How do microorganisms in groundwater survive when faced with a constant shortage of energy and nutrients? Researchers from #UniJena and Linnaeus University explain this using the new concept of ‘microbial frugality’. ➡️ www.uni-jena.de/en/432960/leb…

New study by Alexander Henoch (@ahenoch.bsky.social), a PhD student in our group @hifmb.de and @awi.de, shows what it takes to bring gene synteny into microbial pangenomes, and what we learn about the variability landscape of genomes when we do that. See the pre-print here: doi.org/10.64898/202...

#1 of 5 open PostDoc posts will study how the words we use reveal our thinking about the marine environment. Did you know that most prospective marine protected areas are named after sea-floor features? And, who has the power to name areas, species, etc? How does this affect the research agenda?

Thilo Gross@thilogross.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I am so excited about this: We are doing a new kind of project with the aim of transporting knowledge and methods from the humanities into a natural science context. We'll have 5 full 3yr postdoc positions! I will post more in the coming week. But here is a preview: hifmb.de/institute/hi...

I'm happy to share the first pre-print of out Lab! 🎉 Introducing ArchaeaHQ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We curated 21,644 genomes across all 4 archaeal kingdoms to bridge the gap in public datasets for computational biology What is inside ArchaeaHQ... (1/2)

ArchaeaHQ brings: • 21.6k+ genomes across all 4 kingdoms (Asgard, DPANN, TACK, Euryarchaeota) • High quality: ≥70% completeness, ≤10% contamination • 74.8% MAGs & 25.2% isolates • Environmental & geographic metadata included! Data: doi.org/10.6084/m9.f... Code: github.com/Pedrolleao/g... (2/2)

Our first collaboration with the Levine lab! Defining metabolic niches for marine microbial heterotrophs www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs 🌊

Defining metabolic niches for marine microbial heterotrophs

Understanding carbon cycling requires simplifying bacterial diversity into functional groups defined by genetic signatures.

science.org

Join us as Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Computational Biology at Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) / @leidenscience.bsky.social / @unileiden.bsky.social Application deadline on 15 March 2026 👇 careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Assistan...

You can read a short behind the story of our latest accepted article here: medium.com/@sarilog/the...

The Multitudes that Contain Us

What microbial communities reveal about hierarchy, interdependence, and belonging

medium.com

Ákos T Kovács@evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Microbial Cohorts: Bringing Ecological Meaning to the Modularity Concept of Co-Occurrence Networks #ISMECommun by Felix Milke, @sarilog.bsky.social, Meinhard Simon, Armando Pacheco-Valenciana & Sinikka T Lennartz academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Microbial Cohorts: Bringing Ecological Meaning to the Modularity Concept of Co-Occurrence Networks #ISMECommun by Felix Milke, @sarilog.bsky.social, Meinhard Simon, Armando Pacheco-Valenciana & Sinikka T Lennartz academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Microbial Cohorts: Bringing Ecological Meaning to the Modularity Concept of Co-Occurrence Networks

Abstract. Microbial communities are structured through complex interactions that are difficult to observe directly. Co-occurrence networks offer a way to i

academic.oup.com

medium.com/@sarilog/lea...

very sad news. Peer Bork was one of the leaders of our field, a wonderful scientist, and he's much too young to be gone. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL

EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

embl.org

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

We create vector graphics of model organisms and emerging biological research organisms to enhance our publications. We’re sharing these editable graphics under a CC0 license for other scientists to...

doi.org

Troubleshooting common errors in assemblies of long-read metagenomes - @merenbey.bsky.social @banfieldlab.bsky.social go.nature.com/44P7nSm

Troubleshooting common errors in assemblies of long-read metagenomes - Nature Biotechnology

Long-read sequence assemblies from metagenomes contain frequent errors.

go.nature.com

Excited to see our new work published! We have established the evolutionary and ecological context of our favorite model Caulobacter and made some unexpected findings. Who would have thought that close relatives lack dimorphism? And have potential for phototrophy? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Widespread potential for phototrophy and convergent reduction of lifecycle complexity in the dimorphic order Caulobacterales - Nature Communications

This study maps out the diversity and evolution of the bacterial order Caulobacterales, including the model organism C. crescentus, which reveals widespread phototrophy and illuminates the evolution o...

nature.com

Microbial model communities exhibit widespread metabolic interdependencies www.nature.com/articles/s42... #jcampubs

You can also read the story behind the story here: medium.com/@sarilog/mic...

What bacteria taught me about cooperation

The story behind the story of our microbial model communities study

medium.com

Sarahi L. Garcia@sarilog.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I'm very excited to share early access to "Microbial model communities exhibit widespread metabolic dependences" doi.org/10.1038/s420...

I'm very excited to share early access to "Microbial model communities exhibit widespread metabolic dependences" doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Our paper describing the GlobDB is now published in @bioinfoadv.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/bioa... The GlobDB is the largest species dereplicated genome database currently available, containing 306,260 species representatives. More information on globdb.org 1/5 🖥️🧬🦠

GlobDB: a comprehensive species-dereplicated microbial genome resource

AbstractMotivation. Over the past years, substantial numbers of microbial species’ genomes have been deposited outside of conventional INSDC databases.Resu

doi.org

We have a date for the free-to-attend #anvio workshop and ECR Symposium for 2026, and we look forward to meeting you at the @hifmb.de in Oldenburg, Germany! Please find more information on the venue, program, and the application form here, and spread the word 😇 anvio.org/workshops/20...

Two new positions are available at the MPI for Evolutionary Biology to support development of our genomics facility. Both stand to become permanent. Both offer a ton of opportunity to engage in a wide range of creative science. Pls repost 🙏 www.evolbio.mpg.de/3838377/job_...

Two full-time positions | Bioinformatician (m/f/d) + Applications Specialist (m/f/d) - Molecular Biology

The Genome Facility at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön is seeking to fill two positions (full time) to support and expand our core facility services.

evolbio.mpg.de

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community - Nature Communications

Here the authors leverage a crossfeeding, engineered microbial community to demonstrate that strain abundance cycles are robust across environmental conditions. They pair this with a nonlinear dynamic model to elucidate population cycles.

nature.com

I am extremely happy to share our latest manuscript "Widely-distributed freshwater microorganisms with streamlined genomes co-occur in cohorts with high abundance". This project started back in 2021-2022 and after a long time, it sees the light today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Widely-distributed freshwater microorganisms with streamlined genomes co-occur in cohorts with high abundance - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Widely-distributed freshwater microorganisms with streamlined genomes co-occur in cohorts with high abundance

nature.com

How do microbes become permanent partners? 🌊🔬🦠 Check out our new study published in Current Biology showing how cyanobacterial genomes evolve step-by-step into endosymbionts of diatoms. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @currentbiology.bsky.social @mehrshmali.bsky.social

Our article showing energy production from air alone is in PNAS today. This paper provides an ultimate biochemical proof that microbes can survive simply by 'making' energy from air (making two ATP per molecule atmospheric H2 consumed) and has biotech applications. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

ATP synthesis driven by atmospheric hydrogen concentrations | PNAS

All cells require a continuous supply of the universal energy currency, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to drive countless cellular reactions. The un...

pnas.org

This is wild! Stay weird, evolution | Microbe with bizarrely tiny genome may be evolving into a virus | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Microbe with bizarrely tiny genome may be evolving into a virus

With DNA focused almost entirely on replication, newly discovered organism blurs the line between cells and viruses

science.org

I am very happy (and anxious) to share with you our most recent work in which we evaluated four of the most popular long-read assemblers, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... and tell you just a little bit about it in the following 🧵

Assemblies of long-read metagenomes suffer from diverse errors

Genomes from metagenomes have revolutionised our understanding of microbial diversity, ecology, and evolution, propelling advances in basic science, biomedicine, and biotechnology. Assembly algorithms...

biorxiv.org

Microbial model communities reveal widespread auxotrophies in abundant bacteria Our results highlight the value of cultivating microorganisms in groups to cultivate: 1) abundant microorganisms tinyurl.com/miintmodcom

Just out - The first global ocean 3-Domain microbial survey where all organisms can be directly compared quantitatively. Unfractionated and amplified from just 2 primers (vetted with mock communities and metagenomics), so all with the same denominator. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Do you like potatoes? Don't miss our most recent work on tetraploid potato genome! @nature.com #potato #genomics #history #evolution

Schneeberger Lab@labschneeberger.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 Excited to share our work out now in @nature.com! 📢 We present the phased pan-genome of tetraploid European potato, based on 10 historical cultivars representing 85% of European potato diversity. Learn more below! 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/7