Mart Krupovic

Our work on bacterial Schlafens in phage defense is out today @natmicrobiol.nature.com!

Check out the final version here:
rdcu.be/e7Bmz

We are looking for postdocs and students to expand our team! Official postings are coming soon.

Please reach out if you're interested!
#phage #phagesky #microsky

Ribosome Molecular Aging Shapes Translation Dynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Big update for #gbdraw!
- Multi-record circular plots: Genomes with multiple replicons can now be displayed in a single view!
- Advanced linear plots: Focus on regions of interest with granular control over feature selection and color-coding!
Try now: gbdraw.app #microbiology #bioinformatics

Very very cool! Congrats, Karim!

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse Hepatitis D-like satellite viruses, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expr…

We found a viral Trojan Horse: a virus can hide inside another virus.This one surprised us: deltaviruses don’t just borrow a helper virus. They can travel inside it.
A literal Trojan Horse “virus-in-a-virus” route into cells. 🤯 Kudos to 1st author @viroscope.bsky.social and co-authors !

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you!
1/n

Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration!

Linking below previous thread on our findings

Hopefully, you informed them and now they know. :-)

Diversity and ecological roles of hidden viral players in groundwater microbiomes - Nature Communications Groundwater viruses are less well studied. Here, using large-scale sequencing, the authors uncover extensive, largely uncharacterized viral diversity in groundwater, showing that viruses infect domina...

New paper from @adjiep.bsky.social on viral impacts in groundwater at Nature Comms. Congratulations Adjie and team!

Read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#viruses #viromics #groundwater

Interstep compatibility of a model for the prebiotic synthesis of RNA consistent with Hadean natural history | PNAS Models for prebiotic syntheses often have many steps, each separately validated by laboratory experiments. The challenge then asks whether these st...

RNA from scratch.. 💫 Interstep compatibility of a model for the prebiotic synthesis of RNA consistent with Hadean natural history | PNAS
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

In our latest work, we characterise the Tmn defence system. We reveal plasmolysis as a new way to block phage infection, dramatically reducing secondary infections.

Thanks!

The selfish ribosome The ribosome is responsible for protein synthesis in all cells, and is the largest energy consumer in the cell. We propose that the ribosome originated as a mutualistic symbiont of an RNA-dependent RN...

Ribosome centric perspective on the evolution of life. @mkrupovic.bsky.social and Eugene Koonin arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).

A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

SNIPE is a widespread bacterial defence system that exploits the spatial organization of phage genome injection to specifically target viral DNA, distinguishing self from non-self in prokaryotic immune systems @nature.com @mitpress.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Happy by a recent biorxiv pre-print about DARNA (PD-T7-3) anti-phage defense system. This system is activated by binding to ssDNA, presented by phage SSB, to cleave tRNA in the anti-codon loop.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Diversity and distribution of bacterial DNA polymerases Abstract. DNA polymerases are key players in DNA replication, repair, and maintenance. However, the overall abundance, diversity, and distribution of bacte

Check out largest scale analysis of bacterial DNA polymerases! Diversity and distribution of bacterial DNA polymerases url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Very cool work led by @diorgeps.bsky.social from the labs of @archaeon-alex.bsky.social & Joey Davis (MIT)!

They solved the Haloferax volcanii ribosome and characterize AHA, a conserved archaeal hibernation factor.

With several recent related preprints, it’s an exciting moment for the field!

Phage–host interactions are a key driver of microbial ecology, but observing them in nature is hard!
With metaHi-C, we detect freshwater phage–host pairs and link their infection dynamics to evolution.

Together with @nadal-molero.bsky.social & Ana Martin-Cuadrado

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

RNA splicing generates a functionally specialized Rep protein isoform in geminiviruses — enabling timely control of the viral cycle. Strikingly, similar strategies might have evolved in DNA viruses infecting different kingdoms: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Spearheaded by @delphinem-p.bsky.social!

Virus classification and nomenclature: getting it right | Journal of Virology We respectfully suggest that, as a leading journal, the editors of the Journal of Virology should support the work of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) by using accurate virus ...

Virus classification and nomenclature: getting it right journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Congratulations to Sonomi Yamaguchi for her paper at @nature.com. Sonomi discovered Clover defense and explained how nucleotide signals control each step of viral sensing, immune regulation, and viral restriction – named for her beautiful "four-leaf" structures 🍀

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Koonin's lab in NIH is looking for postdocs. If you know someone who is interested, please spread the word. The details about the position are below: www.training.nih.gov/jobs/pdf-ecb...

Congrats, well deserved!

Image of a herpesvirus structure

I am excited to share our latest preprint - An evolutionarily divergent herpesvirus with a giant tail. Featuring symmetry breaking and genome annotation from structure using ModelAngelo. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Everyone knows that space and spatial structure is super important in shaping the Microverse 🌎🌍🌏 Check out this amazing review where @marcelbaecker.bsky.social and @bramvandijk.bsky.social et al bring together a huge body of knowledge @microverse.bsky.social @binfutrecht.bsky.social

The visualization of two bacterial genomes, of 50 and 52kb, representing independent instances of extreme genomic reduction in ancient heritable endosymbionts of planthoppers.

Our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com is now online-early!

We describe independent evolution of bacterial genomes of only ~50–52 kb — the smallest known outside cellular organelles — revealing striking convergence toward minimal gene sets.

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Phosphorylation of the α subunit inhibits proteasome assembly and regulates cell cycle in an archaeon Archaea of the order Sulfolobales possess a eukaryote-like cell division machinery and display a eukaryote-like cell cycle; however, the cell division…

Phosphorylation of the α subunit inhibits proteasome assembly and regulates cell cycle in an archaeon www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #jcampubs

Substrate specificity and action mechanism of the HerA-NurA nuclease from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis | mBio To understand the specific function of the HerA-NurA complex, which is believed to function in the end resection process to create a 3′-overhanging DNA for the following strand invasion in homologous ...

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...