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)

New paper alert! 🚨

Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate.

We combine theory, simulations, experimental evolution, and bioinformatics to demonstrate that mutation rates scale with plasmid copy number.

Let's dive in! 🧵👇

🚨🚨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...

New preprint led by @brunoluviano.bsky.social & Fernando Santos.

We show that filamentation enhances bacterial survival under toxic stress — not as collateral damage, but as a regulated morphological response.

TL;DR: Filamentation isn’t a symptom, it’s a strategy!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧪
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/...

Congratulations! 🙌

We are recruiting! We are looking for a PhD student to study rapid adaptation to stress in bacteria (shorturl.at/sr0Mj). Come join us in Barcelona!

Check out this amazing Spotlight on our recently published paper -> www.cell.com/trends/micro...
Huge thanks to @oliviakosterlitz.bsky.social, Benjamin Kerr and Elisabeth Duan for this great spolight.

Our paper on plasmid-driven heterogeneity is finally out!

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

@sanmillan.bsky.social @ayari.bsky.social @jerorb.bsky.social @craigmaclean.bsky.social

Thanks Thanks to @ayari.bsky.social for inviting me to present at @meehubs.bsky.social from the Cuernavaca hub. Got some great questions from the audience in other parts of the World!

Only a bit more than 12 hours till start of #MEEhubs2024. We have hundreds of registered participants, some shared their location and where they travel to on the map below! #MicroSky

Can we predict AMR evolution?? We sure can try! New study published today in PNAS
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...