'Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a leading cause of sexually transmitted disease and a concern due to increasing AMR. It contains a restricted repertoire of plasmids, including a conjugative plasmid, pConj, which disseminates plasmid-mediated AMR. We show that, in contrast to broad host range plasmids, pConj is largely restricted to and adapted to N. gonorrhoeae, and has been remarkably conserved since it first emerged over 80 years ago.'
#AMR #Plasmid #antibioticresistance #Evolution

https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010743

Addgene, Plasmidsorus, UGENE, NEB builder, etc. We live in the **best timeline** ever for #plasmid assembly. 😍

A host of armor: Prokaryotic immune strategies against mobile genetic elements: Cell Reports
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(23)00683-6

#plasmid #bacteriofagos

A two-part resurrection tale (1|2)

by Christoph
Besides a resurrection tale that I'll re­late to in the se­cond part, this post will be about an­ti-de­fense sys­tems of plas­mids as an in­trin­sic part of the seem­ing­ly end­less arms race bet­ween con­ju­ga­tive ele­ments and their hosts. Still, I am not in­clined to act as war cor­res­pon­dent, and cer­tain­ly not at a time...

Read more → https://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2023/04/a-two-part-resurrection-tale-1-2.html

#microbiology #plasmid #conjugation

A highly conserved and globally prevalent cryptic #plasmid is among the most numerous mobile genetic elements in the human gut | bioRxiv

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.25.534219v1

An impressive open-source #plasmid editor packed as a desktop application for Linux, Mac or Windows. I am very impressed by the ergonomy and the available features and I hope the #teselagen company will maintain this software open source in the future.

Demo:
https://teselagen.github.io/openVectorEditor/

Installation:
https://github.com/teselagen/openvectoreditor

The C. psittaci BF_amazon_parrot13 strain's complete #genome was sequenced, revealing a circular chromosome (1,160,701 bp, GenBank: CP110211) & a chlamydial #plasmid (7,553 bp, GenBank: CP110212) 🧬 #genomics #microbiology #_BRIG

Exciting new paper in @PLOSBiology — we show that plasmids use translational global regulators to rewire host cells including expression of key ecological traits, like metabolism and motility, whilst also boosting horizontal transmission of the plasmid

This was a big collaborative effort with colleagues at John Innes Centre, Birmingham, Sheffield & Liverpool

#plasmid #HGT #MobileGeneticElements

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001988

RT @PLOSBiology
Plasmids manipulate host cells to their benefit. @Catriona1392 @BrockhurstLab &co describe a #plasmid-borne translational regulator that subverts ecological traits in #bacteria, inducing community organization & promoting plasmid transmission #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/3I4NES6

Plasmids manipulate host cells to their benefit. @Catriona1392 @BrockhurstLab &co describe a #plasmid-borne translational regulator that subverts ecological traits in #bacteria, inducing community organization & promoting plasmid transmission #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/3I4NES6

Plasmids manipulate host cells to their benefit. @Catriona1392 @BrockhurstLab &co describe a #plasmid-borne translational regulator that subverts ecological traits in #bacteria, inducing community organization & promoting plasmid transmission #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/3I4NES6

Plasmids manipulate host cells to their benefit. @Catriona1392 @BrockhurstLab &co describe a #plasmid-borne translational regulator that subverts ecological traits in #bacteria, inducing community organization & promoting plasmid transmission #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/3I4NES6

RT @DaganLab
A graduate student (PhD) position is available in our group. Funded by #ERCCoG on #plasmid evolution. Skills in computational biology are required. See details in evoldir:
https://evol.mcmaster.ca/~brian/evoldir/GradStudentPositions/KielU.ComputationalEvolutionaryMicrobiol

#Evolutionary Responses to Acquiring a #Multidrug Resistance #Plasmid Are Dominated by Metabolic Functions across Diverse Escherichia coli #Lineages | mSystems

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00713-22

A modular #plasmid #toolkit applied in marine #Proteobacteria reveals functional insights during #bacteria-stimulated metamorphosis | bioRxiv

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.31.526474v1

A new comparative #ExperimentalEvolution paper with @alanmcn1 lab

Diverse #Ecoli strains adapt to gaining an MDR #plasmid by mutations in metabolic genes

Also shows key roles for IS-element insertions, HNS, and altered plasmid conjugation rate enabling genomic assimilation of a new MDR plasmid

#antimicrobialresistance #AMR

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00713-22

Efficient #plasmid transfer via natural #competence in a microbial co‐culture

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/msb.202211406#.Y9goeS3z3QU.twitter

...and the environment selects !

As someone with long term interests in #HorizontalGeneTransfer , I'm really interested in this new research exploring environment-specific selection of #plasmid adaptive traits in #bacteria

Find out more in this new research in mBio on:

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.03191-22

#evolution #naturalselection #microbiology
#ecology

Vertical and horizontal gene transfer #tradeoffs direct #plasmid fitness | Molecular Systems Biology
#hgt
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/msb.202211300

An easily modifiable conjugative #plasmid for studying horizontal gene transfer -
#conjugation #HGT #genetictools #synbio
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36100085/