New benchmark by @tclavel.bsky.social & @treichelnicole.bsky.social reveals that while 0.5 Gb works for profiling, de novo MAG assembly requires >10 Gb. Crucially, they found that only 55-82% of high-quality MAGs accurately represented original strains.
Full Article: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
A comparison of sequencing of complex mock communities performed at multiple depths and analysed using different methods establishes minimum standards that can ensure the accuracy of metagenomic analy...
Please remember that the International Symposium on Plasmid Biology (ISPB 2026) will take place 7–11 September 2026 in Berlin, Germany!
A great opportunity to meet, reconnect, and engage with the global plasmid biology community. 🤝
plasmid-biology-2026.de
New online: Structure and activation mechanism of a Lamassu phage and plasmid defense system
We found that TIR domains in animal immune proteins, including the human TLR4, are enzymes that cleave NAD+ to produce the signaling molecule cADPR
Read our new preprint by talented Bohdana Hurieva: “Conserved catalytic activity of immune TIR domains in animals”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 14 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01677-4Li et al. show that a Lamassu defense system protects bacteria from phage infection by activating a lethal tetrameric DNA-cutting enzyme. In the absence of phages, a protein clamp holds the enzyme as an inactive monomer, preventing self-damage.
