Mobile genetic elements (MGEs), including plasmids and viruses, drive microbial evolution and ecosystem dynamics, yet their distribution, host range, and functions remain poorly understood, especially...

Conjugative plasmids play an important role in the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes among pathogenic bacteria. This study shows that AMR loss in evolving populations is associated with t...

A model of intrahost poliovirus replication shows that, after several rounds of replication, pocapavir, a poliovirus capsid inhibitor, collapses viral density, preventing intracellular interactions th...

Antibiotic combination therapy has a critical role in limiting emergent antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens. Collateral sensitivity (CS), resistance to one antibiotic that is inextricable from sensitivity to another antibiotic, presents an opportunity for combinations explicitly selecting against resistance. Complementing efforts to select against resistance, differential genetic vulnerability mapping unravels dependencies unique for resistant strains. In this review, we discuss the potential implications of CS and genetic vulnerability data for the design of bespoke antibiotic combinations, drug discovery, and tracking evolution of resistant strains.

Temperate phages integrate multiple information sources to regulate lysis-lysogeny transitions. SPBeta-like phages use arbitrium signalling and DNA damage to control repressor activity during lytic in...

From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Bacterial immune systems have evolved in response to diverse molecular "parasites", yet their ecological roles remain poorly understood. This Essay explores how interactions between mobile genetic ele...

PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Li...

An extension of ggplot2 for creating complex genomic maps. It builds on the power of ggplot2 and tidyverse adding new ggplot2-style geoms & positions and dplyr-style verbs to manipulate the…

Abstract. Plasmids are important drivers of evolutionary transformations and ecological adaptation in prokaryotes. Plasmids supplying the host with benefic

Author summary Escherichia coli demonstrates a remarkable ability to adapt to diverse environments. This adaptability is in part connected to its ability to recombine incoming DNA in its chromosome, a...