our distant origins

Over a period of two to three billion years, the only living beings on Earth were single-celled organisms. In what conditions did living organisms with multiple cells emerge? How did life become more ...

pasteur.fr

1/11 🔥 New preprint alert 🔥 We wanted to know what plants in the wild really care about. So we asked them 🎤. Here is what we learned: “Biotic-response networks are an important organizer of the transcriptome in wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#OnThisDay in 1938, American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis was born. Margulis is most known for developing and popularising the endosymbiotic theory, which explains how eukaryotic cells evolved organelles from simpler prokaryotic organisms that resided within another and became incorporated.

VERY cool - congratulations!

Sorek Lab@soreklab.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration! Linking below previous thread on our findings

Should biology put complexity first? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - excellent essay by @philipcball.bsky.social. I would add epistasis to polygenicity and pleiotropy as a ubiquitous and fundamental phenomenon, not some optional complication that we can try to account for afterwards

Should biology put complexity first?

The dictum “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler” poses a problem for biology. How simply can it be told without doing dama…

sciencedirect.com

Beyond Mendel. FINALLY. Brilliant, thought-provoking read! This new perspective argues that our obsession with single genes and clean knock-outs is holding us back. Couldn't agree more, and I hope Reviewer #2 reads this. academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

Finally out in @nature.com: a new piece of the puzzle of how complex life evolved. Lead by @archaeal.bsky.social & @katyappler.bsky.social. Great collab with @greening.bsky.social and @kassipan.bsky.social. More pieces to follow soon! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper from my team detailing a greatly expanded genomic database of Asgard archaea revealing of high energy metabolism those related to eukaryotes! Led by @katyappler.bsky.social lots of help from @jameslingford.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Alright bsky science + art community, I need your help. I was p confident we could get a grant to fund our upcoming biodiversity mural in Kensington. Last night, they called to say our partner school is 2 blocks outside of their service area. But ya know what? We're gonna do it anyway.

🧵 New preprint! Our 4-lab team evolved Streptococcus pneumoniae in antibiotic-treated mice of varying immune states and discovered something surprising: bacteria rarely evolved resistance. Instead, they found a different way to survive — by rewiring RNA turnover. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan Löwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How specific are heritable symbioses? And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species? We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com! 1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two more weeks to apply - come join us () in The Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher on large-scale metagenomic exploration of new lineages!

Thijs J. G. Ettema 🦠🔬🇳🇱🇸🇪🇪🇺@ettema.bsky.social · 10mo ago

I have a postdoc position in metagenomic exploration available in my group. Candidates with documented experience in phylo & metagenomics and preferably with petabase-scale data mining and GLM workflows are encouraged to apply. Come join us! 🧬🦠💻 Please repost Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...

The ISME20 abstract submission deadline has been extended to 22 February. Microbial ecologists worldwide are invited to submit abstracts for oral, short talk, or poster presentations and contribute to the ISME20 programme. isme-microbes.org/isme20-abstr... #ISME20 #MicrobialEcology

Many thanks for the invitation and great hosting @imibirmingham.bsky.social! It was a real pleasure to meet so many interesting scientists and hear about the fascinating research at IMI. Special thanks to @pathogenomenick.bsky.social and @halllab.bsky.social for nominating me!

Institute of Microbiology and Infection @imibirmingham.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Fantastic Harry Smith Memorial Lecture given by Prof Nicole Dubilier @nicoledubilier.bsky.social today 'Eating your Microbiome: Nutritional Symbioses between Chemosynthetic Bacteria and Marine Invertebrates' with thanks to @pathogenomenick.bsky.social for hosting