My super department @warwicklifesci.bsky.social is hiring 6 assistant profs in the wake of recent retirements. We're looking for people in microbiology/infection, cellular disease / immunity; environmental biology; and plant/crop science. #MicroSky warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Millions-of-years-old insect symbioses are surprisingly fragile Many insects have lived in close symbiosis with bacteria for millions of years, during which time the bacteria have provided them with vital nutrients, making the mutualistic relationship so close tha...

Ronja Krüsemer and Martin Kaltenpoth of @kaltenpoth-lab.bsky.social et al. report in @natcomms.nature.com on the rapid loss of a beetle symbiont following infection with another bacterium. This could be the key to systematically investigating symbiont exchange. www.ice.mpg.de/549447/PR_Kr...

Congratulations Benjamin & team. Wonderful work!!!

Using X-ray Crystallography and 1,n-ADEQUATE NMR to Revise the Structures of Highly Substituted Aromatic Natural Products: The Absolute Configuration of Formicamycin Congeners Formicamycins and their biosynthetic precursors, the fasamycins, form part of the phenylnaphthacenoid family of polyketide natural products. A recent atroposelective total synthesis of formicamycin H brought into question our original stereochemical assignment of the axially chiral linkage between C-6 and C-7. To address this, we obtained an X-ray crystal structure for formicamycin H that unambiguously confirmed our original assignment as the Sa atropisomer. X-ray structures for multiple additional fasamycins and formicamycins confirmed that this is common to all congeners. However, these studies identified a compounded error made by us whereby several structures previously reported as para-methoxy were found to have ortho-methoxy groups on the hanging E-ring. To address this for congeners that did not crystallize or gave nondiffracting crystals, we turned to the surprisingly underutilized 1,n-ADEQUATE NMR experiment. In total, we generated X-ray structures for 15 phenylnaphthacenoid metabolites and by combining these results report the corrected structures for three formicamycins, six fasamycins, and three biosynthetic lactone intermediates, noting that several revised fasamycin structures now match previously reported naphthacemycins. Our results highlight the utility of 1,n-ADEQUATE experiments for regiochemical determination in polysubstituted aromatic molecules. Moreover, our investigations uncovered a potential deracemization step during biosynthesis of the formicamycin framework.

New paper with @barriewilks.bsky.social. There are many reports on fasamycins and formicamycins (aka accramycins, naphthacemycins, streptovertimycins). Here, we unambiguously solve their structures and stereochemistry. A great effort, led by Dr Edward Hems

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

ERC President explains stricter application measures amid rising demand for funding The text of an open letter sent by ERC President Maria Leptin to ERC panel members, grantees and other stakeholders on 16 April 2026.

The number of grant applications is rising sharply. Our capacity for their evaluation isn’t.

ERC President Maria Leptin explains why stricter resubmission limits are being introduced for 2027 calls and what they mean for applicants.

🔗 link.europa.eu/xF7kjc

Fluorescent Anabaena. Fluorescently labelled CorM filaments inside Anabaena. These represent a newly discovered cytoskeleton in multicellular cyanobacteria. © Loose group

Photosynthetic bacteria helped shape Planet Earth. Among them cyanobacteria—microbes that produced the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere & made complex life possible. They have captivated scientists for decades by offering insights into how life evolved from single cells into multicellular organisms.

A bacterial CARD–NLR-like immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents - Nature Microbiology An immunity-like system functions as a lysis control hub to promote gene transfer agent particle release from host bacterial cells, suggesting that bacterial immune systems may be co-opted to promote ...

Delighted to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs). We found a lysis control hub which allows GTAs to escape their bacterial host cells and transfer DNA 🧬 between bacteria. Thanks to @tunglejic.bsky.social, all co-authors, and our amazing collaborators!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Image – Caulobacter crescentus bacterial host cells producing GTA particles. Left: fluorescence microscopy showing C. crescentus bacterial cells producing GTA particles (cells have been engineered to glow green when producing GTAs). Right: cryo-electron microscopy tomogram showing a ‘cross-section’ through a single C. crescentus cell producing GTA particles (magenta and yellow). Bacterial envelope layers are shown in blue, cyan, and green. A nutrient storage granule is visible (grey). Ribosomes (protein factories) are shown in orange.

NEWS - Ancient viruses serving as gene delivery couriers to help bacteria resist antibiotics

Research has shed important new light on the enemies-turned-allies that allow bacteria to exchange genes, including those linked to antimicrobial resistance.

www.jic.ac.uk/news/ancient...

Finally published. Many thanks to a wonderful collaborative team and scientific platforms!!! And thanks to editors and reviewers for enthusiasm and a great review.

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

Don’t Perish! A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Scientific Paper (2026 edition) Great science deserves to be read — not buried under unclear writing. This is the updated 2026 edition of your favorite guide to writing…

I just published Don’t Perish! A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Scientific Paper (2026 edition)

Great science deserves to be read—not buried under unclear writing. This is the updated 2026 edition of your favorite guide to writing scientific papers.

medium.com/p/dont-peris...

New preprint from the Vecchiarelli Lab! 🧵

Congratulations to first author Dr. Claire Dudley!
@claire-dudley.bsky.social

Claire uncovered a critical player in the organization for the photosynthetic cytoplasm of cyanobacteria - polyphosphate! #polyP

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

Congratulations Erin!

Open Positions -

Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications.
Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101

Toolbox of FRET-based c-di-GMP biosensors and its FRET-To-Sort application for genome-wide mapping of c-di-GMP regulation - Nature Communications Cyclic di-GMP, a bacterial second messenger, governs many cellular processes including bacterial lifestyle transitions. Here, authors develop a set of FRET-based biosensors that enables them to monito...

Our paper describing a toolbox of FRET biosensors for c-di-GMP measurements in the cell and its application to elucidate the interplay between c-di-GMP and bacterial motility just appeared:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We've been we've been working on this for quite a while now (hopefully published soon). Grateful to @proftracypalmer.bsky.social for concinving me & @lislowe.bsky.social that mycobacteria produce inter-bacterial toxins. Team science, led by @sambenedict5.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

An overview of bacterial multicellular formations: biofilms, filaments, free-floating aggregates, motile collectives and fruiting bodies. For each form, we mention an analogous eukaryotic multicellular form (respectively animal epitelia, filaments in fungi, Volvox, Dictyostelium/social animals, Dictyostelium and other slime moulds)

How common is multicellularity in bacteria? And archaea?
And how does it evolve?

We wrote a short review "On the architecture and evolution of prokaryotic multicellularity".

Preprint link: bit.ly/4ta06Gq

Sharing and comments are much appreciated.
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A WYL transcriptional regulator activates the DNA damage response pathway in Acinetobacter species Abstract. The ability to sense DNA damage and activate DNA damage response pathways is critical for repairing DNA damage in all domains of life. The most w

I am pleased to share my lab’s latest publication - Acinetobacter species lack canonical DNA repair pathway activation mechanisms, and we discovered a conserved transcriptional activator that fills this role: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Why do intrinsically disordered proteins appear larger than they are in SDS-PAGE? We investigate how sequence properties affect SDS-PAGE mobility using synthetic IDRs.

Conclusion: We need to consider both SDS binding and the compaction of protein-SDS complexes.

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

Diverse starch granules from different grass species.

Congratulations to the Seung group for its @currentbiology.bsky.social article based on a survey of 105 species in the grass family Pooideae 🌾: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) at University of Birmingham Explore an exciting academic career as a Research Fellow (Postdoctoral). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

Two post-doctoral positions open in our lab. We're looking for people with expertise in molecular microbiology and/or genome-scale tools. Initially 3 yrs, posts could be extended for upto 8 yrs. If you'd like to know more about us take a look at www.graingerlab.com

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQY475/r...

Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Molecular Microbiology The Department of Biology conducts research and teaching in many subject areas such as ecology, evolutionary biology, organismal biology and molecular biology. A total of approximately 300 people curr

Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor position in Molecular Microbiology available at Lund University, Sweden:
lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Our work on understanding how Staphylococcus aureus mode of cell division contributes to pathogenesis is now available in bioRxiv

Congratulations Felix & team!

PcdA promotes orthogonal division plane selection in Staphylococcus aureus - Nature Microbiology PcdA interacts with DivIVA and FtsZ, promoting Z-ring formation and division plane selection in Staphylococcus aureus, which increases virulence in mice and reduces sensitivity to cell-wall-targeting ...

@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/...

When, where, and why specialised metabolites are produced: inferring function from expression control

Essays in Biochemistry @biochemsoc.bsky.social review by Sébastien Rigali

portlandpress.com/essaysbioche...

Optimizing spatial organization of FtsZ rings for large-scale constriction in synthetic cells - Nature Communications Spatially regulated membrane constriction is an important milestone in reconstituting minimal cell division. Here the authors engineer a truncated system where the cytosolic domain of FtsN forms large...

Neat paper from Schwille lab. They demonstrate constriction of synthetic vesicles using important components of the bacterial cell division machinery, FtsZ and FtsN. They induce strong constriction of Z-rings in vesicles just by adding the cytoplasmic domain of FtsN www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Amazing work by Kris and gang! For the first time we have been able to image division ring components live in Sulfolobus. And guess what - CdvA is asymmetrically inherited.

A true pioneer. Here is her obituary which has this quote about discovering SOS: “At this point, I asked, ‘Why did they survive? Maybe a mutation made them resistant,’”

www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/s...

Postdoctoral researcher in molecular and cellular bacteriology - ERC CoG VAMPIRE The research group of Prof Géraldine Laloux at the de Duve Institute (UCLouvain) is looking for a highly motivated postdoc to elucidate the molecular factors underlying bacterial prey-predator interac...

#MicroSky Please RT
@erc.europa.eu-funded postdoc position in my lab to identify the molecular basis of prey-predator interactions using our favorite micro-vampire Bdellovibrio exovorus as a model.
Let's find what the bite is made of! 🧛
Flexible start date.
Info: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/415877

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you!
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