Phage JS1: The Virus Breaking the Rules - Editors in Conversation, mBio Edition YouTube video by American Society for Microbiology

Thanks to Marvin Whiteley and the @asm.org @mbio.bsky.social for a good time on their podcast talking about a bacteriophage that flexes and contracts in impossible ways.

Also detailed in an mBio paper here DOI: 10.1128/mbio.03829-25 @macsys.bsky.social

youtu.be/eDGta8xc4_0?...

5 tanks are running concurrently! ⚡⚡⚡
@christhemicrobe.bsky.social

In the standard SEM image, aggregates of bacterial cells with no visible matrix sit on top of a network of collagen fibrils. In the cryo image, interconnected aggregates are covered with a smooth coat of matrix, and no collagen is visible - it is under the aggregates, and the only tissue structures visible are patches of elastin fibres.

If you check out my lab's recent work, you'll notice how much biofilm structure is destroyed by dehydration & vacuum during standard scanning electron microscopy. These are both images of P. aeruginosa PA14 #biofilm on pig lung tissue at 48h p.i: using cryoSEM retains the biofilm matrix. #MicroSky

Zhi-Soon and Jacob also found that the AsmA sf protein YhdP interacts stably/specifically with DedD, which binds cell wall primarily at the division site. We offer some prelim thoughts for why/when this interaction might occur, despite seemingly distinct localization patterns. Lots to think abt! 3/3

New paper alert 🚨
I am super happy about it, for many reasons!
👥 It was a great collaborative project with Calum @chgjohnston.bsky.social and J. Pablo Radicella, designed a long time ago (in the pre-AlphaFold era - can you imagine?) together with @polardlab.bsky.social and @raphguerois.bsky.social

Congratulations to Prof. Adelle Coster, UNSW, to whom I was honoured to present the 2025 Australian Society for Biophysics (ASB) Bob Roberston medal during ASB2025 at @griffith.edu.au. Adelle is pictured with ASB President, @lisannes.bsky.social; inaugural awardee Hans Coster; & myself 2009 medal.

The Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 injectisome reprograms host cell translation to evade the inflammatory response - Nature Communications In this work, authors show that Salmonella uses its SPI-1 injectisome to infect macrophages, triggering rapid translational upregulation of transcription factors, such as EGR1 which suppresses the inf...

Our new paper is out in @natcomms.nature.com! We uncover how the Salmonella SPI-1 injectisome reshapes macrophage translation, resulting in a sustained decrease in inflammatory gene expression. Grateful to all my co-authors and collaborators for an incredible team effort!

Pressure to publish is rising as research time shrinks, finds survey of scientists Researchers feel that pressures to publish are increasing, but the time and resources available to do research are decreasing, according to a survey by Elsevier.

Scientists feel that the pressure to publish is rising, but that the time and resources they have to do the necessary research are falling, according to a survey of 3,200 researchers

go.nature.com/4hNDvuN

An Archaea bacterium with an internal membrane system! Amazing and beautiful work!

great idea to collaborate with courtney ellison for "...fancy microscopy to capture pilus dynamics!" 👏

📢 𝙰𝚋𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚂𝚞𝚋𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝙲𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚂𝚘𝚘𝚗!!

𝙳𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚎 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚒𝚗 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟼. 𝙰𝚋𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝟸𝟺𝚝𝚑 𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 – 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚕𝚘𝚋𝚊𝚕 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚐𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝙻𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚎! 🏖️ 🏄‍♀️ 🏊

👉 𝚂𝚞𝚋𝚖𝚒𝚝:
www.lorneproteins.org/submissions

Cryogenic electron microscopy has been used to determine the detailed structure of an intermediate state called a “D-loop” that forms when strands of DNA are exchanged during homologous recombination.
buff.ly/pZZfIso

Structure of a distinct β-barrel assembly machinery complex in the Bacteroidota - Nature Microbiology Structural and functional characterization of the β-barrel assembly machinery complex in Bacteroidota reveals a distinct, seven-component complex with a large extracellular domain that may enable β-barrel–surface lipoprotein complex assembly.

Our paper on the Bacteroidota BAM complex is out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! With @madejmar.bsky.social

We found that BAM in Bacteroides and Porphyromonas gingivalis has a distinct architecture from BAM in Proteobacteria.

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

🚀 Check out our new preprint on extending the scope of single-particle cryo-EM with 2D template matching!
Improved cryo-EM reconstruction of sub-50 kDa complexes using 2D template matching is now available on bioRxiv!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Characterization of the OMP biogenesis machinery in Fusobacterium nucleatum F. nucleatum is a Gram-negative bacteria that causes oral infections and is linked to colorectal cancer. Pathogenicity relies on a type of β-barrel ou…

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

Structural insights into outer membrane protein biogenesis in pathogenic Neisseria N. gonorrhoeae (Ngo) causes the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea with ∼106 million infections worldwide annually. Ngo infections can result in…

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

Bacterial cell widening alters periplasmic size and activates envelope stress responses
Kerwyn Huang, @typaslab.bsky.social et al find that E. coli outer-membrane protein RcsF senses reduced periplasm thickness due to increased cell width, & activates Rcs signaling
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

🚨 Exciting PhD Opportunities with MACSYS! The MACSYS team at Monash University is offering multiple fully funded #PhD scholarships for students eager to explore the cutting edge of computational biology, microbiology, & systems modelling.
👉More info/apply: macsys.org/monash-phd-s...

RNA is far more than a messenger.

Its structures regulate, evolve, and catalyze — carrying out functions DNA alone cannot.

But predicting #RNA structure from sequence is still extremely difficult.

In our recently published paper in @narjournal.bsky.social we present a way forward.

🧵 ⤵️

Aggresomes protect mRNA under stress in Escherichia coli - Nature Microbiology Ribonucleoprotein aggresomes exclude ribonucleases and protect mRNA to promote rapid translation reactivation and cellular recovery after stress alleviation in Escherichia coli.

Aggresomes protect mRNA under stress in Escherichia coli
www.nature.com/articles/s41... "prolonged stress leading to ATP depletion in Escherichia coli results in increased aggresome formation, compaction and selective mRNA enrichment within these aggresomes" 🦠 #microsky #rnasky

Amyloids in bacterial antiphage defence - Nature Microbiology Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

#News&Views

Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

#MicroSky

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

Nanopore sequencing of intact aminoacylated tRNAs - Nature Communications Accurate protein synthesis depends on aminoacylated tRNAs, but their identities have been hard to measure. Here, authors present aa-tRNA-seq, a nanopore-based method that reveals the amino acid, seque...

Our paper is out in its final form! Back in April 2023, my coauthor Aleks Radakovic, then a PhD student, approached me after a talk in Chicago to ask what I thought an aminoacylated tRNA would look like if we pulled it through a @nanopore.
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

one small consolation of being a 60+ year old investigator is the ability to submit to 𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘜𝘙𝘌 family journals — sure they’re low impact (for our knees) but they have an early bird special if you submit between 4:00 and 5:30 on weekdays

Meet the minds in MACSYS shaping the future with our series of profiles featuring our Postdoctoral Research Fellows. Dr TrungTin Nguyen is with MACSYS at QUT. His research investigates the mathematical & statistical foundations of #AI: www.linkedin.com/pulse/dr-tru...
@trungtinnguyen.bsky.social

In this system, bacteria detect phage infection through a sensor protein (YjbH) and respond by severing the infected part of the cell via aberrant division. The rest of the cell survives and continues growing happily, essentially, bacterial autotomy!

Peptidoglycan–outer membrane attachment generates periplasmic pressure to prevent lysis in Gram-negative bacteria - Nature Microbiology Outer membrane attachment to peptidoglycan enables periplasmic pressure to build up and counter cytoplasmic turgor pressure, preventing lysis during osmotic challenges in Escherichia coli.

#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...

Extracellular exosomal RNAs are glyco-modified - Nature Cell Biology Sharma, Jiao and colleagues report glycosylation of small RNAs within exosomes and propose a glycosylation-dependent mechanism for RNA targeting into exosomes, which may influence intercellular commun...

🍹Sharma, Jiao et al. report glycosylation of small RNAs within #exosomes and propose a glycosylation-dependent mechanism for #RNA targeting into exosomes, which may influence intercellular communication and RNA stability in the extracellular environment.
👉https://rdcu.be/eykKY
bit.ly/455vyuP

Highly stable bacteriophages PIN1 and PIN2 have hallmarks of flagellotropic phages but infect immotile bacteria npj Viruses - Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that kill bacteria, with potential as antibacterial agents in industrial settings, agriculture, and human health. Here, we identified two phages,...

We have been working on ways to find #phage with long shelf-life and this one is a winner. 12 months freeze-thawing as much as you like, no loss of viability
#phageSky #microSky

rdcu.be/ewnzT

📣NAR Breakthrough Article!📣

✂️ Removal of a single tRNA^Gly gene copy in Staphylococcus aureus via CRISPR weakens the cell wall, biofilm formation and increases antibiotic susceptibility💊

📖 doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

#Microbiology #CRISPR #tRNA #AntibioticResearch #BacterialGenetics

A porin-like protein used by bacterial predators defines a wider lipid-trapping superfamily - Nature Communications This study reveals that an outer membrane protein from the predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus forms a pentameric assembly that traps a lipid monolayer within. This allows the discovery of two superfa...

Check out these amazing lipid-monolayer-trapping oligomeric OMPs published by @lalouxlab.bsky.social and Lovering Labs. The BAM complex in these bugs must be wild!

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