A commensal bacterium secretes effector proteins to establish population heterogeneity in the gut Zagieboylo and colleagues demonstrate that the human commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron secretes two self-targeting proteins that induce heterogeneity within its own population. Differential expre...

#microsky 😳

www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

🔊 Interested in doing a PhD on RNA-binding proteins in an abundant microbiota species and becoming a member of the German Priority Programme “Illuminating Gene Functions in the Human Gut Microbiome”? Apply here: www.uni-wuerzburg.de/karriere/sin...

An RNA regulates iron homeostasis and host mucus colonization in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron Symbiotic bacteria in the human intestinal microbiota provide many pivotal functions to human health and occupy distinct biogeographic niches within the gut. Yet the molecular basis underlying niche-s...

New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with Wenhan Zhu (U Vanderbilt): using dual RNA-seq during B. theta colonization of the host mucous layer, we identify IroR--an iron-response sRNA that tunes capsule expression and facilitates adaptation to iron limitation.
doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.672848

Second that !!!! Super excited and honoured to see this work on Bactetoides morphotypes spotlighted by Qinnan Yang and Eric Martens in Trends in Microbiology.

Congrats to Gianluca Prezza (@gprezza.bsky.social) for reveiving the 2025 PhD Award from the Friends of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)!👏 The award honours excellent PhD theses from the field of life sciences at HZI partner universities. His thesis focused Bacteroides' RNA biology.

Low-input RNA-seq suggests metabolic specialization underlying morphological heterogeneity in a gut commensal bacterium Bornet et al. investigate the morphological heterogeneity of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron cells observed both in laboratory culture and inside the mammalian GI tract. The authors show that cell size is only partially dictated by cell-cycle progression and is associated with distinct gene expression programs that suggest metabolic differentiation.

Low-input RNA-seq suggests metabolic specialization underlying morphological heterogeneity in a gut commensal bacterium

Low-input RNA-seq suggests metabolic specialization underlying morphological heterogeneity in a gut commensal bacterium Bornet et al. investigate the morphological heterogeneity of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron cells observed both in laboratory culture and inside the mammalian GI tract. The authors show that cell size i...

Our latest: www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00615-1. Links Bacteroides cell size w/ gene expression. Protocol works even for single cells. 🦠
Shoutout to @elisebor.bsky.social, @emmanuel-saliba.bsky.social, @lbarquist.bsky.social, @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social, Till Strowig & KC Huang.

Excited to share my PhD work!
We used a low-input RNA-seq protocol to dig into what drives cell shape differences in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
Congrats and big thanks to all co-authors 🧫🧬.

📣Fully funded PhD position available in our lab at @uniwuerzburg.bsky.social, in collaboration with Dr. Connolly at Newcastle University (@ruamicro.bsky.social). "Dissecting the RNA-centric landscape of microbiota-pathogen interactions in the gut”. 🦠

Apply here: www.uni-wuerzburg.de/karriere/sin...

Micromix: web infrastructure for visualizing and remixing microbial ‘omics data Abstract. Micromix is a flexible web platform for sharing and integrating microbial omics data, including RNA sequencing and transposon-insertion sequencin

Interested in collecting, sharing, and interacting with large collections of bacterial functional genomics data (RNA-seq, Tn-seq/TraDIS, etc.)? Check out our new web platform, Micromix, with case studies for Salmonella and Bacteroides! 🧫🧬🖥️🧪 Thread 1/n

academic.oup.com/gigascience/...

Is it anything Hfq-like (RNA chaperone)? Or similar to CsrA (global translation modulator)? We don't know yet. But as it stands, Bacteroidota RRM proteins appear as excellent candidates to map post-transcriptional networks in a substantial fraction of the microbiota. www.nature.com/articles/s41...