Protease-Controlled Prophage Activation in Staphylococcus aureus: New Mechanisms Driving Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Protease-Controlled Prophage Activation in Staphylococcus aureus: New Mechanisms Driving Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com

📢 Funded PhD in molecular microbiology & phage biology

How do bacterial stress responses control prophage activation and horizontal gene transfer?

Join us at St Andrews to dissect Clp protease–mediated regulation in Staphylococcus aureus.

Apply:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

A short research stay in 2019 (back in the pre-COVID era) at José R. Penadés lab turned into the third chapter of my PhD and today it finally sees the light.

On this fabulous day celebrating André Citroën's birthday 🥖🚗, I’m happy to share my main paper from my postdoc in @jrpenades.bsky.social Lab.
If you want to hear about how plasmid evolution is driven by mobile genetic elements, please come and read this preprint!

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

A new paper from the lab on virus-like particles called eCISs www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How bacteria evolved thousands of precision nanoinjectors?

Some bacteria don’t secrete toxins — they inject them using phage-derived machines called extracellular contractile injection systems (eCISs).

A prophage-encoded sRNA limits phage infection of adherent-invasive E. coli Author summary Prophages—viral genomes integrated into bacterial chromosomes—are common in enteric bacteria and can profoundly influence bacterial physiology and ecological fitness. Here we show that ...

A prophage-encoded sRNA limits phage infection of adherent-invasive E. coli

#PLoSPathogen from @prsecor.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Persistent virulent phages exist across bacterial isolates Nature Microbiology - The long-term existence of diverse virulent phages within cultures of Escherichia coli and others challenges the virulent–temperate dichotomy and points to non-canonical...

[1/3] Is your favorite bacterial isolate hiding a surprise lytic virus with a VERY different lifestyle? Finally I can proudly say that our paper on persistent phages is out in Nature Microbiology. rdcu.be/eWJEp. Well done @peterdoug.bsky.social

A family of linear plasmid phages that detect a quorum-sensing autoinducer exists in multiple bacterial species | mBio The discovery of quorum-sensing responsive linear plasmid phages has transformed understanding of phage-bacterial interactions by demonstrating inter-domain chemical communication. To date, however, e...

The final form of my 2nd postdoc paper with the Bassler Lab! Turns out our favorite quorum-sensing phage isn’t a one-off, but rather a member of a globally dispersed family of phages that sense a universal autoinducer.

#phagesky #microsky

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

Phage-encoded small RNA hijacks host replication machinery to support the phage lytic cycle Using RIL-seq, Silverman et al. map the RNA interactome of E. coli during phage lambda infection and uncover a conserved phage-encoded sRNA that activates host replication machinery. Their findings re...

Do viruses use RNA to rewire bacteria?
Yes!
In our paper in @cp-molcell.bsky.social RIL-seq reveals interkingdom RNA interactions during λ infection. Phages don’t just encode proteins, they use small RNAs to hijack bacterial replication and fine-tune infection.
#RNA #Phage
doi.org/10.1016/j.mo...

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

Phages communicate across species to shape microbial ecosystems Arbitrium is a communication system that helps bacteriophages decide between lysis and lysogeny via secreted peptides. In arbitrium, the AimP peptide binds its cognate AimR receptor to repress aimX ex...

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

#microsky #phagesky #phage

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

Amazing Lingchen! Massive congratulations 🎊🤩

We discovered a new horizontal gene transfer mechanism: tail-less cf-PICIs hijack free phage tails extracellularly, forming infectious chimeric virions that drive both intra- and inter-species transfer among bacteria. @jonaszpatkowski.bsky.social @tcostalab.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social

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 ...

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...

Thrilled to share that two of our papers with @jrpenades.bsky.social & GoogleDeepMind
are now out in @cellpress.bsky.social

1️⃣Microbial piracy: tinyurl.com/yvf6t3b3
2️⃣AI co-scientist mirrors experimental science: tinyurl.com/2dym92kj

@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
@imperiallifesci.bsky.social

New review 🔥 Single-cell RNA-Seq has been revolutionary for studying eukaryotic cells and now it's time for it to do the same for microbes! We describe the technology for single-bacterium RNA-Seq & the questions now studied using it.🧵⬇️
science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@andrewpountain.bsky.social

What is everyone's favourite review on anti-phage/defence systems? Ideally as an introduction to the concept/key systems for undergraduate level without expertise in phage biology #MicroSky #PhageSky

New paper in collaboration with the @asantoslopez.bsky.social lab!

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

Why do some people age more healthily than others? The answer may come, in part, from our guts and the massive community of microbes living in them. Discover how aging shapes—and is shaped by—the gut microbiota: asm.org/Articles/202...

Today, Professor Donal Wall, @uofglasgow.bsky.social attended a pitch session as part of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee's 'Under the Microscope' inquiry to explain why they should be interested in microbiomes.

Let’s talk about/with/to phage!

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs.

Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng
Custom Lab Hardware
Turn Key Genetic Design

Please repost for reach 💚

Microbial warfare brought us CRISPR. What big breakthroughs could be next? Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders. But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms race.

Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders, but scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this microbial warfare. Read the Nature feature on what breakthroughs could be next. 🧪

Most bacterial gene families are biased toward specific chromosomal positions The arrangement of genes along bacterial chromosomes influences their expression through growth rate–dependent gene copy number changes during DNA replication. Although translation- and transcription-...

I was waiting two years to see this out!! The genomic location of bacterial genes is not random!!! Congratulation on the authors (Martin Lercher and Team!). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A fanciful depiction of BASEL phages on a roadmap. Credit: Fabienne Estermann

The BASEL collection of E. coli #phages is limited by its host strain. @humollidorentina.bsky.social @damienpiel.bsky.social @aharms485.bsky.social &co use a modified host to add 36 new phages, revealing roles of O-antigen in recognition & R-M systems in immunity @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4jirGvX

PhD opportunity in a fantastic topic with great supervisors. Check it out!

Genetics, ecology and evolution of phage satellites Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Penadés et al. explore the genetics, potential origins and life cycle of phage satellites, and they discuss the impact of these elements on the...

If you are interested in phage satellites, we hope you'll enjoy this. Fun collaboration with the Rocha, Seed, Bikard, and Chen labs! rdcu.be/efkvG

We welcome on BlueSky Alfred Fillol Salom @alfredfisa.bsky.social, the leader of the The Ecology of Mobile Genetic Elements group at our research institute #microsky 🧫🦠🧪 #phages #virology #viruses

a cartoon drawing of a man in a white superhero costume Alt: a cartoon drawing of a man in a white superhero costume

Made a feed for phage papers/discussions/friends!
Please feel free to pin this feed to your bluesky profile and if you wish to add to the feed, simply add the #phage hashtag (NOT case sensitive) and the feed will aggregate the posts. See you there! Please repost🙏🏽

Re-posts appreciated!

We have an open PhD position w/ Prof Harold Auradou on #microswimmers/#protists in complex media! Students get to spend at least 12 months in Paris, and will receive their PhD from both Exeter and Paris-Saclay!

Apply by 31st Mar.
More details:
adum.fr/as/ed/voirpr...