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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Jason Yang @jasonyanglab.org · 8d

Very happy to share some more good news. Our collaboration with Jeffrey Boyd's lab is now published at J Inorganic Biochemistry! Here, Jeff found that iron limitation reprograms S. aureus metabolism towards fermentation. We're grateful to be part of this study.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fermentative growth decreases the iron demand of Staphylococcus aureus

Iron (Fe) is an essential nutrient for S. aureus survivability and pathogenesis, but excess Fe can catalyze the formation of toxic oxygen radicals, em…

www.sciencedirect.com

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · 9d

Our work deciphering the substrate preferences of a di-/tripeptide transporter from S. aureus is now available as a proof at @plos.org Pathogens! Big thanks to the reviewers and to all the brilliant co-authors, particularly Callum who helped get those last few crucial experiments across the line

Defined roles for the Staphylococcus aureus POT transporter DtpT in di/tripeptide uptake and glutathione utilisation inside human macrophages

Author summary The environments where bacterial pathogens thrive are often rich in proteins and their degradation products, including oligopeptides, which can be taken up by the bacterium and used as ...

journals.plos.org

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · 9d

Cheers Emm!! Very glad to finally see this out in the world

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 16d

#NewResearch

Nasal colonisation by S. aureus is linked with depression in a human cohort and shown in a mouse model to cause decreased serotonin and dopamine in the brain

#MicroSky #Depression

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

Nasal Staphylococcus aureus carriage promotes depressive behaviour in mice via sex hormone degradation - Nature Microbiology

Nasal colonization by Staphylococcus aureus is linked with depression in a human cohort and shown in a mouse model to cause decreased serotonin and dopamine in the brain.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

masseylab.bsky.social @masseylab.bsky.social · 16d

Latest from Lizzie Ledger in the lab…. Very cool story demonstrating the cross reactivity of a single AMR mechanism to confer resistance/tolerance to two distinct classes of antibiotics.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Expression of mecA increases daptomycin tolerance in Staphylococcus aureus | mBio

The incidence of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia is on a steady incline in many parts of the world. Given the associated mortality rates have changed little in the last 10 years, this is a major heal...

journals.asm.org

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Sep 6

Awesome story!

Zeynep Baharoglu @zeynepbaharoglu.bsky.social · Sep 6

So excited our antibiotic potentiation story is out 🤩 Led by the extraordinary @manonlang.bsky.social with @fox-science.bsky.social & @amazeld.bsky.social +amazing collaborators @immunobladder.bsky.social @imaneelmeouche.bsky.social 🦠 We believe it can make a difference in #AMR infections!

Uridine as a potentiator of aminoglycosides through activation of carbohydrate transporters

Uridine boosts aminoglycoside treatment efficiency against antibiotic-susceptible as well as antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains.

www.science.org

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Judith Behnsen @judith-behnsen.bsky.social · Sep 3

Excited to share our new publication, out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @kanchanj.bsky.social led this fascinating fungal-bacterial interaction project. We are grateful for our wonderful collaborators Brian Peters and David Underhill.

Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence - Nature

Commensal Candida albicans enhances the virulence and dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

www.nature.com

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Sep 2

Great work from Nathan and the team!

masseylab.bsky.social @masseylab.bsky.social · Sep 2

New work from the lab, lead by Nathan Palk and supported by Tarcisio Brignoli and Marcia Boura…. None of which are on here!

If you like S. aureus, toxin production and two component regulatory systems, you’ll like this:

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

Phosphate sensing by PhoPR regulates the cytotoxicity of Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus has evolved a complex regulatory network to coordinate expression of virulence factors, including cytolytic toxins, with host environmental signals. Central to this network are t...

www.microbiologyresearch.org

Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Andy Edwards @bugsinblood.bsky.social · Aug 23

New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with Ed Tate, Nate Traaseth and many others!

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

Small molecule inhibitors of the NorA multidrug efflux pump potentiate antibiotic activity by binding the outward-open conformation

Antibiotic resistance is among the greatest threats of the modern era. Multidrug efflux pumps expel antibiotics from bacterial cells and present a particular challenge by conferring resistance to a br...

www.biorxiv.org

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Aug 22

Also proud to see some work from my friends (and former labmates!) Naz and Lucy published today! Very cool insights into the importance of nucleotide signalling in S. aureus infection. Congrats to @corrigar.bsky.social and all the authors on this cool work :)

Determining the importance of the stringent response for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus virulence in vivo - PubMed

The stringent response is a stress signalling pathway with links to bacterial virulence. This pathway is controlled by the nucleotide alarmone (p)ppGpp, produced in Staphylococcus aureus by three synt...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Aug 22

Great to see Sigurbjorn's work on polyamine transport out now in Nature! Great work from a great scientist

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

SLC45A4 is a pain gene encoding a neuronal polyamine transporter - Nature

The SLC45A4 gene encodes a neuronal polyamine transporter and is linked to pain response in humans and mice.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Chris Mulligan @chrismulligan.bsky.social · Aug 18

Really pleased to share some recent work from our lab now published in Comms Bio. Here, we’ve identified and characterised a peculiar TRAP transporter binding protein from B. pertussis that we think uses a membrane component from a completely different transporter family.
rdcu.be/eAr8v

A new class of binding-protein dependent solute transporter exemplified by the TAXI-GltS system from Bordetella pertussis

Communications Biology - Identification and characterization of an unusual tri-domain TRAP transporter binding protein from Bordetella pertussis reveals insight into the diversity of binding...

rdcu.be

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Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Aug 18

Out now!

🍫🦠A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour #chocolate fermentation

By Gabriel Castrillo, David Salt & co

#microsky #microbiomesky 🧪

Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour chocolate fermentation - Nature Microbiology

An in-depth microbiological and metagenomic analysis of Colombian farm and fermentation facilities resulted in the design of a defined microbial community that can reproduce the flavour of fine chocol...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Kranzusch Lab @kranzuschlab.bsky.social · Aug 14

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

Characterization of an amyloid-based antiphage defence system in Escherichia coli - Nature Microbiology

Prion-like proteins in Escherichia coli trigger an abortive infection mechanism in response to phage infection—a process similar to amyloid-mediated immune signalling in fungi and animals.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Gavin Thomas (he/him) @gavinhthomas.bsky.social · Aug 12

A cool use of DALI/FoldSeek building on new human HG-SNAT protein enabled Bethan Kinniment-Williams & co., to structural unify the TmAT superfamily of membrane-bound acyltransferases first proposed by Milton Saier Jnr in TCDB. @jnb-lab.bsky.social
www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Structural unification of diverse transmembrane acyltransferases reveals a conserved fold for the Transmembrane Acyl Transferase (TmAT) superfamily

The movement of acyl groups across biological membranes is essential for many cellular processes. One major family of proteins catalysing this reaction are the acyl transferase family 3 (AT3) proteins...

www.jbc.org

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Aug 9

Very important new paper regarding amino acid acquisition inside staph-infected macrophages! Key role for BCAAs + nice evidence that host cell nutrients can be conveyed to bacteria in the phagosome to facilitate growth... Big implications for host-path interactions. Great work!

Inactivation of branched-chain amino acid uptake halts Staphylococcus aureus growth and induces bacterial quiescence within macrophages

Author summary Staphylococcus aureus is a prominent human pathogen causing acute and chronic disease. It is facultatively intracellular and can reside within many host cell types, including profession...

journals.plos.org

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Aug 2

A single transcriptional regulator is crucial for the adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus to diverse niches https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.01.668060v1

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Tania Wong @taniawong.bsky.social · Aug 1

Pleased to share our latest study @natcomms.nature.com! We show that the host metabolites fumarate and itaconate impose selective pressure on Staphylococcus aureus, driving its adaptation via the enzyme FumC. Grateful to all who contributed to this work!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Regulation of airway fumarate by host and pathogen promotes Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia - Nature Communications

This study reveals how the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus adapts to the lung microenvironment, rich in host metabolites fumarate and itaconate, by using a key enzyme, FumC, to support its metabolic fi...

www.nature.com

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Aug 1

Exciting new paper from Wonsik Lee's group in Korea, using TnSeq to study gene essentiality in various intracellular and extracellular infection niches of S aureus. Loads of cool insights into metabolism and nutrient acquisition in the host

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

Environmental cues in different host niches shape the survival fitness of Staphylococcus aureus - Nature Communications

Staphylococcus aureus adapts to diverse host environments during infection. Here, the authors use transposon sequencing to reveal niche-specific genes and identify 27 core genes required for S. aureus...

www.nature.com

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(not) Imran Khan @imrsankhan.bsky.social · Jul 13

Just seen this very clever paper from Alex O'Neill's group at Leeds. Systematic approaches to identify routes of antibiotic uptake in S. aureus and E. coli! As someone who never believed the dogma of passive diffusion, I feel very vindicated.. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40631918/

Carrier-mediated transport as a common route of antibiotic ingress into bacteria - PubMed

Increasing antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria is undermining our ability to treat infection, and new antibacterial drugs are urgently needed to address the problem. One of the most signif...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · May 24

Commensal to pathogen switch in Streptococcus pneumoniae is governed by a thermosensing master regulator https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.23.655729v1

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

Jan-Willem Veening @veeninglab.com · May 2

Cool work by the group of Natalia Korotkova demonstrating glycosylation of some of our favorite proteins like PBP1a, MapZ and RodZ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Glycosylation of serine/threonine-rich intrinsically disordered regions of membrane-associated proteins in streptococci - Nature Communications

Here, the authors identify mechanisms of glycosylation of intrinsically disordered regions present in streptococci membrane proteins, uncovering a functional role for glycosylation in Streptococcus mu...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · May 1

Competition with Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces Staphylococcus aureus in an antibiotic-tolerant viable but non culturable state https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.30.651255v1

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Willem van Schaik @wvschaik.bsky.social · Apr 29

This is fascinating, but also terrible news regarding antimicrobial resistance in multidrug-resistant Gram-positives

'Emergence of transferable daptomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria'

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Emergence of transferable daptomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Emergence of transferable daptomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria

www.nature.com

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Reposted by (not) Imran Khan

ttsukaza @ttsukaza.bsky.social · Apr 27

Just posted on bioRxiv!

We reveal the structure of the MurJ/LysM (JM) complex.
A small phage protein, LysM (37 residues), binds to MurJ like a wedge and freezes its motion.

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

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