🇲🇽 • research scientist • plant microbiomes • soil virosphere • data viz

Joined February 2021
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Our most recent paper is out @NatureEcoEvo! We characterized the temporal dynamics of viral, bacterial, and relic DNA via a highly replicated microcosm setup: 4 grassland soils, 7 time points, 144 viromes, 84 metagenomes, and 84 16S rRNA gene profiles. rdcu.be/dnk6S
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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
First step in a community project to provide a uniformly assembled, annotated and searchable set of bacterial genomes, our preprint on our initial release of 1.9 million genome assemblies taxonomic estimates. (figure compares with previous 661k dataset) biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
This is *why* methods matter for #SoilHealth indicators: the 24 hr interval of the #HaneyTest represents an entirely different microbial community activity than at 72 or 96 hrs (as in the Cornell test).
Replying to @cmsantosm
Differences in the relative abundances of Actinobacteria (enriched in dry soils) and Proteobacteria (enriched in wetted soils) matched those of their predicted phages, indicating viral predation of dominant bacterial taxa.
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Soil viruses the minute the first seasonal rainfall hits the ground:

Replying to @cmsantosm
Despite vast compositional differences across soils, rewetting of dry soils consistently resulted in a bloom of viral diversity (up to a >30-fold increase in vOTU richness 24 h after wet-up!), followed by extreme turnover of viral populations.
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Our most recent paper is out @NatureEcoEvo! We characterized the temporal dynamics of viral, bacterial, and relic DNA via a highly replicated microcosm setup: 4 grassland soils, 7 time points, 144 viromes, 84 metagenomes, and 84 16S rRNA gene profiles. rdcu.be/dnk6S
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Rewetting also rapidly depleted relic DNA, which subsequently reaccumulated, indicating substantial new microbial mortality in the days after wet-up
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Thanks to @jemersonmicro and the rest of the team for all their support. Thanks also to @j_kosmopoulos and @KarthikGeomicro for this wonderful commentary: rdcu.be/dnkTp

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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
New paper alert!🌋🌊🧬🦠 I'm so excited to share our paper "Viruses interact with hosts that span distantly related microbial domains in dense hydrothermal mats" 1/ nature.com/articles/s41564-0…

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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
🚨Preprint alert! Excited to share our newest #preprint on #virus diversity and activity in high-altitude soils. A joint effort with @simroux_virus and @elbrodie’ Group 🙏. Check it out here: biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/…

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Happy to share a new preprint with @jemersonmicro. Viral communities with minimal compositional overlap display remarkably similar successional trends upon rewetting dry soils. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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This is a great opportunity for any microbial ecologist looking for a postdoc. Exciting research topic, phenomenal advisor, and great colleagues.
Our lab at UC Davis is looking for a soil viral ecology postdoc, but we can't formally advertise it yet, due to [recent successful negotiations that will absolutely be accounted for]. Avail. now, open to waiting for right candidate. More hopefully soon!
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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
Viruses are tiny, but play a big ecological role. Researchers @ucdavis, @ucmerced, @UCBerkeley & @Livermore_Lab monitored areas of grasslands, with some only getting 50% of average rainfall. They found the viruses reacted quickly to the drought conditions: ucdavis.edu/blog/grassland-s…
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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
Hot off the press! Latest work by @mia_s_lee characterizing active viruses of ammonia-oxidizing archaea in soil using a new twist on DNA-SIP 😀 doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-0… @SieraVirus @graemewnicol @CHazard99

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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
Viral communities across grasslands aren't uniform & understanding those dynamics could lead to better insight into how bacteria in soil will react to drought & climate changes, according to research from @jemersonmicro @cmsantosm published in @PNASNews caes.ucdavis.edu/news/grassl…
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Christian Santos-Medellín retweeted
What great timing for twooting about our new paper on soil viruses. I have elected to get some help from a mastodon and a bird. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.22… (1/7)
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Our most recent paper on the soil virosphere is just out. And today happens to be my favorite holiday: Día de los Muertos. So here’s a thread inspired by the calavera lithographs of the one and only José Guadalupe Posada. 📰: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.22…
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This enrichment of putative actinophages was potentially accompanied by increased lysis of Actinobacteria hosts as evidenced by a spike of extracellular (relic) DNA in low moisture samples.
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This work is part of the @doescience "Cross-Kingdom Interaction" project led by @Firestone_Lab. Thanks to all team members and, especially, to co-authors Rina, Maggie, @Jeffinerca, Mary, and @jemersonmicro
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