Samay Pande
banner
iamsamayp.bsky.social
Samay Pande
@iamsamayp.bsky.social
Microbial ecology and evolution. Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.
https://www.redqueenlab.com/
Pinned
New paper out in @pubs.acs.org Analytical Chemistry!
We show that Raman spectroscopy can identify biochemical signatures of spores in Myxococcus xanthus, and that these signatures can predict germination efficiency across natural isolates.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Raman Spectral Predictors of Spore Germination Efficiency in Natural Isolates of Myxococcus xanthus
Due to the prevalence and importance of dormant microbial forms in regulating microbial ecosystems, the generation of dormant structures, like spores, has been extensively studied. However, several aspects of the exit of bacterial spores from dormancy, i.e., the germination of spores, remain relatively unclear. Since the biology of cells before transitioning into spores and the biology of the spores themselves could potentially influence the germination process, we used Myxococcus xanthus as a model organism to demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy can be used to characterize the factors that affect the ability of individual cells and spores to sporulate and germinate, respectively. M. xanthus is a Gram-negative soil bacterium that forms spore-filled multicellular fruiting bodies upon starvation. Single-cell Raman spectral profiling revealed lower Raman peak intensities of nucleic acids as a marker for the beginning of sporulation. Moreover, Raman profiles of sporulating cells of M. xanthus demonstrated that the lipid peaks increased during the initial sporulation phase before decreasing during the late sporulation phase. We also observed higher carotenoid peaks in spores than in cells, which might explain the reason for spores being more tolerant to oxidative stress than the cells. Significantly, the trends in Raman bands of nucleic acids and proteins observed in the lab strain were also observed in the natural isolates. Furthermore, partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis of peak intensities of the most significantly affected chemical groups demonstrated a strong correlation between Raman spectra and germination efficiencies of spores, suggesting that such spectral markers are potential indicators of the germination efficiency of the spore population.
pubs.acs.org
Reposted by Samay Pande
📢 Postdoc position: Cell Biology of Cyanobacteria

in my group, as part of the Excellence Cluster "Microbes for Climate" (M4C) in Marburg, Germany.

More information at shorturl.at/wNnDT (see Project 2)

🔗Apply at shorturl.at/VsEDl
📅Deadline: Nov 16, 2025

Please repost. #Postdoc
November 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Samay Pande
New pre-print: Plasmid dependent phage effectively eliminate AMR bacteria and block plasmid transmission in the chicken gut microbiome

Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester)
#phagesky#microsky

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Plasmid dependent phage eliminate pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance plasmids from the chicken gut microbiome
Conjugative plasmids are a key reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in commensal and pathogenic bacteria within the gut microbiome. Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are a promising therapeutic op...
www.biorxiv.org
October 27, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Learn how Bacillus siderophore benefit various plant species and the role of the biofilm matrix: our collaboration with Zhihui Xu's group published in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social

Siderophore-mediated iron enrichment in the biofilm matrix enhances plant iron nutrition

www.cell.com/cell-reports...
October 28, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Who would have thought: nitrogen-fixing vibrios 😱 that interact with Pokkali rice roots and promote plant growth in brackish water. Amazing! Wonderful to see this detailed and careful investigation out for all to oogle. Many congratulations Ramesh 🎉

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org
October 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Intrinsic resistance pathways & #ResistanceBreaking. Study shows that inhibiting efflux pumps & cell envelope biogenesis sensitizes #bacteria to #antibiotics, but rapid evolutionary recovery may limit long-term effectiveness of resistance-breaking strategies #AMR @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4huAtvo
October 23, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Multiple small, curved, predatory bacteria (Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus) lyse the bacterial prey remnants below. How are they doing this & which predator proteins are involved in this process?

See our newly released research article 📑
=> rdcu.be/eL6gu

🦠 #microsky #bacteria #PredatoryBacteria
October 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Samay Pande
New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social
Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!!
With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
www.cell.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Evolution of One Species Increases Resistance to Invasion in a Simple Synthetic Community

Microbial Ecology

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Evolution of One Species Increases Resistance to Invasion in a Simple Synthetic Community - Microbial Ecology
The species that make up a microbial community determine its potential function. A major goal of microbial ecology is to make assemblages of microbes — synthetic communities — with targeted applicatio...
link.springer.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
A fun little side project I've been working on with @stepadenisov.bsky.social , Mato Lagator, and Andreas Wagner: "Strong promoters are mutationally robust". Briefly...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Strong promoters are mutationally robust
Mutational robustness is the persistence of a phenotype upon mutation. It facilitates molecular evolution and has been characterized in a variety of biological systems, but studies of prokaryotic prom...
www.biorxiv.org
October 21, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social

A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:

Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.

Please RT

Deadline: 12.11.25

More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
October 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM
New paper out in @pubs.acs.org Analytical Chemistry!
We show that Raman spectroscopy can identify biochemical signatures of spores in Myxococcus xanthus, and that these signatures can predict germination efficiency across natural isolates.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Raman Spectral Predictors of Spore Germination Efficiency in Natural Isolates of Myxococcus xanthus
Due to the prevalence and importance of dormant microbial forms in regulating microbial ecosystems, the generation of dormant structures, like spores, has been extensively studied. However, several aspects of the exit of bacterial spores from dormancy, i.e., the germination of spores, remain relatively unclear. Since the biology of cells before transitioning into spores and the biology of the spores themselves could potentially influence the germination process, we used Myxococcus xanthus as a model organism to demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy can be used to characterize the factors that affect the ability of individual cells and spores to sporulate and germinate, respectively. M. xanthus is a Gram-negative soil bacterium that forms spore-filled multicellular fruiting bodies upon starvation. Single-cell Raman spectral profiling revealed lower Raman peak intensities of nucleic acids as a marker for the beginning of sporulation. Moreover, Raman profiles of sporulating cells of M. xanthus demonstrated that the lipid peaks increased during the initial sporulation phase before decreasing during the late sporulation phase. We also observed higher carotenoid peaks in spores than in cells, which might explain the reason for spores being more tolerant to oxidative stress than the cells. Significantly, the trends in Raman bands of nucleic acids and proteins observed in the lab strain were also observed in the natural isolates. Furthermore, partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis of peak intensities of the most significantly affected chemical groups demonstrated a strong correlation between Raman spectra and germination efficiencies of spores, suggesting that such spectral markers are potential indicators of the germination efficiency of the spore population.
pubs.acs.org
September 3, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Not many positions offer this rare combination: exciting research questions, a highly supportive work atmosphere, and an exceptional mentor
@KostChristian
. If you’re in theoretical biology and want to collaborate closely with experimentalists, this is it!
I am excited to announce that the position of a senior postdoc (3 +3 years) in the field of theoretical biology is available in my group.

The position provides the opportunity to closely interact with experimentalists and develop own research projects.

Please RT.

Details 👇:
shorturl.at/iiiOv
116 FB 5 Research Assistant (m/f/d) field of Theoretical Ecology and Evolution or Computational Biology: Uni Osnabrück
shorturl.at
August 11, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours.

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

#MicroSKy #Microbiology
Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities
In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...
www.science.org
June 13, 2025 at 5:39 AM
New paper alert!
We show that adaptation to the bacterial predator Myxococcus xanthus shapes how prey bacteria like E. coli evolve antibiotic resistance.
Now online at NPJ Antimicrobials and Resistance !!
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Coevolutionary history of predation constrains the evolvability of antibiotic resistance in prey bacteria - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance
npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Coevolutionary history of predation constrains the evolvability of antibiotic resistance in prey bacteria
www.nature.com
June 4, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Fun to see our recent study featured in The Microbiologist.
A short news article highlights our work on how predatory bacteria can drive antibiotic resistance—even in pristine soils, without antibiotics.
www.the-microbiologist.com/news/antimic...
Antimicrobial resistance in soil bacteria without the use of antibiotics
Overuse of antibiotics is currently the primary reason for the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but researchers have shown that AMR can be found in soil bacterial communities due to microbial i...
www.the-microbiologist.com
May 1, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
1/ 🧬 New Research Alert! Discover how the actin-like protein MreB influences bacterial cell shape and fitness in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25. #Microbiology #BacterialShape
April 2, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
You want to learn about microbiology from a fantastic lineup of speakers on a beautiful Greek island? PhD students apply now for the @EMBO | @FEBSnews Lecture Course The New Microbiology!
Registration: 1 Apr 2025
Course: 03 – 11 Sep 2025 | Spetses, Greece
meetings.embo.org/event/25-new...
December 16, 2024 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Post doc in Europe? 🇪🇺🔬💡
It’s open to anyone in the 🌍
Call open 9 April 25
marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/post...
Postdoctoral Fellowships
The information provided on this page is a summary of the main rules and requirements for Postdoctoral Fellowships (PFs) and who can apply for them.
marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu
March 9, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment - Nature
In the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment, diploid yeast evolve to be tetraploid under selection for larger multicellular size, revealing how whole-genome duplication can arise due to its...
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Samay Pande
New paper out in ISME Journal. Social interactions between strains shape bacterial communities. However, their impact on community functioning is lower compared to basic strain identity features. @joskramer.bsky.social @alexfig.bsky.social @simonmarech.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
Strain identity effects contribute more to Pseudomonas community functioning than strain interactions
Abstract. Microbial communities can shape key ecological services, but the determinants of their functioning often remain little understood. While traditio
academic.oup.com
February 12, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Two (!) perspective pieces published today involving people from our lab! @adelpanta.bsky.social on spatial patterning in microbial communities www.nature.com/articles/s41... and @salazarafra.bsky.social on microbial communities as evolutionary individuals www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities - npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities
www.nature.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Nice to see how this project developed through the years & published in @currentbiology.bsky.social by Saheli Saha et al from @iamsamayp.bsky.social group 👏

Mass lysis of predatory bacteria drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Mass lysis of predatory bacteria drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities
Saha et al. show that the predatory bacterium M. xanthus enriches the frequency of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in soil communities. This occurs because starvation-induced mass lysis of M. xanthus ce...
www.cell.com
February 21, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
Delighted to share my first PhD paper and also the first paper from the lab !!! 🎉🔬🧬🧫
We show that predatory bacteria, M. xanthus can play an important role in the maintenance of AMR even in the absence of anthropogenic influx of antibiotics in the environment.
Read this awesome thread to know more
February 21, 2025 at 9:58 AM
New paper alert!!
Survival of the resistant: When Myxococcus xanthus dies, antibiotic-resistant microbes rise, even without drug exposure.
Our manuscript is now online at @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Mass lysis of predatory bacteria drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities
Numerous studies have investigated the effects of antibiotics on the evolution and maintenance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, the impact …
www.sciencedirect.com
February 21, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Samay Pande
What determines the spatial structure of microbial communities? In our new review we discuss the factors and feedbacks that affect spatial patterning and methods to study them. Great collaboration w. @saramitri.bsky.social @adelpanta.bsky.social & @micsysecolab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415... 🦠
February 20, 2025 at 3:00 PM