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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · 28d

Yes Miguel!!! Huge congrats that’s amazing news! 🎉🎉🎉

Reposted by Tom McLean

Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · Aug 7

Ever wondered why some antibiotics are made by Streptomyces on agar plates but not in liquid cultures? Read this work on redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis. Led by katienoble241.bsky.social and Rebecca Devine, and in collaboration with @barriewilks.bsky.social

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

journals.asm.org

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Jul 31

After 8 wonderful years in Norwich, 3 at UEA and 5 at the JIC it’s time to say goodbye. I will miss each and every amazing person I’ve had the pleasure of working with or meeting here. It truly is a fine city.

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Jul 29

Nice to see our recent work on the fascinating KorAB system be featured on the back of @johninnescentre.bsky.social Advances!
Read the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Jul 3

Check out our lab's new work on a CTP-independent ParABS system. Some fantastic work from Kirill et al!

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · Jul 2

Finally published! Many thanks to the reviewers and editor whose comments & suggestions improved this work significantly more than the first preprint version!!!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Expanding the diversity of bacterial DNA partitioning: A CTP-independent ParABS system for plasmid partitioning in Streptomyces | PNAS

The ATP- and CTP-dependent ParA-ParB-parS segrosome is a macromolecular complex that segregates chromosomes/plasmids in most bacterial species. CTP...

www.pnas.org

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · May 9

Have a read of this simply phenomenal work on the weird and wonderful GTAs from star Fellow (and office mate) Emma Banks et al

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · May 9

1/ Excited to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs) in Caulobacter crescentus, led by Emma Banks in collaboration with Pavol Bardy and Mai Nguyen from York!!! See a brief thread below.
shorturl.at/o6S1w

A bacterial CARD-NLR immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents

Bacteria have evolved a wide array of immune systems to detect and defend against external threats including mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as bacteriophages, plasmids, and transposons. MGEs are ...

shorturl.at

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · May 2

Fantastic work Trevor!

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Trevor Lithgow @trevor-lithgow.bsky.social · May 1

"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

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Apr 17

The paper is now live: academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Absolutely delighted to play a role in this fascinating story!

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Chris Thomas @chrismthomas.bsky.social · Apr 4

The second great paper concerns the discovery in Eva Top's group that an enigmatic protein encoded by IncP-1beta plasmids modulates the IncP-1 circuitry in E. coli to make the plasmid a burden in this host: Elg et al recently accepted in Molecular Biology and Evolution doi.org/10.1093/molb...

pendingpublications

Pending Publication

doi.org

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Martin Thanbichler @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social · Apr 2

#Postdoc position - at the University of Marburg (Germany), funded within our ERC Advanced Grant "C-SWITCH"

Focus: CTP-dependent molecular switches as a new principle of cellular regulation in bacteria (including bacteriophages)

Apply by 04 May: stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/2...

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Mar 28

pCrispomyces-2 was a game changer so I’m looking forward to seeing what this new tool can do!

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Mar 22

Thanks Ivan! So on AF2 some models show a 90 degree twist in the TM domains which could be signal transduction but there’s just not enough underlying sensor kinase structural data to make it reliable imo

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Mar 21

Almost 8 years after starting this project finally happy to share the main research from my PhD! Couldn't have done it without the amazing help from @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social! We untangled a fascinating new redox sensor with the most extraordinary growth phenotype (I'm biased) in Streptomyces!

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · Mar 21

Further insight into how CutRS functions in Streptomyces and some thoughts on how its redox state detection via conserved dual cysteine residues in the extra cellular domain of a sensor kinase may be present in almost all bacteria
@tommclean.bsky.social
@matthutchings.bsky.social

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Mar 21

Extracellular redox sensors control the protein secretion stress response in Streptomyces https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.20.644377v1

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · Mar 21

Very happy to share this work led by @tommclean.bsky.social and @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social. The conserved Streptomyces sensor kinase CutS senses disulphide bond formation outside the cell. If it fails CutS activates CutR which switches on production of foldase HtrA3

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

Extracellular redox sensors control the protein secretion stress response in Streptomyces

Translocating unfolded polypeptides across membranes is essential in all domains of life and in bacteria requires the conserved Sec machinery and ATP. Bacterial Sec substrates fold outside the cell an...

www.biorxiv.org

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Mar 12

It's done. I've deactivated my twitter account, good riddance.

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · Mar 10

Redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces.

Remarkable work led by @katienoble241.bsky.social and Rebecca Devine demonstrates why antibiotic biosynthesis is often switched on in solid cultures and off in liquid.

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

Redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis

Streptomyces bacteria make diverse specialised metabolites that form the basis of ~55% of clinically used antibiotics. Despite this, only 3% of their encoded specialised metabolites have been matched ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · Feb 24

Nice blog from the Lister Institute on our recent work on KorAB and long-range gene silencing on multi-drug resistance plasmid!!! @tommclean.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social
lister-institute.org.uk/biology-is-f...

‘Biology is full of surprises’: How Tung Le’s team unlocked the secrets of RK2 plasmid proteins – Lister Institute

lister-institute.org.uk

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · Feb 4

Cool “Behind the paper” article on our recent KorB-KorA sliding clamp-locking clamp story. I remember Chris Thomas and Lewis Bingle (Birmingham) taught me about these proteins when I was an undergrad, and I kept remembering they said the mechanism was not clear!!!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sliding clamp protein enables long-range gene silencing in a bacterial plasmid - Nature Microbiology

Long-distance gene regulation is uncommon in bacteria, and its molecular mechanisms are unclear. Using a combination of structural, biochemical and single-molecule techniques, researchers revealed tha...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Jan 23

OUT NOW: KorB is a DNA clamp which slides along DNA to mediate long-range gene silencing upon interaction with the clamp-locking KorA protein

by Tung Le & co @johninnescentre.bsky.social

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

KorB switching from DNA-sliding clamp to repressor mediates long-range gene silencing in a multi-drug resistance plasmid - Nature Microbiology

Structural and single-molecule analyses show the CTPase, KorB, is a sliding DNA clamp that interacts with a clamp-locking protein KorA to inhibit gene expression over distances of more than 1 kb in th...

www.nature.com

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Jan 23

Super excited to share the peer-reviewed version of the KorAB paper. Amazing to work such talented collaborators and thanks to the reviewers for making the work even better!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

KorB switching from DNA-sliding clamp to repressor mediates long-range gene silencing in a multi-drug resistance plasmid - Nature Microbiology

Structural and single-molecule analyses show the CTPase, KorB, is a sliding DNA clamp that interacts with a clamp-locking protein KorA to inhibit gene expression over distances of more than 1 kb in th...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Timothée Poisot @ctrlalttim.com · Nov 2

New paper in PLOS Biol with @graciellehigino.bsky.social et al.: "Postdoctoral scientists are mentors, and it is time to recognize their work". We argue that ensuring that post-docs receive proper credit for ALL their labour would benefit all academia.

Postdoctoral scientists are mentors, and it is time to recognize their work

Post-doctoral scientists are effective mentors for graduate students. This Perspective discusses how failures to properly credit them for this role has negative consequence for everyone and suggests p...

journals.plos.org

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Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · Oct 8

Finally made the pilgrimage to Micropia! Dragged a whole bunch of friends to learn about microbes with me!

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Reposted by Tom McLean

Dr Katherine Duncan @kateduncan.bsky.social · Oct 5

Our review - Antibiotics from rare actinomycetes, beyond the genus Streptomyces - is now online

Thanks to coauthors @jonathanparra.bsky.social @ainsleybeaton1 @ryanfseipke @barriewilksjic @matthutchings.bsky.social

and editors Toni Gabaldón & Luiz Carvalho for the invitation

Antibiotics from rare actinomycetes, beyond the genus Streptomyces

Throughout the golden age of antibiotic discovery, Streptomyces have been unsurpassed for their ability to produce bioactive metabolites. Yet, this su…

www.sciencedirect.com

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