Photosynthetic bacteria helped shape Planet Earth. Among them cyanobacteria—microbes that produced the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere & made complex life possible. They have captivated scientists for decades by offering insights into how life evolved from single cells into multicellular organisms.
Benjamin Springstein
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
I am (months) late, but you HAVE TO read @huepfkiesel.bsky.social (there is an update version). How can ParM "turned MreB” in cyanos?
shorturl.at/JXMjy
This will become a classic. Such a clear example of homology =/= function. We need more studies to collect larger sample sizes to test it.
Alex Bisson
Great work by Benjamin Springstein @huepfkiesel.bsky.social
and the lab of Martin Loose @nartimsoole.bsky.social.
Really stunning finding of the evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cell shape cytoskeletal system in cyanobacteria. Make sure to have a look!
📢 Postdoc position: Cell Biology of Cyanobacteria
in my group, as part of the Excellence Cluster "Microbes for Climate" (M4C) in Marburg, Germany.
More information at shorturl.at/wNnDT (see Project 2)
🔗Apply at shorturl.at/VsEDl
📅Deadline: Nov 16, 2025
Please repost. #Postdoc
Florian Schur
Martin Thanbichler
ANNOUNCEMENT! Programme now LIVE on our website for the #ProkaryoticCellBio conference! Check it out here, a reminder that the registration deadline is 13 April!➡️https://bit.ly/4rEH9KP
Happy to share a new preprint from the lab: Marko became interested in whether the disordered linker of FtsZ might influence how the protein organizes into the Z-ring. And this led to some surprising findings!
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Fusion Conferences
Now out in its final form! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Martin Loose
Out now in @science.org
Repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cell shape | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Martin Loose
Bacteria, like eukaryotes, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for intracellular organization. The plasmid-encoded ParMRC system forms actin-like filaments that segregate low–copy number plasmids. In m...
New preprint 🚀 ❄️
We developed Autogrid-compatible HPF planchettes that enable direct freezing of clipped EM grids and streamline integration with cryo-FIB workflows
✔️ improved grid stability
✔️ reduced handling
✔️ robust vitrification (🦠 🧫 🧠)
A step toward routine HPF for complex samples
#teamtomo
Bacteria, like eukaryotes, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for intracellular organization. The plasmid-encoded ParMRC system forms actin-like filaments that segregate low-copy plasmids. In multicel...
Video
Stella Hurtley
Bacterial cytokinesis is orchestrated by the Z-ring, a cytoskeletal structure formed by treadmilling filaments of the tubulin-like GTPase FtsZ. During assembly, filament curvature must match the cell ...
One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!
Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...
One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!
Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...
