wait, this is not The Onion? 🤯

A family of endonucleases blocks nanotube-mediated plasmid exchange - Nature Microbiology The YokF endonuclease provides a donor-controlled mechanism to limit plasmid transfer to recipient bacteria via nanotubes in Bacillus subtilis, with YokF functional homologues found across Gram-positi...

#microsky #phagesky #MGE

A prophage-encoded endonuclease blocks plasmid transfer between bacterial cells

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

Planetary microbiome structure and generalist-driven gene flow across disparate habitats www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #microbiome

When Referee 3 is too lazy to review the paper and their AI-generated response cites hallucinated papers to “prove” non-originality! This is mind-boggling. #AcademicSky

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

Check out our latest preprint from @jnvmartinson.bsky.social and @leosong.bsky.social! 🌟🦠

We found that conjugative plasmids can actively eliminate recipient bacteria that resist plasmid acquisition. 🧵

Coolest paper of the year so far!!
I wonder if we'll start seeing more often some convergences or HGT for those genes in the reclassified gut Prevotellaceae in populations with newly industrialized lifestyles (and the associated oxidative stress).

Industrial and agricultural chemicals exhibit antimicrobial activity against human gut bacteria in vitro - Nature Microbiology Screening of 1,076 compounds reveals 168 chemical pollutants with inhibitory effects on gut bacteria and genetic screens indicate commonality between pollutant and antibiotic resistance.

Excited to share our latest research in @natmicrobiol.nature.com . We uncover hundreds of inhibitory interactions between common chemical pollutants and human gut bacteria. A thread🧵 (1/10) #microbiomesky #microsky @kiranrpatil.bsky.social lab @mrc-tu.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are hiring! If you're interested in exploring the #biogeography of #prokaryotes using #genomics and #metagenomics, are interested in biology and geographic information systems, and are passionate about #OpenScience, this is for you! New PhD and PostDoc positions in my lab at Aalborg University

I know I'm probably using this function all wrong but Gaia/Seqhub really made me cackle today. For your own viewing pleasure, a story in screengrabs 🤣🫣🤖

Fascinating study! A pathogen locked in an evolutionary trade-off with strain antagonism for centuries and HGT has not caused escaping it 🤔

Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

Nutrient competition predicts gut microbiome restructuring under drug perturbations @cellcellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... @stanforduniversity.bsky.social

"i asked grok" "i asked chatgpt" yeah well i asked carl sagan and he said the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge 🧪

The Leading Edge community has been a life-line as I navigate *points to everything*.

Zara was such a shining light of wisdom and warmth. She will be sorely missed, but her legacy will continue in everyone who had the utmost privilege to interact with her.

Apply, apply, apply!!!!

Being a leading edge fellow has been the single best thing for my scientific career.

Zara’s voice and vision was no small part in that.

Apply. Apply. Apply.

Zara Weinberg was a brilliant light both in and out of science. She changed the lives of everyone she interacted and loved for the better. Her legacy will live on through all of us and we will fight for a better world on behalf of her memory.

May we fight each day to build the future Zara imagined. The world lost a genuinely good human but her power to inspire our community will persist 💔

Trade-offs between phage resistance and conjugative ability shape the ecological and evolutionary response of a multidrug resistance plasmid to plasmid-dependent phage Phage therapy is a promising alternative to antibiotics to treat multidrug resistant infections. Plasmid dependent phages (PDPs) are particularly attractive as therapeutics because they can both kill ...

New pre-print www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are ubiquitous, but the selective pressures that they impose on plasmids are not well understood. Project led by Daniel Cazares in collaboration with @brockhurstlab.bsky.social!
#phagesky#microsky

I have a fabulous undergrad who has a lot of experience with QIIME2 & using R to analyze microbiome data. She is looking for a job starting in January. Would love to learn more bench and field skills (will be getting some in her last 2 months). Open to academic, industry, government jobs in the US.

Thanks for the kind words!

#phageplasmids

First publication from our lab!

Me cuentas cualquier dato útil que te pueda pasar para montar el lab :)

EXCELENTE!!! Felicitaciones!

Photo of Jaye Gardiner, a Black woman with long curly black hair, wearing dark green glasses and a coral colored sleeveless top, holding an iPad with the words “Jaye’s 1st day” written largely. Underneath it’s written “as an assistant professor 9/2/2025” although that doesn’t come out as clear in the photo.

Hello world! Today’s officially the first day of the lab! It’s an empty space currently only filled with ideas (that I don’t have card access to yet 😂) but I’m excited for the science that will happen here! -JCG