Excited to share that I've been awarded a 5-year NIH MIRA (R35) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences! The lab is growing! We're recruiting postdocs and research techs interested in microbial ecology, quantitative microscopy, microfluidics, and molecular biology. Please share!

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

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

New paper led by Hannah Goldberg on the diversity of hydrogen peroxide detoxification in marine microbes! Wonderful @microbialplanet.bsky.social collaboration with Sonya Dyhrman, Michelle DeMers and Gwen Hennon! enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Forces Shaping Diversity of Hydrogen Peroxide Detoxification Potential in Ocean Microbial Ecosystems

Marine microbes which lack catalases, like Prochlorococcus, depend on ‘helpers’, like catalase-positive Alteromonas, for hydrogen peroxide detoxification. Our results indicate diverse and distinct di...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

Here, we find that many Genomic islands have origins of transfer (oriT) mobilisable by conjugation, incl. known Pathogenicity & defense islands. iOriT use only an oriT for transfer by hitching on conjugative elements: they make abundant, diverse, ancient families of mobile genetic elements. See🧵

Manuel Ares-Arroyo@aresarroyom.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Bacteria chromosomes contain Genomic Islands that provide virulence, antibiotic resistance, MGE-defence,... They transfer between cells, but the mechanism of most remains elusive. Here we explore the conjugative capacity of these mysterious Genomic Islands. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bacteria swap DNA far more than we thought. This study shows recombination between species can blur genetic boundaries, with up to 95% of diversity coming from hybrid DNA in some microbes.

Remixing the gene pool

Microbes might behave less like distinct species and more like constantly interbreeding communities.

buff.ly

Happy that our work on the evolution of Yellowstone cyanobacteria is now published in @elife.bsky.social: doi.org/10.7554/eLif...! Did a lot of work in revision—many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for great suggestions! Also see the eLife digest for a summary: elifesciences.org/digests/9084...

Hybridization breaks species barriers in long-term coevolution of a cyanobacterial population

Analysis of hundreds of single-cell genomes from Yellowstone National Park shows bacterial species are less cohesive than previously thought.

doi.org

New preprint to close out the year! Led by Alana Papula and together with Daniel Fisher, we used single-cell genomes to infer the evolution of Prochlorococcus—one of the most abundant and genetically diverse bacteria on Earth. Check it out here: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Extensive recombination, selection, and asexual blooms shape the diversity of the dominant clade of Prochlorococcus

The tiny and enormously abundant marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus contains many levels of population structure, with sequenced isolates spanning four orders of magnitude of diversity. It ...

doi.org