Spotlight on our recent work by @emmajbanks.bsky.social @pavol.bsky.social and team!!! @johninnescentre.bsky.social Thank you very much, @fnobrega.bsky.social, for this great piece!!!

Cell Chemical Biology@cp-cellchembiol.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A defense-like route to gene transfer agent release

Delighted to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs). We found a lysis control hub which allows GTAs to escape their bacterial host cells and transfer DNA 🧬 between bacteria. Thanks to @tunglejic.bsky.social, all co-authors, and our amazing collaborators! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A bacterial CARD–NLR-like immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents - Nature Microbiology

An immunity-like system functions as a lysis control hub to promote gene transfer agent particle release from host bacterial cells, suggesting that bacterial immune systems may be co-opted to promote ...

nature.com

Finally published. Many thanks to a wonderful collaborative team and scientific platforms!!! And thanks to editors and reviewers for enthusiasm and a great review. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A bacterial CARD–NLR-like immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents - Nature Microbiology

An immunity-like system functions as a lysis control hub to promote gene transfer agent particle release from host bacterial cells, suggesting that bacterial immune systems may be co-opted to promote ...

nature.com

Tung Le@tunglejic.bsky.social · last yr.

1/ Excited to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs) in Caulobacter crescentus, led by Emma Banks in collaboration with Pavol Bardy and Mai Nguyen from York!!! See a brief thread below. shorturl.at/o6S1w

New paper with @barriewilks.bsky.social. There are many reports on fasamycins and formicamycins (aka accramycins, naphthacemycins, streptovertimycins). Here, we unambiguously solve their structures and stereochemistry. A great effort, led by Dr Edward Hems pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Using X-ray Crystallography and 1,n-ADEQUATE NMR to Revise the Structures of Highly Substituted Aromatic Natural Products: The Absolute Configuration of Formicamycin Congeners

Formicamycins and their biosynthetic precursors, the fasamycins, form part of the phenylnaphthacenoid family of polyketide natural products. A recent atroposelective total synthesis of formicamycin H brought into question our original stereochemical assignment of the axially chiral linkage between C-6 and C-7. To address this, we obtained an X-ray crystal structure for formicamycin H that unambiguously confirmed our original assignment as the Sa atropisomer. X-ray structures for multiple additional fasamycins and formicamycins confirmed that this is common to all congeners. However, these studies identified a compounded error made by us whereby several structures previously reported as para-methoxy were found to have ortho-methoxy groups on the hanging E-ring. To address this for congeners that did not crystallize or gave nondiffracting crystals, we turned to the surprisingly underutilized 1,n-ADEQUATE NMR experiment. In total, we generated X-ray structures for 15 phenylnaphthacenoid metabolites and by combining these results report the corrected structures for three formicamycins, six fasamycins, and three biosynthetic lactone intermediates, noting that several revised fasamycin structures now match previously reported naphthacemycins. Our results highlight the utility of 1,n-ADEQUATE experiments for regiochemical determination in polysubstituted aromatic molecules. Moreover, our investigations uncovered a potential deracemization step during biosynthesis of the formicamycin framework.

pubs.acs.org

We are devastated to announce that our colleague and friend Professor Philippa Borrill died over the Easter weekend following a rare immune system disorder (HLH). She was a fantastic scientist, collaborator and mentor, and a close friend to many: www.jic.ac.uk/news/profess...

Our group’s inaugural PhD 🎉🍾 Toasting the successful & excellent defense of Dr. Garcia-Lozano 🎈 Congratulations, @marlenygarcial.bsky.social!!

Funding opportunities for the Biofortification Hub are open for 2026 🌱🍅 Those working in #Biofortification in the UK in industry, organisations or academia can apply for: • Proof of Concept Awards • Business Interaction Vouchers 🗓️ Deadline: 24 April 2026 @quadraminstitute.bsky.social

Funding Opportunities - Biofortification Hub

Funding Opportunities The Biofortification Hub offers funding to support innovative research, collaboration, events and mobility between Academia and Industry. Type of funding

biofortificationhub.org

🌱 Since the Precision Breeding Act, the UK Government has awarded funding for many interesting projects using #GenomeEditing, important for farmers and sustainable agriculture. 👇 Check out the four new projects at the @johninnescentre.bsky.social www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...

Sugar beet, oilseed rape, tomatoes and dandelions: four precision breeding projects win major funding to support UK agriculture | John Innes Centre

The John Innes Centre and its industrial and academic partners have been awarded UK Government funding to help deliver four ambitious projects that unleash the potential of precision breeding…

jic.ac.uk

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...

If anyone is interested in working on these bacteria @johninnescentre.bsky.social has protocols, strains, plasmids and a genome database available here: streptomyces.org.uk

Matt Hutchings@matthutchings.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Research into filamentous actinomycetes, the antibiotic producers, is in steep decline. Loads of natural products chemistry research worldwide but not much aimed at understanding their biology and ecology. The latter is key to unlocking their specialised metabolism link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Here’s a sneak preview of the Microbe Zoo coming to Norwich Science Festival soon 👀 📅14 - 21 February 2026 📍The Gallery, the Forum Norwich ➡️ buff.ly/gtZX6Us @norwichmicro.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social

Want some editorial experience? The @microbiologysociety.org flagship journal Microbiology has opened a call for new editors, more details here: microbiologysociety.org/news/society...

<i>Microbiology</i> Editors: Call for expressions of interest

microbiologysociety.org

First results chapter from Kelly-Rose Tulley’s PhD is published. It was a great team effort to get this finished. This work supports previous results on S. coelicolor OrrA and suggests its function is highly conserved. #microsky #streptomyces 1/2

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Defining the OrrA regulon and its role in development and antibiotic production in Streptomyces venezuelae NRRL B-65442 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702861v1

VACANCY - We're looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the @philcarella.bsky.social Group, working in the field of Evo-MPMI (Evolutionary Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions). okt.to/yIlgTU Closing date - 10 February 2026 Salary - £37,500 - £45,350 Contract - Full-time, 3 years

New year, new goal of getting enough vitamin D 🌞 1 in 5 people in the UK are deficient in vitamin D during winter and spring 📉 Get involved in ViTaL-D to investigate whether @johninnescentre.bsky.social biofortified tomatoes lead to more vitamin D in the blood 🍅 ➡️ buff.ly/2sdniq5

Great news for the Australians! Purple tomatoes, enriched in beneficial anthocyanins, developed in Cathie Martin's lab @johninnescentre.bsky.social will be available to consumers in Australia in 2026. www.scimex.org/newsfeed/exp...

EXPERT REACTION: Genetically modified purple tomato approved in Austra

EXPERT REACTION: Genetically modified purple tomato approved in Australia A genetically modified purple tomato has received all necessary approvals for commercial sale in Australia, accord

scimex.org

Very happy to see this remarkable work published. Led by @tommclean.bsky.social and @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social. We show how Streptomyces bacteria sense & respond to misfolded secreted proteins. A great collaboration with @barriewilks.bsky.social #microsky 1/2 journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10....

Too excited by the science to include the link to the paper! Here it is: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The conserved two-component systems CutRS and CssRS control the protein secretion stress response in Streptomyces | mBio

Streptomyces bacteria are the primary source of clinically useful antibiotics. While many two-component systems have been linked to antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces species, few have been well ...

journals.asm.org

Tom McLean@tommclean.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Delighted to see the main work from my PhD finally published in @mbio.bsky.social! It all started with the observation that deleting the cutRS two-component system in S. venezuelae caused this amazing explorer phenotype in the presence of glucose. But what was going on?! (1/n)

✅ Are you aged over 18? ✅ Live within 70 miles of Norwich? ✅Think you might be low in vitamin D? Join the ViTaL-D study and help us understand if @johninnescentre.bsky.social tomatoes biofortified through gene editing could help boost vitamin D levels 🍅

Need a winter warmer? Groundbreaking gene-edited tomato soup trial with higher levels of 'Sunshine' vitamin recruiting now - Quadram Institute

Human trial of gene edited food, to understand whether biofortifying tomatoes in this way leads to higher levels of vitamin D in the blood

buff.ly

Today we're supporting the Find my Future event at @johninnescentre.bsky.social with hands-on activities that highlight the diversity of micro-organisms. Thanks to all our volunteers and the event organisers for helping us to engage with lots of students!

VACANCY - We’re looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join Dr @hassansalem.bsky.social group, in the field of Crop Genetics. www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po... Closing date - 15 December 2025 Salary - £37,500 - £45,350 Contract - Full-time, 17 months in the first instance (potential up to 4 yrs)

Postdoctoral Researcher (Salem Group) | John Innes Centre

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the newly appointed group of Dr Hassan Salem at the John Innes Centre, working on cutting-edge science in the field of Crop…

jic.ac.uk

More broadly the research could also lead to insights into genetic regulation, biotechnology applications, and new strategies for tackling antimicrobial resistance, one of the major threats to human health in the 21st century.

It also shows that the fold is versatile – not only binding to CTP, but also to other ubiquitous nucleotides including ATP and GTP, including the first examples of GTP-binding ParB-like proteins.

NEWS - An exciting new landscape of protein-related discovery unfolds An investigation into cellular components in bacteria has unexpectedly uncovered a feature with relevance across many life forms, paving the way for diverse research and applications: www.jic.ac.uk/news/an-exci...

Now published. Thank you very much to our collaborative team, and very supportive editors and reviewers!!! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation | PNAS

Nucleotide triphosphate (NTP)-dependent molecular switches regulate essential cellular processes by cycling between active and inactive states thro...

pnas.org

new preprint from our group & Antoine Hocher: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A fantastic collaboration with Antoine, with Jovana Kaljevic' initiated the collaboration and drives the project.

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation

Nucleotide triphosphate (NTP)-dependent molecular switches regulate essential cellular processes by cycling between active and inactive states through nucleotide binding and hydrolysis. These mechanis...

biorxiv.org

Congratulations to Charlotte Owen, winner of our HBio award. For playing a pivotal role in the set-up of spin-out company Hothouse Therapeutics, her exceptional talent in bioinformatics and her many contributions to the running of the Osbourn lab. @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Congratulations to Govind Chandra, winner of our @hbio-isp.bsky.social award. For the critical role he plays in bioinformatics data analysis, supporting colleagues and training new bioinformaticians @johninnescentre.bsky.social

‪Want to hear about exciting #microbial research from leading scientists? 🦠 The Centre for Microbial Interactions Conference is back next year with an amazing line-up 👇 @norwichmicro.bsky.social

John Innes Centre@johninnescentre.bsky.social · 9mo ago

EVENT - Centre for Microbial Interactions Annual Conference 2026 Register now to attend in-person or virtually @norwichmicro.bsky.social 🗓️ 4-5 March 2026 📍John Innes Conference Centre, NR4 7UH ⏰ Deadline for registration - 25 February 2026: okt.to/16MLmH Full programme: okt.to/YF8TVe

EVENT - Apply today for the John Innes/Rudjer Bošković: Applied #Molecular #Microbiology Summer School (Microbial Specialised Metabolites: Discovery, Biosynthesis and Function) 🗓️ 12 - 20 Sept 2026 📍Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia Deadline: 23 Jan 2026 www.jic.ac.uk/training-car...

Applied Molecular Microbiology | John Innes Centre

John Innes/Rudjer Bošković – Summer Schools in Applied Molecular Microbiology Applications are invited for a summer school on Microbial Specialised Metabolites: Discovery…

jic.ac.uk