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Marie Simonin

@microbialmarie.bsky.social
981 followers 691 following 44 posts

Ecologist studying plant microbiota assembly and microbiome engineering / Seeds / SynComs 🦠/ Sustainable agriculture 🌾 Research Director at INRAE, France mariesimonin.com

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Reposted by Marie Simonin
Honour McCann @honour.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Great to see this published! A little paper backstory: was reading about interesting outbreaks during COVID-related shutdowns and happened across some cool work by Emmanuel Wicker et al., who first documented this outbreak and made a collection with fantastic metadata 1/9
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Chuliang Song @clsong.com · 10/09/2026
A wonderful review by Stefano on 100 years of Lotka–Volterra models. Don’t miss the incredibly detailed Supplement, truly the “War and Peace” of LV models. I really wish it had existed when I was a grad student! doi.org/10.1146/annu...
doi.org
One Hundred Years of Lotka–Volterra Models
Over the past century, the generalized Lotka–Volterra (GLV) model has grown from a mathematical curiosity to a cornerstone of theoretical ecology. Here we celebrate the enduring legacy of Lotka and Vo...
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Tiffany Lowe-Power stands with Minnesota @tlowepower.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Please repost/share We're hiring! UC Davis Plant Pathology seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor in plant health & microbiomes. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07904 My department is full of great colleagues, and we look forward to recruiting our new colleague!
recruit.ucdavis.edu
Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology
University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!
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Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Cross-feeding enables robust coexistence between four bacterial species www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs
pnas.org
Cross-feeding enables robust coexistence between four bacterial species | PNAS
Resource supply is generally considered a dominant driver of microbial diversity. Here, using a four-species bacterial consortium, we asked whether...
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Congratulations, @gijsselten.bsky.social, @fly-florian.bsky.social, Simona, and @dejongepmi.bsky.social! Superb to see your work within the NNF-funded InRoot project out 👏, what a story that we could follow in the past years during the CCRP progress meetings.
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
📢 Nous cherchons un Stagiaire de Master 2 (6 mois, 2027, Angers) sur le sujet: Influence of seed functional traits on seed microbiota assembly across 40 crop species 🫘 Compétences : Interactions plante-microbe, écologie/physio végétale @irhs-angers.bsky.social 📆 Deadline 30 Sept, plus d'infos 👇
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Ricardo Henriques @henriqueslab.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🔬🚀 Out now in Communications AI & Computing: mAIcrobe, our open-source napari plugin for high-throughput bacterial image analysis. Segmentation, morphological profiling and cell cycle classification, all in one place 👇 doi.org/10.1038/s44488-026-00022-y
Screenshot of the published article page. Software, Open access, published 15 September 2026. Title: mAIcrobe, an open-source framework for high-throughput bacterial image analysis. Authors: António D. Brito, Dominik Alwardt, Beatriz de P. Mariz, Sérgio R. Filipe, Mariana G. Pinho, Bruno M. Saraiva and Ricardo Henriques. Communications AI & Computing 1, article number 16 (2026), followed by the abstract.Diagram of the mAIcrobe workflow. Acquisition feeds into segmentation with StarDist, Cellpose and community models, then into morphological profiling and a three-class cell cycle classifier, ending in a feature-space scatter plot with three separated clusters.
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Emily Goodall @emgoodall.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Our opinion piece on what you can do with tradis [tn-seq]. It's a shortish read, aimed at fellow daydreamers. Thank you @microbiologysociety.org for the invite and opportunity, this was surprisingly pleasant to research and write! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
microbiologyresearch.org
Applications of transposon-insertion sequencing for understanding bacterial physiology
Transposon-insertion sequencing (Tn-seq) couples transposon mutagenesis with next-generation sequencing to identify the transposon insertion site for thousands of mutants in parallel. It is a powerful...
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Tanya Cheeke @tanyacheeke.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
New paper showing that it took 7 years post-inoculation to see effects on plant communities, highlighting the importance of longterm studies in restoration research esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Inoculation with old‐growth microbes improves restoration quality and reduces non‐native encroachment after seven years
Understanding the mechanisms that promote native seedling establishment in disturbed ecosystems is key to improving the biodiversity and function of landscape restorations. Over seven growing seasons...
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Thomas Clavel @tclavel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Drawing on the team’s knowledge acquired over the years, we share our thoughts here on how to enhance microbiome research with FAIR collections of microbial strains: 🔥 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @nfdi4microbiota.bsky.social, @spp2474.bsky.social, @dsmz.bsky.social, @natmicrobiol.nature.com.
nature.com
A roadmap to create FAIR collections of microbial strains - Nature Microbiology
Here the authors propose guidance on the process of establishing a state-of-the-art collection of microorganisms, including project planning, strain deposition and the naming of new taxa.
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Metabolic Modelling Facilitates the Design of Synthetic Communities by Simplifying Natural Microbial Communities in Environmental Microbiology enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Metabolic Modelling Facilitates the Design of Synthetic Communities by Simplifying Natural Microbial Communities
A simulation-based approach was developed to design synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) by simplifying complex microbial communities through metabolic modelling. The simulation-based approach w...
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Decoding Bistability and Drivers of Phenotypic Variation in Bacteria Annual Reviews in Microbiology by Jesús Cámara-Almirón, Milena Jaskólska, and @veeninglab.com at @dmf-unil.bsky.social www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
annualreviews.org
Decoding Bistability and Drivers of Phenotypic Variation in Bacteria
In a process known as phenotypic heterogeneity or phenotypic variation, bacteria can produce distinct phenotypes within an isogenic population in response to shifting environmental conditions. Noise i...
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Corrie Moreau @corriemoreau.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
📣 📣 📣 UPDATE: The 2026-2027 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resource! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
docs.google.com
ecoevojobs.net 2026-27
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Looking forward to visit Sandeep Kumar's lab @bioeconomyscience.bsky.social & giving a talk on Seed Microbiota Diversity, Inheritance and Engineering 🫘 🧫 Featuring the work of @garnault.bsky.social @logansuteau.bsky.social in the SUCSEED project & @tlafontrapnouil.bsky.social in INHERSEED project
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Looking forward to giving a talk at #ISME20 on Interconnected seed microbiomes across generations and environments:Tracking microbial fluxes in 45 crop species Room 515 - 2:30pm Check our new results on horizontal vs vertical transmission in seed microbiota from @tlafontrapnouil.bsky.social postdoc
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Just arrived to New Zealand for #ISME20 ! Enjoying the Bay of Islands before a busy week in Auckland 🇳🇿 I will participate to the Meet the ISME Editors on Sunday evening, then a roundtable on microbial inheritance on Monday. Tuesday I will chair a session and give a talk on Interconnected Microbiomes
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A. Murat Eren (Meren) @merenbey.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
If you heard about anvi'o but never had a chance to figure out what it really is, please consider watching this 12-minute video by Iva Veseli: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fExu... It is a short and sweet introduction to what (and what not) to expect from anvi'o 😇
youtube.com
A brief introduction to the anvi'o software platform for microbial 'omics research
YouTube video by Meren Lab
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Matthias C. Rillig @mrillig.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
New paper just out in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology A call for studying the impact of multiple stressors on biological systems w/ Ron Mittler and Sara Zandalinas nature.com/articles/s41... Free share link: rdcu.be/fy2rP
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Amit Kumar @amit-kumar-phd.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Wonderful to have this one out in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social . Thanks for posting.
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SeppeKuehnLab @seppekuehnlab.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
New preprint! A monumental four year effort by Vaibhhav Sinha: when a bacterium eats organic carbon, how much becomes biomass and how much comes back out as CO₂? The answer is structured hierarchically by substrate and taxonomy. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Hierarchical control of bacterial growth efficiency by substrate and taxonomy
Heterotrophic bacteria utilize organic carbon as a source of energy and material for growth. The balanced allocation of carbon between these two processes, termed growth efficiency, is a key physiolog...
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Sean Gibbons 🦠💩 @gibbological.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980 Please share! 🦠🤓
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Dr. Katharine Dickson @metaomicsnerd.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I know we are not ordinarily AI fans here, but I make an exception for Web of Microbes, which is an AI agent designed to help you design microbial consortia designed by Trent Northen’s group at LBNL and Mingxun Wang’s group at UCR. webofmicrobes.org
webofmicrobes.org
webofmicrobes
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
New preprint led by @logansuteau.bsky.social ! What really drives the success of seed-applied multi-kingdom SynComs ? -> Strain selection matters more than assembly strategy -> SynComs can reshape native bacterial communities via recruitment from soil and network integration doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
Seed-applied multi-kingdom synthetic communities selectively reshape bacterial communities and highlight key criteria for strain selection
Defined microbial communities (also known as synthetic communities) are showing promising results for plant health but are lacking an efficient lab to field transition. This is the due to limited know...
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Boas Pucker @bpucker.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Just in time for the weekend: our latest paper is out in Plant Biology! Anthocyanins and betalains in evolution: Why mutual exclusion remains the best-supported model doi.org/10.1111/plb.... #PlantBiology #Evolution #Anthocyanins #Betalains @puckerlab.bsky.social @unibonn.bsky.social
doi.org
Anthocyanins and betalains in evolution: Why mutual exclusion remains the best‐supported model
Anthocyanins and betalains are plant pigments produced through different biosynthetic pathways and are generally considered mutually exclusive. We examine claims of their co-occurrence, arguing that ...
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Abdellah Lakehal @abdellahlakehal.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I’m happy to share our review on the evolution of root systems in land plants @currentbiology.bsky.social @rootdevelopment.bsky.social @psb-vib.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Evolution of root systems in land plants
In this review, Lakehal et al. chart the evolution of root systems, discussing key innovations in root morphology and the regulatory mechanisms that enabled land plants to adapt. They argue that crop ...
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
📆 Save The Date! The Plant-Bacteria Interaction Meeting (18th RPB) in Aussois, Savoie will take place from January 11 to 15th, 2027 👉 More info on the keynote speakers & sessions: plants-bacteria-2027.symposium.inrae.fr Deadline: September 25th @inrae-dpt-spe.bsky.social @sfp-france.bsky.social
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
A comment in @natcomms.nature.com for the use of defined microbial communities for microbial applications I was glad to be involved in this highly collaborative discussions during online workshops last year, the thought from which are now published www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Ever wanted to use metagenomic data to infer oxygen levels (or the oxygen preferences of whole bacterial communities)? We have the tool for you: journals.asm.org/eprint/9GUIR...
journals.asm.org
Predicting oxygen levels in microbial habitats using a metagenome-based approach | mSystems
Oxygen is one of the most important environmental variables affecting microbial activity and composition, but is often difficult to measure in situ. We developed a tool, OxyMetaG, that leverages diffe...
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Leonora Bittleston @leonorabit.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
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...
academic.oup.com
Environmental complexity shapes maintenance of bacterial diversity through context-dependent interactions among niche axes
Abstract. Microbial communities are often more species-rich than predicted from classical ecological models. The high levels of coexistence observed in nat
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Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Nine (not so simple) steps: a practical guide to using machine learning in microbial ecology Step 1: Determine whether machine learning is necessary or even worth doing journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org
Nine (not so simple) steps: a practical guide to using machine learning in microbial ecology | mBio
Microbial ecologists are increasingly turning to machine learning (ML) models to better identify and predict meaningful biological patterns and relationships in molecular microbial community data (inc...
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holobiontbiology.bsky.social @holobiontbiology.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
HoloUI: A web application to fetch holobiont data from a RDF database cnrs.hal.science/hal-05651546/
cnrs.hal.science
Making sure you're not a bot!
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EmerSys Team - IRHS Angers @emersys-irhs.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Check this new paper of the team led by @bobytaillefer.bsky.social on Stenotrophomonas T6SS and its specific or broad spectrum antibacterial effectors targeting a diversity of strains from the seed microbiota 💉 🦠 @inrae-dpt-spe.bsky.social @irhs-angers.bsky.social
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Laurie Belcher @lauriebelch.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
The new OrthoFinder paper is out now! In this new work, we introduce major advances in accuracy and scalability, allowing analysis on much larger datasets www.nature.com/articles/s41... github.com/OrthoFinder/...
nature.com
OrthoFinder: improved phylogenetic orthology inference with enhanced accuracy and scalability - Nature Methods
The updated OrthoFinder v3 software boosts accuracy and scalability in phylogenetic orthology inference with massive and diverse datasets.
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Frédérique Reverchon @drafred.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
📢 New paper from the lab! "Phytophthora root rot induces compositional and functional changes in avocado rhizosphere bacterial communities" We analyzed through metabarcoding and metatranscriptomic analyses the shifts in the 🥑 microbiota induced by #Phytophthora academic.oup.com/femsmicrobes...
academic.oup.com
Phytophthora root rot induces compositional and functional changes in avocado rhizosphere bacterial communities
Compositional and functional readjustments of the rhizobacterial community in avocado induced by Phytophthora root rot.
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Connor Sharp @magicmicrobe.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
What determines who wins in bacterial competition? We review how the environment can influence bacterial warfare! Hopefully interesting for anyone who likes Bacteriocins (my favorite), T6SS, or CDIs! portlandpress.com/essaysbioche...
portlandpress.com
Bacterial weaponry and the ecological factors of competitive success
Abstract. Bacteria have evolved complex protein systems known as bacterial weapons to inhibit or kill their competitors. These bacterial weapons are a remarkably diverse arsenal that influence the com...
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Team_Zuccaro @algazuccaro.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Here we show that low intra-microbiota antagonism underlies stable, protective barley root microbiota. Microbiota function cannot be predicted from beneficial traits of individual strains alone, but depends on compatibility among community members. #Microbiome #Plant www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
C'était une super expérience! Un grand merci aux organisateurs de @pintofscience.fr Angers et l'Echappée Belle Et regardez ces magnifiques notes visuelles qui résument mon intervention par Marion Dehay (Infographie) 🤩 @inrae-dpt-spe.bsky.social @irhs-angers.bsky.social
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Vivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Phages as ecosystem engineers of plant microbiomes: Cell Host & Microbe www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
cell.com
Phages as ecosystem engineers of plant microbiomes
Phages modulate plant microbiomes through bacterial lysis and by equipping bacteria with auxiliary genes through lysogeny. In this Forum, we highlight the underappreciated role of phages in plant heal...
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New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Xylem Endophytes of Salicaceae: potential role in mitigating disease symptoms from Xylella fastidiosa or Brenneria salicis 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Pesenti et al. @WileyPlantSci #PlantScience
Graphical abstract depicting how Xylem bacterial communities in Salicaceae were characterized using culture-dependent and independent approaches, revealing a shared core microbiome dominated by Bacillus spp.
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Cool experimental system for phyllosphere microbial ecology from @mitjare.bsky.social in bioRxiv👇🏼
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Team Thomma @teamthomma.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
📣 New preprint on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: Bacteria rewire fungal antimicrobial gene expression in microbial arms races www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... This work, led by outstanding @jinyi-zhu.bsky.social, shows that bacteria suppress fungal antimicrobial protein expression to evade antagonism
biorxiv.org
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bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
The common symbiosis pathway controls plant root microbiomes in a host-specific manner www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Très heureuse de participer au Pint of Science Angers, lundi prochain à L'échappée Belle 🍺🧫🌾 @pintofscience.fr @irhs-angers.bsky.social pintofscience.fr/event/graine...
pintofscience.fr
Graines de savoir, histoires de transmission
Découvrez le voyage fascinant du microbiote des graines : et si ce monde invisible était la clé pour remplacer les pesticides ? Puis, interrogeons nous sur…
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Save the date for #miCROPe2027 International Symposium Microbe-assisted Crop Production - Opportunities, Challenges & Needs June 1-3, 2027 Vienna, Austria www.micrope.org
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Really useful paper explaining why richness/diversity metrics are rarely informative when applied to microbial community sequencing data: enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Rethinking Alpha Diversity in Marker‐Gene Microbiome Studies: Dominance Matters More Than Richness
Marker-gene microbiome surveys systematically under-sample rare taxa, causing alpha diversity metrics to reflect dominance rather than true richness. This conceptual mismatch can lead to misleading e...
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
We had a great time in Potsdam, great science and people! Many thanks to @seed-con.bsky.social organizing committee We are happy to announce that we will host the 2nd SeedCon in Angers, Spring 2028 🎉 @irhs-angers.bsky.social Looking forward to welcoming you all 🫘
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
My PhD student Louna Colaert-Sentenac presented her cool work on the impact of SynComs on plant metabolome and microbiote assembly during bean seedling emergence 🫘🌱 From the SUCSEED project @irhs-angers.bsky.social
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
And now @thomas-chadelaud.bsky.social presenting the results of his PhD in the SUCSEED project Amazing experiments on the transmission routes of bacteria to the seeds during plant development. A really challenging topic to study, but so important! #SeedCon2026
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Now the boss is on stage! @lmatthieul.bsky.social synthesizing his research on the genetic factors involved in the transmission of microbes to seeds Some cool dual transcriptomics during seed development and SynCom experiments to show the role T6SS in microbiota assembly #SeedCon2026
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Marie Simonin @microbialmarie.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
#SeedCon2026 Now Muriel Marchi from the FungiSem team @irhs-angers.bsky.social presenting a large yeast collection isolated from seeds & their effects on bean emergence in presence of soil borne pathogen Globisporangium ultimum So much we still don't know on their transmission and role for plants!
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