Excited to share that @michelle-hauer.bsky.social's paper with @katiekliermicrobe.bsky.social @maggielangwig.bsky.social @karthik-a.bsky.social on phage interactions with chemosynthetic symbionts was published today. #NSF and @schmidtocean.bsky.social supported. academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
Phage-microbe interactions may contribute to the population structure and dynamics of hydrothermal vent symbionts
Abstract. Deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems are sustained by chemoautotrophic bacteria that symbiotically provide organic matter to their animal hosts
academic.oup.com
February 3, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Excited to share that @michelle-hauer.bsky.social's paper with @katiekliermicrobe.bsky.social @maggielangwig.bsky.social @karthik-a.bsky.social on phage interactions with chemosynthetic symbionts was published today. #NSF and @schmidtocean.bsky.social supported. academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
It was a great pleasure to contribute to this work by Jemma Fendley, @mmolari.bsky.social, and Boris Shraiman on pan-genomes, linkage, and recombination in phage genomes.
We analyzed data collected by the fantastic SEA-PHAGES program in phagesdb.org.
[1/6]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We analyzed data collected by the fantastic SEA-PHAGES program in phagesdb.org.
[1/6]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The Actinobacteriophage Database | Home
phagesdb.org
August 23, 2025 at 4:21 PM
It was a great pleasure to contribute to this work by Jemma Fendley, @mmolari.bsky.social, and Boris Shraiman on pan-genomes, linkage, and recombination in phage genomes.
We analyzed data collected by the fantastic SEA-PHAGES program in phagesdb.org.
[1/6]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We analyzed data collected by the fantastic SEA-PHAGES program in phagesdb.org.
[1/6]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Similar experience with phage genomes we submitted through the SEA-PHAGES program… :(
July 6, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Similar experience with phage genomes we submitted through the SEA-PHAGES program… :(
AMR is a growing global threat to health care, economy and development, making many antibiotics ineffective. Read Live Science's 2024 highlights, from a new drug targeting Acinetobacter baumannii to deep-sea antibiotic discoveries and innovative phage therapy.
www.livescience.com/health/virus...
www.livescience.com/health/virus...
10 'superbug' stories from 2024, from bacterial 'Kryptonite' to deep-sea antibiotics
Antibiotic and antifungal drug resistance pose a major public health threat. Live Science is covering the spread of this problem and the potential solutions that are emerging in turn.
www.livescience.com
December 29, 2024 at 1:35 PM
AMR is a growing global threat to health care, economy and development, making many antibiotics ineffective. Read Live Science's 2024 highlights, from a new drug targeting Acinetobacter baumannii to deep-sea antibiotic discoveries and innovative phage therapy.
www.livescience.com/health/virus...
www.livescience.com/health/virus...
The bacteria can benefit from supporting their 'local pirate virus' because it can disarm invading phages, but also because the pirate virus brings in new mechanisms for antibiotic resistance (AMR).
Ready the grappling hooks, you PICI sea dogs! We have a virus genome to steal!
Ready the grappling hooks, you PICI sea dogs! We have a virus genome to steal!
Tail-Swapping "Pirate" Phages Expose New Route for AMR
Phage tail piracy is a cross-species gene-transfer path that spreads AMR and creates new targets for antimicrobial therapies.
www.genengnews.com
September 19, 2026 at 2:13 PM
The bacteria can benefit from supporting their 'local pirate virus' because it can disarm invading phages, but also because the pirate virus brings in new mechanisms for antibiotic resistance (AMR).
Ready the grappling hooks, you PICI sea dogs! We have a virus genome to steal!
Ready the grappling hooks, you PICI sea dogs! We have a virus genome to steal!
Mya Breitbart, faculty at the Univ of South Florida using genomics to study marine critters from viruses through charismatic megafauna! Current projects: fish egg DNA barcoding, sea urchin disease, harmful algal blooms, seagrass viruses, marine phage, water quality. Passionate about outreach #USFCMS
June 9, 2024 at 3:54 AM
Mya Breitbart, faculty at the Univ of South Florida using genomics to study marine critters from viruses through charismatic megafauna! Current projects: fish egg DNA barcoding, sea urchin disease, harmful algal blooms, seagrass viruses, marine phage, water quality. Passionate about outreach #USFCMS
Day 13, Loss 3/4. One of the phages finds a host, while the other losses out and perishes... #Drawtober #PhageSky #SciArt
October 13, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Day 13, Loss 3/4. One of the phages finds a host, while the other losses out and perishes... #Drawtober #PhageSky #SciArt
Here's an estimate:
1,000,000,000,000,000 (1E15) phages in the human gut
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
About 100X the number of bacteria.
🎵 There's a phage on the microbe on the epithelium in your gut at the bottom of the sea, of the sea. 🎶
1,000,000,000,000,000 (1E15) phages in the human gut
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
About 100X the number of bacteria.
🎵 There's a phage on the microbe on the epithelium in your gut at the bottom of the sea, of the sea. 🎶
November 2, 2023 at 8:36 PM
Here's an estimate:
1,000,000,000,000,000 (1E15) phages in the human gut
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
About 100X the number of bacteria.
🎵 There's a phage on the microbe on the epithelium in your gut at the bottom of the sea, of the sea. 🎶
1,000,000,000,000,000 (1E15) phages in the human gut
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
About 100X the number of bacteria.
🎵 There's a phage on the microbe on the epithelium in your gut at the bottom of the sea, of the sea. 🎶
Deep-sea menage à trois? A sponge, an archaeon, and a bacterium rely on carbon & vitamin B12 exchange — until a virus crashes the party! Discover how ammonia-oxidation and viral lysis drive this unique #symbiosis! doi.org/10.1093/isme... #Metagenomics 🧪
#Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky
#Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky
Simple Porifera holobiont reveals complex interactions between the host, an archaeon, a bacterium, and a phage
Abstract. The basal metazoan phylum Porifera (sponges) is increasingly used as a model to investigate ecological and evolutionary features of microbe–anima
doi.org
November 21, 2024 at 8:09 PM
Deep-sea menage à trois? A sponge, an archaeon, and a bacterium rely on carbon & vitamin B12 exchange — until a virus crashes the party! Discover how ammonia-oxidation and viral lysis drive this unique #symbiosis! doi.org/10.1093/isme... #Metagenomics 🧪
#Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky
#Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky
🦠Join the legendary @viromegirl.bsky.social lab
Jobs in marine micro, virology & genomics
💻 Viral 'omics in seagrass
🧬 Marine microbial & bioinformatics
🧫 Vibrio phage + iron biogeochemistry
🎓 sea urchin–ciliate diseases
👉 www.marine.usf.edu/genomics/app...
#MarineVirology #Phagesky #Microbiome
Jobs in marine micro, virology & genomics
💻 Viral 'omics in seagrass
🧬 Marine microbial & bioinformatics
🧫 Vibrio phage + iron biogeochemistry
🎓 sea urchin–ciliate diseases
👉 www.marine.usf.edu/genomics/app...
#MarineVirology #Phagesky #Microbiome
Welcome to the Breitbart Lab - Genomics
We are modern virus hunters, using metagenomic sequencing to discover viruses in a wide range of environments and hosts. Have fun exploring the marvels of microbiology on this website!
marine.usf.edu
October 12, 2025 at 1:39 AM
🦠Join the legendary @viromegirl.bsky.social lab
Jobs in marine micro, virology & genomics
💻 Viral 'omics in seagrass
🧬 Marine microbial & bioinformatics
🧫 Vibrio phage + iron biogeochemistry
🎓 sea urchin–ciliate diseases
👉 www.marine.usf.edu/genomics/app...
#MarineVirology #Phagesky #Microbiome
Jobs in marine micro, virology & genomics
💻 Viral 'omics in seagrass
🧬 Marine microbial & bioinformatics
🧫 Vibrio phage + iron biogeochemistry
🎓 sea urchin–ciliate diseases
👉 www.marine.usf.edu/genomics/app...
#MarineVirology #Phagesky #Microbiome
Amidst all the bad news, I still want to share two new preprints from our lab group. The first is led by newly minted Dr. Michelle Hauer, in collaboration with @karthik-a.bsky.social @katiekliermicrobe.bsky.social and @maggielangwig.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Phage interactions may contribute to the population structure and dynamics of hydrothermal vent microbial symbionts
Deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems are sustained by chemoautotrophic bacteria that symbiotically provide organic matter to their animal hosts through the oxidation of chemical reductants in vent fl...
www.biorxiv.org
March 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Amidst all the bad news, I still want to share two new preprints from our lab group. The first is led by newly minted Dr. Michelle Hauer, in collaboration with @karthik-a.bsky.social @katiekliermicrobe.bsky.social and @maggielangwig.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How can bacteriophages help us decode viral diversity and fight antibiotic-resistant infections? In a new QnAs, Graham F. Hatfull explores phage “dark matter,” the impact of SEA-PHAGES, and advancing engineered phages into the clinic. Learn more: https://ow.ly/FZPQ50XIwS9
December 13, 2025 at 12:00 AM
How can bacteriophages help us decode viral diversity and fight antibiotic-resistant infections? In a new QnAs, Graham F. Hatfull explores phage “dark matter,” the impact of SEA-PHAGES, and advancing engineered phages into the clinic. Learn more: https://ow.ly/FZPQ50XIwS9
Because of course buffer is the right control for an experiment to test whether purified samples of deep sea phage are a specific risk for “dysbiosis”, as opposed to oh I dunno. How about purified samples of phage from the mouse gut?
July 12, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Because of course buffer is the right control for an experiment to test whether purified samples of deep sea phage are a specific risk for “dysbiosis”, as opposed to oh I dunno. How about purified samples of phage from the mouse gut?
Thank you so much!
I'll start a thread from here.
#MicroSky #PhageSky
So we have this very cool educational program at UMBC called Phage Hunters, which is part of the SEA-PHAGES program, where undergrads isolate phages from the soil and learn to do some microbio and bioinfo analyses on them. [1/n]
I'll start a thread from here.
#MicroSky #PhageSky
So we have this very cool educational program at UMBC called Phage Hunters, which is part of the SEA-PHAGES program, where undergrads isolate phages from the soil and learn to do some microbio and bioinfo analyses on them. [1/n]
November 12, 2023 at 4:53 AM
Had a great time attending @hhmi-science.bsky.social #SEA-Phage workshop last week! 6-days of mini science camp learning about #phages #plaques and #TEM, meeting new and old #STEMEducation faces 🧬🔬🧫 Looking forward to implementing all this with our students in the Fall!
June 23, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Had a great time attending @hhmi-science.bsky.social #SEA-Phage workshop last week! 6-days of mini science camp learning about #phages #plaques and #TEM, meeting new and old #STEMEducation faces 🧬🔬🧫 Looking forward to implementing all this with our students in the Fall!
The NW Persian (Arabian) Gulf is a hypersaline negative estuary that harbors a vast galaxy of cyanophage and pelagiphage evolutionary groups that are highly uneven in abundance (www.int-res.com/articles/ame...). The remarkable diversity of phage genotypes in the sea continues to impress.
February 11, 2025 at 8:52 AM
The NW Persian (Arabian) Gulf is a hypersaline negative estuary that harbors a vast galaxy of cyanophage and pelagiphage evolutionary groups that are highly uneven in abundance (www.int-res.com/articles/ame...). The remarkable diversity of phage genotypes in the sea continues to impress.
So cool and fantastic this came out of the SEA-PHAGE program.
March 31, 2024 at 3:26 AM
So cool and fantastic this came out of the SEA-PHAGE program.
🌊🧪🦑
"Given that all five animals are classified as Endangered or Vulnerable & play a vital role in the ecology of hydrothermal vents, understanding the factors influencing the success & connectivity of their symbionts is crucial for conservation & management"
academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
"Given that all five animals are classified as Endangered or Vulnerable & play a vital role in the ecology of hydrothermal vents, understanding the factors influencing the success & connectivity of their symbionts is crucial for conservation & management"
academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
Phage-microbe interactions may contribute to the population structure and dynamics of hydrothermal vent symbionts
Abstract. Deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems are sustained by chemoautotrophic bacteria that symbiotically provide organic matter to their animal hosts
academic.oup.com
April 1, 2026 at 12:20 PM
🌊🧪🦑
"Given that all five animals are classified as Endangered or Vulnerable & play a vital role in the ecology of hydrothermal vents, understanding the factors influencing the success & connectivity of their symbionts is crucial for conservation & management"
academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
"Given that all five animals are classified as Endangered or Vulnerable & play a vital role in the ecology of hydrothermal vents, understanding the factors influencing the success & connectivity of their symbionts is crucial for conservation & management"
academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...
Seriously though… some great posters including from labs collaborating with seaphages.org
I asked one student working on JC polyomavirus what year of grad school she was in and she told me (very politely) that she was a sophomore in college
It’s the nicest version of “Ok boomer” I have gotten.
I asked one student working on JC polyomavirus what year of grad school she was in and she told me (very politely) that she was a sophomore in college
It’s the nicest version of “Ok boomer” I have gotten.
SEA-PHAGES | Home
The official website for HHMI and the University of Pittsburgh's Science Education Alliance program: Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science.
seaphages.org
April 25, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Seriously though… some great posters including from labs collaborating with seaphages.org
I asked one student working on JC polyomavirus what year of grad school she was in and she told me (very politely) that she was a sophomore in college
It’s the nicest version of “Ok boomer” I have gotten.
I asked one student working on JC polyomavirus what year of grad school she was in and she told me (very politely) that she was a sophomore in college
It’s the nicest version of “Ok boomer” I have gotten.
Had a blast at Hillsborough Community College’s SEA-PHAGES symposium today! The students gave excellent poster presentations and I had so many fun interactions. Such a great program! #phagesky
November 17, 2023 at 2:30 AM
Had a blast at Hillsborough Community College’s SEA-PHAGES symposium today! The students gave excellent poster presentations and I had so many fun interactions. Such a great program! #phagesky
In deep-sea hydrothermal vents, viruses are helping bacteria swap genes, but they're also sneaking around packaging extra DNA into their particles. A new study found that plasmids (tiny DNA elements) hijack viruses to spread around. This gene-sharing trick could be crucial for survival in such ex...
Molecular piracy in deep-sea hydrothermal vent: phage-plasmid interactions revealed by phage-FISH in Marinitoga piezophila.
Published in Applied and environmental microbiology
doi.org
March 24, 2025 at 1:00 AM
In deep-sea hydrothermal vents, viruses are helping bacteria swap genes, but they're also sneaking around packaging extra DNA into their particles. A new study found that plasmids (tiny DNA elements) hijack viruses to spread around. This gene-sharing trick could be crucial for survival in such ex...
What I've read says the way to minimize decay of phage stocks is to -80 freeze phage-infected host cells in 25% glycerol. That isn't much help since you can't induce infection at sea, but suggests you'll recover phages that were mid-infection at high rates from frozen glycerol stocks
February 15, 2024 at 2:43 AM
What I've read says the way to minimize decay of phage stocks is to -80 freeze phage-infected host cells in 25% glycerol. That isn't much help since you can't induce infection at sea, but suggests you'll recover phages that were mid-infection at high rates from frozen glycerol stocks
A deep-sea bacteriophage boosts its Pseudomonas host's ability to break down chitin, helping them thrive under extreme conditions in the Kermadec Trench. This phage-host teamwork highlights how bacteria adapt to diverse environments, revealing a new angle on ocean floor nutrient cycling.
Prophage-encoded chitinase gene supports growth of its bacterial host isolated from deep-sea sediments.
Published in The ISME journal
doi.org
January 21, 2025 at 8:00 AM
A deep-sea bacteriophage boosts its Pseudomonas host's ability to break down chitin, helping them thrive under extreme conditions in the Kermadec Trench. This phage-host teamwork highlights how bacteria adapt to diverse environments, revealing a new angle on ocean floor nutrient cycling.