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Reposted by Gareth McVicker

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · Jul 11

Plasmids are small, mobile DNA elements that enable bacteria to exchange genetic material, including genes for antibiotic resistance.
We study these genetic vehicles with the aim to uncover how they facilitate the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

#AntibioticResistance

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Gareth McVicker @mcvickermicro.bsky.social · Jun 16

Thanks @fnobrega.bsky.social for an excellent first talk of talks at @mgeworkshop.bsky.social ... Very well-run event!

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Ben Vezina @bananabenana.bsky.social · Jun 15

Cool paper showing 🦠 recipient response to #plasmid conjugation

Capsule blocks conjugation, preventing MPF between donor:recipient. However, conjugation exploits recipient strain heterogeneity of capsule thickness, conjugating to cells with less capsule

#MicroSky 🧪

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

Fluorescent microscopy image of donor cells (shown in green) and recipient cells (shown in dark blue). Light blue cells are transconjugants. Transconjugants are only next to donor cells.

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Gareth McVicker @mcvickermicro.bsky.social · Jun 16

On our way to @mgeworkshop.bsky.social for @lotox.bsky.social to present later. Looking forward to some amazing talks! @arom-ntu.bsky.social #mgeworkshop

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aurelianachilengue.bsky.social @aurelianachilengue.bsky.social · Jun 11

I am Honoured to have received the 2nd Prize at NTU's ⭐️ STAR (Science & Tech Annual Research) Conference!
Special thanks to my supervisors @conmeehan.bsky.social @blackpassiflora.bsky.social and collaborators @danwhiley.bsky.social @Kate Cox for the incredible support.
@arom-ntu.bsky.social

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Charlotte L Oxley @lotox.bsky.social · Jun 7

Almost ready for #MGEworkshop - my first time presenting, not just at an event but 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 as I'm barely 9 months into my #PhD But I'm reminding myself of the words of my favourite fictional scientist #WalterBishop #Fringe #ADHD #WomeninSTEM #MolMicro

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Gareth McVicker @mcvickermicro.bsky.social · May 12

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in plasmid biology for a while. Excellent stuff.

David Sünderhauf @davvi36.bsky.social · May 12

I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv:

CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred

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

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pKJK5 vs RP4 cartoon sketch on plasmid competition

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David Sünderhauf @davvi36.bsky.social · May 12

I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv:

CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred

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

1/6 👇

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David Sünderhauf @davvi36.bsky.social · May 12

cool preprint from a few months back: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Really intriguing IS strategy to become fixed in plasmids, where the IS cuts up any plasmid that doesn't contain the insertion sequence

RNA-guided nucleases enable a gene drive of insertion sequences in plasmids

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and the interactions between them are a major source of evolutionary innovation. Insertion sequences, the simplest MGEs usually encoding only the necessary genes for tra...

www.biorxiv.org

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Gareth McVicker @mcvickermicro.bsky.social · May 12

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

New preprint on E. coli's intimin protein from Oslo, Tübingen & @arom-ntu.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org

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Charlotte L Oxley @lotox.bsky.social · May 1

🧬 Thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at the 3rd Annual MGE Workshop. If molecular mayhem is your jam, join me and explore "From Stability to Chaos: The Role of MGEs in an Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Outbreak”

#MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro
#FirstYearPhD

MGE Workshop

www.ukmgeworkshop.org

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Tatiana Dimitriu @tatianadimitriu.bsky.social · Mar 31

Preprint below has been a long time coming, here just in time for #microbio25 ! (if the train wifi lets me)
With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social
#MicroSky
🧵

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Mar 31

Stealth plasmids: rapid evolution of deleted plasmids can displace antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646151v1

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David Negus @davidnegus.bsky.social · Apr 25

🚨New publication🚨
We show that K. Pneumoniae bacteriophages can be incorporated into alginate to create an antibiofilm matrix effective against clinical K. pneumoniae strains
academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...

Bacteriophage-embedded and coated alginate layers inhibit biofilm formation by clinical strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae

AbstractAims. This study aimed to determine the antibiofilm properties of Klebsiella pneumoniae phages previously isolated from Thai hospital sewage water.

academic.oup.com

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João Botelho @joaoftsbotelho.bsky.social · Apr 24

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...

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. ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Chris Thomas @chrismthomas.bsky.social · Apr 4

The second great paper concerns the discovery in Eva Top's group that an enigmatic protein encoded by IncP-1beta plasmids modulates the IncP-1 circuitry in E. coli to make the plasmid a burden in this host: Elg et al recently accepted in Molecular Biology and Evolution doi.org/10.1093/molb...

pendingpublications

Pending Publication

doi.org

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Chris Thomas @chrismthomas.bsky.social · Apr 4

It is a privilege to be an author on two great plasmid papers already this year. The first was McLean et al in Nature Microbiology focused on KorB and the discovery that it is a CTPase by Yung Le's group at the John Innes Institute in Norwich. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

KorB switching from DNA-sliding clamp to repressor mediates long-range gene silencing in a multi-drug resistance plasmid - Nature Microbiology

Structural and single-molecule analyses show the CTPase, KorB, is a sliding DNA clamp that interacts with a clamp-locking protein KorA to inhibit gene expression over distances of more than 1 kb in th...

www.nature.com

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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · Apr 1

And in a clash, we have @c-cornbill.bsky.social from Warwick (supervisor @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social) talking about the variability in AMR evolution in different host mimicking media in the "AMR - Mechanism and Regulation" (2/5)

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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · Apr 1

And finally, last talk of the day is
... me! I'll be talking in the "Urogenetial Microbes in Health and Disease" at 17:00 where I will go through our preliminary project looking at where AMR genes/strains/species potentially come from during treatment (5/5) #microbio25.

Come see them all!!

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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · Apr 1

@danwhiley.bsky.social who will be speaking on Helicobacter suis in UK farmed pigs and retail meat products. Really interesting work! (15:30) (4/5)

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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · Apr 1

Then later this afternoon we have a double bill in the "Exploring Hidden Threats" session with Kate Cox (MBiol student with @conmeehan.bsky.social) talking about creating a molecular epi framework for M. Leprae (15:15) followed by.. (3/5)

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Conor (Conchúr) Meehan @conmeehan.bsky.social · Apr 1

Come see @aurelianachilengue.bsky.social speak about doing molly epi for M. tuberculosis without the need for a reference genome (e.g. H37Rv) this afternoon at poster 049! #microsoc25

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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · Apr 1

Today's the day for the majority of the @arom-ntu.bsky.social talks at #Microbio25. First up we have Chantelle Endley who will be talking about cell cycle control regulator cdc25 in yeast in the "Genetics and Genomics" forum (12:30). (1/5)

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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · Apr 1

We ALSO have multiple @arom-ntu.bsky.social posters today at #microbio25 ! (1/3)

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bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Mar 31

Stealth plasmids: rapid evolution of deleted plasmids can displace antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646151v1

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Antimicrobial Resistance, Omics & Microbiota (AROM) @ NTU @arom-ntu.bsky.social · Mar 28

Congratulations to PhD students Rachel and Lottie, and MRes student Martyna on their publication with @mcvickermicro.bsky.social! #microsky

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Genetic and phenotypic analysis of the virulence plasmid of a non-Shigatoxigenic enteroaggregative Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak strain

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli O104:H4 is best known for causing a worldwide outbreak in 2011 due to the acquisition of a Shiga-like toxin alongside traditional enteroaggregative virulence traits;...

www.microbiologyresearch.org

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