Category Archives: paper out!

Paper Out: Prokaryote genome fluidity is dependent on effective population size

Posted on April 6, 2017 by

Last year, I had the pleasure to host (now Dr.) Nadia Andreani from the University of Padua in Italy for a six-month visit in 2015. She did lab work on blue, food-spoiling Pseudomonas but we also did a population genomics … Continue reading →

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Paper Out: The Ecological Role of Volatile and Soluble Secondary Metabolites Produced by Soil Bacteria

Posted on January 4, 2017 by

First of all a very happy 2017 to all readers. It will be my new year’s resolution to update the blog more frequently (for instance, I have not blogged about really interesting visits to Prof Haiwei Luo in Hong Kong, … Continue reading →

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Paper out: No effect of natural transformation on the evolution of resistance to bacteriophages in the Acinetobacter baylyi model system

Posted on November 21, 2016 by

A long time coming, but the results obtained in NERC-funded research on evolutionary benefits (or lack thereof) of bacterial transformation have now been published. The work was carried out mainly by research tech Amy McLeman, who has since started her … Continue reading →

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Paper out: A barrier to homologous recombination between sympatric strains of the cooperative soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus

Posted on April 21, 2016 by

Just out in the ISME journal, a paper on my favourite bacterium, Myxococcus xanthus. I did my PhD with Greg Velicer on this fascinating species which builds beautiful multicellular fruiting bodies that can be seen with the naked eye (click … Continue reading →

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paper out: Adaptation in Natural Microbial Populations

Posted on December 29, 2015 by

A review paper by Britt Koskella (now at Berkeley) and myself recently came out ‘adaptation in natural populations’; I have lazily copied the Abstract below: Although their diversity greatly exceeds that of plants and animals, microbial organisms have historically received … Continue reading →

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Rates of lateral gene transfer: high but why?

Posted on October 11, 2015 by

I just had a paper out which was an enlightening experience to write. Along with three Dutch co-authors, it was mainly a collaboration with Adam Eyre-Walker at Sussex (see this previous post). The manuscript morphed from a data paper into … Continue reading →

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Antibiotic resistance risk for coastal water users

Posted on April 2, 2015 by

Recreational users of coastal waters such as swimmers and surfers are at risk of exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria, according to a new study  by Anne Leonard, Lihong Zhang, Andrew Balfour, Ruth Garside and Will Gaze published this week. We … Continue reading →

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