João Botelho

Kiwa is a membrane-embedded defense supercomplex activated at phage attachment sites Zhang, Todeschini, and Wu et al. show that the bacterial defense system Kiwa senses phage attachment at the membrane and assembles a transmembrane complex that halts infection by blocking phage DNA re...

Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Huge congratulations to Yi and Zhiying for bringing it home, to Thomas for starting us off, and to all the collaborators.

Unwelcome guests: characterizing the ecological niche of insertion sequences within prokaryotic genomes Insertion sequences (ISs) are widespread prokaryotic transposable elements, often regarded as genomic parasites that primarily cause deleterious mutations. However, they can also promote adaptive chan...

The preprint of my first article is available on bioRxiv! We use a transposon ecology framework to analyze the distribution of insertion sequences within prokaryotic genomes. We characterize their ecological niche and show evidence of niche construction 🧪🧬💻

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fold first, ask later: structure-informed function annotation of Pseudomonas phage proteins Phages, the viruses of bacteria, harbor an incredibly diverse repertoire of proteins capable of manipulating their bacterial hosts, inspiring many medical and biotechnological applications. However, t...

Fold first, ask later: structure-informed function annotation of Pseudomonas phage proteins

Structural predictions to improve #phage genome annotation!

@hannelorelongin.bsky.social @gbouras13.bsky.social y.social @susiegriggo.bsky.social @veravannoort.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.

We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

graphical abstract of the article the extended mobility of plasmids

Here's our new broad review on the extended mobility of plasmids, about all mechanisms driving and limiting their transfer. From conjugation to conduction, phage-plasmids to hitchers, molecular to evolutionary dynamics, ecology to biotech. The state of affairs. 1/9 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

And the story is published now!🍾
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Open access link: rdcu.be/exnOc

Many years in the making, great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social & @tunglejic.bsky.social

Thanks @ukri.org BBSRC & @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding, reviewers & editor!! 🙏
#microsky #archaeasky

Universal rules govern plasmid copy number - Nature Communications Plasmids exhibit a broad range of sizes and copies per cell, and these two parameters appear to be negatively correlated. Here, Ramiro-Martínez et al. analyse the copy number of thousands of diverse b...

🚨🚨New paper out in @natcomms.nature.com!!

Come for the first large-scale analysis of plasmid copy number across species,
stay for one of the most intriguing results of my lab: universal scaling laws in plasmid biology! 📈🧬

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Reminder! You have just over two weeks to submit an abstract, if you want to present at the @microbiologysociety.org meeting "Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics" in Liverpool in November! #microsky 🦠🧫🔬

It was a great conference! Thanks Franklin, Esme, Michelle, Daniela and all involved. Hope to see you next year 😀

Thank you to everyone who attended the 3rd UK MGE workshop. What an incredible few days of science and community building! Next stop: York 2026, hosted by @pcmfogg.bsky.social. See you all next year! #UKMGE

It was great to see @charlotteechong.bsky.social presenting this work at the Annual conference!

Defence systems drive accessory genome interactions in Pseudomonas aeruginosa As well as undergoing mutational selection, bacterial genomes are shaped by a complex evolutionary interplay among diverse accessory genome elements (AGEs). In this study we define AGEs as encompassin...

Defence Systems are so hot right now 🔥 🔥 🔥 so check out our latest preprint to see how DSes contribute to niche adaptation, interact with each other, and drive accessory genome interactions in Pseudomonas aeruginosa 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We still have space for additional attendees, and we encourage you to share this invitation within your networks so others can benefit from the fantastic panel we have assembled for this edition. Better program than your favourite paid conference - just saying 😉

The program for the 3rd MGE Workshop is now live! Check out this year's speakers using the link below.

The deadline for registration closes on Friday 30th May ⏰

We look forward to seeing you all in Southampton in a few weeks time!

#MGE #MGEWorkshop #Southampton

www.ukmgeworkshop.org

One week to register your talk! We have 20 confirmed speakers but still have room for a few more. Why attend? Excellent panel of colleagues participating, talent recruiting event (see website) at no cost! Sharing appreciated

When things add up: environmental structure and microbial interactions drive antibiotic-resistance plasmid evolution Antimicrobial resistance is recognized as a major global health threat. Pathogens can rapidly evolve resistance which diminishes the impact of antimicrobial treatments. The presence of other microbes ...

When things add up: environmental structure and microbial interactions drive antibiotic-resistance plasmid evolution.

New paper from the lab, and the third chapter of Lars Zandbergen’s thesis!

www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Come join us in Southampton! You need to register to participate (free registration!). To give everyone an opportunity to showcase their science, we extended the deadline for title submission to May 16. Share widely!

Join the Blokesch lab (@EPFL) as a postdoc in Molecular Microbiology 🤩
Study Vibrio cholerae defense systems (phage/plasmid) in a dynamic, collaborative environment in Lausanne close to Lake Geneva in 🇨🇭!
Please visit my lab's webpage for details about the position and how to formally apply.

Conjugative transfer inhibition of IncA and IncC plasmids by pervasive SGI1-like elements via relaxosome assembly interference Broad-host-range IncA and IncC conjugative plasmids propagate multidrug resistance in bacteria and mobilize chromosomal resistance islands, including Salmonella Genomic Island 1 (SGI1) across genera. ...

It's incredible that a resistance integrative and mobilizable element can spread while also holding back their helper plasmids with such a clever trick!

From @vincentburrus.bsky.social lab

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Redefining paradigms in the archaeal virus-host arms race Archaeal antiviral defense systems remain poorly characterized despite recent advances in understanding prokaryotic immunity. Here, we analyze 7,747 archaeal genomes, the largest and most diverse data...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New postdoc position in our lab (2 y+): evolutionary genomics of integrons and MGEs with focus on vibrio-phage interactions. Great environment @pasteur.fr for science, career building. Super collaborators @celineloot.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @fredoleroux.bsky.social 3 weeks to apply!

Thanks! We were lucky to have amazing speakers!

Looks like an exciting project, Alasdair! Too bad we didn't meet

New preprint alert! 🧫

Proud to share Aditi Batra's (former colleague at @schulenburglab.bsky.social) work on #AMR evolution in polymicrobial infections. We found that strain variation & bacterial interactions significantly influence how P. aeruginosa populations respond to antibiotics.

#MicroSky

Wow, two amazing preprints in the same week! Well done Tatiana!

I was happy to play a small part in the preprint below, led by Liam Shaw, and which started as a group project in the EMBO workshop in Trieste back in 2023, organised by @alicele.bsky.social and @zaminiqbal.bsky.social

It was nice to finally meet you David!

And other amazing speakers from our session, such as @annaolina.bsky.social Tim Blower and others not (yet) on #MicroSky

It was great to attend @microbiologysociety.org #Microbio25 and hear the fantastic talks by @gemmaatkinson.bsky.social @epcrocha.bsky.social @tatianadimitriu.bsky.social @davvi36.bsky.social @willpjsmith.bsky.social @charlotteechong.bsky.social @jbbruce.bsky.social Giuseppina Mariano & Matt Craske!

Ah great to see you'll be there as well! I'll arrive on the 2nd April 👌