Lingchen He 何灵尘
@lingchenhe.bsky.social
75 followers 160 following 21 posts
Someone‖‖Phd student‖MGEs‖HGT‖Phage person but sometimes anti-phage
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Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
lingchenhe.bsky.social
🔥🔥🔥
zaminiqbal.bsky.social
Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n
lingchenhe.bsky.social
Congrats!!
yilanfan.bsky.social
It’s been a long but beautiful journey. Grateful for the support from all co-authors and colleagues, especially @filizkuybu.bsky.social 🙌, with whom I shared many long days and restless nights. Many more questions lie ahead!
hopfnerlab.bsky.social
Thrilled that our work is now finally out in Nature Comms!
rdcu.be/eG3vP

We reveal cryo-EM structures of the MRN complex bound to DNA & TRF2 - showing how DNA breaks are sensed and regulated at telomeres.
Fantastic work by first authors @yilanfan.bsky.social @filizkuybu.bsky.social & Hengjun!
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
soreklab.bsky.social
Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails

Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
lingchenhe.bsky.social
Finally, we demonstrated evolutionary homology between cf-PICI and phage HK97 capsids, while showing that cf-PICIs avoid interference during capsid assembly through finely tuned interactions, thereby ensuring efficient and specific packaging of their own DNA. @jonaszpatkowski.bsky.social
lingchenhe.bsky.social
In addition, we identified adaptor and connector genes as central to capsid–tail chimeric assembly, with high variability during the evolution of tail-less capsids.
lingchenhe.bsky.social
This uncovers unexpected complexity in phage–satellite interactions, challenging the long-held view that satellites rely on a single helper phage to complete their lifecycle.
lingchenhe.bsky.social
We revealed a key feature of tail piracy: cf-PICIs can exploit multiple helper phages—one inducing their cycle, another supplying tails. Remarkably, cf-PICIs can even accumulate tail-less particles without helper phage induction, and factors causing cell lysis can release them.
lingchenhe.bsky.social
We discovered a new horizontal gene transfer mechanism: tail-less cf-PICIs hijack free phage tails extracellularly, forming infectious chimeric virions that drive both intra- and inter-species transfer among bacteria. @jonaszpatkowski.bsky.social @tcostalab.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
phdcomics.com
Did you get the email I sent 😭
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
ccsartcafe.bsky.social
Picking blueberries 💙🐦
lingchenhe.bsky.social
Congratulations Franklin, Yi and all the authors!! Very beautiful work!
fnobrega.bsky.social
Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Huge congratulations to Yi and Zhiying for bringing it home, to Thomas for starting us off, and to all the collaborators.
Kiwa is a membrane-embedded defense supercomplex activated at phage attachment sites
Zhang, Todeschini, and Wu et al. show that the bacterial defense system Kiwa senses phage attachment at the membrane and assembles a transmembrane complex that halts infection by blocking phage DNA re...
www.cell.com
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
fnobrega.bsky.social
Thank you to everyone who attended the 3rd UK MGE workshop. What an incredible few days of science and community building! Next stop: York 2026, hosted by @pcmfogg.bsky.social. See you all next year! #UKMGE
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
lingchenhe.bsky.social
Three to one, tales! (✓)
rsbmilne.bsky.social
Virtual Virology is back - our first ever phage session. Do join us...
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
andreashaag.bsky.social
Interested in fighting AMR? Come and join us at St Andrews. applications are open until 15th May to students worldwide!
andreashaag.bsky.social
🚨 PhD opportunity in my lab with @mfwhite2.bsky.social!
Use bacterial viruses (phages) to take on antibiotic-resistant superbugs 🦠🧫
Join us at St Andrews to explore virus–bacteria battles.
🔬 Apply now: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
#PhD #Microbiology #PhageTherapy #AntibioticResistance
Harnessing Bacterial Viruses to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Infections at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Harnessing Bacterial Viruses to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Infections at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
Reposted by Lingchen He 何灵尘
trevor-lithgow.bsky.social
"That telomere phages are so prevalent means that they are a selective force, one that we know little about. We now want to understand how the telomere-toxin is secreted and also understand how this ‘telocin’ wheedles its way into unsuspecting bacterial neighbors”

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Telomere bacteriophages are widespread and equip their bacterial hosts with potent interbacterial weapons
Klebsiella host strains infected with telomere phages can grow to be the dominant lineage in mixed populations.
www.science.org