Our pQBR plasmid paper is out! A model environmental plasmid collection that contains no known AMR genes and worldwide relatives! @jpjhall.bsky.social @ellieevolves.bsky.social @dwrivett.bsky.social and Rosanna Wright @microbiologysociety.org microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099

The pQBR mercury resistance plasmids: a model set of sympatric environmental mobile genetic elements

Plasmids are extrachromosomal mobile genetic elements that can facilitate rapid bacterial adaptation by transferring genes between individuals. Whilst plasmids are known to exist in diverse habitats a...

microbiologyresearch.org

Excited that this is finally out, led by @jhuisman.bsky.social with Jeff Gore, combining experiments, theory and natural microbiome data! As salinity rises, diversity and individual species growth rates fall, yet community's overall growth stays robust: faster growers take over and keep it going.

Nature Microbiology@natmicrobiol.nature.com · 3w ago

Out Now! Predictable shifts in microbial species composition lead to community-wide robustness to environmental stress #MicroSky

Happy to see @lizthayer.bsky.social's magnum opus published in peer-reviewed form in @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social!! Check it out! www.cell.com/cell-systems...

Single-cell heterogeneity in interferon induction potential is heritable and governed by variation in cell state

Thayer et al. used multiple approaches to uncover why only a few cells in a population express IFN upon RNA stimulation. They found that variation in cell signaling state at the time of stimulation is...

cell.com

Chris Brooke@christopherbrooke.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Check out @lizthayer.bsky.social's new preprint exploring factors that influence cell-to-cell heterogeneity in interferon (IFN) induction potential!

this was such a lovely read

James McInerney@jomcinerney.bsky.social · 3w ago

Another Friday slow read. Modularity and what it could mean. As always it is free, so please subscribe. open.substack.com/pub/profmcin...

CRISPR-Cas interference decays rapidly with distance from the leader sequence in a long array https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.09.737519v1

We are looking for a motivated PhD student in phage genomics! Please find the details attached. Application deadline 24/07. Don't hesitate to spread the word!

ASM has submitted formal comments urging the White House Office of Management and Budget to withdraw a proposed rule that would weaken the peer review process, limit scientific collaboration and networking and create new barriers to conducting and disseminating research: asm.org/articles/pol...

Host Range Breadth Correlates with Genic Diversity in Honeybee Phages @genomebiolevol.bsky.social from @chicascientifica.bsky.social academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Host Range Breadth Correlates with Genic Diversity in Honeybee Phages

Abstract. Bacteriophages can evolve rapidly. Mutation and recombination via horizontal gene transfer allow them to counter adaptive responses by microbial

academic.oup.com

Can bacterial genomics bring 70 years of epidemiological surveillance back to life? We're hiring a postdoc (2–3 years) to explore the historical evolution of Salmonella Typhi using a unique genomic dataset. More details: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/449895

Check out Amy's story of how prophages shape antibiotic resistance evolution!

Amy Zamora@amycrobes.bsky.social · last mo.

We're excited to share our work on how prophages influence the evolution of resistance against DNA-damaging antibiotics! This has been a fun project with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @theshreyaspai.bsky.social, @kepatitis-c.bsky.social, & @fernpizza.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/

I want to sing Amy’s praises! She’s a great scientist & this has taken so much hard work and dedication on her end. It’s so cool to see how different minds & starting points approach a problem I’m also very interested in - how MGEs shift host evolutionary trajectories. Give it a read here ⬇️

Amy Zamora@amycrobes.bsky.social · last mo.

We're excited to share our work on how prophages influence the evolution of resistance against DNA-damaging antibiotics! This has been a fun project with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @theshreyaspai.bsky.social, @kepatitis-c.bsky.social, & @fernpizza.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/

We're excited to share our work on how prophages influence the evolution of resistance against DNA-damaging antibiotics! This has been a fun project with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @theshreyaspai.bsky.social, @kepatitis-c.bsky.social, & @fernpizza.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/

SOS-mediated prophage induction constrains resistance evolution to DNA-damaging antibiotics

Most naturally occurring bacteria are lysogens, encoding one or more temperate phages (prophages) integrated into their genome. As prophages are induced by the bacterial SOS response, DNA-damaging ant...

biorxiv.org

Rather: small N + strong selection = beneficial mutations linked to DNA repair mutants that ⬆️ mutation supply We tried to be accurate here @catarmbruster.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports... Grateful that evolutionary biology is being used in microbial pathogenesis, now need more pop-gen

Adaptation and genomic erosion in fragmented Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations in the sinuses of people with cystic fibrosis

Armbruster et al. find that infection-site biogeography impacts evolution of the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In the sinuses of adults with cystic fibrosis, P. aeruginosa residing i...

cell.com

My first ASM Microbe with a PhD! I’ve attended a Gordon as a postdoc but Microbe has been consistent for me throughout my grad school years and this feels extra special! Excited to learn about bugs! 🧫

Preprint of some of my postdoctoral research with @mfrederickson.bsky.social examining the evolution of beneficial microbial symbionts in duckweed www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our new review with @mfarjo.bsky.social on what we know about the functional and evolutionary consequences of virus-virus interactions within viral populations, out now in @annualreviews.bsky.social: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... Hope you like it!

Heterogeneity and Collective Interactions Within Viral Populations

The existence of viruses as obligate intracellular parasites with high mutation rates sets them apart from other forms of life in fundamental ways. Frequent errors in replication and assembly processe...

annualreviews.org

Conference season is here, and I'll be at #ASMicrobe! Come check out some of my latest results on the honey bee queen microbiome. I'd also love to chat about other ongoing projects on social bee multi-kingdom microbiomes, potential collaborations, or opportunities to join the Caesar Lab at OU : )

Can’t resist... checking for potential VOCs in microbiome interactions, just one more experiment before moving to Oklahoma. Next ones will be at the Caesar Lab at OU :)

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting my thesis work on developing bioinformatics tools and databases for viral gene discovery and classification at the Midwest Microbiome Symposium, hosted at my alma mater, UIUC. It was great to see what microbiome scientists across the Midwest are working on!

🔬🦠 Comment #Klebsiella parvient-elle à changer de capsule aussi fréquemment pour mieux s’adapter à son environnement ? Les travaux de @julielebris.bsky.social mis à la une par @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social 👏 -avec @epcrocha.bsky.social #MicroSky @cbitoulouse.bsky.social

CNRS Biologie@cnrsbiologie.bsky.social · 3mo ago

#ResultatScientifique🔎| Une bactérie capable de changer de « bouclier » pour mieux s’adapter à son environnement : une stratégie étonnante de Klebsiella pneumoniae qui éclaire ses capacités d’évolution et de résistance. ✍️ @olayarendueles.bsky.social @julielebris.bsky.social ▶️ buff.ly/q8AKHo1

Excited to announce that we are moving the lab to Minneapolis to join the University of Minnesota Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute on Infectious Diseases this summer!! We will be hiring so please reach out if interested in viral evolution, viral immunology, etc.!!

The evolutionary immunologist Tera Levin studies how molecular parts isolated from ancient bacterial immune systems can evolve into new tools. www.quantamagazine.org/the-ancient-...

Thrilled to have my first PhD paper with @mmdesai.bsky.social out! @science.org Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thread below: #mevosky #evosky #evobio #popgen #evolsky #ecoevo #molevol

Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation by purging hitchhiking load

Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain sex despite its direct costs is a long-standing challenge. Previous work has shown that sexual recombination can accelerate adaptation, in part ...

science.org

Shreyas Pai@theshreyaspai.bsky.social · last yr.

Why is sex so common if it's so costly? Super excited to share our new preprint “Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation”, where we bring a new angle to this age-old evolutionary question. Co-led by Parris Humphrey, in Michael Desai's lab. Short thread here: (1/n)

Extremely proud of my student Will Hamilton and the work we've done to characterize Wolbachia ankyrin repeat proteins. TLDR: they do interact with specific Drosophila proteins! journals.asm.org/eprint/KXVNI...

Wolbachia uses ankyrin repeats to target specific fly proteins | mBio

Molecular interactions drive co-evolutionary arms races between hosts and pathogens. These interactions shape the structure and function of both host and parasite proteins, enabling immunity or virule...

journals.asm.org

Interested in joining the lab or collaborating? I’d love to hear from you! You can use my current website as a reference (liliancaesar.com) - Caesar Lab version coming soon 😊

I am thrilled to share that this fall I’ll be joining the University of Oklahoma School of Biological Sciences (@ou.edu) as an Assistant Professor! The Caesar Lab will study the ecology and evolution of host-microbiome interactions in social bees (honey bees, stingless bees and more) 🦠🐝

Pls share: Postdoc position in Dept of Micro & Immun, Indiana U. School of Med, focused on how Lyme disease pathogen uses 2nd-messenger signaling to survive & establish persistent infection in mammalian host & the tick vector. Applicants: send CV to xfyang@iu.edu or contact Dr. Frank Yang.

2 days left ‼️ Don't forget to submit your abstract to MEEHubs2026: Aug 3-5, 2026 meehubs.org

Dan Weinberger and I @yalesph.bsky.social are hiring multiple research positions in microbial/virus sequencing and bioinformatics workflows with respiratory pathogens, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, RSV, and/or hMPV. See 👉 forms.gle/xpmzTtNqHFqK...

Announcing Seattle DROP: Discover Research Opportunities for Postdocs on May 5th Interested in postdoc opportunities in Seattle, WA? Seattle DROP is a virtual biomedical postdoc recruitment event sponsored by @fredhutch.org, @uwnews.uw.edu, and @seattlechildrens.org on May 5th from 8 AM-1 PM PT.