New preprint to close out the year! Led by Alana Papula and together with Daniel Fisher, we used single-cell genomes to infer the evolution of Prochlorococcus—one of the most abundant and genetically diverse bacteria on Earth. Check it out here: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Bacteria swap DNA far more than we thought. This study shows recombination between species can blur genetic boundaries, with up to 95% of diversity coming from hybrid DNA in some microbes.
Here, we find that many Genomic islands have origins of transfer (oriT) mobilisable by conjugation, incl. known Pathogenicity & defense islands. iOriT use only an oriT for transfer by hitching on conjugative elements: they make abundant, diverse, ancient families of mobile genetic elements. See🧵
I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.
Happy that our work on the evolution of Yellowstone cyanobacteria is now published in @elife.bsky.social: doi.org/10.7554/eLif...! Did a lot of work in revision—many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for great suggestions! Also see the eLife digest for a summary: elifesciences.org/digests/9084...
New paper led by Hannah Goldberg on the diversity of hydrogen peroxide detoxification in marine microbes! Wonderful @microbialplanet.bsky.social collaboration with Sonya Dyhrman, Michelle DeMers and Gwen Hennon!
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Can we use ecological principles to increase coexistence in synthetic bacterial communities? Our new paper is now out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: "Environmental complexity shapes maintenance of bacterial diversity through context-dependent interactions among niche axes" doi.org/10.1093/isme...
