N*M210 inhibits SG/RLB formation by sequestering dsRNA. HeLa cells expressing N*M210-FLAG (blue) were transfected with poly (I:C) (pink) and SG/RLB formation was measured using TIAR (yellow). This experiment was conducted and imaged by Rory P Mulloy, who agrees to publish this image under a CC-BY licence.

#SARSCoV2 has optimized its replication fitness in the human host. @rorymulloy.bsky.social @corcoranlab.bsky.social &co show that a #nucleocapsid gene mutation enhances production of a truncated protein that boosts viral fitness by suppressing #antiviral responses @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3PIZMjr

Human Microbiome: From Models and Mechanism to Medicine | Keystone Symposia Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Human Microbiome: From Models and Mechanism to Medicine, January 2026, in Banff, with field leaders!

Really excited to participate and represent @plosbiology.org as an editor next week at @keystonesymposia.bsky.social meetings on the microbiome!! Have you seen the program? Looks amazing!

As always, reach out if you wanna chat over there!

#KSMicroMetab26 #KSMicrobiome26

Novel reporters for inclusion damage revealed instability of CpoS-deficient inclusions. Top left: Schematic showing the principle of detecting inclusion damage using the split-GFP approach. Right: Fluorescence microscopic detection of inclusion damage during infection with CTL2-cpoS::cat. HeLa cells were transfected with a plasmid driving GFP1–10 expression, infected with the indicated strains (5 IFU/cell), and then fixed, stained (DNA (Hoechst) staining), and imaged at 26 hpi (scale = 20 µm). Bottom left: FIB-SEM analysis validating inclusion damage at the ultrastructural level. GFP1–10-expressing HeLa cells were infected with the indicated strain and fixed at 24 hpi. A cell containing green-fluorescent bacteria was identified by fluorescence microscopy and subjected to FIB-SEM analysis (scale = 1 µm, green arrows highlight bacteria in the host cell cytosol).

Intracellular pathogens like #Chlamydia can hide from host defenses in a #vacuole. This study shows that CpoS maintains the stability of Chlamydia’s parasitophorous vacuole; early vacuole destabilization clears infection, suggesting a potential therapeutic target @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3Ur0YqJ

Ran my first 10k in beautiful Heidelberg 🙂‍↔️

And got to see some babies on the way!

Just a few minutes for this really great conference to start! Amazing talks, superb program and beautiful city

Happy as always to represent @plosbiology.org at #EESMicrobiology

Feel free to approach and have a chat!

📅 I am organizing a session on #ERC funding opportunities at the EMBO | EMBL Symposium-Infection: pathogens, hosts, and microbiomes. 26-28 May 2025. If you are around, feel free to stop by. @erc.europa.eu @embl.org

Excited to join next week to this @embl.org symposium #EESInfection!

The program looks great and I am happy to say that @plosbiology.org will be giving 2 poster prizes!

As always, reach out if you are going to be there too!

Another exciting conference! I am attending this week the #GRC of #Neuroimmunity in Lucca representing @plosbiology.org

Really cool talks and people in a beautiful place!

Looking forward to it!

www.grc.org/neuroimmune-...

Great talk from @audeber.bsky.social about defense system diversity.

And then also from @pdeweirdt.bsky.social from the lab of one of our Editorial Board Members Michael Laub.

So much to still discover!

So excited to participate on this @embo.org workshop representing @plosbiology.org! There'll be amazing talks & posters! Feel free to come to me! I'm always happy to chat ;)

I'll also take the opportunity for a site visit @institutpasteur.bsky.social Mon & Fri, so reach-out if you are there!

Happening TODAY! It is not too late to register for the #FEMSMicrobiolEcol Webinar.

This session will not only push the boundaries of ecological understanding but also underscore the critical role of microbes in addressing environmental challenges.🌍

buff.ly/3X6aCR9

Reviewer fatigue is there. Check out this editorial :)

If you have ideas that you think we should consider feel free to comment. I am already aware that a solution may be to pay reviewers, it will be interesting to see the outcome from CoB, and how affordable that is (specially for non-profits)

What is up Bluesky!
I'm an Associate Editor working at #PLOSBiology with everything related with #Microbiology and #Immunology
Looking forward to all #science posts!
Also, if you wanna book a meet-the-editor zoom meeting with me and talk about your work, just click scheduler.zoom.us/melissa-vazq...!

A new class of type VI secretion system effectors can carry two toxic domains and are recognized through the WHIX motif for export The secretion mechanisms of many type VI secretion system (T6SS) effectors in Gram-negative bacteria remain unclear. This study identifies a new class of T6SS effectors, which can harbor either one or...

Our new story on #T6SS WHIX effectors and bacterial warfare is out in @plosbiology.org. It has a lot more data than the original bioRxiv preprint, so take a look even if you’ve read that. 🦠
What did we find? A thread... 1/9

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.

Let's talk about this Nature piece in more detail.

I've rarely read something so anti-scientific anywhere short of the National Review.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Super fun to be part of this. Thank you @sparrerlab.bsky.social for inviting me to talk a bit about AI in scientific publishing!

Really happy to attend the "Molecular Determinants of Zoonotic Virus Infections and Beyond" meeting in Freiburg representing @plosbiology.org

I will also have a meet the editor session this Friday, so come over!

As always, feel free to reach out in person, by e-mail or dm

In this uncertain and weird times, I am so happy and proud to be part of @plos.org and @plosbiology.org.

"PLOS will not compromise on issues of scientific rigor & editorial integrity... we seek diversity because more expert voices make for better science"

Important then, and even more important now...

Also, I have to say that I am quite proud of this team, PLOS and the values we support

biology is so beautiful!

Top: Immunofluorescence assay of cKD-TgHCF101 treated for 7 days in the presence of ATc, cyst wall is labeled with DBL, parasites are outlined with anti-IMC3 antibody and DNA is stained with DAPI. Bottom: Schematic representation of the putative organization of the CIA pathway in T. gondii. This scheme places TgHCF101 as an Fe-S transfer protein from the CTC to client protein ABCE1. Plant nomenclature was used for the purpose of the figure, but names for human homologs are mentioned between brackets when appropriate.

Iron-sulfur proteins require specialized assembly pathways. @s-besteiro.bsky.social &co show that the plastid-derived protein HCF101 functions in the cytosolic Fe-S assembly pathway in #Toxoplasma and is crucial for #parasite viability 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3EFKKoQ

quite a nice study from the @maierlab.bsky.social

In a see of horrible, and sometimes disheartening news, here is a picture of my ninja cat enjoying the sun

a hot pink flip phone with a DNA strand on the screen next to courier font text that says "Text a teacher: You can get matched with a scientist for a virtual Q&A in your classroom for free with skype a scientist"

500 classrooms have signed up for Skype a Scientist 2025!

@skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, scout troops, libraries, & other groups for Q&A sessions. It's FREE!

We have an advertising budget of $0. So tell an educator in your life that we exist

SkypeAScientist.com

🥳🥳

If you're just getting back on Bluesky, welcome to 2025! Here's a 🧵 on the editors' highlights of the stuff that we published in @plosbiology.org last year, compiled in this v nice editorial by @droutledge.bsky.social ...

This has also been my first year as editor and being part of this amazing team was one of the best things in 2024.

I would like to thank the whole team and the Academic Editors for their help and patience, the authors for their trust, and the reviewers for their hard work.

Happy holidays everyone!

Left: Causal network analysis leveraging annotated interactions (transcription factor-target, kinase-substrate, phosphatase-substrate) as a framework to evaluate protein expression changes (late exhaustion versus resting) to predict key nodes. Right: A pruned version of a large subnetwork with p300 (black outline) as the main hub.

Repeated antigen exposure drives T-cell exhaustion, impairing immune function. Study identifies HAT p300 as a driver of CD4+ #Tcell exhaustion, implicating novel surface receptors & transcriptional regulators, and a metabolic shift to dysfunctional fatty acid oxidation 🧪 #PLOSBiology plos.io/4glg2iO

It is happening! Make sure to follow @plosbiology.org and all other @plos.org journals to keep on track with great science!

Open call for new research groups @pasteur.fr in Paris lots of immunology themes welcome #immunosky #IDsky #Scisky 🧪🥼🔬 get in touch if you have questions