Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB) @cnb-csic.bsky.social · 6d

El proyecto "Descubrir actividades de resistencia antimicrobiana más allá de la resistencia" de
@sanmillan.bsky.social (#CNB, @csic.es) y @jaescudero.bsky.social (@ucm.es) recibe una ayuda del Programa #Fundamentos de Fundación BBVA.

ℹ️Lee la noticia aquí👇

bit.ly/48cvkp1

2 10

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 12d

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

14 150 300

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · 9d

Wow!!!! Congrats Zam!

1

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 13d

Recent paper from the lab studying predictors of phage cocktail efficacy against complex clinical Pseudomonas populations

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....

Led by Rosanna Wright with extraordinary MSc (PhD) student Maisie Czernuska

Bacteria–phage infection network structure and genomic defence system content predict efficacy of a phage therapy cocktail against Pseudomonas aeruginosa from chronic lung infections

royalsocietypublishing.org

2 16 26

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Craig MacLean @craigmaclean.bsky.social · 13d

New ERC funded computational postdoc position in my lab! We are looking for someone who will study the genomics of bacterial evolution using samples from experimental evolution and clinical trials. Lots of opportunities for interesting and fun collaboration!
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job Details

my.corehr.com

4 32 26

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Uli Klümper @ulikluemper.bsky.social · 22d

Excited to share our new Perspective in npj Antimicrobials & Resistance:

"Towards the integration of antibiotic resistance gene mobility into environmental surveillance and risk assessment.”

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

1/3

#AMR #microsky

Towards the integration of antibiotic resistance gene mobility into environmental surveillance and risk assessment - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Towards the integration of antibiotic resistance gene mobility into environmental surveillance and risk assessment

www.nature.com

1 6 19

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Eduardo Rocha @epcrocha.bsky.social · 27d

How do loci for bacterial capsules (Klebsiella) manage to get swapped around despite their outstanding phenotypes? They just plug and play, having little impact on the rest of the genome. Kudos to @julielebris.bsky.social , check her thread below

Julie Le Bris @julielebris.bsky.social · 28d

How complex functions, with important physiological and evolutionary impacts get repeatedly and efficiently transferred across genomes?
That’s what we explored using one of the fastest-evolving loci in Bacteria: the capsule locus.
The paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread👇

Serotype swapping in Klebsiella spp. by plug-and-play

Understanding how complex, multi-gene systems evolve and function across genetic backgrounds is a central question in molecular evolution. While such systems often impose costs through epistatic inter...

www.biorxiv.org

10 24

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Mizrahi Lab @mizrahilab.bsky.social · 27d

Continuing work on our exhibition #microbes 🎨
Honored by a talk from Prof. Itzik Hen, director of The Institute for Advanced Studies Jerusalem and a researcher, followed by a food tour at Mahane Yehuda Market, and a recital by Ido Grinshpan and Shelly Jonathan.🎻
Stay tuned for #exhibition details! 🦠

3 3

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 28d

Sometimes you meet absolutely incredible bioinfo-magicians.
It was a huge privilege when @shenwei356.bsky.social
joined our group for a year on an @embl.org sabbatical.
While here, he developed a new way of aligning to
millions of bacteria, called LexicMap 1/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Efficient sequence alignment against millions of prokaryotic genomes with LexicMap - Nature Biotechnology

LexicMap uses a fixed set of probes to efficiently query gene sequences for fast and low-memory alignment.

www.nature.com

5 98 190

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Olaya Rendueles @olayarendueles.bsky.social · 29d

Check out @julielebris.bsky.social’s thread on our latest manuscript describing phenotypic heterogeneity in capsule production in Klebsiella & Acinetobacter @klebclub.bsky.social

This work started when I was still in @pasteur.fr & got finished in @cbitoulouse.bsky.social
#microsky #phagesky

Julie Le Bris @julielebris.bsky.social · Sep 5

Delighted to share our recently published work!
Ever wondered how Klebsiella (and others) deals with capsule production’s costs ?
The paper: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Thread👇

Phenotypic heterogeneity of capsule production across opportunistic pathogens | mBio

The polysaccharidic capsule is present in ~50% of species across the bacterial phylogeny, including all ESKAPE microorganisms, the six most significant multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial pathogens. It is also an important virulence factor and a major ...

journals.asm.org

10 18

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · 29d

🤯

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

José R Penadés @jrpenades.bsky.social · 29d

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization

Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy enables broad dissemination and ...

www.cell.com

50 99

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

José R Penadés @jrpenades.bsky.social · 29d

Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

AI mirrors experimental science to uncover a mechanism of gene transfer crucial to bacterial evolution

By solving a previously unsolved biological question, the AI co-scientist predicted a complex mechanism of gene transfer and generated hypotheses that opened new research directions, illustrating AI's...

www.cell.com

1 15 29

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · Sep 8

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) could cause 10 million deaths by 2050. At PLAS-FIGHTER, we are working to change this!
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/

#AntibioticResistance

Project - Plasmidlab

PLAS-FIGHTER Exploiting plasmid-bacteria interactions to fight

plasmidlab.es

8 19

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · Sep 7

For anyone who has used pling for comparing plasmids using rearrangement distances ("how many structural events apart are these plasmids"), here's how to tweak parameters, and integrate it with typing info, and the host phylogeny
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
github.com/iqbal-lab-or...

Clustering of plasmid genomes for genomic epidemiology by using rearrangement distances, with pling

Integration of plasmids into genomic epidemiology is challenging, because there are no clearly defined evolving-units (equivalent to species), and because plasmids appear to evolve as much by structur...

www.biorxiv.org

1 30 56

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Eduardo Rocha @epcrocha.bsky.social · Sep 7

Lots of heterogeneity in capsule production in Klebsiella and Acinetobacter. Given the pleiotropic impact of capsules, this provides opportunities for multiple types of phenotypical heterogeneity. Check @julielebris.bsky.social thread on our recent publication.

Julie Le Bris @julielebris.bsky.social · Sep 5

Delighted to share our recently published work!
Ever wondered how Klebsiella (and others) deals with capsule production’s costs ?
The paper: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Thread👇

Phenotypic heterogeneity of capsule production across opportunistic pathogens | mBio

The polysaccharidic capsule is present in ~50% of species across the bacterial phylogeny, including all ESKAPE microorganisms, the six most significant multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial pathogens. It is also an important virulence factor and a major ...

journals.asm.org

5 13

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB) @cnb-csic.bsky.social · Aug 27

El grupo de Álvaro San Millán revela el coste de mantener la resistencia en enterobacterias

El trabajo traza un mapa funcional del plásmido pOXA-48, con potencial para guiar nuevas terapias contra resistencias

bit.ly/4p0fCmY

@sanmillan.bsky.social @aliciapcv.bsky.social @jorgesastred.bsky.social

Identifican el coste fisiológico de mantener la resistencia microbiana en enterobacterias - CNB

bit.ly

5 9

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · Aug 22

With over a million deaths annually linked to antibiotic resistance, tackling this crisis is urgent.

At the PBE lab, we study how plasmids adapt and spread in real-world settings, such as the gut microbiota of hospitalized patients.

Fighting #AntibioticResistance!

2 9

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Mizrahi Lab @mizrahilab.bsky.social · Aug 21

The session of Microbial adaptations to changing environments chaired and organized by @sanmillan.bsky.social
@javierdelafuente.bsky.social @mtoll8.bsky.social just started by extremely inspaireing talk by @saramitri.bsky.social so much fun at the @eseb2025.bsky.social

1 1 9

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Sarah Bigot @sbigot.bsky.social · Aug 20

Our paper “Genetic determinants of pOXA-48 plasmid maintenance and propagation in Escherichia coli” is now online in @natcomms.nature.com ✨
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@cnrs-rhoneauvergne.bsky.social @mmsb-lyon.bsky.social

Genetic determinants of pOXA-48 plasmid maintenance and propagation in Escherichia coli - Nature Communications

pOXA-48 plasmids have emerged as key vectors of carbapenem resistance within Enterobacteriaceae. In this study, the authors use a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) approach to identify genetic determinan...

www.nature.com

2 16 25

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Alicia Calvo-Villamañán @aliciapcv.bsky.social · Aug 20

First of all, we recommend reading a complementary study led by Yannick Baffert and @sbigot.bsky.social, in which they use Tn-seq to study the genetic determinants of pOXA-48 in plasmid maintenance and conjugation. Really cool piece of work that reaches similar conclusions to ours!
2/14

Genetic determinants of pOXA-48 plasmid maintenance and propagation in Escherichia coli - Nature Communications

pOXA-48 plasmids have emerged as key vectors of carbapenem resistance within Enterobacteriaceae. In this study, the authors use a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) approach to identify genetic determinan...

www.nature.com

1 3 9

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · Aug 20

New paper out!

Alicia Calvo-Villamañán @aliciapcv.bsky.social · Aug 20

This work is finally published! 🥳🧬
Plasmids are associated with very variable fitness costs in their different bacterial hosts. But, what is the contribution of each of the plasmid-genes in these host-specific effects? Study led by
@jorgesastred.bsky.social, @sanmillan.bsky.social and myself! 1/14

Dissecting pOXA-48 fitness effects in clinical Enterobacterales using plasmid-wide CRISPRi screens

Nature Communications - This study investigates the effects of the carbapenem resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in clinical enterobacteria. Using CRISPRi screens, the authors revealed that the...

rdcu.be

8 21

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Didier Mazel @amazeld.bsky.social · Aug 20

For those who love bacterial replicons, The ultimate review, from our lab, signed by the master of their evolution.
‪@val-meve.bsky.social‬ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Taming wild replicons: evolution and domestication of large extrachromosomal replicons

Bacterial genomes often contain extrachromosomal replicons (ERs), ranging from small, mobile plasmids to large, stably inherited elements, such as meg…

www.sciencedirect.com

1 27 42

Reposted by Alvaro San Millan

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · Aug 18

See how phi3T phage shifts Bacillus subtilis cell shape in the absence of SPbeta prophage and alters its fitness - our new publication in @commsbio.nature.com from group of @annadragos.bsky.social together with @bramkamplab.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

1 10 25

Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · Aug 18

Great questions! Hopefully we’ll be able to answer some of them in the future…

1