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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research @pasteur.fr · 1d

Pour chaque vie, la science agit.
Le Pasteurdon, c’est maintenant !
Soutenez la recherche et celles et ceux qui la font avancer ↘️ pasteurdon.fr
#Pasteurdon

Pour chaque vie, la science agit. Le Pasteurdon, c’est maintenant ! Soutenez la recherche et celles et ceux qui la font avancer. Faites un don sur pasteurdon.fr

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Ryan Wick @rrwick.bsky.social · 10d

Happy to share that the paper describing Autocycler is now 100% up:
doi.org/10.1093/bioi...
(1/3)

Autocycler: long-read consensus assembly for bacterial genomes

AbstractMotivation. Long-read sequencing enables complete bacterial genome assemblies, but individual assemblers are imperfect and often produce sequence-l

doi.org

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Yersinia Research Unit @yersiniaunit.bsky.social · 16d

💊 🧬 Insightful dive into in-host bacterial evolution under antimicrobial pressure, a work from @csavin.bsky.social and @pierrelebury.bsky.social in our lab at @pasteur.fr

Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research @pasteur.fr · Aug 12

🦠 14 years, one patient, one superbug
@yersiniaunit.bsky.social scientists tracked Yersinia enterocolitica mutations as it developed antibiotic resistance over 14 years. Unprecedented view of bacterial evolution under treatment pressure 💊
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40595576/
#AMR #yersinia

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · 16d

Great collaboration with @csavin.bsky.social at @yersiniaunit.bsky.social in @pasteur.fr, as well as @julmini.bsky.social @chrudetours.bsky.social @univparissaclay.bsky.social @cea.fr @ap-hp.bsky.social

📖 Out in @natcomms.nature.com @natureportfolio.nature.com 👇

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

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

8/8 🙏 Many thanks to all the contributors of this study !
@csavin.bsky.social @julmini.bsky.social
@yersiniaunit.bsky.social @pasteur.fr @chrudetours.bsky.social @univparissaclay.bsky.social @cea.fr @ap-hp.bsky.social @natureportfolio.nature.com @natcomms.nature.com

Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

7/8 - Conclusion
💊 A fascinating case of in-host bacterial evolution — and a warning about long-term antibiotic exposure.

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

6/8 - Selection
🚫 We also identified positive selection signals:
- a truncation in the phosphate transporter PitA which probably impairs its activity
- an amino acid substitution interfering with the active site and diminishing the catalytic activity of the acyl-CoA thioesterase II TesB

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

5/8 - Metabolic adaptation
🍔 Omics analysis also unraveled:
- a progressive genome reduction
- metabolic changes in amino acid and carbon utilization
- a disturbed stringent response
which could contribute to the observed slower growth and antibiotic tolerance preceding resistance.

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

4/8 - Antibiotics resistance mechanisms
🧪 By analysing Ye.1 to Ye.4 genomes and proteomes, we could identify:
- a novel gyrA mutation leading to quinolone resistance
- ceftriaxone resistance via OmpF loss and β-lactamase activity

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

3/8 - Phylogenetic reconstruction
🧫 Ye.1 to Ye.4 belong to the Ye genotype 4 (bioserotype 4/O:3) and a form a unique clade separated from other Ye strains, strongly suggesting that the patient suffered from a chronic infection due to a unique evolving Ye 4/O:3 strain.

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

2/8 - Clinical case
🏥 Thanks to the National Reference Center for Plague and other Yersiniosis in @pasteur.fr, we collected 4 clinical isolates — Ye.1 to Ye.4, which evolved antibiotics tolerance and resistance — from a rare chronic infection in an elderly patient from @chrudetours.bsky.social.

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jul 1

1/8 - New in @natcomms.nature.com !
☣️ Meet Yersinia enterocolitica (Ye) — a lesser-known but still dangerous cousin of Yersinia pestis.
We uncover how this invasive pathogen can survive and adapt for 14 years inside a human host under constant antibiotic pressure 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In-host evolution of Yersinia enterocolitica during a chronic human infection - Nature Communications

This study documents the evolution of antibiotic resistance and major growth defects in Yersinia enterocolitica in a patient over 14 years, revealing genetic changes that shed light on bacterial adapt...

www.nature.com

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · Jun 18

Very clear explanation by @alicelebreton.bsky.social of our article about plague virulence reduction, in Le Monde (in French)!

Alice Lebreton @alicelebreton.bsky.social · Jun 18

Après que la peste a tout dévasté sur son passage, que devient-elle?
Lors de chacune des trois pandémies historiques, un même mécanisme a conduit à la mise en sourdine de sa virulence, ce qui favoriserait sa persistence dans des populations de rongeurs fragmentées.
www.lemonde.fr/sciences/art...

La peste sait mettre la pédale douce

CARTE BLANCHE. Une collaboration internationale a mis le doigt sur une modalité génétique d’atténuation de la virulence commune aux trois pandémies de pestes historiques, explique Alice Lebreton, dans...

www.lemonde.fr

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Jun 4

#NatMicroPicks

The plague virulence! 💀🦠

During plague epidemics, virulence gene pla in Yersinia pestis often becomes depleted, which reduces the pathogen's lethality and may help it survive in less susceptible hosts when transmission conditions worsen.

#MicroSky
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Attenuation of virulence in Yersinia pestis across three plague pandemics

Yersinia pestis has spilled over from wild rodent reservoirs to commensal rodents and humans, causing three historically recorded pandemics. Depletion in the copy number of the plasmid-encoded virulen...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research @pasteur.fr · Jun 2

🦠 The plague bacillus became less virulent, extending the duration of two major pandemics. @yersiniaunit.bsky.social @pierrelebury.bsky.social @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social @ravneetksidhu.bsky.social

The plague bacillus became less virulent, prolonging the duration of two major pandemics

Scientists at the Institut Pasteur and McMaster University have discovered that the evolution of a gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, may have prolonged the duration of...

www.pasteur.fr

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 31

Additional disclaimer: we did not SOLVE a mystery, it is just another small brick added on the top of all the knowledge accumulated since then...

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 31

Picking up our publication on Black Death and plague pandemics: here are interesting historical thoughs about the well known but deceptive (not so) medieval plague doctor costume

The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · May 30

There is some news about the Black Death... are we taking bets on how the media is going to illustrate it?

.....

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · May 30

Our work on the facial skin microbiome of non-human primates is out in mSystems!

We show there is no close relative of Cutibacterium on the faces of gorillas and chimps at the Lincoln Park Zoo, furthering the mysterious origin of the dominant human skin colonizer.

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

The microbiome of the human facial skin is unique compared to that of other hominids | mSystems

Understanding how and why human skin bacteria differ from our closest animal relatives provides crucial insights into human evolution and health. While we have known that human facial skin hosts disti...

journals.asm.org

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social · May 29

IIDR researchers have discovered that a single gene in Yersinia pestis — the bacteria that causes bubonic #plague — was responsible for keeping pandemics like the Black Death burning for hundreds of years. Learn more about this evolutionary phenomenon in our all-new explainer video. #IDSky

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Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

Sébastien Bontemps-Gallo, Ph.D. @sebbontempsgallo.bsky.social · May 30

Two great papers in @science.org this month on the #evolution of #vector-borne #pathogens

1 #Yersinia pestis attenuates virulence over 3 pandemics

2 Ancient #Borrelia genomes trace the rise of louse-borne relapsing fever

Fascinating reads (links below)

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 30

A short animation to better understand our paper:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8nf...

Evolution of the Black Death (and its genes)

YouTube video by Popular Science Podcasts

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Pierre Lê-Bury

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · May 29

New in 𝘚𝘊𝘐𝘌𝘕𝘊𝘌:

Plague Plays the Long Game

As plague pandemics decimated rodent populations, 𝘠𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘴 adapted

Virulence gene 𝘱𝘭𝘢 lost late in outbreaks ➡️ strains with reduced lethality ➡️ pathogen can persist, spread across highly fragmented host networks

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 30

More details here 👇https://bsky.app/profile/pierrelebury.bsky.social/post/3lqdcuo5gwk2v

Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 29

1/12 - New in @science.org !
☠️ Curious of what happened to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for the Black Death, throughout plague pandemics?
Check out our new study 👇
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Attenuation of virulence in Yersinia pestis across three plague pandemics

Yersinia pestis has spilled over from wild rodent reservoirs to commensal rodents and humans, causing three historically recorded pandemics. Depletion in the copy number of the plasmid-encoded virulen...

www.science.org

Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 29

12/12 🙏 Many thanks to the contributors of this study!
@ravneetksidhu.bsky.social @gmasfiol.bsky.social @bbolker.bsky.social @yersiniaunit.bsky.social
#ScienceResearch

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Pierre Lê-Bury @pierrelebury.bsky.social · May 29

11/12 - Impact
Our study highlights the importance of reservoir dynamics and structures to better understand virulence evolution of a zoonotic pathogen.

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