Kazuaki Amikura

Bacterial GTPases act as successive placeholders to mediate ribosome assembly and its coupling to translation initiation
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Group I introns in tRNA genes of Patescibacteria | mSystems Introns were traditionally thought to be rare in bacteria, yet their occurrence and diversity may have been underestimated. Here, we present the first comprehensive overview of group I and group II in...

Pleased to share our new paper. Group I introns uniquely accumulate in Patescibacteria (formerly CPR bacteria), are inserted at an unusual tRNA position (35/36), and belong to a distinct intron class. Congratulations, Yuna! mSystems journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

"Use it or lose it." This is great advice for exercise, but when cells need to slow down or go dormant, they need to store ribosomes to recover growth in the future. They use hibernation factors to do this. Here is our latest story on how archaea hibernate ribosomes (1/7):
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Enhanced tRNA array method version 2 for simultaneous in vitro synthesis of 21 tRNAs https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.697847v1

Impact of acetate on CO2 fixation pathways in thermophilic and hydrogenotrophic bacteria Abstract. The bacterial-type Wood-Ljungdahl (WL) pathway and reductive tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle are the dominant chemolithotrophic CO2 fixation path

Impact of acetate on CO2 fixation pathways in thermophilic and hydrogenotrophic bacteria url: academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

#Ribosome #hibernation 🧪

This is a conceptual illustration of our study. Ribosome biogenesis (depicted as building a house) has long been thought to require several essential factors (a saw, hammer, and wrench). However, CPR bacteria were found to lack these factors in various combinations.

Our paper is out! Analysis of 30K+ genomes revealed that CPR bacteria assemble their ribosomes in unconventional ways, and that these assembly processes appear to have co-evolved with ribosome structure. doi.org/10.1093/molb... #Ribosome #Evolution #Patescibacteria #MBE

The evolution lifecycle of ribosome hibernation factors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.04.686544v1

Our new preprint is now available! We found a new Group I intron insertion site in tRNA genes of Patescibacteria. These tRNAs were missed by standard tRNA annotation tools. #microbiology #tRNA #Patescibacteria

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors - Nature Microbiology Phylogenetic reconstructions with conserved protein markers from the 11 known DPANN phyla reveal their monophyletic placement within the Euryarchaeota.

🎉 Now out “Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free‑living euryarchaeal‑like ancestors” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Here, we show that bacterial ribosomes—often viewed as conserved drug targets—actually vary across species due to extensive sequence variation in their drug-binding residues. In some cases, this divergence may lead to intrinsic drug resistance in certain bacterial clades: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Microbe with bizarrely tiny genome may be evolving into a virus With DNA focused almost entirely on replication, newly discovered organism blurs the line between cells and viruses

"With an apparent inability to live outside its host, and with a genome less than half the size of the previously smallest archaeon genome, Sukunaarchaeum is unlike any other archaeon known." ➡️ www.science.org/content/arti... #MicroSky #Archaea

Structurally heterogeneous ribosomes cooperate in protein synthesis in bacterial cells - Nature Communications Cells can simultaneously produce structurally dissimilar ribosomes, suggesting functional specialization of distinct ribosome populations. Here, the authors show that distinct ribosomes cooperate rath...

Here we unexpectedly find that the ribosomal protein S20/L26—identified at the dawn of ribosome research but later deemed a biochemical artifact—is indeed a genuine component of the large ribosomal subunit. More on this ribosome content variation is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The binding of RbgA to a critical 50S assembly intermediate facilitates YphC function in bacterial ribosomal assembly Abstract. The intricate process of 50S ribosomal subunit assembly in Bacillus subtilis involves multiple parallel pathways converging into a crucial interm

The binding of RbgA to a critical 50S assembly intermediate facilitates YphC function in bacterial ribosomal assembly
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Evolutionary flexibility of ribosome biogenesis in bacteria www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Our preprint is now available!🎊🚀

Ribosome biogenesis in CPR bacteria was unexpectedly flexible, challenging traditional view of this essential process in evolution.

#Ribosome #CPR #Evolution