I liked that in the peer review, the authors checked for chimeric misassemblies in both the NCVs and the bacterial genomes. This makes the synteny shared with environmentally co-occurring #bacteria more real.
Though the paper doesn't strongly establish directionality of transfers, it's interesting to note an intact major capsid protein is likely in the NCV -> bacteria direction. Neutral hitchhiker? Maybe co-opted for some sort of decoy immune defense?
Are We Even Sure Those Making The Tests Are Conscious?
#Science #Consciousness #Philosophy #Animals #Plants #AI #Bacteria
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.Gabriel Torch (YouTube)
Hägglund et al. employed sequence-based and structure-based search methods to investigate the origin of the anammoxosome, the only known energy-producing organelle in bacteria, and its key enzyme, the hydrazine synthase complex.
Beneath the ocean’s surface, bacteria have evolved specialized enzymes that can digest PET plastic, the material used in bottles and clothes.ScienceDaily
Novel research reveals thriving microbial life in trees phys.org/news/2025-08-reveals-…
A diverse and distinct #microbiome inside living trees nature.com/articles/s41586-025…
"A single tree hosts about one trillion #bacteria in its woody tissue... #microbes are partitioned between heartwood and sapwood with each having its own unique microbiomes with minimal similarity to other tissues... They are actively producing gases and cycling nutrients... these communities may have coevolved with #trees over time"
There's a thriving community of diverse microbes living in tree wood, a new study led by a Yale School of the Environment team of scientists has found. A single tree hosts about one trillion bacteria in its woody tissue.Yale University (Phys.org)
Invisible Friends had just been published in paperback.
inquisitivebiologist.com/2023/…
An optimistic and hopeful romp through microbiology, this book encourages readers to rethink their relationship with nature, though gets starry-eyed in places.
#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #InvisibleFriends #Bacteria #Microbiology #Scicomm
An optimistic and hopeful romp through microbiology, Invisible Friends encourages readers to rethink their relationship with nature, though gets starry-eyed in places.The Inquisitive Biologist
Prevalence and Dynamics of Genome Rearrangements in Bacteria and Archaea
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20…
#genomics #bacteria #archaea #evolution
The genetic material of bacteria and archaea is organized into various structures and set-ups, attesting that genome architecture is dynamic in these organisms.bioRxiv
#MolecularClock analysis shows #bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
phys.org/news/2025-04-molecula…
A geological timescale for bacterial #evolution and oxygen adaptation science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc…
"the earliest aerobic transition occurred in an ancestor of photosynthetic #cyanobacteria, indicating that the ability to utilize trace amounts of oxygen may have allowed the development of genes central to oxygenic #photosynthesis."
Microbial organisms dominate life on Earth, but tracing their early history and evolution is difficult because they rarely fossilize. Determining when exactly a particular group of microbes first appeared is especially hard.Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (Phys.org)
New preprint by the group I am doing my PhD in: “Chromosomal plasticity can drive rapid adaptation in bacteria”.
This is the first chapter of Ever Vega-Cabrera's thesis and has been in the works for a long time.
biologists.social/@biorxiv_evo…
doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.11.627…
A short thread
1/5
@biorxiv_evobio #microbiology #bacteria #evolution #EvolutionaryBiology
Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying rapid adaptation to stress is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology.bioRxiv
Advanced genetic techniques and #microscopy offer new insights into anaerobic ciliate and methanogen #symbiosis phys.org/news/2024-10-advanced…
Methanogenic #symbionts of anaerobic #ciliates are host and habitat specific academic.oup.com/ismej/article… #ISEPpapers by @joro
"This study provides a clearer understanding of how anaerobic ciliates have evolved a mix transmission mode to both maintain and replace their symbionts over time"
#microbes #protists #bacteria #archaea #methanogenesis #biology
A recent study has uncovered critical details about the association between anaerobic ciliates and methanogenic archaea, a relationship that has fascinated scientists for over decades.Charles University (Phys.org)
Modeling the mosaic structure of bacterial genomes to infer their evolutionary history
#evolution #genomics #bacteria #bioinformatics #science
How do plant-associated microbiota regulate plant hormones, affecting their growth and development? This study reveals that bacterial isolates associated with the roots of Arabidopsis and rice can degrade the auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), mitigat…plos.io
Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦠🦐
Research on how bacteria and archaea interact with other members of the plankton food-web is much more advanced in #ocean systems compared to freshwaters, but still very much unknown. They are food, but we also know of many cases of apparent symbiosis between #bacteria and organisms, with bacteria providing bioluminescence, energy via photosynthesis, or B vitamins, but how common is this? Read about the mission here. #science #ClimateChange
fondationtaraocean.org/en/scie…
A team of CNRS researchers, led by Dr. Samuel Chaffron, developed a model based on data fromthe Tara Oceans expedition (2009-2013) to explain the plankton paradox: Ocean microorganismsof astonishing diversity should be competing, but instead collabor…deborah (Fondation Tara Océan)
#Microbes used poison gas in battle for iron in the Earth's early oceans phys.org/news/2024-10-microbes…
Inhibition of phototrophic iron oxidation by nitric oxide in ferruginous environments: Verena Nikeleit et al. nature.com/articles/s41561-024…
"A new study investigates how various #bacteria excrete insoluble iron as part of their metabolic processes. Some—the phototrophic iron oxidizers—gain energy by oxidizing Fe with the help of sunlight, and others by reacting Fe with nitrate as an oxidizing agent."
Early in the Earth's development, the atmosphere contained no oxygen. Yet the iron dissolved in the oceans was oxidized in gigantic quantities and deposited as rock. It can be seen today, for example, as banded iron ore in South Africa.University of Tübingen (Phys.org)
Do you know MediaDive, the world’s largest collection of cultivation media for microorganisms 🧫? It contains detailed introductions how to prepare the medium you need for your strain. In addition to the provision of all media used at the DSMZ, you can also create your own media or search for a medium suitable for your strain. Give it a try 😉
mediadive.dsmz.de/
#database #microbiology #research #DSMZDigitalDiversity #bacteria #fungi
Discover standardized cultivation media recipes for more than 40,000 microbial strains.mediadive.dsmz.de
Author summary Endosymbiotic bacteria are found in a wide variety of hosts across the tree of eukaryotes and have been proposed to be evolutionarily and ecologically significant, but in most cases, we know little to nothing about them.journals.plos.org
New #ISEPpapers #preprint! Comprehensive analysis of the microbial consortium in the culture of flagellate #Monocercomonoides exilis biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20… #protists #microbes #mitochondria #bacteria #biorxiv @biorxivpreprint
"Monocercomonoides exilis is the only known amitochondriate eukaryote, making it an excellent model for studying the implications of mitochondrial reduction from a cellular and evolutionary point of view."
Monocercomonoides exilis is the only known amitochondriate eukaryote, making it an excellent model for studying the implications of mitochondrial reduction from a cellular and evolutionary point of view. Although M.bioRxiv
Mesmerising microbes: bacteria as you’ve never seen it before – in pictures
“As a side hustle he manipulates and photographs the microbial world; his images are collected in a book, Beautiful Bacteria. Taking bacteria from substances such as wastewater, dental plaque or kimchi, Danino lets them multiply in a petri dish, adding dyes. The results are artworks differing from the digital enhancements often made in scientific photography to make images more informative.”
theguardian.com/artanddesign/g…
#News #Photography #Photo #Photos #Image #Images #Microbiology #Biology #Science #STEM #Bacteria #Microbes #Microbes @science @biology @microbiology
Scientist Tal Danino’s incredible images of the microbial worldThe Guardian
A new study has found that evolution is not as unpredictable as previously thought, which could allow scientists to explore which genes could be useful to tackle real-world issues such as antibiotic resistance, disease, and climate change.Science X (Phys.org)
Awesome work from Rotem Sorek lab in our department:
Rotem's lab & others found this past decade >150 bacterial defense mechanisms against phages.
This new work, led by Erez Yirmiya, explores phage *anti-defense* mechanisms, and it's really cool!
#bacteria #bacteriophage #phages
nature.com/articles/s41586-023…
Nature - Phages overcome bacterial immunity via diverse anti-defence proteinsNature
🎉 New preprint from the (MDM) lab:
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20…
❓ How accurately can we predict diverse #bacteriophage bacteria-interactions from their #genomes only ?
🦠 We created a matrix of >38k #phage-#bacteria interactions to find out (=> AUROC 86%) & used our predictions to recommend tailored phage cocktails.
Predicting which phages infect which specific strains would allow to better fight bacterial infections and understand #microbial ecology.
1/n
#microbiology #virus #phagotherapy
Predicting how phages can selectively infect specific bacterial strains holds promise for developing novel approaches to combat bacterial infections and better understanding microbial ecology.bioRxiv
Marine #microorganisms are crucial for #ocean health.
#Bacteria, #archaea, #fungi, #algae and #viruses make up most of the biomass in the seas and form the base of marine food webs.
They support nutrient cycling and drive crucial biogeochemical processes, including key steps in the carbon, nitrogen and silicon cycles.
Ocean modelling must evolve to take their biological complexity into account.
#biology #ecology #oceans
nature.com/articles/d41586-023…
Microorganisms are the engines that drive most marine processes. Ocean modelling must evolve to take their biological complexity into account.Tagliabue, Alessandro
DNA polymerases (DNAPs) synthesize DNA from deoxyribonucleotides in a semi-conservative manner and serve as the core of DNA replication and repair machineries.bioRxiv
Organisms use a range of defence systems to protect against their parasites. Using a bacteria-phage model system, we investigate what drives the transient evolution of different systems, which has important implications for host ecology and pathogeni…plos.io
A new high resolution microbial time #tree calibrated using the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) ~2.33 billion years ago highlights the evolution of aerobic lifestyles in #bacteria. Most bacteria were ancestrally anaerobic (Bacillota/Firmicutes are the oldest) and the transition to an aerobic lifestyle was initiated by Cyanobacteria, which seeded #oxygen production and consumption capabilities to the broader bacterial tree over hundreds of millions of years.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20…
Most of life's diversity and history is microbial but it has left a meagre fossil record, greatly hindering understanding of evolution in deep time.bioRxiv
The widely used synthetic chemical 2-amino-2-hydroxymethyl-propane-1,3-diol (TRIS) was long considered to be biologically inert. Herein, we describe a complete degradation pathway for the catabolism of TRIS in bacteria.bioRxiv
Excited to present some work at #solsticeschool2023 from the Spring conducted at Biotech Without Borders. We deployed an instance of the BioArtBot started at Counter Culture Labs by @timdobbs . It's a little bit of lab #automation, #bacteria, and #art. If that interests you pop by at 17:00 EDT Aug 3rd. Pls check it out along with other wonderful contributions at
solsticeschool.scholar.social/…
Thanks to @leonelcock3 and @ATinyGreenCell for their roles in helping this happen 
#bwob
Happy to see the first experimental project I led finally out in the world! With Jeremy Moore, Sydney Olsen, and Mike Travisano
We combined experimental evolution and mathematical modeling to ask: do bacteria evolve to swim away from phages?
1/n
doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.29.538…
#microbiology #evolution #ecology #phages #phage #bacteria #MicrobialEvolution #MicrobialEcology
In the face of ubiquitous threats from parasites, hosts often evolve strategies to resist infection or to altogether avoid contact with parasites. At the microbial scale, bacteria frequently encounter viral parasites, bacteriophages.bioRxiv
Phages... So many #phage and they are all #prophage integrated into a #bacteria #genome
A few million prophages from > million bacterial genomes
Are prophages good or bad for bacteria? The data shows they provide heaps of benefits
The paper is in #biorxiv and the data is on #figshare
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20…
open.flinders.edu.au/projects/…
Phages dominate every ecosystem on the planet. While virulent phages sculpt the microbiome by killing their bacterial hosts, temperate phages provide unique growth advantages to their hosts through lysogenic conversion.bioRxiv
Endless microbes most beautiful and most wonderful
"To reflect the importance of microbes and to create a home for microbiology research using genetics, PLOS Genetics will be launching a new section on Microbial Genetics. "
Not all proteins arise from consecutive codons. We developed a new tool - PRFect - to identify programmed ribosomal frameshifts.
Designed, built, trained, and tested with #phage genomes, it also works on #bacteria and #eukaryotes too.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20…
One of the stranger phenomena that can occur during gene translation is where, as a ribosome reads along the mRNA, various cellular and molecular properties contribute to stalling the ribosome on a slippery sequence, shifting the ribosome into one of…bioRxiv
Deployment of some CRISPR-Cas systems stunts host growth by degrading all transcripts, but Listeria seeligeri reverses dormancy using restriction-modification-based phage DNA targeting.Nature
As we (humans) get to grips with how to scale up #hydrogen as an energy source (and for energy storage) and as part replacement for #fossilfuels, this new research (once again) shows that #microbes have beaten us to it and evolved their own solutions for energy - in this case using hydrogen power.
This new research in Nature Microbiology explores how hydrogen in seawater supports growth of multiple and diverse #bacterial species.
Fof those (like me) in #Melbourne , you may be interested that the research also includes study of this process within #PortPhillipBay sediments.
Learn more on:
nature.com/articles/s41564-023…
#microbiology #bacteria #ecology #MicrobialEcology
Genome-resolved metagenomics, biogeochemistry, modelling and culture-based analysis reveal that marine bacteria consume H2 to support growth.Nature
Homology of DNA import systems in #archaea to the #conjugation transport systems in #bacteria.
New research in Nature Communications on: nature.com/articles/s41467-023…
#microbiology #HorizontalGeneTransfer #evolution
Bacteria can exchange DNA through extracellular appendages (‘mating pili’) in a process known as conjugation. Here, Beltran et al.Nature
This is why you should never drink cloudy water!
This video shows the bacteria in only about 0.001 ml of water from my jar. At the beginning the focus is on the upper plane, and then I slowly move the focus down into the seething mass. This is terrifying. #horror #science #bacteria #OhMyGodWhatHaveIDone
#Virus control
This exciting new research explores the influence of #virus #infection in changing the balance of organic matter degradation between #bacteria and #eukaryotes in #marine #carboncycling during #phytoplankton blooms.
Based on #mesocosm studies, this research demonstrates how #viruses infecting different #microorganisms change community dynamics and the release and potential fate of marine carbon from primary production.
Learn more in this new research in Nature Communications on:
nature.com/articles/s41467-023…
#microbiology #ecology #MicrobialEcology
Algal blooms are hotspots of marine primary production that play central roles in microbial ecology and global elemental cycling.Nature
Rare opportunity to study short-lived volcanic island reveals sulfur-metabolizing #microbes phys.org/news/2023-01-rare-opp…
The Early Microbial Colonizers of a Short-Lived Volcanic Island in the Kingdom of #Tonga journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/m…
"We didn't see what we were expecting. We thought we'd see organisms you find when a glacier retreats, or #cyanobacteria, more typical early colonizer species—but instead we found a unique group of #bacteria that metabolize sulfur and atmospheric gases."
In 2015, a submarine volcano in the South Pacific erupted, forming the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai island, destined to a short, seven-year life.Science X (Phys.org)
