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Great collaboration with @guo-lab.bsky.social to determine an in situ architectural model of the Tad pilus machine. Be on the lookout soon for a preprint on the same topic by Grant Jensen and @viollierpat.bsky.social. #microsky

🧵 Proud to present a tour de force by postdoc @gregbwhitfield.bsky.social solving the mystery of how bacterial Tad pili can extend and retract with a single motor ATPase. Great collaboration with Lynne Howell, @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social, @ianyyen.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

As mentioned, here is the preprint by Jensen and @viollierpat.bsky.social on the in situ structure of the Tad pilus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Nice work and great to see that we are seeing the same thing! Our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microsky

Great collaboration with @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social for resolving the Tad pilus machine structure by cryo-ET. Beautiful work by graduate students James Iarocci and Ryu Williston in our lab. Preprint:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686773v1

Happy to share a nice story lead by graduate student @mingyu-wang.bsky.social who designed very short peptides that disrupt Vibrio cholerae adhesion to human tissues. Great collaboration with the Lubell (Montreal), Klose (UTSA) and Davies (Queen's) labs. febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Our work with the Brun lab on the in situ architecture of the Caulobacter crescentus Tad pilus machine is published in mBio. Amazing collaborative effort led by James Iarocci @jamesiarocci.bsky.social

Investigating the Tad pilus nanomachine in a genetically tractable, non-pathogenic organism like Caulobacter crescentus provides a powerful model for elucidating the architecture and functional dynamics of this widespread system. Insights gained from studying the Tad machinery can improve our understanding of related Tad pilus systems in pathogenic bacteria such as Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, where Tad pili are a key determinant of biofilm formation and chronic infection. Additionally, the remarkable functional diversity of Tad systems, ranging from surface sensing in C. crescentus to bacterial predation in Myxococcus xanthus, highlights their broad biological relevance. By revealing the in situ architecture of the Tad pilus biosynthetic machinery, this study advances our understanding of a major class of bacterial nanomachines and may thus provide structural insights that could inform the development of new therapeutic strategies targeting pilus-mediated virulence.