David Sünderhauf

Evolutionary rescue accelerates competitive exclusion in a parasite community Environmental stress drives biodiversity loss by altering competitive hierarchies and pushing taxa towards extinction. Parasites and their communities are particularly vulnerable to stress due to envi...

New pre-print: Eco-evolutionary responses of phage to different thermal regimes.

Great work led by Sam Greenrod and fun collaboration with Kayla King's lab.
1/2

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

😂😂

Googles AI summary: " "Death by conjugation" is not a literal term but likely refers to the repetitive, overwhelming process of conjugating verbs, particularly verbs that mean "to die""

I'm just trying to find a plasmid term and now Google's AI thinks I'm having a meltdown over grammar 😭

Searching for a PhD in Microbiology? 🦠
Prof Stineke van Houte& @davvi36.bsky.social are looking for a prospective PhD student to start in October 2026 who is excited about bacteria, how they interact, and how they exchange DNA with each other.
Deadline 20.10.25.
gw4biomed.ac.uk/developing-c...

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

Preprint: De-novo design of proteins that inhibit bacterial defenses

Our approach allows silencing defense systems of choice. We show how this approach enables programming of “untransformable” bacteria, and how it can enhance phage therapy applications

Congrats Jeremy Garb!
tinyurl.com/Syttt
🧵

PhD opportunity, please share:

We are looking for a prospective PhD student to start in October 2026 who is excited about bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae), how they interact, and how they exchange DNA.
All details can be found on the funder website 👉 gw4biomed.ac.uk/developing-c...

looks cool, congrats!

Genetic determinants of pOXA-48 plasmid maintenance and propagation in Escherichia coli - Nature Communications pOXA-48 plasmids have emerged as key vectors of carbapenem resistance within Enterobacteriaceae. In this study, the authors use a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) approach to identify genetic determinan...

Our paper “Genetic determinants of pOXA-48 plasmid maintenance and propagation in Escherichia coli” is now online in @natcomms.nature.com ✨
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@cnrs-rhoneauvergne.bsky.social @mmsb-lyon.bsky.social

#phagesky

I am looking for phages infecting Streptococcus pneumoniae to test a phenotype - does anyone have some and willing to share ?

Repost appreciated :)

super nice, looking forward to reading this! congrats all :)

Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a major threat to public health. Plasmids are mobile genetic elements that can rapidly spread across bacterial populations, promoting the dissemination of AMR genes i...

New paper out! 🔈🔈📣📣

Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation.

Combining experimental and computational approaches, we unveil how two of the most prevalent bacterial MGE accelerate the evolution of AMR. 🧵👇🏻

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

This looks super cool & clever, congrats!!

Ecology-based approach to predict no-effect antibiotic concentrations for minimizing environmental selection of resistance Abstract. Selection for antibiotic resistance has been demonstrated at low, environmentally relevant antibiotic concentrations. The concept of minimum sele

🧬💊Our new paper in @ismepublications.bsky.social🧬💊

"Ecology-based approach to predict no-effect antibiotic concentrations for minimizing environmental selection of resistance"

In collaboration with @umweltbundesamt.bsky.social

Read the thread below:

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

#AMR

1/9

Phage resistance research position with a fantastic supervisor 👇

Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139) | UiT The Arctic University of Norway Job title: Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139), Employer: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Deadline: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Congratulations, very happy for you 😁😁

Great, I'll gamble on the exchange rate and pay in EC dollar now 🏝💵 come onnnn November 🤞🏻

Brilliant idea!

Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1

Strategies for zygotic gene expression during plasmid establishment Conjugative plasmids are key drivers of horizontal gene transfer and the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Their successful establishment in new hos…

Plasmid leading regions & their contribution to plasmid establishment are all the rage in the plasmid world right now. This review summarizes why 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hopefully this link actually works:
sites.exeter.ac.uk/vanhoutelab/...

Conference flyer, all info is on link too

Please share! 🦠
Workshop on Phage Therapy in Liverpool on 25th November organised by Stineke van Houte, @jojofoth.bsky.social, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social, & Edze Westra.

Limited FREE tickets & more info here: sites.exeter.ac.uk/vanhoutelab/...

#MicroSky

Looks great, congrats all!

IS1216 drives the evolution of pRUM-like multidrug resistance plasmids in Enterococcus faecium pRUM-like plasmids are commonly found in multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecium , but the evolution of these plasmids has not been characterised in detail. When we analysed the genome sequences of t...

New manuscript from the group

'IS1216 drives the evolution of pRUM-like multidrug resistance plasmids in Enterococcus faecium'

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

/1

Congratulations, this looks great! I'll send you an email re antibiotic resistance genes moving onto the chromosome.

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...

Scaling laws of bacterial and archaeal plasmids - Nature Communications The capacity of a plasmid to express genes is constrained by parameters such as its length and copy number. Here, Maddamsetti et al. present a computational method that enables rapid and accurate dete...

Scaling laws of bacterial and archaeal plasmids www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Congrats on getting this out! I loved hearing about this at ISPB & enjoyed the preprint 😊

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...

Curious about plasmid biology? Our latest paper is out now in Nature Communications! 🚨

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

We analyzed thousands of diverse bacterial plasmids to shed light for the first time on a key aspect of plasmid biology: plasmid copy number. 1/7 👇

UK to expand nuclear deterrent with US fighter jets capable of carrying warheads Starmer to unveil purchase of 12 F-35A jets that can deliver tactical nuclear weapons, which may be kept at RAF bases

An absolutely horrible idea to store nuclear bombs in the UK which belong to a country that looks far too close to a proto-fascist regime for comfort

UK to expand nuclear deterrent with US fighter jets capable of carrying warheads www.theguardian.com/politics/202...