Baptiste Darracq
@baptistedarracq.bsky.social
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📥 188
📝 6
PhD student in the PGB lab at Institut Pasteur | integrons, bacterial immunity
reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Romain Villa
4 days ago
Curious about the top methane-maker in your gut? Meet this month's featured microbe and find out! 🦠💨🔥 in
@cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social
#archaeasky
@sgribaldo.bsky.social
@pasteur.fr
🔗 Full article linked in reply👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Methanobrevibacter smithii
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966842X25002963?dgcid=coauthor
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Paul Rainey
10 days ago
@prczhaoyansong.bsky.social
’s deep dive into the dark matter of compost communities is now out 🎉 Genomic islands hijack jumbo phages—whose capsids enable transfer of large tracts of DNA—shedding new light on the scale & scope of phage-mediated gene flow 😎
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Jumbo phage–mediated transduction of genomic islands | PNAS
Bacteria acquire new genes by horizontal gene transfer, typically mediated by mobile genetic elements (MGEs). While plasmids, bacteriophages, and c...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2512465122
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Sternberg Lab
21 days ago
1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Antiviral reverse transcriptases reveal the evolutionary origin of telomerase
Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) employ diverse and distinctive mechanisms of cDNA synthesis to protect bacteria against viral infection. However, much of DRT family diversity remains ...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682844v1
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Frédérique Le Roux
26 days ago
Phages evolve fast, or do they? In oysters, some stay identical for years. With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements. Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and
@epcrocha.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
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Ecological constraints foster both extreme viral-host lineage stability and mobile element diversity in a marine community
Phages are typically viewed as very rapidly evolving biological entities. Little is known, however, about whether and how phages can establish long-term genetic stability. We addressed this eco-evolut...
https://www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2025.10.10.681744v1
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Zeynep Baharoglu
2 months ago
So excited our antibiotic potentiation story is out 🤩 Led by the extraordinary
@manonlang.bsky.social
with
@fox-science.bsky.social
&
@amazeld.bsky.social
+amazing collaborators
@immunobladder.bsky.social
@imaneelmeouche.bsky.social
🦠 We believe it can make a difference in
#AMR
infections!
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Uridine as a potentiator of aminoglycosides through activation of carbohydrate transporters
Uridine boosts aminoglycoside treatment efficiency against antibiotic-susceptible as well as antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw7630
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research
6 months ago
🧬 Bacteria fight both antibiotics and viruses with the same genetic tool: integrons! New study (Institut Pasteur, CNRS, Université Paris Cité & Montréal): ~10% of gene cassettes may defend against phages. 🛠️ One step closer to smarter therapies. 🔗
www.pasteur.fr/en/research-...
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Céline Loot
6 months ago
At least 10% of the V. cholerae integron cassettes have novel antiphage activities (see below). Considering that there are 25,000 distinct cassettes of unknown function, integrons constitute an extraordinary and almost inexhaustible reservoir of antiphage functions!
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Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems
Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads0768
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Eduardo Rocha
6 months ago
Our paper on how integrons are biobanks of novel minimal defense systems is now out
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Two main conclusions on this excellent work led by
@eloilittner.bsky.social
@baptistedarracq.bsky.social
1/n
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Jose A Escudero
6 months ago
Our paper is published back2back with one from
@amazeld.bsky.social
and
@epcrocha.bsky.social
labs where
@baptistedarracq.bsky.social
,
@eloilittner.bsky.social
and co. show that Sedentary Chromosomal Integrons are biobanks of phage defense systems.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems
Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads0768
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Jose A Escudero
6 months ago
🧪 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/...
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Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems
Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that capture, stockpile, and modulate the expression of genes encoded in integron cassettes. Mobile integrons (MIs) are borne on plasmids, acting as a vehicle ...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads0915
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White smoke, we have a new pope and also 16 new anti-phages systems in sedentary integrons (SCIs) ! In collaboration with the Rocha lab, we show in our new paper that cassettes of these large platforms encode many known anti-phage defenses, and uncovered 16 new ones.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems
Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads0768
6 months ago
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reposted by
Baptiste Darracq
Stephan Gruber
8 months ago
Glad to share the work of
@yli18smc.bsky.social
and co on Lamassu, a bacterial defense system related to Rad50/Mre11 (RM). While RM carefully trims DNA ends for repair, Lamassu chops up the host chromosome. Our study reveals how it is regulated to minimize damage, activating only during infection.
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