Ana Elena Pérez-Cobas

Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...

Do plasmids really move around that much? Well, maybe not always

Thrilled to have contributed to this story with two of my favourite microbiologists: @jrpenades.bsky.social & @sanmillan.bsky.social

This great work was led by Akshay Sabnis & @wfigueroac3.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

22.10.2025 17:47 — 👍 36    🔁 16    💬 1    📌 0

Bravooo!!! 🙌👌🥳

20.08.2025 14:52 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Dissecting pOXA-48 fitness effects in clinical Enterobacterales using plasmid-wide CRISPRi screens Nature Communications - This study investigates the effects of the carbapenem resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in clinical enterobacteria. Using CRISPRi screens, the authors revealed that the...

This work is finally published! 🥳🧬
Plasmids are associated with very variable fitness costs in their different bacterial hosts. But, what is the contribution of each of the plasmid-genes in these host-specific effects? Study led by
@jorgesastred.bsky.social, @sanmillan.bsky.social and myself! 1/14

20.08.2025 13:25 — 👍 82    🔁 41    💬 6    📌 5

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...

13.08.2025 06:25 — 👍 49    🔁 29    💬 2    📌 5

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)

22.07.2025 15:05 — 👍 71    🔁 39    💬 2    📌 2

Enhorabuena!!! 🎉

23.07.2025 07:40 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

The must-read of this Summer! 🤩 Congrats to all the authors for this beautiful work 🥳

22.07.2025 10:28 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

People from the lab killing it

At the Duomo with friends

Super proud of the lab for their outstanding presentations at #FEMS2025 in Milano!

Science is better when you work with such a stellar team!🚀✨

@femsmicro.org

17.07.2025 20:21 — 👍 23    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

Proud of the talk of Iván Linares at the #FEMS2025 on hospital-associated microbiomes and its role on pathogens persistance 🦠 @femsmicro.org

17.07.2025 15:56 — 👍 10    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0

Congratulations to @cbuch.bsky.social on the FEMS-Lwoff Award!!! Well-deserved ❤️#FEMS2025

15.07.2025 09:51 — 👍 7    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

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...

02.07.2025 11:08 — 👍 181    🔁 84    💬 4    📌 4

Waaaao! Amazing work! Congratulations to the team ❤️. We have to celebrate soon! 🍾

09.05.2025 09:31 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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 ...

🧪
Finally out after peer review, our work showing that "Mobile #Integrons carry Phage Defense Systems" is now published in Science 🎉

Short 🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

08.05.2025 20:27 — 👍 137    🔁 80    💬 15    📌 4

The Respiratory Tract Microbiome and Human Health The respiratory tract microbiome (RTM) trains the immune system and protects against infections. Changes in the RTM are linked to various respiratory diseases. High-throughput methodologies and compu...

New mini-review on the respiratory microbiome and its contribution to human health from biotechnology 🫁🦠
@tmcoque.bsky.social @microbiotech.bsky.social
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

29.04.2025 15:33 — 👍 8    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

New preprint from the lab!! Check it out!

24.01.2025 12:49 — 👍 25    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 0

Delighted to have contributed to this fascinating paper led by Prof. Timmis on how helpful microbes can be for humanity at different scales! "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves". -John Connor (Terminator)
@microbiotech.bsky.social

24.01.2025 10:57 — 👍 8    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0