Yesha Patel here reviews how mutations in RNAP contribute to antibiotic resistance, with examples from both laboratory evolution and clinical settings. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... This work builds on two of her prior papers (PMIDs: 36779708 and 39908144). #MicroSky #antibiotics

1/ Out today in Science (@science.org): a result a decade in the making, and one that changed how I think about what cells are doing when they grow. We found a bacterium that grows slower than it could. And we found the molecular switch that lets us reverse it.

🫴 Cannibalism shapes biofilm structure and composition in Bacillus subtilis: | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @mbio.bsky.social #subtiwiki

Cannibalism shapes biofilm structure and composition in Bacillus subtilis | mBio

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a ubiquitous and crucial mechanism to structure eukaryotic multicellular tissues. PCD-like processes have also been described in bacteria, but their contribution to mult...

journals.asm.org

Published in Infection and Immunity, Gracious Donkor and I explore the diverse mechanisms microbes employ to withstand ROS-mediated stress and discuss recent efforts to harness oxidative stress responses as a potential strategy for developing new antimicrobials. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Implications of bacterial exposure to reactive oxygen and chlorine species | Infection and Immunity

Molecular oxygen (O2) is the preferred terminal electron acceptor of the electron transport chain due to its high redox potential and is therefore an essential driver of cellular metabolism in aerobic...

journals.asm.org

New insights into copper physiology in Bacillus subtilis. The outlines of the pathway for copper import and trafficking to support aerobic growth are emerging. Work led by Grayson Barnes, with support from our collaborators. doi.org/10.1128/mbio... #microsky #metalsinbiology

Pathways of copper import and utilization that support respiration in Bacillus subtilis | mBio

Copper is a critical micronutrient for bacteria; however, it is toxic in excess. This leads to the cell having tightly regulated import and export systems to prevent intoxication while having sufficient copper for cellular needs. Copper export has been well studied, but copper import and the effects of copper starvation are less defined. In this article, we characterize the Bacillus subtilis high-affinity copper importer YcnJ. We show that under copper limitation, the cell is deficient in copper-containing oxidases, which leads to respiratory defects. Copper imported by YcnJ is proposed to function in a pathway with other proteins implicated in the assembly of respiratory oxidases. More generally, this work contributes to the underexplored area of copper import and trafficking in bacteria.

doi.org

@agnese75.bsky.social's work is out. She shows that under iron starvation M. tuberculosis splits flux through the Krebs cycle and secretes metabolites, akin of fermentation. Why is this important? Metabolic flexibility is what makes it so hard to kill in vivo. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

See our new latest pre-print for a study led by grad student Ian Reynolds, with current and former undergrads Isabel Westin and Caleb Wood in the lab. A study that goes to show how so many cell surface processes are connected to each other in bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Now out in @pnas.org 🥳 "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" --> bad timing can kill you, even as a virus. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de

Julia Frunzke@frunzkelab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Happy to share our recent preprint: "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de @hhu.de @fzj.bsky.social

The latest from the lab. Manikomycin, a new cyclic depsipeptide antibiotic from an 'old' source, the oxytetracycline producer Streptomyces rimosus. Still lots to be learned from this genus! Manikomycin blocks the E-site of the bacterial ribosome. A first. links.springernature.com/f/a/Q0JMeeZK...

A natural depsipeptide antibiotic binds the E-site of the bacterial ribosome - Nature

Improved fractionation strategies can identify antibiotics with previously unseen scaffolds and mechanisms, exemplified by manikomycin from Streptomyces rimosus, which acts by targeting the E-site of ...

links.springernature.com

Please RT: Registration is ongoing for our International Symposium "Microbial Networking - from organelles to cross-kingdom communities" organized as highlight of the first funding period of CRC 1535 @mibinet.bsky.social www.sfb1535.hhu.de/internationa... @dfg.de, @hhu.de, @fz-juelich.de

A redox- and proton-coupled inner membrane transporter mediates copper import to the bacterial cytoplasm www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #jcampubs

Mutations in MreB suppress β-lactam sensitivity upon c-di-AMP accumulation in Listeria monocytogenes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.14.724990v1

Excited to share our work uncovering SNOR, a ribosome-associated factor that promotes translation restart after dormancy published in Nature!! This was, as usual, a wonderful collaborative effort between our group and the Mattei Lab @simonemattei.bsky.social @embl.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper out in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social! Microbes evolving with modern lifestyles 🧬🦠 S. copri uses PerR to manage oxygen stress, but some strains acquired OxyR via HGT, boosting oxygen tolerance. These strains are enriched in industrialized populations. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Biogeography-associated emergence of enhanced oxygen tolerance in the abundant human gut commensal Segatella copri

El Mouali and Tawk et al. characterize the oxygen-tolerance response in the human gut-residing bacterium Segatella copri. They identified a subset of strains that acquired an additional oxygen regulat...

cell.com

5/ Awardee @heatherfeaga.bsky.social is investigating how bacteria decide when to go dormant💤 (ie, form spores). Her project could lead to important new advancements in the management of spore-forming bacteria in the environment, hospitals, & food supply. 🎉 Congrats Dr. Feaga! 🙏 #HFScout Dipti Nayak

tagging @doerrlab.bsky.social New work from Tobi Dorr's lab (Cornell): Beta-lactam exposure can deplete nucleotide levels, and targeting nucleotide synthesis synergizes with β-lactam-mediated killing in V. cholerae, Klebsiella pneumoniae and E. coli.

Microbes.Info@microbesinfo.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Turning #penicillin into a lethal force against #bacteria again ... | #antibiotic | #antibiotictolerance | #betalactam | #cholera | By @cornelluniversity.bsky.social via @sciencex.bsky.social

Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins - Nature

A common mechanism of inhibition of the essential lipid II flippase MurJ by three distinct phage-encoded single-gene lysis proteins provides insights into potential new targets for antimicrobial devel...

nature.com

See our newest manuscript dissecting emergent functions in a multispecies biofilm (metabolite cross-feeding, siderophore induction and cross-species utilization) that translates to plant growth promotion Great work by @jiyuxie.bsky.social and Xinli Sun www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

At long last! Check out the link to our publication in @nature.com to learn more. doi.org/10.1038/s415... 12/12

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature

Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

doi.org

Thank you for highlighting our paper on how septal PG hydrolysis licenses a second wave of PG transpeptidation during cell separation! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... I will do a thread when the page set version is out.

Jörg Stülke@joergstuelke.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The #SubtiWiki paper of the month for February has been selected. Great work on the final phase of cell division. subtiwiki.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.p...

@ewarman.bsky.social has followed up on her discovery of bidirectional promoters in bacteria by defining their basic rules for regulation and links to gene expression noise... academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Bidirectional promoters in Escherichia coli: regulatory rules and implications for gene expression noise

Abstract. In prokaryotes, bidirectional promoters are pseudo-symmetrical DNA sequences that stimulate divergent transcription. Ubiquitous, and far more lik

academic.oup.com

#Microbiology The anti-tuberculosis drug bedaquiline targets the mycobacterial ATP synthase, but how that leads to bacterial death is unclear Here the authors clarify how bedaquiline works @jnblab.bsky.social @morwan.me #TBSky #antibiotics #AMR http://dlvr.it/TQjZ0W

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends. www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Bacteriocin biophysics: From protein-protein interaction models to navigators of the bacterial cell envelope

Bacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...

jbc.org

Why should microbiologists be interested in historical infection remedies, and how can we best investigate them for antimicrobial discovery? Thoroughly enjoyed co-writing this Microbiology Primer with @tosinorababa.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #MicroSky #Ancientbiotics

Microbial Primer: Ancientbiotics – making modern antimicrobials from historical infection remedies

The modern antibiotic era began in the early twentieth century, but humans have long used materials from the natural world to attempt to treat the symptoms of infection. In this primer, we will discus...

microbiologyresearch.org

www.planktoscope.org

PlanktoScope

Open and frugal modular imaging platform for citizen oceanography

planktoscope.org

CuiT is a Cu importer required for metal homeostasis in Salmonella enterica https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701185v1

Congrats @regolab.bsky.social! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Regulatory divergence and functional diversification of a c-di-GMP-controlled sigma factor in Actinomycetota https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.14.699351v1

The Bacillus subtilis class A penicillin-binding protein 4 (PBP4) requires an accessory protein RpdA www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The Bacillus subtilis class A penicillin-binding protein 4 (PBP4) requires an accessory protein RpdA

Peptidoglycan (PG) synthesis is essential to maintain cell integrity during bacterial growth and division. In Bacillus subtilis, PG synthesis involves class A PBPs that act independently and class B P...

biorxiv.org

🫴 A mechanotransduction mechanism for antibiotic defense in Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, with some interesting suppressor mutants): In Structure www.cell.com/structure/fu... #subtiWiki #subtilis

A mechanotransduction mechanism for antibiotic defense in Gram-positive bacteria

In this issue of Structure, Yu et al. show that the Bacillus subtilis ytr operon encodes two distinct ABC transporters. The authors present the cryo-EM structures of YtrEF in the apo and ADP-vanadate-...

cell.com