Alberto Scarampi

Polyploid cyanobacterial genomes provide a reservoir of mutations, allowing rapid evolution of herbicide resistance Adaptive mechanisms in bacteria, which are widely assumed to be haploid or partially diploid, are thought to rely on the emergence of spontaneous muta…

Polyploid cyanobacterial genomes provide a reservoir of mutations, allowing rapid evolution of herbicide resistance www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Was great to be part of this study headed up by @scaralbi.bsky.social. We are very excited by the finding that chromosomal polyploidy could be an important driver in the #evolution of #cyanobacteria and other prokaryotes. 🧬🦠

Actually without herbicide, resistant strains are less fit than wild-types, so the rare variant seems to be a disadvantage. Hence our suggestion that “balancing selection” mechanisms may keep it at low frequency for rapid adaptation to changing environments!

Very well done to @scaralbi.bsky.social (Howe Group) on being runner-up for the @cambridgeuni.bsky.social 2024 H E Woodman prize for the best PhD thesis in genetics or biochemistry related to food or agriculture: www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/news/prize-a...

Thanks for putting it simply! That's correct and most interestingly the "rare gene" (or rather a rare variant of a gene) was already present in "normal cyanobacteria", just at a low frequency (they have multiple genome copies)...So they are keeping a backup of rare variants for times of crisis!

In the pools of Éire’s shore, the green ones sing

Role of Cyanobacteria in the assembly and dynamics of microbial communities on glacier surfaces Glacier surface habitats are dynamic ecosystems that respond to local climatic and thermal changes, although the assembly mechanisms of microbial comm…

Role of Cyanobacteria in the assembly and dynamics of microbial communities on glacier surfaces www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Algal biomusic generation Technologies which can generate music with limited human intervention are a longstanding area of investigation for musicians and musicologists, with particular interest in how these technologies ca...

Here's something a little different to our usual research for my inaugral Bluesky Post. In our new perspective out now in Applied Phycology, we describe how you can use the electrical signals of algae to generate music 🦠⚡️🎵. 🧵1/12

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Thanks to @cenmag.bsky.social for this great article about our efforts to create music with algae 🎶🦠