Ben Delo says he will return to so he can give millions more to fund the party’s ‘war chest’

The Ziemert lab is interested in the evolution and distribution of bacterial secondary metabolites. These bioactive compounds are especially important in human medicine as the chemical scaffolds are t...

Nature Communications - Giant transposons, known as ‘Starships’, mediate horizontal gene transfer between fungal genomes. Here, Sato et al. show that Starships occupy genome regions...

Concentrating funding at high-powered universities can maximize output, paper argues, but may sacrifice broader benefits

In this study, we revise the structures of the marine sponge-derived pyrone-deoxyribosides tetillapyrone and nortetillapyrone, as well as the semisynthetic derivative tetillapyrone diacetate, to the n...

An exciting opportunity for an Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions has arisen at the John Innes Centre. To read the full job description for this role…

Embleya is a genus within the family Streptomycetaceae, a group of actinobacteria with outstanding capacity for production of specialised metabolites and a strikingly complex life cycle. In this work, we sequenced the complete genome of the new species Embleya australiensis MST-11070 and validated the assembly using optical mapping. The genome of E. australiensis MST-11070 consists of a 7.1 Mb linear chromosome and three additional replicons, including a 4.2 Mb linear replicon, EEC1, significantly larger than all previously described secondary replicons from bacteria. EEC1 is typified by its similar composition to the chromosome in terms of GC-content, codon usage and gene functions. It also carries terminal inverted repeats identical to the chromosome. EEC1 is enriched in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), including the only copy of the BGCs for the spore pigment and the surfactant peptide SapB, metabolites essential for the organism's lifecycle. EEC1 contains an origin of replication with at least some chromosomal properties, and its replication is likely to depend on functions provided by chromosomally located genes. Further comparison of Embleya spp. genomes suggests that EEC1-like replicons are conserved across the genus, in contrast to other known large linear extrachromosomal replicons (megaplasmids) in the order. EEC1 is thus a hallmark of the Embleya genus and is central to its evolution within the Streptomycetaceae family. We propose EEC1 as a secondary chromosome, distinct from previously described secondary chromosomes that utilise plasmid-like replication mechanisms (chromids) and the largest secondary replicon reported in bacteria, to date. ### Competing Interest Statement Ernest Lacey is a Founder, Board Member, and the Managing Director of Microbial Screening Technology Pty. Ltd. The authors declare no competing financial interests. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, https://ror.org/00cwqg982, BB/P021506/1, BBS/E/J/000PR9790, BB/X01097X/1, BB/M011216/1 Novo Nordisk Foundation, https://ror.org/04txyc737, NNF22OC0078997

Abstract. Gene clusters, groups of physically adjacent genes that work collectively, are pivotal to bacterial fitness and valuable in biotechnology and med

The dynamics of antimicrobial resistance gene transfer remain unclear. Here, by integrating bacterial genome and metagenome data with machine learning the authors show that genetic incompatibility is a main limiting factor, while co-occurrence of bacteria in the human microbiome and wastewater contributes to gene transfer.

A personal selection of 32 recent papers is presented covering various aspects of current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products such as melichuniione A from Melicope chunii.

Vacancy at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics - BiRC - Bioinformatics Research Center, Aarhus University

Weed management is an essential intervention for maintaining food security and protecting biodiversity but is heavily reliant on chemical control measures (i.e., herbicides). Concerningly, only one herbicide has been developed with a new mode of action (MOA) since the 1980s. Therefore, alternative strategies

Nova is a software library for the reading, writing, and management of mass spectrometry data natively in the C# language. It complements similar software libraries ubiquitously used in application development for C++, Python, and Java. Few software libraries and resources for mass spectrometry data analysis have been developed for C# relative to other languages. C#, however, remains the dominant language of choice for development of real time mass spectrometry (RTMS) analysis and instrument control applications, illustrating the need for native C# libraries when developing RTMS software. Nova provides fast, easy-to-use structures and classes built upon interfaces that support open community standards, and are easily extensible for current or future mass spectrometry software development needs.

Bacteria have evolved a wide array of immune systems to detect and defend against external threats including mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as bacteriophages, plasmids, and transposons. MGEs are ...

Nature Communications - Here, the authors present and characterise a collection of human gut bacteria including novel taxa associated with health conditions and a large diversity of plasmids. All...

Nature Methods - Phylogenetic compression achieves performant and lossless compression of massive collections of microbial genomes, facilitating fast BLAST-like search and versatile alignment tasks.

Despite what you are being fed, de-extinction is a con, full of gloss, bullshit and ghoulish greed.

Colossal Biosciences has genetically engineered the first dire wolf to live in over 10,000 years. Here's what that means for other extinct species.

The genus Streptomyces are valuable producers of antibiotics and other pharmaceutically important bioactive compounds. Advances in molecular engineeri…

Questions remain over whether further action will be taken after resignations and calls for the Tesla CEO to be expelled

It is vital to act, and I urge colleagues to do so. How can we stand by and laud this man while he undermines scientific integrity? asks academic and author Kit Yates

Microbial secondary metabolites are compounds produced by bacteria and fungi that are not required for their replication and unconditional survival (1, 2). While they are thus not expected to be unive...