(1/n) Thrilled to share latest pre-print from lab - open imaging tool we have been working for the last 3 years "PlanktonScope V1 & 2" - modular (100x cost reduction) platform to enable citizens/sailors to study the world's largest habitat - our oceans! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Friends, the Harvard Microbial Sciences Symposium (Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative (MSI)) is next Saturday April 17th! We are proud that our virtual event is open to all. We are also proud of our amazing line-up of scientists and artists, w/trivia by the incomparable Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D See you there!

Huge congrats to the amazing Dr. @kelly_luis1 who just defended an awesome Ph.D. on monitoring coastal and inland water quality via remote sensing. You've been an inspiration to many, myself included, over these past years, and I can't wait to see what's next. Love you so much.

Metapangenomics reveals depth-dependent shifts in metabolic potential for the ubiquitous marine bacterial SAR324 lineage dlvr.it/S5g89d

Symbioses must innovate to survive, especially in changing environments. But the strategies they use for genetic innovation vary. How they innovate depends on the genetic population structure of symbionts (open, closed, or mixed). Learn more in our review! nature.com/articles/s4157…

MY FIRST FIRST-AUTHOR PAPER IS OUT IN Evolution Journal!!! We describe the genetic architecture of 17 floral traits in Aquilegia related to pollination syndromes 🌸🌸 So of course I made a Science IRL episode about it 😁 youtube.com/watch?v=yFOO1m… Paper here: doi.org/10.1111/evo.14…

#JOBAlert! The MBL is hiring in the @JMarkWelch Lab in our Bay Paul Center. Seeking Applicants for a PostDoc and Research Assistant I/II in Microbial Ecology and Imaging. #ApplyToday! go.mbl.edu/Jobs-MarkWelch…

Excited to share this work finally! I think it's so cool how these symbionts can modify their environment by altering their hosts.

Epibiont suppresses gingival inflammation: Using a mouse model for #periodontitis, Batbileg Bor Daniel Utter & Chipashvili determine that episymbiotic Saccharibacteria suppresses #gingival inflammation and bone loss by modulating host #bacterial pathogenicity cell.com/cell-host-micr…

I am doing a podcast to the Mongolian community on scholarships and fellowships for higher education. Please join us if you are interested.

Horizontal gene transfer and adaptive evolution in bacteria by B. Arnold, I-Ting Huang & Bill Hanage @BillHanage.bsky.social in Nature Reviews Microbiology nature.com/articles/s4157…

A cultivated species from the CPR Gracilibacteria with Halorhodospira ‘Candidatus Absconditicoccus praedator’ sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

Our review on HGT and adaptive evolution in bacteria is out! nature.com/articles/s4157… Really enjoyed working on this with Brian John Arnold and Bill Hanage @BillHanage.bsky.social How does the shuttling and shuffling of genes interact with selection? Bottom line: we should be prepared to be surpised

Manganese oxidizing chemolithoautotroph story continues! Here we show that microbes with the genomic potential to feed on manganese for calories and electrons could be found in freshwater and marine environments worldwide. Preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Published today in PNASNews, Forsyth researcher Xuesong He & collaborator Jeffrey McLean have uncovered new insights about the genetic evolution of TM7, a group of ultra-small bacteria that have adapted to thrive living inside human mouths: forsyth.org/news/researche… #oralmicrobiome

Excited to share this collaborative work Jeffrey McLean Batbileg Bor Daniel Utter published in PNASNews. We present data showing the benefits of acquiring a novel pathway in the transition of Saccharibacteria (TM7) from environment to mammalian microbiome. pnas.org/content/119/2/…

Our paper (and my first pub!) on the evolution of the MtrCAB extracellular electron transfer system is out! We found that these genes have jumped, skipped, and hopped into (and out of) a diverse array of microbial genomes. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mb…

Evolution made pregnancy risky! One in five pregnant people in the US develops (potentially serious, lifelong) complications due to biological parent-offspring conflict. Madison B. Sharp (ob-gyn at Penn Medicine) and I (biology at Stanford University) argue for abortion rights in Slate.

Excited to share that our 5+ years of hoping and waiting (and a bit of work) led to sediment-free anaerobic methane-oxidizing cultures! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/ae…

Blog post: "So! You want to search all the public metagenomes with a genome sequence!" ivory.idyll.org/blog/2022-sour… - real-time search of public SRA metagenomes with genome-sized queries. cc @luizirber