Our departmental seminar is back! This week:

Check out our new manuscript, in collab with Efrat Sheffer, Guy Dovrat and Amir Erez, where we looked at shotgun metagenomes of wild legume nodules, providing an unbiased view of the taxonomic genomic content of legume nodules, and how these relate to plant performance.

Thrilled to host @manuelkleiner.bsky.social for a week at @bengurionuniv.bsky.social for a MetaProteomics workshop!
No better start than a seminar on "Advanced Metaproteomic Approaches To Investigate Functional Host-Microbiota Interactions." 🧬

The (Yoav) Voichek lab has opened its gates at the Weizmann Institute, and is actively recruiting students and researchers at all levels - come explore gene regulation and computational genomics in a fun, friendly sprouting lab 🤗🥼⚗️🧪
www.weizmann.ac.il/plants/voichek

Bark microbiota modulate climate-active gas fluxes in Australian forests Recent studies suggest that microbes inhabit tree bark, yet little is known about their identities, functions, and environmental roles. Here we reveal, through gene-centric and genome-resolved metagen...

In this week’s @science.org cover article, we discover tree bark is a hidden habitat for abundant, diverse, and specialized microbial life that actively regulate our climate 🦠. Bark isn't just an inert armor of tree but an active interface for climate and biodiversity
www.science.org/eprint/7H9PX...

Postdoctoral Researcher in discovering the benefits of plant growth-promoting bacteriophages Postdoctoral Researcher in discovering the benefits of plant growth-promoting bacteriophages

A four-year postdoc focusing on "plant growth-promoting bacteriophages" available in my group. Skills in metaviromics and metagenomics essential. Application deadline: 2.2.2026. For more info, see the link.

Happy to share our new work about the Bacillus-Trichoderma interactions. A new and interesting story😁

Our work now on @jxbotany.bsky.social. Make sure you add some Cas13a fluorescent virus detection to your Christmas lights ✨️

Don't miss Natanella Illouz-Eliaz' (Salk Institute) Community Dissemination of Arabidopsis Knowledge Award presentation “The World Around Us: Two Parallel Paths in Life"!
youtu.be/Lqatc-yUpmY?...
@natanellae.bsky.social

Bittersweet day in the lab as we said farewell to the amazing Noa Assaf, who just successfully defended her MSc thesis on drought-induced shifts in root exudation in desert plants.

Unexpected microbial rhodopsin dynamics in sync with phytoplankton blooms www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Gene-specific selective sweeps are pervasive across human gut microbiomes - Nature Development and application of the integrated linkage disequilibrium score (iLDS) reveals both selective pressures impacting the human gut microbiome and the mechanisms by which gut bacteria adapt to ...

Grateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hanukkah at the department 🕯️. A fun celebration organized by our awesome students. Happy holidays.

Evaluation of statistical approaches for differential metaproteomics Metaproteomics characterizes and compares molecular phenotypes of organisms in communities by comprehensively analyzing their protein expression profiles using statistical methods. However, not all st...

Super excited to have this paper out. We developed a complex set of ground truth samples to test more than 110 statistical approaches for differential #metaproteomics
We can now give clear guidance on what tests perform well. Thank you Tjorven Hinzke and
@benoitkunath.bsky.social for the leadership

Hypoxia Induces Phenotypic and Metabolic Shifts in Endophytic Flavobacterium sp. 98 Abstract. Oxygen plays a crucial role in shaping microbial physiology, functions, and behavior. Endophytic bacteria, residing within plant tissues, inhabit

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... Endophytic adaptation in Flavobacterium sp. 98 @xinyapan.bsky.social @vcarryon.bsky.social @gillesvanwezel.bsky.social ✌🏽 lysoPE story could be cool

Fast and accurate taxonomic domain assignment of short metagenomic reads using BBERT Biological diversity revealed by metagenomic sequencing far exceeds that of known or cultured organisms, yet much of this diversity remains inaccessible because most sequences from complex habitats, s...

Finally out! BBERT - an LLM that can detect bacterial reads using as little as 100 base pairs! Go try it! @amirerez.bsky.social @finkel-lab.bsky.social

Viral NblA proteins negatively affect oceanic cyanobacterial photosynthesis - Nature Viral NblA accelerates the cyanophage infection cycle, directs degradation of the host phycobilisome and other proteins, and reduces host photosynthetic light-harvesting efficiency.

This is such a cool paper as it experimentally addresses the role of the auxiliary metabolic gene nblA in cyanophages showing a large benefit of NblA to the cyanophage and a negative effect on the host photosynthetic apparatus and host photosynthesis

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Vitamin auxotrophies shape microbial community assembly on model marine particles Abstract. Microbial community assembly is governed by the flow of carbon sources and other primary metabolites between species. However, central metabolism

🌊🦠🧪 Delighted to share this work now out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1093/isme... The currency of microbial life is chemistry, but there’s so much still unknown about how metabolic interactions shape communities. 1/

@naturalist1986.bsky.social has done it again, this time with 3rd prize at the ISPS meeting in the beautiful Sde Boker. Poster title: A rhizobial trickster: Legume symbiont simultaneously fixes atmospheric nitrogen and denitrifies. Time to turn these posters into manuscripts.

This week in the HUJI PES seminar:
@hebrewuniversity.bsky.social

Keystone Pseudomonas species in the wheat phyllosphere microbiome mitigate Fusarium head blight by altering host pH Fusarium graminearum (F. graminearum) pathogen induces wheat phyllosphere alkalinization, promoting the development of Fusarium head blight (FHB). Xu et al. show that host-acidifying Pseudomonas, sele...

🎉 Check out the latest from Qin Gu’s team at Nanjing Agricultural University: “Keystone Pseudomonas species in the wheat phyllosphere” (Cell Host & Microbe) 👉 www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Wish I could’ve been there for that :)

I remember Aharon destroying this paper in an epic departmental seminar just a couple weeks after it was published.

This week in the HUJI PES seminar:
@hebrewuniversity.bsky.social

I'm thrilled to share our newest publication in @natmicrobiol.nature.com, led by Drs. @botanichole.bsky.social, Valéria Custódio, and David Gopaulchan: Precipitation legacy effects on #SoilMicrobiota facilitate adaptive drought responses in plants. 🌾 🧪 (thread)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Call for Applications for the Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship-2026-27 - The Azrieli Foundation

Call for Applications for the Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship-2026-27 azrielifoundation.org/azrieli-fell...

The first time we are hearing about viruses at #PMS2025, thanks @sheilaroitman.bsky.social!

Fascinating talk on how to optimize microbe-microbe interactions with Bacillus as the focal species.

POV running with Asaf