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Pia Sen

@pia-sen.bsky.social

PhD student at GW: microbial ecology of phages and phage defense in Antarctic deserts, volcanoes, and hot springs 🧫🌋 🎓UT Austin 2020

49 Posts841 Follower438 Folgt
MadScientist@mads100tist.bsky.social · 4d ago

Barbara was such a badass. The kind of person that has a feeling for what the mechanism may be, but went into a lengthy process to double and triple check it. The antithesis of modern clout-chasing 🧪

Genetics Society of America@genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 5d ago

On August 1, 1931, Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock published the first experimental proof that genes are physically located on chromosomes—a discovery that transformed genetics. 1/3🧵

Craig Kaplan@triggerloop.bsky.social · 2w ago

Some bacteria use the CRISPR/Cas systems as transcriptional repressors of other anti-phage systems, such that when CRISPR interfered with, gene expression of repressed anti-phage systems goes up www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CRISPR–Cas regulates expression of embedded anti-phage defence systems - Nature

CRISPR–Cas systems transcriptionally tune diverse innate defences using CRISPR RNA-like guides to balance antiviral protection with fitness, and hyperactivate these defences when compromised, establis...

nature.com

Tominaga K. (tomiken)@pacyc184.bsky.social · 2w ago

Community diversity favors coexistence between bacteria and parasitic bacteriophages | bioRxiv

Community diversity favors coexistence between bacteria and parasitic bacteriophages

Microbial communities often contain diverse bacteria and their specific viruses (bacteriophages). Lytic phages frequently select for host bacteria to evolve resistance, in-turn threatening phage extinction. However, in nature phage-bacteria interactions do not occur in isolation, but within complex communities containing other species. To test how community context can alter resistance evolution and phage persistence, we experimentally evolved Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria and a Pseudomonas-targeting phage with and without a community representing a cystic fibrosis disease pulmonary infection. Phages selected for rapid evolution of receptor-mediated resistance, regardless of community context. However, susceptible bacteria often persisted due to resistance-growth trade-offs. A diverse community favored increased frequencies of susceptibility, fueling higher phage densities and fewer phage extinctions. Our findings show that community complexity can constrain the evolution of phage resistance in bacteria, promoting host-parasite coexistence and fostering microbial diversity. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Yale STARS program Howard Hughes Medical Institute

biorxiv.org

Aude Bernheim@audeber.bsky.social · 2w ago

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

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D.@sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 3w ago

This coming school year's Lego League theme is biodiversity, which means it's about to be all-hands-on-deck for ecologists. Let's get ready for the flood. Ecologists, if you're willing to answer questions from classrooms or LEGO teams, we need ya. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Fall 2026 Scientist Form

Thank you for Volunteering with Skype a Scientist for the Fall 2026 semester! We match all classrooms up once per week. You may get a match immediately and you may not get a match for a few months. ...

docs.google.com

Pia Sen@pia-sen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Even in the darkest of times, I feel so grateful to be a researcher! I had a great conversation with the Night Science Podcast host, and can’t wait to hear the stories of other young scientists :)

The Night Science Podcast@nightsciencepod.bsky.social · 3w ago

🔥New Night Science Podcast episode! We talked with PhD students & postdocs about finding ideas in art museums, making sketches, transferring concepts, going to unrelated seminars, swimming, hiking, talking in pubs and letting ideas lie fallow like in a crop rotation system.

Pia Sen@pia-sen.bsky.social · 3w ago

I spoke a bit about the creative process that comes with science on this! Part of my goal for the summer is to reclaim my whimsy :)

The Night Science Podcast@nightsciencepod.bsky.social · 3w ago

A: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n... S: open.spotify.com/episode/2fAt... Thank you! Pia Sen, Mrutyunjaya Panda, Deepa Rajan, Lukas Fiedler, Yessica Herrera, Davis Garner, Shawn Manuel, Aurélie Hintermann, @carlosaplysia.bsky.social, @vchandra.bsky.social, Jaeseung Hahn, Anuraag Bukkuri & Huda Usman

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/

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

Julia Van Etten@couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’m sick of hearing about this and being messaged about it but this article is good. Any scientist with even a rudimentary knowledge of algae could fix this problem fairly easily for under $16 million. You can give that money back to the NSF. In fact, you could fund 100 3-year GRFs with $16M.

What Color Is the Reflecting Pool? An Investigation.

President Trump wanted an American-flag-blue Reflecting Pool. Instead, he got a swamp.

theatlantic.com

Cell Host & Microbe@cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Predicting phage anti-defenses that shoot the messenger Mahler & @yuping-li.bsky.social highlight @science.org work developing a structure-guided approach to identify phage proteins counteracting bacterial nucleotide signaling defenses using metagenomic data. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Predicting phage anti-defenses that shoot the messenger

Locked in a constant arms race, bacteria and their phage predators have evolved various defenses and counter-defenses. Compared to the numerous identified defenses, phage-encoded counter-defenses are ...

cell.com