Alberto HCA

1/16 New pre-print from the Sternberg Lab!
We uncover how temperate phages can use RNA-guided transcription factors to remodel the flagellar composition of their bacterial host and enhance their fitness.
Find the preprint and full story here: tinyurl.com/mshwjd77

Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬?

In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments!

👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread!

Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)

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/...

Experimental evolution in an era of molecular manipulation - Nature Reviews Genetics In this Review, Ascensao and Desai discuss how methodological advances in genotype and phenotype manipulation are transforming experimental evolution approaches and providing new insights into the und...

Experimental evolution in an era of molecular manipulation
#ExperimentalEvolution #evolution #evoSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great work from great people! Congrats @cserna.bsky.social 🤟🏻

Functional amyloid proteins confer defence against predatory bacteria Nature - Escherichia coli uses curli fibres, oligomers of the functional amyloid CsgA, as a barrier to protect against the predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Myxococcus xanthus in a...

Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.

Great work!!!! Universal congratulations to all the team!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🦠 Nuestro #articulodelmes habla sobre cómo los integrones móviles codifican sistemas de defensa contra fagos de la mano del grupo investigador liderado por el Dr. José Antonio Escudero

📄https://f.mtr.cool/qxwueostwp

Gracias pablo!!! ☺️

Super honored to get the Best PhD Thesis award from @sebbm.bsky.social 🎓✨ Big thanks to everyone who supported me along the way. Huge congrats to all the other amazing winners too! 🙌

Flagellar motility and the mucus environment influence aggregation-mediated antibiotic tolerance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in chronic lung infection | mBio Antibiotic treatment failure of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is a key driver of mortality in muco-obstructive airway diseases (MADs). The bacterial mechanisms that contribute to antibiotic toleran...

For our first post on Bluesky, we're excited to share our recent work published in mBio @asm.org! Led by PhD student @madeofmicrobes.bsky.social, we show that flagellar motility and interactions with the mucus environment influence Pseudomonas antibiotic tolerance.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that capture, stockpile, and modulate the expression of genes encoded in integron cassettes. Mobile integrons (MIs) are borne on plasmids, acting as a vehicle ...

🧫🦠🔬🧬 @science.org Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@jaescudero.bsky.social @albertohca.bsky.social et al.
#microbiology #phage #immunity #phagesky #MicroSky

What a milestone!!! I’m really glad I got to add my two cents to the growing knowledge about integrons — this paper is totally worth checking out!

Effect of oxygen on antimicrobial resistance genes from a one health perspective Bacteria must face and adapt to a variety of physicochemical conditions in the environment and during infection. A key condition is the concentration …

Can resistance genes really hold their breath like pros? 🤔🤿

Outstanding work by Laura, Amalia, Nico and Ester from @jaescudero.bsky.social lab in collab with @sanmillan.bsky.social, Fernando Baquero and Rafael Cantón.

Dive into our latest paper to find out! 👇🏼
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Excited to share the first preprint from my lab, collaborating with the fantastic @sanmillan.bsky.social 's lab, led by the amazing Jorge Sastre. We've demonstrated how insertion sequences encoded in plasmids promote bacterial adaptation. This project has been incredibly fun!

Figure 2. Co-occurrence and negative association among defense systems in E. coli

Really like this paper from @fnobrega.bsky.social and co - some defense systems statistically co-occur with each other across genomes and correspondingly show synergistic effects in vitro

Bacterial defense systems exhibit synergistic anti-phage activity
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🎨

Identification of promoter activity in gene-less cassettes from Vibrionaceae superintegrons Abstract. Integrons are genetic platforms that acquire new genes encoded in integron cassettes (ICs), building arrays of adaptive functions. ICs generally encod

And its out! New paper for #integron aficionados. We found gene-less cassettes in superintegrons that express/silence other cassettes in the array. Here is a 🧵(if I know how to do this in Bluesky...😆)
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Integron cassettes integrate into bacterial genomes via widespread non-classical attG sites - Nature... Computational analyses and molecular genetics reveal that integron cassettes integrate into bacterial genomes at widespread non-classical attG sites, enabling acquisition of genetic material and disru...

Integron cassettes integrate into bacterial genomes via widespread non-classical attG sites www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Scientists hail new antibiotic that can kill drug-resistant bacteria Zosurabalpin has defeated strains of pneumonia and sepsis in mice, raising hopes for human trials

Scientists hail new #antibiotic that can kill drug-resistant bacteria - & including quotes from the awesome @bugsinblood.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/science/2024... & Original research paper here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A colorized image of the MiniFlayer satellite virus latched onto its helper MindFlayer. Image by Tagide de Carvalho. Source: https://umbc.edu/stories/first-observed-virus-attaching-to-another/

Pictures Considered #62 : A New Twist on Satellite Phages
by Roberto  
In the phage universe, there are many examples of so-called satellite phages (or satellite phage-like elements) whose propagation depends on helper phages. Outside the...
Read more > tinyurl.com/38sj78fs
#MicroSky #phagesky

Can we predict AMR evolution?? We sure can try! New study published today in PNAS
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This week we had our annual meeting for the JPIAMR project MOB-TARGET. Two days of great scientific exchange and lots of fun at the Residencia de Estudiantes-CSIC in Madrid @craigmaclean.bsky.social @brockhurstlab.bsky.social @jaescudero.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social