Delighted to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs). We found a lysis control hub which allows GTAs to escape their bacterial host cells and transfer DNA 🧬 between bacteria. Thanks to @tunglejic.bsky.social, all co-authors, and our amazing collaborators!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cell shape | Science www.science.org/eprint/JCFZX...
A potential role for acyl-phosphate in the coordination of phospholipid and lipopolysaccharide synthesis in Escherichia coli www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
The moment you’ve all been waiting for…
🦠 SAVE THE DATE! 🦠
BBM2026 will be held from June 22nd - 23rd at Boston University’s George Sherman Union. Our featured speaker this year is Dr. Eric Skaar from Vanderbilt University!
Registration opens soon!
More info at: bostonbacterial.org
#BBM2026
Model for Clostridioides difficile germination. Top: Model of the C. difficile proteins required for germination during sporulation. From left to right: interdomain processing of the CspBA fusion protein by the protease YabG occurs in the spore coat layer; heterodimerization of CspC and CspA and homodimerization of CspB; and loading of key germination proteins into the cortex region of the mature spore. Bottom right: Model of a C. difficile spore undergoing germination. Sensing of germinant and co-germinant signals (either directly or indirectly) by the CspC:CspA heterodimer (1) leads to the heterodimer adopting an active conformation (2). Bottom left: CspC:CspA heterodimer space-filling model. Residues at the center of the CspC:CspA heterodimer binding interface (I.) play important roles in transducing germinant and co-germinant signals, while residues at the periphery of the binding interface (II.) help stabilize the complex. Signal transduction by the CspC:CspA heterodimer initiates the activation of CspB (either directly or indirectly) (3). Active CspB then proteolytically activates the cortex-lytic enzyme SleC (4), which will go on to degrade the spore cortex (5), allowing for rehydration of the spore core and resumption of metabolic activity.
Unlike other #bacteria, C. difficile must detect both germinant & co-germinant signals to trigger #spore #germination. This study finds that the CspC:CspA complex is a key signaling node that integrates environmental cues to regulate #Cdifficile spore germination @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4rtCKdZ
Great new story from Sophie Helaine and Molly Sargen!
www.helainelab.com
Fer’s tour de force in B. anthracis is out! Fer got Tn-seq running, built an ordered knockout library, defined all essential sporulation genes, and found a peptidoglycan deacetylase inhibitor critical for engulfment. Including our first one-by-all Alphafold screen! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Identification of sporulation genes in Bacillus anthracis highlights similarities and significant differences with Bacillus subtilis
@plosbiology.org from David Rudner
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
Identification of genetic interactions in Bacillus subtilis cell division. Congratulations, Byoung-Mo Koo, Carol Gross, and all involved!
@cp-cellsystems.bsky.social #subtiwiki
www.cell.com/cell-systems...
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#microsky
We challenge the long-standing view that peptidoglycan alone protects cells from bursting.
Our study shows that the periplasm — enclosed by OM–PG connections — acts as a pressure buffer essential for osmoprotection in Gram-negative bacteria.
📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The #SubtiWiki Paper of the month for June 2025 has been selected.
Congratulations, @apbrogan.bsky.social @ @harvardmed.bsky.social
@natmicrobiol.nature.com
subtiwiki.uni-goettingen.de/wiki/index.p...
Thank you so much!
🚨Out now!
Cyclic-di-AMP modulates cellular turgor in response to defects in bacterial cell wall synthesis @harvardmicro.bsky.social
#MicroSky 🦠
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thanks Adrienne!
Thank you! and will do.
Thank you Jörg! I was so inspired by your work over the years.
Cyclic-di-AMP modulates cellular turgor in response to defects in bacterial cell wall synthesis
Cyclic-di-AMP modulates cellular turgor in response to defects in bacterial cell wall synthesis
Brogan et al uncover a signaling pathway in which levels of the nucleotide second messenger c-di-AMP increase in response to defects in cell wall synthesis. This regulatory pathway decreases the cytoplasmic turgor pressure and protects the cell from lysis: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a great collaboration with Dr. Paola Bardetti and Dr. Rico Rojas at NYU. With their help, we provide evidence that c-di-AMP functions to control the cytoplasmic turgor pressure. The c-di-AMP mediated reduction in turgor protects cells from lysis.
In short, there is: the c-di-AMP cyclase/regulator complex CdaAR upregulates cyclic-di-AMP in response to defects in cell wall synthesis. Similar to other envelope stress response systems in B. subtills, the cyclase regulator CdaR uses an intrinsically disordered region to sense cell wall defects.
c-di-AMP has long been implicated in resistance to cell wall targeting antibiotics. We hypothesized that there could be a regulatory connection between the cell envelope and c-di-AMP levels.
Very happy to share that a large part of my thesis work is out today: B. subtilis uses the second messenger c-di-AMP to modulate its turgor pressure in response to the state of its cell envelope. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I’m excited that the work by Diego Ramirez and Lei Yin is out, where they gained several key insights into what provides the force underlying bacterial cell division doi.org/10.1101/2025....
To divide, cells must first bend the membrane inward, a process that’s energetically expensive
🚨👉 Please check our recent work on bacterial cell division. In situ Cryo-ET reveals the cellular function of the penicillin binding protein 1b supported by AFM, live-cell imaging, in silico AlphaFold proteome screen and TIRFM. Hope you enjoy the read! #teamtomo #cryo-ET ❄️🔬🐎 big thanks to the team!
Very excited to share that my thesis work is out in Molecular Cell! We trained a Structure and Omics informed Classifier (SPOC) to score binary AlphaFold multimer (AF-M) predictions by structural quality and consistency with experimental omics datasets. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
SAVE THE DATE ‼️ 📆 📢
BBM 2025 will be held on June 9-10th at the Harvard Science Center feat. the one and only Dr. Petra Levin as keynote! We can't wait to see you there.
Registration and scholarship applications open next week.
Angelika Gründling’s work from her sabbatical in the Bernhardt-Rudner labs is out. She came with the goal of finding the missing G+ phosphatidylglycerol phosphate phosphatase and found it with time to spare. I can also highly recommend her as a bay mate! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
HARIBO bacter for happy holidays