A hierarchical regulatory cascade defines the temporal window of natural transformation in Staphylococcus aureus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.03.742410v1
@phoeberice.bsky.social
Interested in mobile DNA, molecular machines, structural biology
This is extremely cool and makes scientific sense. Anti-retrotransposon editing as precursor to mechanism for antibody diversification
Cell - a Cell Press journal@cp-cell.bsky.social · 2d agoNow online! Co-option of retrotransposons promotes antibody diversification
📣NAR is recruiting a new Executive Editor!📣Seeking an established researcher with expertise in RNA biology and translation mechanisms to help shape the journal's scientific direction, oversee peer review, and support its growth. Apply by 30 Sept 2026: academic.oup.com/nar/pages/ex...
@dereklowe.bsky.social lets loose again (and I am still here for it). www.science.org/content/blog... 1/2
The Assault On Science Funding Continues
science.org
Thank you! Our medically-biased system left me completely ignorant of such fascinating organelles!
Mihris Naduthodi@mihrisn.bsky.social · 2w ago(1/16) Nearly two-thirds of ocean carbon fixation flows through a diverse organelle: the pyrenoid. Our new paper maps its 3D architecture in the alga Chlorella and identifies new proteins — expanding the toolkit to engineer this CO2-concentrating machine into crops🧵 #Pyrenoid #CCM #Photosynthesis
I'm happy to share the first paper from my postdoc work: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... How does RecA find one homologous sequence in an entire chromosome -and what turns that encounter into a repair-competent one? We find that DNA topology is the gatekeeper !! 1/10
Chromosome topology gates productive RecA homology search
In homologous recombination, DNA repair depends on recombinase filaments finding homologous templates on chromosomes whose topology is continually remodeled by replication and transcription. How dynam...
biorxiv.org
CDC is no longer surveilling outbreaks caused by campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia. What could go wrong?
Ian Weissman, DO@drianweissman.bsky.social · 11mo agoThe CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses. As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
I certainly agree about using AI to fake understanding of somebody's work! But ... some students get astoundingly anxious about composing email to profs. We could be more pro-active in explaining the "obvious" (e.g. how to strike a balance between Victorian formality and teenage slang).
Go Sarah! A good argument in support of stable funding for basic science. And great to see one of the Rice lab's first undergraduates doing such cool stuff.
Sarah Bagby@scbagby.bsky.social · last mo.Out today in Nature Microbiology: a paper that started in 2021 with an email from @sullivan-lab.bsky.social. Subject line: "Crazy ideas". www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/23
This amount would fund the US National Science Foundation for a decade. 🧪
Pentagon seeks $80 billion from Congress for Iran war
The Pentagon has told lawmakers it needs roughly $80 billion, mostly to cover the cost of the war in Iran.
apnews.com
Barbara McClintock was born #OTD in 1902. 🧪 🌽 McClintock, who spent most of her career at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, won a Basic Medical Research Lasker in 1981 for the discovery of transposons, genetic elements that can move from one location to another: http://ow.ly/hVNI50Jvkql #WomenInSTEM
Cascading recombinase memory switch for programmable and stable gene expression in Pseudomonas putida by Javier Hernández @labnikel.bsky.social #SyntheticBiology #MetabolicEngineering #GeneticCircuit #OpenAccess academic.oup.com/nar/article/... @narjournal.bsky.social
Cascading recombinase memory switch for programmable and stable gene expression in Pseudomonas putida
Abstract. Genetic circuits for model bacteria often perform poorly in non-canonical hosts, limiting the deployment of regulatory programs in industrially r
academic.oup.com
CapK is a bacterial DNA damage-activated kinase that phosphorylates transcriptional repressor CapS to control adjacently-encoded anti-phage immune pathway genes in response to a universal stress signal, DNA damage @kevincorbett.bsky.social and colleagues link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A DNA damage-activated kinase phosphorylates a transcriptional repressor to control bacterial immune pathway expression - The EMBO Journal
Bacteria encode numerous stress-response pathways that protect their hosts against both internal and external threats. A key question is how these pathways are regulated, especially anti-phage immune ...
link.springer.com
Folddisco is now published @natbiotech.nature.com. It’s a fast motif search for similar 3D DISCOntinuous residues like catalytic sites or zinc fingers across the entire protein universe. 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 💾 folddisco.foldseek.com 🌐 https://search.foldseek.com/folddisco
Structural motif search across the protein universe with Folddisco - Nature Biotechnology
Folddisco enables protein structural motif search in million scale databases.
nature.com
Martin Steinegger 🇺🇦@martinsteinegger.bsky.social · last yr.Folddisco finds similar (dis)continuous 3D motifs in large protein structure databases. Its efficient index enables fast uncharacterized active site annotation, protein conformational state analysis and PPI interface comparison. 1/9🧶🧬 📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🌐 search.foldseek.com/folddisco
A great opportunity! www.linkedin.com/pulse/join-u...
Join us in Paris: Systems and Synthetic Biology x AI and health - Inserm Tenuring Position and Starting Package
I'm delighted to announce that we - ELiS Lab / Inserm U1338 at the nascent Paris Biofoundry and the Computational, Quantitative, Synthetic Biology Dept. at the Sorbonne Université - are recruiting an ...
linkedin.com
And it is coming from people who rail against "regulations" when up for election. Malicious, wasteful micromanagement.
Jason Rasgon@vectorgen.bsky.social · 3mo agoThis is fucking insanity www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...
New preprint. In S. sanguinis, a C5a peptidase-like protease (ScpH) polymerizes along eDNA, turning it into a catalytic biofilm scaffold. Great work from @robinanger.bsky.social in our lab, with Pelicic lab @lcbofficiel.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Doesn't it depend on whether RNA or protein levels were measured?
Gerrich@gerrich.bsky.social · 2mo ago#microsky This is driving me crazy: Is it the gene that is being expressed or the protein? Should it be pckA (italicized) is expressed or PckA?! I would think pckA (italicized), but many people seem to differ. 🧪🦠
🚨The lab's first research paper is In Press at JBC! Congrats Liza and Magda!! Pontocerebellar Hypoplasia linked mutations of the deadenylase Target of EGR1 (TOE1) impair thermal stability, ribonuclease activity, and oligomerization - Journal of Biological Chemistry www.jbc.org/article/S002...
Pontocerebellar Hypoplasia linked mutations of the deadenylase Target of EGR1 (TOE1) impair thermal stability, ribonuclease activity, and oligomerization
The Target of EGR1 (TOE1) gene encodes the TOE1 deadenylase, which is essential for the maturation of Pol-II transcribed snRNAs in humans. Over a dozen missense mutations in the TOE1 gene have been li...
jbc.org
Out today - structure of the human HIRA histone chaperone complex bound to nucleosomes. Ever wondered how nucleosomes are assembled in the wake of transcription? It takes a 'hulk of a protein complex'. Work by the amazing Wei Tian weetian558.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵
This isn’t the ARC, but I can easily imagine it happening to an ARC scheme: The Government cancelled the Australia’s Economic Accelerator scheme, **including the round of submitted proposals currently under review**. Absolutely gutting for researchers involved. Enraging, and outrageous!
innovationaus.com
Dear Hive Mind, If we wanted to insert a 50-60 bp DNA sequence into a safe spot (or perhaps several different safe spots) in the E. coli chromosome, what would be the simplest / most straightfoward approach these days? Not a big problem if we need a marker that stays there too. Thanks!
It's already back ???? #Maythe4thBeWithYou #MayThe4th #MayTheFourthBeWithYou Well, somebody has to do it @nucleosomepolice.bsky.social 🫣 poke @markhamillofficial.bsky.social Did you know that the nucleosome inspires the Millennium Falcon design and made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs ?
Site-specific, multi-kilobase insertions and over-writes in mammalian cells, without DSBs, HDR, recombinases, integrases, transposases, or active cell cycling? Using fully or predominantly single-stranded DNA donors? 1/15
Identification of hot spring Obelisk-like RNA replicons and expanded diversity of the Obelisk superfamily #microbiology #viroid #virus #RNA #MicroSky @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Identification of hot spring Obelisk-like RNA replicons and expanded diversity of the Obelisk superfamily - Nature Communications
In this study, the authors identify circular RNAs replicating in high-temperature hot spring environments and demonstrate that ccc RNA replicons belonging to the Obelisk superfamily are more diverse a...
nature.com
Screaming to the abyss: #ColossalBio did not resurrect the dire wolf and they're probably just going to make an antelope with methemoglobinemia to give it a bluish color. Their #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign is just a pyramid scheme because #ExtinctionIsForever 🧪
New work from Sashi Weerawarana on how TFAM compacts mitochondrial DNA 🧬 TFAM oligomerizes on DNA to form compact, homogeneous higher-order complexes (see beautiful mass photometry data below), that still retain dynamic behavior. Congratulations Sashi and Wei. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
