José Vargas-Muñiz

Fungal symbioses: A multiplicity of fungi in the lichen union Increasing evidence suggests that lichens are not just a partnership between one fungus and one alga or cyanobacterium but may contain multiple intera…

Thrilled to see this published! 😄
Our dispatch examines potential additional fungal symbionts in lichen partnerships and the key challenges in unraveling their biology.

Thanks for involving me in this @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social

@currentbiology.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Vacancies Open vacancies in Aspergillus and fungal research Postdoc – Imperial College London, UK Fungal genomics of the human fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. For informal enquiries please conta…

Asilomar will also be a great time to catch up with international colleagues and network.

Do you have any group openings? Let us know and we can add to our 'vacancies' page ahead of the conference:

aspgrpc.com/vacancies/

This post is about biologists' obligation to speak up for trans rights, in case I need to spell it out directly.

ggpubfigs and pypubfigs now include four new colorblind-friendly palettes.

These tools make it simple to create figures that everyone can visually access, helping you share your insights with a wider audience.

ggpubfigs: https://github.com/JLSteenwyk/ggpubfigs
pypubfigs: https://github.com/JLSteenwyk/pypubfigs

We did struggle to keep them alive too, and my husband has a pretty green thumb. They were great while they were alive and was fun to see them glow. So looking forward to any advice to keep them alive 😅

Global genetic rewiring during compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network - EMBO Reports Functional defects resulting from deleterious mutations can often be restored during evolution by compensatory mutations. Importantly, this process can generate the genetic diversity seen in networks ...

And another paper!
We show that compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network leads to global genetic rewiring: restoring polarity reshapes gene disruption tolerance across the genome and rewires entire cellular processes—not just individual genes.
doi.org/10.1038/s44319-026-00709-4

Four graphs, showing the response of PA14 and an isogenic pel mutant, and PAO1 and an isogenic pel psl double mutant, to meropenem and colistin. There is no difference between the response of mutants and WTs.

During her PhD, Jenny found something unexpected: biofilm-deficient P. aeruginosa mutants were just as tolerant to antibiotics as the WT when grown in our cystic fibrosis lung model. But why? #MicroSky 1/n

Inducing novel endosymbioses by implanting bacteria in fungi - Nature A study presents an approach to establish and track a new endosymbiotic partnership by implanting bacteria in a non-host fungus and shows that stable inheritance of the implanted bacteria is possible ...

Vorholt Lab re-created endosymbiosis in the lab: injected bacteria into a fungus and evolved a heritable partnership.

Evolution, fast-forwarded.

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Poster for upcoming webinar. Title: Fungal Conservation in the New Year: Species Discovery, Action, Policy, and a Global Strategy. Seven February 2026 11AM PST / 2PM EST / 4PM BRT / 7PM GMT with a registration link. Photos of presenters with talk titles. Huzefa Raja: Discovery is the first step toward conservation: Atromagnispora, a newly identified genus of freshwater ascomycete fungus from Indiana. Kelmer Martins-Cunha: From fungal neglect to action: shifting paradigms in Brazilian conservation. Greg Mueller: Developing A global strategy for fungal conservation. Images of 4 fungi are followed by the text "A webinar presented for Reverse the Red Day" and the logos of Reverse the Red, IIUCN SSC Mushrooms, Brackets, and Puffballs Specialist Group. Global Center for Species Survival at the Indianapolis Zoo. IUCN SSC FUNCC. IUCN SSC Brazil Fungal Specialist Group.

I just saw this and am excited to share!

🍄 Reverse the Red Day 7 Feb.
"Fungal Conservation in the New Year: Species Discovery, Action, Policy, and a Global Strategy"

us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

a woman in a suit and tie has the words wait what written on her face ALT: a woman in a suit and tie has the words wait what written on her face

Two new 🔥pre-prints 🔥 TODAY by us & @pwoakes.bsky.social @myosincity.bsky.social
change the way we think about the septin cytoskeleton

Septins buffer mechanical stress on actin and membranes!

Septins are like intermediate filaments

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Membrane editing with proximity labeling reveals regulators of lipid homeostasis - Nature Chemical Biology Coupling an optogenetic lipid-modifying enzyme with proximity labeling reveals protein networks and mechanisms regulating lipid homeostasis in the membranes of target organelles.

Thrilled to share our latest study, led by @reikatei.bsky.social, in @natchembio.nature.com! We began by asking a simple question—how do cells know if they have too much of a lipid in a particular membrane, and how do they respond to rectify this imbalance?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
More info 👇

Left: Example images of colonies from gain-and-loss rate experiments after 12 days at 25°C. Cells derived from an aneuploid parent (top, green) and colonies derived from a euploid parent (bottom, magenta) each showing one progeny colony (indicated by an arrow) that converted in morphology bias. Bar indicates 10 mm. Conversion in morphology bias was used as a proxy for converting in ploidy. Right: Rapid gain and loss of Chr7 aneuploidy may increase phenotypic diversity. Summary scheme of the authors' data, suggesting that rapid gain and loss of the Chr7 aneuploidy may benefit Histoplasma by rapidly increasing phenotypic diversity, helping populations survive frequent and abrupt transitions between environment and host. Histoplasma grows as yeast in the mammalian body and in the laboratory when grown at 37°C, but as hyphae in the environment or in the laboratory when grown at 25°C. Cells with a second copy of chromosome 7 are biased towards hyphal growth and outcompete euploid cells in the yeast-to-hyphal transition (black arrows). Euploid cells (with one copy of each chromosome) are biased towards yeast growth and outcompete in the hyphal to yeast transition (black arrows). Cells frequently gain and lose a second copy of Chr7 (gray arrows). Cells with one copy of Chr7 have increased virulence in comparison to cells with two copies of the chromosome. Cells with two copies of Chr7 have a hyphal-biased transcriptome as do cells with increased copy number of HYF1, a TF on Chr7.

Thermally dimorphic #fungi like #Histoplasma switch between environmental filamentous & host-associated #yeast forms. This study shows that a rapidly reversible duplication of a #chromosome alters the efficiency of this switch, reducing virulence @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4qCC9Gf

Identifying Effective Cryoprotectant Agents for Emerging Bacterial Model Species Host-associated bacteria live amongst eukaryotes within varied niches and form relationships ranging from facultative to obligate. With advancement in studies of such symbiotic associations, fastidiou...

After years of struggling with how to cryopreserve one of our endosymbiotic bacteria, we found something that worked!
🦠☃️
We crowd-sourced suggestions and then @ruthwright.bsky.social tried the most common ones (like 🥛...). Want to do the same? Here is how we did it:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Enhancer-directed gene delivery for digit regeneration based on conserved epidermal factors Limb loss remains a significant clinical challenge, but regenerative medicine approaches such as gene therapy offer a promising strategy to trigger endogenous regeneration programs. Optimal vector con...

🚨 Preprint Friday! 🚨

Thrilled to highlight this collab with David Brown at Duke @cutitoutdave.bsky.social and Ken Poss at UW Madison/Morgridge @kenposs.bsky.social. By comparing 3(!!) regenerating models we identify a conserved role for Sp-family TFs in appendage regeneration (and more).....🧵

I am hiring a postdoc (or two!) to work on C. elegans reproductive system development. Our MIRA funds work on cell size, migration, and niche signaling. Our CAREER funds work on regulation of gonad growth, degrowth, and regeneration during and after starvation

unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/310...

Trump Administration Impacts on Early Career Scientists and How To Fight Back Scientific research drives national progress and innovation, and must be protected at all costs. Actions from the Trump administration in early 2025 sent shockwaves across academic research. Federal s...

Check out this piece from me, @abankston.bsky.social , @siararouzer.bsky.social, @kassstem.bsky.social , Crystal Hammond, & Amy Ralston!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#Archaea #ArchaeaSky #MicroSky

exceptional work, hiro & team 👏👏👏
it's wonderful to see 𝘓. 𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘮 dancing. live videos reveal so much more than stills!

ALT source: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🎓 GSMI 2025 Webinar on Navigating the STEM Interview Weekend⁠ ⁠

Hear from graduate students as they break down what to expect, how to prepare & navigate the experience with confidence.⁠ ⁠

🗓 When: December 8th at 4pm ET⁠
🔗 Register here: eventbrite.com/e/gra…

We are hiring!! Biological Sciences as UNC Charlotte has a broad search for a new assistant professor.
Apps reviewed 12/15.

Please spread the word! 💚⛏️
#PlantSci 🧪🦠🧬
jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/65141

Still posting cytoskeleton videos, it seems. Actin this time.

Sample: Lifeact-eGFP in HeLa cells.
Modality: Airyscan confocal

Timestamp is mm:ss and the scale bar is 5 µm.

MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Liverpool on Fin... PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Li...

🚨#PhD studentship opportunity! Plasmids provide bacteria with antimicrobial resistance, but do they have more fundamental effects on behaviour? 🧫🦠💫🧟‍♂️

Apply for a 4y funded MRC DiMeN position with me and Jamie Wheeler @livuni-ives.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments

Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments The emergence of eukaryotes from a merger between an archaeon and a bacterial cell ~two billion years ago involved a profound change in cellular organisation. While the order in which different featur...

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It's irritating that they describe the effects of his racism as limited to causing controversy within science and reputational consequences for himself rather than giving an immeasurable boost, false veneer of legitimacy, and idiot-friendly prestige to modern scientific racism and eugenics.

Exciting news! I have two positions open in my lab at the UoManchester: one PDRA and one Research Tech.
Join our team to study evolutionary mycology and help us understand antifungal resistance in fungal pathogens. A fantastic opportunity to join the brilliant Manchester Fungal Infection Group!

Being a leading edge fellow has been the single best thing for my scientific career.

Zara’s voice and vision was no small part in that.

Apply. Apply. Apply.

We are hiring!

Interested? Apply here: go.mbl.edu/AS1887

Day Two at #NDiSTEM2025 was packed with discovery + community! ✨ Plenary speakers, Expo, Posters, and Oral Presentations fueled the day, ending with the SACNAS Powwow. 🥁 Don’t miss the Pachanga today! 🎉
#STEMCommunity #SACNAS #STEM #STEMWorkforce #STEMLeadership
@kaliceaphd.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

job alert: UC Davis is looking to hire a 9 month tenure-track Assistant Professor of Mycology in the Department of Plant Pathology. More details below, for full consideration submit by 1 December 2025

recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07339