News

Paper published in mSystems

Influence of heterotrophs on phage infection of marine picocyanobacteria

Shaul’s last(?) paper from his time at Penny Chisholm’s lab. Allison found that Prochlorococcus only recovered from phage infection if heterotrophs were around, but not if it grew in monoculture. The twist - after regrowth Prochlorococcus was resistant to the phage - so far so good - BUT! This was, to the best we could tell, not due to genetic changes.

More weirdness in the paper.

Paper published in Nature

Genome-wide sweeps create ecological units in the human gut microbiome

Another fun collaboration with Martin Polz’s lab. Annie found a way to identiy genome-wide selective sweeps from isolate genomes, and identifies populations that swept through the globe. These populations are more strongly associated than traditional species definitions with host states such as disease.

Samira and Elle join for a research internship

We are very glad to welcome both Samira and Elle to the lab. They will be working together with Lior about predicting carbon decomposition phenotypes from genomes.

Marco defends his master’s thesis

Marco Sing graduated with a master’s degree today. Marco is the first student to graduate from the lab, and he defended his thesis with top marks. Great job Marco and thanks for spending this time with us.

Paper published in Nature Communications

Human milk oligosaccharide mediates mutualism between Escherichia coli and Bifidobacterium bifidum.

David Seki, currently a postdoc with Michi Wagner, found a mutualism that may explain E. coli’s prevalence in infant guts. David found that E. coli and B. bifidum can form a mutualism where E. coli supplies cystein to auxotrophic Bifidobacteria, and they in turn feed it fucose left over from extracellular HMO degradation.

Paper published in Nature

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation.

A nice collaboration with Songcan from Alex Loy’s group just down the corridor. Songcan found a new microbial sulfur metabolic pathway that is globally widespread and can be a large contributor to the sulfur cycle.

Joana got a DOC fellowship

Joana got the flagship doctoral fellowship of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Announcement link