I am hiring a popgen postdoc!

Looking for a creative scientist to join us at USC to investigate recessive variation and complex traits in model or non-model species. The project is funded by a multi-year NIH grant, contract can be renewed.

Job add & details 👇🏽

usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

There are two!! meetings on insect-associated (fungal and other) pathogens taking place soon:
1) The Arthropod-Fungal Associations workshop (3rd edition) in Łódź, Poland, 20-22 May 2026 #AFAworkshop
2) The Insect Pathology Short Course in Ithaca, New York, 7-12 June 2026

In MBoC:

αβ-Tubulin heterodimers assemble into microtubules critical for cell division, transport, and cilia. This review covers their evolution and regulation, providing insight into how cells maintain robust microtubule networks.
https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E25-05-0247

A Mechanism Driving Echinocandin Heteroresistance in Candida glabrata www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04...

It’s an honor to be part of Virginia Tech’s Vet School. Over the last year our NIH funding nearly doubled — from $3.8M to $7.5M — propelling our college to No. 13 nationally among vet schools. news.vt.edu/articles/202...

Left: Time-lapse images of cells subjected to (top) 0–10 nM C5a with cell tracks, (bottom) 0–10 nM C5a in the presence of 10 μM PMX-53 (inhibitor), Right: Spider plots for 0–10 nM C5a (top), and 0–10 nM C5a in the presence of 10 μM PMX-53 (bottom).

#Macrophages don't simply follow cues to locate sites of infection. @robinsall.bsky.social &co show that they extract directional information from their environment from a constant concentration of C5a #chemoattractant, self-generate a gradient & enhance guidance @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4txkZez

If you know a graduating undergraduate looking for the chance to spend 1-2 years in a lab before graduate school, we're hiring! Our lab explores morphogenesis, defining how the cell adhesion & cytoskeletal machinery work together to allow cells to change shape & move tarheels.live/peiferlab/ 1/n RT

Mating fission yeast cells expressing Myo52-GFP (green), Cdc42-mCherrySW (Magenta) and mTagBFP2 expressed in P-cells (cyan). The cells fail to fuse, as shown by the cyan fusion marker confined to one of cell compartment. Image credit: Sajjita Saha.

Polarized growth in #Spombe needs Cdc42, but what role does it play in cell fusion? @sajjitasaha.bsky.social @sophiemartinlab.bsky.social &co show that mitotic polarized growth responds linearly to Cdc42 levels, but mating involves a sharp switch-like response @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4bvGIhb

Matt Fisher receives the new Fungal Spore award endowed by Jay Dunlap and Jennifer Loros before his lecture #fungal26

Now up on bioRxiv!

Working with @dianzheng.bsky.social and Jan van Kan, we tested how DNA is distributed between nuclei in multinucleate fungal spores.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Arp2/3-dependent actin assembly shapes endosomes and promotes intracellular trafficking in fission yeast Endosomes serve as crucial sorting centers that streamline the distribution of cell surface proteins. The early endosome receives traffic from both th…

Arp2/3-dependent actin assembly shapes endosomes and promotes intracellular trafficking in fission yeast

The work from Alejandro Melero @ameleroc.bsky.social and Miguel Basante-Bedoya just out in Current Biology.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@biology-unige.bsky.social

Rpd3 integrates with transcription factor networks to promote Histoplasma yeast-phase growth under host conditions. Image shows a proposed model for Rpd3 function under host conditions. Rpd3 is required for the repression of hyphal-phase-specific (HPS) genes and the expression of yeast-phase-specific (YPS) genes at 37°C. The study data suggest a model where Rpd3 represses HPS gene expression through the removal of acetyl (Ac) groups on histone H3 (histone), most notably in the promoters of HPS transcription factors (TFs) that may antagonize the Ryp network. The authors hypothesize the genomic landscape established by Rpd3 is indirectly (dashed arrows) required to promote activation of YPS genes through promoting the DNA-binding activity of the Ryp TFs (Ryp1-3). Thus, Rpd3 is required for Histoplasma yeast-phase morphology and virulence gene expression to promote macrophage lysis at 37°C.

#Fungi adapt to temperature during host invasion, but how is this controlled? This study shows that an HDAC-dependent chromatin program enables thermal dimorphism by coordinating activation of pathogenic growth & repression of filamentation in #Histoplasma @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/40D0f9a

On my way to #Fungal26! I'll be speaking at #MagnaFest presenting work on regulation of Pmk1, a key component of fungal pathogenesis.

If you wanna chat I'll be at poster 652A from 7pm on the 18th. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

@thesainsburylab.bsky.social
@genetics-gsa.bsky.social

Antifungal susceptibility testing across fungi: why MICs vary, methods diverge, and what MIC can miss Antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) is central to antifungal stewardship; however, MIC results can be variable and may require careful interpretation because endpoints can be ambiguous, clinical ...

Antifungal susceptibility testing across fungi: why MICs vary, methods diverge, and what MIC can miss

Cornelia Lass-Flörl and colleagues

Open access in @cmijournal.bsky.social

www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.org/article/S119... #IDSky #MedMycoSky

Fungal symbioses: A multiplicity of fungi in the lichen union Increasing evidence suggests that lichens are not just a partnership between one fungus and one alga or cyanobacterium but may contain multiple intera…

Thrilled to see this published! 😄
Our dispatch examines potential additional fungal symbionts in lichen partnerships and the key challenges in unraveling their biology.

Thanks for involving me in this @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social

@currentbiology.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Vacancies Open vacancies in Aspergillus and fungal research Postdoc – Imperial College London, UK Fungal genomics of the human fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. For informal enquiries please conta…

Asilomar will also be a great time to catch up with international colleagues and network.

Do you have any group openings? Let us know and we can add to our 'vacancies' page ahead of the conference:

aspgrpc.com/vacancies/

This post is about biologists' obligation to speak up for trans rights, in case I need to spell it out directly.

ggpubfigs and pypubfigs now include four new colorblind-friendly palettes.

These tools make it simple to create figures that everyone can visually access, helping you share your insights with a wider audience.

ggpubfigs: https://github.com/JLSteenwyk/ggpubfigs
pypubfigs: https://github.com/JLSteenwyk/pypubfigs

We did struggle to keep them alive too, and my husband has a pretty green thumb. They were great while they were alive and was fun to see them glow. So looking forward to any advice to keep them alive 😅

Global genetic rewiring during compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network - EMBO Reports Functional defects resulting from deleterious mutations can often be restored during evolution by compensatory mutations. Importantly, this process can generate the genetic diversity seen in networks ...

And another paper!
We show that compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network leads to global genetic rewiring: restoring polarity reshapes gene disruption tolerance across the genome and rewires entire cellular processes—not just individual genes.
doi.org/10.1038/s44319-026-00709-4

Four graphs, showing the response of PA14 and an isogenic pel mutant, and PAO1 and an isogenic pel psl double mutant, to meropenem and colistin. There is no difference between the response of mutants and WTs.

During her PhD, Jenny found something unexpected: biofilm-deficient P. aeruginosa mutants were just as tolerant to antibiotics as the WT when grown in our cystic fibrosis lung model. But why? #MicroSky 1/n

Inducing novel endosymbioses by implanting bacteria in fungi - Nature A study presents an approach to establish and track a new endosymbiotic partnership by implanting bacteria in a non-host fungus and shows that stable inheritance of the implanted bacteria is possible ...

Vorholt Lab re-created endosymbiosis in the lab: injected bacteria into a fungus and evolved a heritable partnership.

Evolution, fast-forwarded.

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Poster for upcoming webinar. Title: Fungal Conservation in the New Year: Species Discovery, Action, Policy, and a Global Strategy. Seven February 2026 11AM PST / 2PM EST / 4PM BRT / 7PM GMT with a registration link. Photos of presenters with talk titles. Huzefa Raja: Discovery is the first step toward conservation: Atromagnispora, a newly identified genus of freshwater ascomycete fungus from Indiana. Kelmer Martins-Cunha: From fungal neglect to action: shifting paradigms in Brazilian conservation. Greg Mueller: Developing A global strategy for fungal conservation. Images of 4 fungi are followed by the text "A webinar presented for Reverse the Red Day" and the logos of Reverse the Red, IIUCN SSC Mushrooms, Brackets, and Puffballs Specialist Group. Global Center for Species Survival at the Indianapolis Zoo. IUCN SSC FUNCC. IUCN SSC Brazil Fungal Specialist Group.

I just saw this and am excited to share!

🍄 Reverse the Red Day 7 Feb.
"Fungal Conservation in the New Year: Species Discovery, Action, Policy, and a Global Strategy"

us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

a woman in a suit and tie has the words wait what written on her face ALT: a woman in a suit and tie has the words wait what written on her face

Two new 🔥pre-prints 🔥 TODAY by us & @pwoakes.bsky.social @myosincity.bsky.social
change the way we think about the septin cytoskeleton

Septins buffer mechanical stress on actin and membranes!

Septins are like intermediate filaments

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Membrane editing with proximity labeling reveals regulators of lipid homeostasis - Nature Chemical Biology Coupling an optogenetic lipid-modifying enzyme with proximity labeling reveals protein networks and mechanisms regulating lipid homeostasis in the membranes of target organelles.

Thrilled to share our latest study, led by @reikatei.bsky.social, in @natchembio.nature.com! We began by asking a simple question—how do cells know if they have too much of a lipid in a particular membrane, and how do they respond to rectify this imbalance?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
More info 👇

Left: Example images of colonies from gain-and-loss rate experiments after 12 days at 25°C. Cells derived from an aneuploid parent (top, green) and colonies derived from a euploid parent (bottom, magenta) each showing one progeny colony (indicated by an arrow) that converted in morphology bias. Bar indicates 10 mm. Conversion in morphology bias was used as a proxy for converting in ploidy. Right: Rapid gain and loss of Chr7 aneuploidy may increase phenotypic diversity. Summary scheme of the authors' data, suggesting that rapid gain and loss of the Chr7 aneuploidy may benefit Histoplasma by rapidly increasing phenotypic diversity, helping populations survive frequent and abrupt transitions between environment and host. Histoplasma grows as yeast in the mammalian body and in the laboratory when grown at 37°C, but as hyphae in the environment or in the laboratory when grown at 25°C. Cells with a second copy of chromosome 7 are biased towards hyphal growth and outcompete euploid cells in the yeast-to-hyphal transition (black arrows). Euploid cells (with one copy of each chromosome) are biased towards yeast growth and outcompete in the hyphal to yeast transition (black arrows). Cells frequently gain and lose a second copy of Chr7 (gray arrows). Cells with one copy of Chr7 have increased virulence in comparison to cells with two copies of the chromosome. Cells with two copies of Chr7 have a hyphal-biased transcriptome as do cells with increased copy number of HYF1, a TF on Chr7.

Thermally dimorphic #fungi like #Histoplasma switch between environmental filamentous & host-associated #yeast forms. This study shows that a rapidly reversible duplication of a #chromosome alters the efficiency of this switch, reducing virulence @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4qCC9Gf

Identifying Effective Cryoprotectant Agents for Emerging Bacterial Model Species Host-associated bacteria live amongst eukaryotes within varied niches and form relationships ranging from facultative to obligate. With advancement in studies of such symbiotic associations, fastidiou...

After years of struggling with how to cryopreserve one of our endosymbiotic bacteria, we found something that worked!
🦠☃️
We crowd-sourced suggestions and then @ruthwright.bsky.social tried the most common ones (like 🥛...). Want to do the same? Here is how we did it:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Enhancer-directed gene delivery for digit regeneration based on conserved epidermal factors Limb loss remains a significant clinical challenge, but regenerative medicine approaches such as gene therapy offer a promising strategy to trigger endogenous regeneration programs. Optimal vector con...

🚨 Preprint Friday! 🚨

Thrilled to highlight this collab with David Brown at Duke @cutitoutdave.bsky.social and Ken Poss at UW Madison/Morgridge @kenposs.bsky.social. By comparing 3(!!) regenerating models we identify a conserved role for Sp-family TFs in appendage regeneration (and more).....🧵

I am hiring a postdoc (or two!) to work on C. elegans reproductive system development. Our MIRA funds work on cell size, migration, and niche signaling. Our CAREER funds work on regulation of gonad growth, degrowth, and regeneration during and after starvation

unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/310...