"En biología, usamos mutantes para entender cómo funcionan las células y qué pasa cuando algo falla".

Proud to celebrate our dinosaur expert Dr Neil Gostling and former student Thomas Land for their parts in the new Spielberg documentary The Dinosaurs on Netflix 🦕 Dr Gostling researched Spinosaurus habits, and Thomas was a science researcher. Find out more: www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2026/03...

In our latest work, we characterise the Tmn defence system. We reveal plasmolysis as a new way to block phage infection, dramatically reducing secondary infections.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two years thinking about genome evolution and how recent research revealing complex gene-gene interactions has complicated traditional ‘gene-centric’ genomic approaches to evolution. So here is a review that consolidates these thoughts! rdcu.be/e6pHY

I just made an account and voted for this biology laboratory made of LEGO to "promote biological research and inspire more people into the world of biology". They need 10K votes. Reposting and/or voting below would be helpful. 🤗 beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

New pre-print with @wtmatlock.bsky.social!!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... What shapes the distribution of plasmids across bacteria? Our paper shows that conjugative plasmids actually have a very narrow distribution compared to mobilizable plasmids. Conjugative systems restrict plasmid transfer!

Out now in @plosbiology.org : our big joint effort on the role of #CRISPR in plasmid competition. Read on for a really fun (I’m biased ok) analysis of how a defence system has new selective pressures when it’s mobile journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... 1/6

Xiaofeng combined 2D live-cell single-particle tracking with 3D simulations to specifically measure the bacterial nucleoid accessibility and viscosity! Our preprint describes how these nucleoid properties respond to cellular processes! Code is available too. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨 New pre-print! 🚨 In the largest study of its kind to-date, we investigate the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving within-patient evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Read here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)

In our most recent work David Forrest has discovered a widespread mechanisms linking transcription initiation to DNA supercoiling... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#MicroSky: Plasmid vectors still underpin molecular biology, but convenience shouldn’t trump design. De Lorenzo & Martínez revisit copy number, selection & stability, and explores modular AI-assisted vector design for robust synthetic biology across the microbial world. doi.org/10.1111/1751...

AI is replacing tasks we have grown reluctant to do ourselves – thinking, writing, creating, analysing.

Emerging advances in prokaryotic transposition: TnPedia as a promising tool

Delighted to share our latest work exploring the regulation of desiccation tolerance in Acinetobacter baumannii. Great effort by @lharkova.bsky.social and @rdedios.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Une opportunité unique de former des étudiants talentueux à la biologie des bactéries à l'ENS Lyon et mener des recherches sur les phages, l'immunité bactérienne, le transfert génétique horizontal (HGT) et/ou les éléments génétiques mobiles au sein du département de bactériologie du CIRI.

SimUrine: a novel, fully defined artificial urinary medium for enhanced microbiological research of urinary bacteria journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Coupling DNA processing to early gene expression drives antibiotic resistance plasmid dissemination https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.09.698686v1

Starting 2026 with a hike to the castle on top of my hometown Jaén. Lovely views to kick off the year.

Gene dependence during mammalian Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia and septicaemia infections. Published Open Access and fee-free in MGen using a Publish and Read agreement: doi.org/10.1099/mgen... #MGen #PublishAndRead

academic.oup.com/nar/article/... Collaboration with Y. Yamaichi. Killing donor bacteria in conjugation mixes using water enables transcriptomic profiling of early plasmid genes ! Superb tool for studying zygotic induction of these early genes, which include anti-SOS and anti-RM factors. #microsky

Research institutes: What makes the magic? Was fun to help my old boss Sarah Teichmann and her friend Frank Bradke put this piece out for the FEBS Network. A reflective follow-up to our PLOS Biology article in 2023. With art by the amazing Catherine Bone network.febs.org/posts/resear...

I just got an email from a former mentee telling me that one dinner conversation changed how he writes papers♥️ I told him: “just write the paper, get it out—the next one will be better, and the next even better.” Perfectionism is a trap (and a way to procrastinate...:))

After 5 years of waiting, the new #CRISPR classification by Makarova et al. is out @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Paul Nurse describing the main job of a PI (From ‘The Thinking Game’, 2024)

New adventures, same old fantastic companions. @lharkova.bsky.social and I just joined @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social at @unisouthampton.bsky.social with the whole @ronanmccarthy.bsky.social lab. Looking forward to collaborating with such a great research community!

"What Grant Reviewers Actually Look For (and What They Ignore)" jim-olds.org/2025/10/23/w...

Thrilled to share our multidisiplinary work on how genome-wide DNA bridging by H-NS reshapes the stationary phase bacterial nucleoid and affects the transcriptional landscape. With Xindan Wang and @meyerroc.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Here's the link to the system, try it! qedscience.com @qedscience.bsky.social

New preprint! Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠 Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare! An epic effort by Rosanna Wright www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Chromosome architecture affects virulence and competitiveness in Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Acinetobacter exhibits cyrcadian rhythms! These bugs can predict the light cycles and adjust the expression of genes accordingy. Amazing collaboration with Alejandra Mussi's team from Rosario, Argentina, my city!! rdcu.be/eIQzL

We're hiring! We are looking for a Publishing Operations Editor to join our friendly team! You’ll support the strategic growth of our journal portfolio by managing the peer review process and overseeing production services. Applications close 15 September: microb.io/jobs

Coming back from a great time visiting Karolinska Institutet and lovely Stockholm 🇸🇪

Very happy to see this one out: doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf192 Here, we assessed the contribution of natural transformation to the acquisition of novel genes. See preprint thread. @molbioevol.bsky.social #microsky #evobio

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

Today, our UPOBioinfo group presents the defensome of Acinetobacter baumannii. Do you know about its concerning Global Clone 2? Well, part of its success could be due to the replacement of restriction-modification systems by Ssp antiviral systems.

Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1

Super excited to share our paper online 🚨today🚨 in Cell Host & Microbe‬! Xiaomei Ren @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and Mason Clark @rmasonclark.bsky.social‬ co-led discovery of ecological factors for Acinetobacter baumannii carriage in the gut, a reservoir for pathogen spread. 🎉 tinyurl.com/443kfefk

Happy to finally share this! Read here about the best strategy the the persistence of low-copy plasmids. @mariosanter.bsky.social @iwangtoknow.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s414...

On our way to Niagara Falls for the Acinetobacter Conference 2025 after a fantastic stay-over in lovely Toronto with @lharkova.bsky.social. We will miss the pancakes with maple syrup 🥞

🚨🚨New paper out in @natcomms.nature.com!! Come for the first large-scale analysis of plasmid copy number across species, stay for one of the most intriguing results of my lab: universal scaling laws in plasmid biology! 📈🧬 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper published in our computational biology group for the study of phages, of which we are especially proud: "Bacteriophages in Pseudomonas aeruginosa evade the CRISPR-Cas I-F system by depletion of PAM sequences".

It’s been fantastic to talk about my adventures with Acinetobacter plasmids at the @mgeworkshop.bsky.social. Such a lovely meeting with lots of great science and cool people. See you next year!

🎉 So proud of our PhD student, Ryuichi ONO, who submitted his first first-author paper from his undergrad research @utokyoofficial.bsky.social about plasmid survival tactics influencing ARG spread! Now just wait to see what he’s been cooking up in our lab 🤩 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Glad to contribute to @uk.theconversation.com explaining our latest paper on plastic-eating pathogens 🦠 In case you missed it: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

New opinion paper from the lab! www.cell.com/trends/micro...

🔎 From antibiotic resistance to boredom research, the #YERUNResearchMobilityAward helped two early-career researchers take big steps forward. Meet Ruben de Dios Barranco & Muireann O'Dea in the latest YRMA Voices👇 yerun.eu/2025/05/yrma...

🧪 Finally out after peer review, our work showing that "Mobile #Integrons carry Phage Defense Systems" is now published in Science 🎉 Short 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

My first adventure with P. aeruginosa finally saw the light! It was really fun to work on this exciting project and definitely worth the effort!

We are pleased to announce that registration for 3rd MGE Workshop is now live! If you are interested in giving a talk please register online through our website by Friday 16th May. We look forward to seeing you all in Southampton in June! www.ukmgeworkshop.org