Bacterial rRNAs are highly modified, but their functions are often mysterious. Zac Park says that methylation of 16S rRNA by MraW(RsmH) enhances translation of structured mRNAs. Thus, mRNA structure and rRNA modifications likely co-evolved to fine-tune protein dosage.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🚨Hear, hear, fellow microbial cell biologists!🚨
🦠 Bacterial and Archaeal Cell Biology will be represented again at this year’s CELL BIO (ASCB-EMBO) meeting! The deadline to be considered for a talk in our Minisymposium is June 9. Help us spread the word!
www.ascb.org/cellbio2026/
Enantiomer sensing enables social avoidance by bacterial spores
(of Bacillus subtilis)
@cp-iscience.bsky.social from Gürol Süel
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Figure 3 from the article: Scenic stops and extended stay: immune interference across the host landscape shapes tissue colonization, persistence, and clinical manifestation during B. burgdorferi infection. This schematic integrates pathogen-intrinsic strategies and host immune disruptions across spatial, temporal, and immunological scales. It frames the journey from early tissue colonization to prolonged immune stalemate. The central panel depicts the host landscape, emphasizing the translational continuum between experimental host models and human disease. Surrounding concentric rings organize immune interference by function rather than by individual molecules. The inner pink ring delineates four major modes of host-pathogen interaction that shape immune interference and persistence. The outer ring depicts representative mechanisms corresponding to each immune-interference category, illustrated as discrete modules.
From forest floor to doctor’s office: the immunological journey of Borrelia burgdorferi through vertebrate hosts
new review by Singh & Bankhead
www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm...
#MicroSky
The next International Conference on Gram-Positive Bacteria will take place between 29 June – 2 July 2027 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
#subtiwiki
Well, that’s a cool study
We are excited to be recruiting into 3 Associate Professorship's in @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. Come join us as a colleague and benefit from our vibrant and multidisciplinary environment. Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! (tinyurl.com/48deybuu) (tinyurl.com/4pdvjaft).
Having a hard time keeping up with the fast-moving field of origin of eukaryotes/Asgards archaea? Our new perspective article can help, we review the status of research over the last decade and where it's going.
The archaeal roots of eukaryotic life
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
@felixrl.bsky.social reported that PcdA mediates orthogonal cell division in #Staphylococcus aureus: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
But what’s the point? Well, forming staphylococcal abscess communities to evade host immune responses requires this mode of division:
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
This is so cool:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Discovery of a Genetic Toxin-Antidote System in Vertebrates
hat tip to @asaflevylab.bsky.social
⭐️ REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! ⭐️
Visit bostonbacterial.org/registration to register and for more information!
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💫 REGISTRATION SCHOLARSHIPS are available for trainees from underrepresented minority groups and undergraduate researchers. More info on our website!
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See you all in June! 😊
JB Editor's Choice: As part of our History of Microbial Model Systems series, Snow, Hatzios & Salama discuss the first bacteria designated a class I carcinogen, Helicobacter pylori.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology
⭐️ REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! ⭐️
Visit bostonbacterial.org/registration to register and for more information!
-
💫 REGISTRATION SCHOLARSHIPS are available for trainees from underrepresented minority groups and undergraduate researchers. More info on our website!
-
See you all in June! 😊
New paper from us.
If you're interested in genetic manipulation of Clostridia, we have a few new tools for you! 36 new plasmids - all available from @addgene.bsky.social
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
#microsky
rince & JB Editor's Choice: Lin, Prince & Feaga identified sporulation genes via analyzing almost 1500 genomes. They show that that an unusual membrane-localized variant of Spo0B is found throughout Paenibacillaceae.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology
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/...
Registration is open for the 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Stress Response to be held on July 19-24 2026!! Submit your abstract by February 15th to be considered for a short talk. Apply now before it fills up!! Hope to see you there!! www.grc.org/microbial-st...
Check out our exciting new paper out now in @plos.org where Dr Ahmad manipulated #peptidoglycan chemistry to understand Lyme disease and arthritis 👇👏
#Microsky
#glycotime
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
ALERT: Abstract submission deadline is tomorrow (21 January) for the ASM Applied & Environmental Microbiology Meeting within ASM Microbe 2026 in Washington, D.C. (4-7 June). @asm.org
asm.org/events/asm-m...
🧵 for more information including themes for Contributed Abstracts for In-Depth Sessions:
graphical abstract. Left is a fungal cell surrounded by bacteria, and the Hog1 cascade is turned on. Right is a fungal cell covered in mannan fibrils that prevent IgA and caspofungin and increase CLR recognition by macrophages
Candida albicans is usually hanging out with bacterial neighbors, so what happens to the fungus during co-culture?
The bacteria secrete metabolites that induce massive cell wall remodeling that change immune recognition and drug resistance. Read more in our new paper: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Defining the order of assembly of the Clostridioides difficile divisome complex www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01...
We’ve discovered how the superbug E. faecalis prevents chronic wounds from healing.
It’s not a toxin. It’s metabolism.
The bacteria use extracellular electron transport (EET) to electrochemically generate ROS, effectively "freezing" skin cells in place.
doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb5297
My first first-author paper is posted! Glad to have this out! 🦠🚨🕺
We show that pGpp production depletes GTP, inhibits translation, and remodels the transcriptome faster than (p)ppGpp.
...and more!
While everyone is hustling for the holidays, hopefully folks will have time to submit abstracts or register for #ASMMicrobe2026 in DC! Please repost!
A major challenge in RNA delivery is overcoming poor loading efficiency into nanoparticles. F. Machinandiarena solves this by using "SSHELs", our particles inspired by bacterial spores, to deliver RNA specifically to HER2+ ovarian cancer cells.
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdI...
Accepted!
Stay tuned to read about what (large) molecule Federico Machinandiarena was able to deliver to specific tumor cells using our SSHEL nanoparticle technology (inspired by the construction of bacterial spores)...
Reposting because it’s Sunday and maybe people have time for a podcast today. It was really fun to with @markowenmartin.bsky.social about my group’s concrete project! (with bonus road salt content)
@sunyesf.bsky.social #microsky #concrete #builtenvironment
