Microbial Ecology in Brum

by John Howard and Zongting Cai

John: Members of the Pandhal Lab recently attended the Molecular Microbial Ecology Group Meeting (MMEG) 2025 at the University of Birmingham to share their own research and see what’s going on in the rest of the UK applied microbiology community.

Zongting presented a talk on some of the strategies the lab uses to engineer algal-bacterial consortia for various engineering purpose, while I (John) presented a poster on microfluidic screening techniques for consortia as well as bacterial strains isolated from a former coal mine, and Luke presented a poster on alpine glacier algae, their effect on glacial melting and what meta-omics can tell us about it.

From the various other talks/posters we picked up some interesting points including: strains capable of biodegrading naphthenic acids; the strange things that anammox and dirammox bacteria do in the nitrogen cycle; carbon monoxide cycling in the phyllosphere (a plant’s above-ground microbiome); the mysterious world of cyanobacteria phages and their proteomes; and how the microbiome of oak trees responding to the environment can prevent or allow in acute oak decline.

I also realised I need to dream bigger when it comes to field sampling locations. St Helena looked a lot nicer than a coal mine halfway between Doncaster and Scunthorpe…

We also had some productive chats whilst networking, including about potential future collaborations, fuelled by pizza and a very well-stocked brewery taproom! It was a bit of a race back from Birmingham, but we made it to our lab Christmas meal just about on time and reported back on some of the bits and pieces we’d seen at the conference.

Thanks to Prof James McDonald and the rest of the organising committee for planning everything and keeping it running so smoothly. I think this year has left us all very excited for next year’s MMEG, which is being hosted right here in Sheffield by Dr Ian Lidbury.

Zongting: I arrived in Birmingham on a rainy, dull, UK morning, like a single confused bacterium dropped into a lukewarm, undefined mixed culture. No talks yet, just coffee, pastries and awkward start-up chat. Everyone drifting around the lobby felt like a big top-down mixed community: lots of species, no clear structure, unclear who’s actually functional.

As the day went on, the system slowly fractionated. Talks sharpened the gradients: algae people here, plant people there, droplets, omics, and a strong ecology vibe scattered in between. My own message: 1,159 defined consortia of Nannochloropsis and bacteria in salty leachate, chlorophyll as survival readout, and a thin tail of combinations that actually help instead of just occupying space.

The evening felt like a smaller consortium: chatting with just a few people, with much less noise. Add new substrates (wine, pizza etc.) and a few previously neutral interactions quietly became synergistic. When my social battery went flat, the occasional cigar vibe kicked in and quietly rescued the last valid interactions of the night.

For me , it is...

...which is a slightly over-mathematical way to say ‘enough skill in the room, a few good people to share ideas with, and a few cigar moments with the right spike at the right time’.