Anna Dewar

Amazing, congratulations Tabea!! 🥳

Come and work with us! Three new academic posts (including Animal Behaviour) and superb facilities in the new Life & Mind Building

Thanks Ashleigh! 😊

Evidence that lifestyle drives genome fluidity from @annadewar.bsky.social today. Keeping everyone going on last day of @eseb2025.bsky.social! Great talk Anna!

Such a nice summary, thanks Jesse!! Hope we cross paths soon :)

I'm super bummed to be missing #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social due to a cancelled flight! Here's a quick overview of my talk "Gene- and genome-focused perspectives on microbial pangenomes" slated to be part of The Evolution of Microbial Pangenomes -- which I recommend you attend tomorrow (Fri) !
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OrthoFinder just dropped a major update

It’s faster, more accurate, and ready for thousands of genomes

Let’s break it down (1/10)

github.com/OrthoFinder/...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Get OrthoFinder here github.com/OrthoFinder/...

Read the preprint here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Millions of species here we come!

(10/10)

Chromosomal capture of beneficial genes drives plasmids toward ecological redundancy Abstract. Plasmids are a ubiquitous feature of bacterial genomes, but the forces driving genes and phenotypes to become associated with plasmids are poorly

New paper with @rwheatley8.bsky.social and Cedric Lood

Actual title: Chromosomal capture of beneficial genes drives plasmids towards ecological redundancy.

Sensationalist title: Plasmids carry useless genes

academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...

Haha sounds good! Thanks for your interest in our work 😊

It's just that the transfer of plasmids doesn't seem to appreciably facilitate the invasion and maintenance of cooperation in bacteria. 2/2

Antibiotic resistance mechanisms are sometimes cooperative, but often they're not. So our work only applies to those with a cooperative resistance mechanism.

Just to be clear, plasmids are important for transferring lots of useful genes, including antibiotic resistance, among bacteria. 1/2

Plasmids do not consistently stabilize cooperation across bacteria but may promote broad pathogen host-range - Nature Ecology & Evolution Horizontal gene transfer could stabilize cooperation in bacteria because plasmids could promote the transfer of genes encoding public goods. However, the authors use comparative analysis and theoretic...

Hi! Here's a couple of additional papers we've published on this question:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
& doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Together they provide pretty good evidence, using genomic analyses and theory, that plasmid transfer doesn't really impact the evolution of cooperation in bacteria.

Anna Dewar @annadewar.bsky.social asks what types of genes get horizontally transferred in bacteria 🦠🧬➡️🧬🦠

Contrary to previous thinking, plasmids didn't carry more cooperation genes than the core genome.

#Evol2025 #Evol25

@annadewar.bsky.social now giving the fourth @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Scientist Award lectures at #Evol2025 about bacterial pangenomes, cooperation, and gene transfer

Delighted to see this paper from danderson123.bsky.social 's PhD out. We have been building tools for AMR gene detection for over a decade now, but multicopy genes remain challenging. Dan shows that with a gene-space de Bruijn graph and long reads, you can do well
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Abstract deadline for @eseb2025.bsky.social extended to 5 May! Still time to submit your abstract for the evolution of microbial pangenomes ⬇️

If you are interested in microbial #pangenomes, join us at @eseb2025.bsky.social in Barcelona with @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social and @annadewar.bsky.social
Only two days left to submit your abstract!
eseb2025.com/call-for-abs...

Interested in the evolution of microbial pangenomes?

Submit your abstract for #ESEB2025 to Symposium 45! Deadline is 25th April.

Hope to see lots of you in Barcelona this summer! 🧬🦠☀️

Join our symposium The evolution of microbial pangenomes at @eseb2025.bsky.social with @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social and @annadewar.bsky.social (co-organized with @fbaumdicker.bsky.social and Jaime Iranzo) eseb2025.com/call-for-abs...

Headshot of Dr Anna Dewar

Huge congratulations to @annadewar.bsky.social on winning an Early Career Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists! @asn-amnat.bsky.social

Anna is a Career Development Research Fellow at St John's, working on bacterial genome evolution. 🦠🧬

Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Oxford Discover Postdoctoral Research Associate jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

TWO postdoc positions in Computational Microbiology and/or biochemistry. Join our interdisciplinary group in the new Life and Mind Building @OxfordBiology, @UniofOxford, @IneosOxford
Please apply and share this post:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMP641/p...

Signatures of kin selection in a natural population of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis Abstract. Laboratory experiments have suggested that bacteria perform a range of cooperative behaviors, which are favored because they are directed toward

Hi just saw this!
Some of our papers on similar stuff:
doi.org/10.1093/evle... &
doi.org/10.1099/mgen...

Interested in using genomics to study bacterial cooperation?

We’ve got 2 brilliant posters at #Microbio25 today: Zohar Katz (A276) and Rosie Randall (A098).

Go say hi to them! 🦠 🧬

Definitely check out Rosie's poster at #Microbio25!

Particularly anyone interested in using genomics to study cooperation & antibiotic resistance in bacteria 🦠🧬

Thanks Asher!

And a special thank you to the amazing scientists who inspired me to be an evolutionary biologist, and have provided such brilliant support and mentorship along the way! @stuwest.bsky.social @asgriffin.bsky.social @queensoxbiology.bsky.social

Really honoured to be among the recipients of the ASN Early Career Investigator Award!

Thank you so much @asn-amnat.bsky.social!

Professor Stuart West

The ASN Distinguished Achievement in the Conceptual Unification of the Biological Sciences is for a senior (but still active) investigator who has made major contributions that relate to the goals of ASN. This year’s awardee is Stuart West (Oxford) www.biology.ox.ac.uk/people/stuar...
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Thank you Ashleigh!! 😊