Yes, we all can do better: as authors and reviewers!
🔬 New funding opportunity in aquatic microbiology
The Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) is inviting proposals for high-risk, high-impact research on microbial symbiosis in marine and freshwater environments.
Find out more: buff.ly/vQowRoS
Do microbes breathe peat? 🦠⚡🌿
New preprint: we sampled Swedish bogs to 7 m and found dominant, uncultured Acidobacteriota & Verrucomicrobiota encode conserved extracellular electron transfer (EET) machinery that was transcriptionally active all the way down.
Deadline is April 20th! Let’s get those viruses
bio.au.dk/om-institutt...
Anne Daebeler
Happy to share our latest article in Environmental Science & Technology!
We show that the acidophilic sulfate-reducing bacterium Acididesulfobacillus acetoxydans remains metabolically active under AMD-like acidity through cation transport and membrane remodelling!
doi.org/10.1021/acs....
We now provide environmental metadata for the GlobDB genomes!
🖥️🧬🦠
More info here:
globdb.org/news
🧵
Microbiology Postdocs from all over Europe and the globe, do not miss this next splendid opportunity for career building and networking! 🦠🧑🔬🧑🎓💯🇵🇹
after much deliberation and giving AI the benefit of the doubt, Wikipedia editors have had enough of AI slop. New policy bans LLM generated content, periodt www.404media.co/wikipedia-ba...
📣We have 5 PhD positions in hadal biogeochemistry and microbial ecology at the Danish Center for Hadal Research: lnkd.in/eJ6rp_Rk. 📣
Deadline: 4 May 2026
Please share widely!
fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
"A data-conscious checklist for the reviewers of 'omics studies who champion open science", a Comment Iva Veseli and I wrote is now online at metaRxiv:
doi.org/10.31222/osf...
Please read it and consider sharing it with your friends, colleagues, trainees, or editors of your favorite journals.
Ledig stilling ved Institut for Biologi, Aarhus Universitet
Acid mine drainage (AMD) waters are a global environmental threat due to their extremely low pH (<3) and high metal loads. Acidophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria (aSRB) can mitigate AMD by reducing sulfate to sulfide, a proton-consuming process that also precipitates metals as metal sulfides. Although sulfate reduction has been observed in AMD waters, most characterized aSRB are only moderately acidophilic. Here, we examined the pH tolerance and proton stress adaptation of the complete organic acid-oxidizing aSRB Acididesulfobacillus acetoxydans. Continuous chemostat cultivations were operated across a pH gradient, reaching steady states from pH 5.0 (optimum) to pH 2.9. In subsequent batch incubations, biomass from a pH 2.9 chemostat remained metabolically active at pH 2.5. Transcriptomic profiles remained remarkably stable across conditions, except for the upregulation of the K+-transporting ATPase (kdpABC) at lower pH, suggesting an increased reliance on the chemiosmotic gradient to impede proton influx. Lipid analysis revealed increased core lipid saturation, midchain methylation, and a shift in priming precursors from leucine to valine at low pH, indicating reduced membrane permeability and more energy-efficient biosynthetic pathways. Together, these adaptations likely reduce proton entry, explaining how aSRB adapt to AMD-like acidity and unlock the pH bottleneck for AMD bioremediation and metal recovery.
I'm hiring my first postdoc! Apply by 20/4/26, position #20443. Seeking an environmental microbiologist with experience in metagenomics (preferably viromics) and molecular biology. Experience with targeted metabolomics is a plus.
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Emanuel Maiberg
Beate Kraft
New preprint out: Although sulfate reduction at pH < 3 is reported in acid mine/rock drainage environments, isolated aSRB have never matched this limit. Using axenic planktonic chemostats plus DNA/RNA and lipid analyses, we demonstrate aSRB activity and underlying physiology at AMD-like pH.
🌟 Applications are now open! 🌟 Ready to level up your research career this summer?
Join a select group of early‑career scientists for an immersive 6‑day mentor‑led Summer School in Porto, Portugal, from 26–31 August 2026.
👉 Start your application here: buff.ly/Ppu8RY3 and apply by 15 April.
Tillmann Lueders
Vacancy at Department of Agroecology - Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Aarhus University
