Our latest manuscript explores capsule exchangeability & phenotypic portability

We didn’t directly address its role in #virulence
⏩️ that was already elegantly shown here—worth a look 👀👇🏻

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

🎯 Their results supports our plug-and-play model!

Bonus: we kept 🐭 alive

#microsky

Now published! 'Identification of transporter-dependent capsular loci associated with the invasive potential of Escherichia coli' www.nature.com/articles/s41... insights below.....

Enhanced ability to utilize alternative carbon sources drives a competitive advantage for a successful lineage of Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) poses critical threats to public health, with sequence type 11-capsular type 64 (ST11-KL64) CRKP dom…

A couple of new papers driven by Zong this week. both on the dominant Klebsiella lineage in China - ST11

1 - The enhanced ability of ST11 to utilise alternative carbon sources gives it a competitive advantage in gut colonisation

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

2 year fellowship available in AMR research www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/antim...

The last part abt how measles disrupts immunity vs other infections is, imo, underappreciated (& mechanism was recently clarified). It's part of why measles vaccination was seen to help beyond just reducing measles complications - not getting measles reduces severity of subsequent infections too.

New preprint out! Anjali Sapre, Melissa Martin and co. mapped the evolutionary routes of convergence in K pneumo. Pop analysis of >1,400 global genomes & 7,500 closed plasmids to see how #AMR & virulence genes come together and impact phenotypes. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...

Divergent roles for complement components C3 and C4 in controlling Klebsiella pneumoniae gut colonization and systemic dissemination | mBio Klebsiella pneumoniae, a major public health threat, resists antibiotics and can spread from the gut to the bloodstream, causing severe infections. Our study reveals how the immune system uses complement proteins C3 and C4 to block this spread. C3 limits bacterial growth in the gut through two potential mechanisms: (i) coating K. pneumoniae with fragments that signal bacteria-eating phagocytic cells to destroy it and (ii) recruiting more phagocytes into the gut. C3 also helps clear bacteria that escape into the blood. However, when antibiotic-resistant strains overgrow, C3 alone is insufficient. In these cases, C4 becomes critical, likely by enhancing C3’s ability to tag bacteria for elimination. This two-layered defense highlights new immune pathways that could be targeted to prevent bloodstream infections, especially in vulnerable patients or those colonized with drug-resistant bacteria. These insights open doors to innovative strategies against life-threatening Klebsiella infections.

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

Proud to see our work published in mBio!
We uncover how C3 and C4 provide layered immune protection against Klebsiella pneumoniae. Grateful for my incredible mentors Dr. Ammar Zafar @azmicro.bsky.social, Dr. Karen Haas and supportive colleagues.

Bacterial exo-α-sialidases subvert the complement system through desialylation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...

Antibody escape drives emergence of diverse spike haplotypes resembling variants of concern in persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections Snell et al. develop sequencing methodology to identify full-length spike haplotypes and show that persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections drive divergent haplotype emergence, accelerating viral evolution an...

This is finally out.

Very short take home. All the variation in spike that produced the immune escape characteristics of Omicron can occur in one single persistently infected individual over the period of a year.

This is why persistent infections matter

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Distribution of capsule and O types in Klebsiella pneumoniae causing neonatal sepsis in Africa and South Asia: A meta-analysis of genome-predicted serotype prevalence to inform potential vaccine cover... Thomas Stanton and colleagues use whole genome sequencing to evaluate the prevalence of Klebsiella pneumoniae K and O antigen types in 13 countries in Africa and South Asia to help inform vaccine desi...

This is the sort of strategic planning that should go into #vaccine design 💉

They analysed 1,930 #Klebsiella pneumoniae 🦠🧫🧬 neonate blood isolates from 13 countries and estimate that 20 antigens 🧪 could cover 72.9% of all infections for 5–10 years

#IDSky #EpiSky

journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...

great update on #Klebsiella research!

We are looking for a new RA to join our team working on host-pathogen interactions during Salmonella infection. The appointment is for two years and you will join a diverse team, using cell and protein biochemistry to further our understanding of pathogenesis. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Bacteriophages mobilize bacterial defense systems via lateral transduction Bacteriophages and PICIs spread bacterial defenses via lateral transduction, shaping microbial immunity and pathogen evolution.

#microsky #phagesky #phage defence

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

Gut-relevant short-chain fatty acids modulate host-pathogen dynamics of uropathogenic Escherichia coli at the colonic epithelial interface www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01...

Metabolic reprogramming promotes Staphylococcus aureus serum resistance during bacteraemia. Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bloodstream infections causing an estimated 300,000 deaths worldwide. Using a functional genomics approach, our group previously identified that adaptation ...

The first of some rather chunky papers coming out of Sam Fenn’s work here at @uccmicrobiology.bsky.social

Here we identify and characterise yet another way S. aureus survives life in the bloodstream, but remodelling a major part of its metabolism

Neisseria gonorrhoeae carries an unusually large number of restriction–modification systems (up to 16!), many of which are phase-variable. How does this affect plasmid transmission in gonococci? doi.org/10.64898/202...

If you have any interest in Klebsiella, registration for the April seminar series is open. Abstract submission for short talks are due Feb 16. Looking forward to connecting this spring!
#klebclub2026

I wonder what Londoners know that the rest of the country don’t?

In vivo detection of immune responses via cytokine activity labeling @cellcellpress.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Novel genes arise from genomic deletions across the bacterial tree of life www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01...

epsSMASH uncovers exopolysaccharide biosynthetic gene clusters in environmental and human microbiomes Biofilms represent the default mode of bacterial life in natural and built environments, with extracellular polysaccharides (exoPS) serving as essential structural and functional components of the bio...

Ever wondered if your favorite bacteria 🧫🦠 produce exopolysaccharides? You can now easily check that with epsSMASH, our new bioinformatic tool built on the antiSMASH framework. It detects both known and novel exoPS BGCs. Check out and share the preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Colanic acid–mediated phage resistance enhances virulence in high-risk global clone Escherichia coli ST410 Author summary Multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli ST410 has emerged as a high-risk global clone threatening both human and animal health. Phages offer promising alternatives to antibiotics, yet the ...

Super-interesting paper

'Colanic acid–mediated phage resistance enhances virulence in high-risk global clone Escherichia coli ST410'

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Plasma Ficolins Enable Liver Macrophages to Capture Blood-Borne Bacteria by Recognizing Capsular Polysaccharides www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12...

Environment-dependent evolution drives divergent adaptive strategies and parasite dynamics in a minimal community Prophages, phage genomes integrated into bacterial chromosomes, are widespread, yet, the extent to which these resident parasites contribute to host fitness and shape evolutionary trajectories, partic...

Preprint alert📢! 
Ever wondered how much bacterial parasites influence evolutionary outcomes of their host?
➡️ We co-evolved two bacterial strains in conditions in which the costs and benefits of prophage carriage varied

Here is what we found. 
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#MicroSky #PhageSky
🧵

Enterococcus faecalis persists and replicates intracellularly within neutrophils | Infection and Immunity Chronic wound infection represents a major global public health concern, impacting both healthcare costs and patient quality of life (1, 2). Enterococcus faecalis is a Gram-positive opportunistic path...

Interesting new paper by @kimingeneva.bsky.social and colleagues

'Enterococcus faecalis persists and replicates intracellularly within neutrophils'

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

A metabolic atlas of the Klebsiella pneumoniae species complex reveals lineage-specific metabolism and capacity for intra-species co-operation Why are there so many co-circulating Klebsiella pneumoniae clones? Using genomics and large-scale metabolic modelling of >7000 isolates, this study identifies structured, clone-specific metabolic spec...

Absolutely stoked to have this published in @plosbiology.org

We looked at the metabolism of #Klebsiella pneumoniae 🦠🧫. We not only demonstrated lineage-specific #metabolism, but that lineages can cross-feed and support each other.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

#MicroSky #microbiology 🧬 🧪 💊

Stable inheritance of the Streptomyces linear plasmid SCP1 by dual ParABS partition systems Low-copy-number plasmids often rely on dedicated maintenance mechanisms, such as partitioning systems, to ensure stable inheritance across generations. These partition systems actively segregate siste...

📄 Delighted to share that the preprint of my main PhD work is out now!

👏 A huge thank you to everyone involved, @tommclean.bsky.social, Govind Chandra, Ngat Tran (both not on BlueSky) and especially my PhD supervisor @tunglejic.bsky.social 👏

🧵 below!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Reversible phenotypic resistance to phage infection via capsule downregulation in Klebsiella pneumoniae Molecular biology; Microbiology; Cell biology

😳
Reversible phenotypic resistance to phage infection via capsule downregulation in Klebsiella pneumoniae
#phage #phageky

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Very interesting new protective response in live (!) neutrophils against bacterial infection:

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation | PNAS Nucleotide triphosphate (NTP)-dependent molecular switches regulate essential cellular processes by cycling between active and inactive states thro...

Now published. Thank you very much to our collaborative team, and very supportive editors and reviewers!!!

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