Inlay

Hey all! Happy to finally join everyone here on Bluesky, and also to share the culmination of my longest-running postdoc project, now on bioRxiv: “Apparent generalism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is underpinned by convergent cryptic specialization.” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very happy to see this piece out in @plosbiology.org, on the bacterial immune systems and microbial communities. It was a great team effort with Rafael Custodio, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social , @brownlab.bsky.social, and Edze Westra! 🦠🧫 #phagesky #mevosky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Intrastrain genetic and phenotypic diversity within Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations is common in chronic pulmonary infections. While this intrastrain heterogeneity is a hallmark of chronic infection, its consequences for the spatial organization of P. aeruginosa within the airways remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the loss of O-specific antigen in a subpopulation of P. aeruginosa significantly alters the spatial architecture of P. aeruginosa, without changing the total population size or composition. Using a combination of tissue clearing and hybridization chain reaction RNA-FISH in a murine lung infection model, we mapped the localization of genetically distinct P. aeruginosa variants in mixed populations in vivo. These findings reveal that genetic diversification within a strain can reshape the infection landscape at the micron scale, highlighting the overlooked role of intrastrain dynamics in shaping the microbiogeography of infections and influencing host-pathogen interactions.

Bacterial immune systems have evolved in response to diverse molecular "parasites", yet their ecological roles remain poorly understood. This Essay explores how interactions between mobile genetic ele...

When is an antiphage mechanism an evolved defence adaptation? This question has been on my mind for so long, because despite the field’s rapid progress there is currently no widely agreed framework in place to answer it. So @brownlab.bsky.social and I wrote this, and I'm happy to share the preprint!

Congrats @emehlferber.bsky.social and team! This is one of my fave visualizations: summarizing how PA “sees” some environments as more or less similar based on shared genomic signatures. Chronic infections cluster tightly, but are still distinguishable by a smaller set of features.

It’s a day late, but worth the wait: on this episode of #MattersMicrobial, Dr. Sam Brown chats with the #QualityQuorum about generalists, specialists, and sociomicrobiology. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWorld. @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology @microbe.tv youtu.be/K_gEeazaCQM?...

A bacterial predator, Halobacteriovorax, acts as a living "probiotic" that halts Vibrio-induced disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals. This shows microbial predators are promising new tools for coral disease therapy! #CoralReefs #MicrobialEcology #ISMEJ academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Plasmids use immune systems like CRISPR-Cas to compete with other plasmids, but it is unclear when these systems provide a selective advantage. This study shows that CRISPR-Cas benefits resident plasm...