@pavelpayne.bsky.social et al. show that bacterial herd immunity can promote homologous recombination, suggesting bacterial immune systems can shape molecular evolution not only by blocking infection but also by regulating genetic exchange 🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... #societyjournal #evobio

Herd immunity underlies homologous recombination in stationary phase bacteria

Abstract. Homologous recombination is ubiquitous across evolution, generating variation through genetic reshuffling. Although bacteria lack meiotic recombi

academic.oup.com

Great work led by @tomipou.bsky.social and @jrpenades.bsky.social with contributions of Yiqing Wang from our lab. While plasmid conduction has a very long history, there is a flood of papers coming on the combinatorics of plasmid co-integrations and excisions. Makes research fun, but not easier...

Thomas Ipoutcha@tomipou.bsky.social · 4w ago

Finally out! 🎉 After 3 years of postdoc in London, here is my main work, now published in Nature Comm. (and as co-corresponding author!) Using a combination of bioinformatic and experimental approaches, we propose a model of plasmid evolution in Staphylococcus. www.nature.com/articles/s41... ⬇️ 1/4

The final version of our manuscript on TnSeq in bacteriophages (“HIDEN-SEQ”) is out today – if you have an interesting phage phenotype and want to know the underlying genetic basis, this one is for you! 1/4

Postdoc position available in my group to work on ERC funded project on evolutionary biology of antibiotic resistance. Looking for someone with expertise in bacterial genetics, AMR, and evolutionary biology. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSZ416/p...

Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Oxford

Explore an exciting academic career as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

jobs.ac.uk

Brilliant paper by the labs of @epcrocha.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social 'Mobile genetic elements drive a plasmid fusion and deletion lifecycle shaping evolution and antimicrobial resistance' www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We show that plasmids found in nature can arise from low-frequency diversification events occurring within bacterial populations. Particularly plasmid fusion and deletion events leading to gene shuffling and new chimeric plasmids, which are then strongly selected by environmental pressures. ⬇️ 2/4

A big thank you to @jrpenades.bsky.social for the trust, and to @epcrocha.bsky.social and Yiqing for their invaluable help with the bioinformatics!

In particular, antibiotics (as expected!) and phages (perhaps less expected!). While not observed in our laboratory settings, we expect other environmental pressures, such as fitness costs or perhaps toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, to also influence plasmid selection.

Finally out! 🎉 After 3 years of postdoc in London, here is my main work, now published in Nature Comm. (and as co-corresponding author!) Using a combination of bioinformatic and experimental approaches, we propose a model of plasmid evolution in Staphylococcus. www.nature.com/articles/s41... ⬇️ 1/4

New preprint from the lab: The Latent Simplicity of Microbial Ecological Interactions www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We're excited about this one. We find that high-order microbial interactions often obey simple linear laws making microbial communities far more predictable than one might expect

We have reflect on how AI could reshape scientific reasoning and discovery - not by replacing scientists, but by helping us escape our own biases, expand the hypothesis space, and consider mechanisms we might never have imagined. 🔗https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1097276526004661

Online Now: Escaping our own biases: AI, scientific reasoning, and discovery in molecular biology Online now:

Escaping our own biases: AI, scientific reasoning, and discovery in molecular biology

Artificial intelligence may transform molecular biology not by always providing the correct answer, but by exploring mechanistic possibilities unconstrained by the assumptions that shape expert thinking. Its greatest contribution may be exposing the intellectual blind spots of scientists, while experimental validation remains the ultimate arbiter of truth.

dlvr.it

Nature research paper: Diverse bacterial pattern recognition receptors sense the core phage proteome go.nature.com/45fpXCZ

Diverse bacterial pattern recognition receptors sense the core phage proteome - Nature

Systematic analysis of prokaryotic STAND NTPases — relatives of animal and plant immune receptors — uncovers diverse antiviral sensors that detect most of the core structural and replicative proteins of bacteriophages.

go.nature.com

Out @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social, natural products meet bacterial immunity! We used genomics to identify lanthivirins: a family of >2,000 lanthipeptide BGCs that protect Actinobacteria against phages. Led by @hshomar.bsky.social & @mariegllm.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A family of lanthipeptides with anti-phage function

Bacteria produce natural products to adapt to their environments, with phage interactions as major ecological and evolutionary drivers. While some nat…

sciencedirect.com

1/4 Every good defence needs a backup! 🛡️⚔ Out now in @natrevmicro.nature.com our Comment on "𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴"! 🎉 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Immune safeguarding as a conserved principle of antiviral defence - Nature Reviews Microbiology

All organisms defend against viral infections through active immunity mechanisms that clear the virus or population-level mechanisms that cause regulated cell death. Recent research increasingly shows...

nature.com

Our paper out in Science today: The Metis defense system senses molecular byproducts released when a phage degrades the bacterial genome, and then prevents replication of the phage in the infected cell Congratulations @ostermanilya.bsky.social and co-authors!

Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

science.org

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Excited to share that our Metis story is now published in Science! 🎉 Bacteria can sense phage-induced degradation of their genome and activate immunity. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this work. 📄 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... More details in my earlier thread 🧵⬇️

New Essay: 'Resistance potentiators: Evolutionary catalysts of antibiotic resistance' To understand the evolutionary drivers of #AMR we need to move beyond resistance genes to thinking about the ability of genomes to generate AMR variants. #microsky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Resistance potentiators: Evolutionary catalysts of antibiotic resistance

How do bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics? Drawing on evidence from experimental evolution, pathogen genomics, and molecular microbiology, this Essay argues that the evolution of antibiotic res...

journals.plos.org

#microsky New preprint from the lab! Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Kudos to the extremely talented lead author Ludovic Poiré! Key contributions by @francoisrousset.bsky.social and also help from C. Lesterlin/TacC lab. 🧵⬇️

Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids

Conjugative plasmids are a class of mobile genetic elements capable of efficient transfer between bacterial cells. Although they can introduce beneficial traits such as antibiotic resistance to recipi...

biorxiv.org

New paper 📄 out in @embomolmed.org: We show that the Slr protein of S. pyogenes is a target of protective antibodies and present evidence that it is selectively expressed in vivo. Link: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42298213/

The Slr protein of Streptococcus pyogenes is selectively expressed in vivo and is a target for protective antibodies - PubMed

Vaccine candidates are typically identified through characterization of microbial surface antigens expressed under laboratory conditions. Here, we studied the major human pathogen Streptococcus pyogen...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Check out our latest T7SS toxin story. These reverse toxins aren’t as rare as we thought!

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A novel reverse lipase toxin substrate of the Staphylococcus aureus type VII secretion system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.22.733114v1

New paper 📄 out in @natcomms.nature.com: We show that bacteria can target inhibitory receptors expressed on neutrophils to actively subvert antibody-driven immune responses, using LILRB3 and Group B Streptococcus as a study system. Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41....

@imperialinfect.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social with labs Brian Geisbrecht @ Kansas State University, Nina van Sorge @amsterdamumc.bsky.social, Jos van Strijp @umcutrecht.bsky.social, Maria Fernandes @ulaval.ca, Owen Spiller @cardiffuniversity.bsky.social.

Alberto Marina @albertomarina.bsky.social responsable de la Unidad de Cristalografía de Macromoléculas del @ibv-csic.bsky.social cuenta en The Conversation: El idioma “virus” existe: cómo se comunican entre sí para infectar bacterias theconversation.com/el-idioma-vi...

El idioma “virus” existe: cómo se comunican entre sí para infectar bacterias

A veces, quienes menos esperamos que “hablen” tienen mucho que decir, como es el caso de los virus que se comunican entre sí para decidir si es el momento idóneo de infectar a una bacteria o si convie...

theconversation.com

🚨Online Seminar NEXT WEEK- 10.06.26 | 16:00 UK Alvaro Sanchez: "The latent simplicity of microbial ecological interactions" Please share & to attend online please register to our 📧: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...

📢 We are recruiting! I’m looking for a Research Associate in Structural Biology to join my lab at Imperial College London to study horizontal gene transfer using cryo-EM, biochemistry and microbiology. Please share with interested candidates! Apply: shorturl.at/gmJGS

Description

Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities ment...

imperial.ac.uk

Excited to share this new paper from the lab: academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...! See thread below

Eco-evolutionary responses to plasmid-dependent phage constrain the spread of multidrug-resistance plasmids

Abstract. Phage therapy offers an alternative to antibiotics for treating multidrug-resistant infections. Plasmid-dependent phages (PDPs) are promising the

academic.oup.com

Happy to see the paper out in Cell Host & Microbe. congratulations Ilya!

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our aRES story is finally out 😀 Beyond what was reported in the preprint, we found that aRES is activated by direct binding of the phage DNA polymerase. Another NAD-degrading defense system — and multiple phage strategies to overcome it. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our new study reveals how bacterial toxins are physically captured through a sequential, concentration-dependent assembly mechanism before secretion via the T6SS. Fantastic collaboration with @fillouxlab.bsky.social. Congrats Patricia & Ambre for leading this work. Paper here: shorturl.at/O31Vn

Viruses are highly abundant in the oceans, but there is one place you won't typically find them: in global ocean ecosystem models... until now. Introducing "vDarwin", an explicit integration of viruses into the MITgcm/Darwin global ecosystem framework: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... a 🧵

Out Now! Molecular basis of type VI secretion system effector loading #MicroSky

Molecular basis of type VI secretion system effector loading

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02363-xStructural analysis reveals that the type VI secretion system effector cargo is enclosed within hexameric Hcp3 rings that form sequentially to enable effector loading and delivery by the Pseudomonas aeruginosa H3-type VI secretion system.

go.nature.com