Alberto HCA reposted
New #microsky#AMR Perspective paper with @penamiller.bsky.social rdcu.be/fqBJo ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE (IE MIC) AND TOLERANCE ARE NOT BACTERIAL TRAITS! Please read on if you want an explanation for this provocative claim.
Alberto HCA
@albertohca.bsky.social
PhD interested in antibiotic resistance, MGE, ecology and evolution
107 followers136 following12 posts
Alberto HCA reposted
New #microsky#AMR Perspective paper with @penamiller.bsky.social rdcu.be/fqBJo ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE (IE MIC) AND TOLERANCE ARE NOT BACTERIAL TRAITS! Please read on if you want an explanation for this provocative claim.
Alberto HCA reposted
The final version of our latest paper is now published in @natcomms.nature.com! This study illustrates how #AntibioticResistance mechanisms can reshape bacterial physiology beyond resistance itself, ultimately influencing infection dynamics in clinically relevant ways🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New preprint out! 📣🚨 We found that loss-of-function mutations in the carbapenem entry porin OprD of Pseudomonas aeruginosa do more than confer #AntibioticResistance: they reshape the bacterial membrane and interaction with the host, enhancing epithelial colonization capacity 🦠 #Microsky
Alberto HCA reposted
Replying to @pleunipennings.bsky.social
None of these trees are published by the way, but I do have a paper with another explanation that doesn't require frequency dependence. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Alberto HCA reposted
CapK is a bacterial DNA damage-activated kinase that phosphorylates transcriptional repressor CapS to control adjacently-encoded anti-phage immune pathway genes in response to a universal stress signal, DNA damage @kevincorbett.bsky.social and colleagues link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Alberto HCA reposted
Alberto HCA reposted
New preprint alert!!! 🚀🤓 We are very happy to finally share this with the world — the result of seven years of work and a new tool to study integrons and discover new functions encoded in these bacterial platforms. If you want to know more, here is a thread 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Alberto HCA reposted
Final version of our last paper is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Alberto HCA reposted
New preprint out on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Can conjugative plasmids be used to control plasmid and pathogen spread? Follow me down the rabbit hole that led to this story 🧵
Alberto HCA reposted
New preprint on the limits of detecting higher-order interactions in microbial communities. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We find that the dominance of additive and pairwise interactions on community function may not reflect biological simplicity, but fundamental limits of statistical detection.
Excited to share our latest work! 📝 We measured the fitness effect of 136 AMR genes and found that many are neutral or even beneficial without selection. 🤯🧬 Oxygen availability can flip their fitness and our stochastic model indicates that oxygen fluctuations help maintain them. Learn more 👇🏼
Fitness effects of antimicrobial resistance genes in changing environments https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710025v1
Great work led by MBAlab @jaescudero.bsky.social with the invaluable collaboration of @sanmillan.bsky.social @baerboletta.bsky.social @penamiller.bsky.social and @ayari.bsky.social
Alberto HCA reposted
New paper out in PNAS!!! 🎉 Do more plasmid copies mean faster evolution? 🧵 Dive into the story www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Alberto HCA reposted
Epromoters bind key stress-related transcription factors to regulate clusters of stress response genes Salvatore @spicuglia.bsky.social and coworkers link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Alberto HCA reposted
Spx inhibits expression of the SwrA•DegU master flagellar activator in Bacillus subtilis -in JBacteriol journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Alberto HCA reposted
This week is World #AntimicrobialResistance Awareness week This article collection spans the breadth of #AMR across pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites), covers epidemiological monitoring, diagnostics, treatment, etc
Alberto HCA reposted
Do plasmids really move around that much? Well, maybe not always Thrilled to have contributed to this story with two of my favourite microbiologists: @jrpenades.bsky.social & @sanmillan.bsky.social This great work was led by Akshay Sabnis & @wfigueroac3.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Alberto HCA reposted
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #phagesky #phage defence #synbio #microsky
Alberto HCA reposted
Our latest work reveals that arbitrium phages cross-communicate across species! These tiny viruses “listen” to signals from others, coordinating lysis-lysogeny decisions across species. Original idea from @albertomarina.bsky.social and, as usual, he was right. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Alberto HCA reposted
New pre-print www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are ubiquitous, but the selective pressures that they impose on plasmids are not well understood. Project led by Daniel Cazares in collaboration with @brockhurstlab.bsky.social! #phagesky#microsky
Alberto HCA reposted
Imagine we could travel back in time ⏪⌛️to explore the world of bacterial pathogens before humans discovered and industrialised antibiotics We just did that to study the history of #AMR spread @science.org doi.org/10.1126/scie... If you like time travel & biology, this 🧵is for you👇
Creativity keeps your brain young 🎸
Alberto HCA reposted
Alberto HCA reposted
I am so proud to be part of this work, that we initiated Fernando de la Cruz and I, when he was on sabbatical in my lab in 2009... it took so much time for this achievement, 1000 thanks to Raúl Fernández-López! this brought me back to my PhD on cyanobacteria genetics. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Alberto HCA reposted
Hydrogen sulfide production distinguishes Salmonella from close relatives, but its biological significance remains obscure. This study uncovers the secret: Salmonella uses hydrogen sulfide production as a weapon to outcompete E. coli and gain a foothold in the gut. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Alberto HCA reposted
El próximo 5 de septiembre en nuestro #47congresosebbm tendrá lugar la entrega del Premio Fundación Lilly a la Mejor Tesis Doctoral en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular a Alberto Hipólito Carrillo por el trabajo de su tesis. https://f.mtr.cool/rnstpoiucs
Alberto HCA reposted
New paper out!
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
Alberto HCA reposted
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
Alberto HCA reposted
Our new manuscript is out! A bit of everything cool: Plasmids ✅ Insertion Sequences ✅ AMR Evolution ✅ Microbial Communities ✅ Databases analyses ✅ Mathematical modeling ✅ See the scientific thread below of Jorge Sastre, who has brilliantly led this work with @palomarodera.bsky.social
New paper out! 🔈🔈📣📣 Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation. Combining experimental and computational approaches, we unveil how two of the most prevalent bacterial MGE accelerate the evolution of AMR. 🧵👇🏻 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Alberto HCA reposted
New paper out! 🔈🔈📣📣 Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation. Combining experimental and computational approaches, we unveil how two of the most prevalent bacterial MGE accelerate the evolution of AMR. 🧵👇🏻 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Alberto HCA reposted
1/16 New pre-print from the Sternberg Lab! We uncover how temperate phages can use RNA-guided transcription factors to remodel the flagellar composition of their bacterial host and enhance their fitness. Find the preprint and full story here: tinyurl.com/mshwjd77
Alberto HCA reposted
Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬? In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments! 👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread! Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)
New paper alert! 🚨 Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate. We combine theory, simulations, experimental evolution, and bioinformatics to demonstrate that mutation rates scale with plasmid copy number. Let's dive in! 🧵👇
Alberto HCA reposted
Here's our new broad review on the extended mobility of plasmids, about all mechanisms driving and limiting their transfer. From conjugation to conduction, phage-plasmids to hitchers, molecular to evolutionary dynamics, ecology to biotech. The state of affairs. 1/9 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Alberto HCA reposted
Experimental evolution in an era of molecular manipulation #ExperimentalEvolution #evolution #evoSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great work from great people! Congrats @cserna.bsky.social 🤟🏻
Our paper “Global dissemination of npmA mediated pan‑aminoglycoside resistance via a mobile element in Gram‑positive bacteria” is now in @natcomms.nature.com. Part of my freshly defended PhD, so doubly happy! 😄🎉 🧵 (1/14) www.doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Alberto HCA reposted
Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.
Alberto HCA reposted
Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Why don’t people who live together have the same strains of microbes? Tami Lieberman (@contaminatedsci.bsky.social) and I put forward one underexplored reason in our new preprint: Intraspecies warfare restricts strain coexistence in human skin microbiomes
Alberto HCA reposted
🦠 Nuestro #articulodelmes habla sobre cómo los integrones móviles codifican sistemas de defensa contra fagos de la mano del grupo investigador liderado por el Dr. José Antonio Escudero 📄https://f.mtr.cool/qxwueostwp
Super honored to get the Best PhD Thesis award from @sebbm.bsky.social 🎓✨ Big thanks to everyone who supported me along the way. Huge congrats to all the other amazing winners too! 🙌
Ganadores del Premio Fundación Lilly a la Mejor Tesis Doctoral en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular 2025 👏 🥇Alberto Hipólito Carrillo 🥈Álvaro de la Gándara 🥈Andrés Gámez https://f.mtr.cool/dkbbwgjluf
Alberto HCA reposted
For our first post on Bluesky, we're excited to share our recent work published in mBio @asm.org! Led by PhD student @madeofmicrobes.bsky.social, we show that flagellar motility and interactions with the mucus environment influence Pseudomonas antibiotic tolerance. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Alberto HCA reposted
🧫🦠🔬🧬 @science.org Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @jaescudero.bsky.social @albertohca.bsky.social et al. #microbiology #phage #immunity #phagesky #MicroSky
What a milestone!!! I’m really glad I got to add my two cents to the growing knowledge about integrons — this paper is totally worth checking out!
🧪 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/...
Can resistance genes really hold their breath like pros? 🤔🤿 Outstanding work by Laura, Amalia, Nico and Ester from @jaescudero.bsky.social lab in collab with @sanmillan.bsky.social, Fernando Baquero and Rafael Cantón. Dive into our latest paper to find out! 👇🏼 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Alberto HCA reposted
Excited to share the first preprint from my lab, collaborating with the fantastic @sanmillan.bsky.social 's lab, led by the amazing Jorge Sastre. We've demonstrated how insertion sequences encoded in plasmids promote bacterial adaptation. This project has been incredibly fun!
New preprint in collaboration with @asantoslopez.bsky.social lab and led by Jorge Sastre. Combining experimental evolution and analyses of longitudinal samples from hospitalised patients, we unveiled a new mechanism of plasmid-mediated evolution beyond HGT 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Alberto HCA reposted
Really like this paper from @fnobrega.bsky.social and co - some defense systems statistically co-occur with each other across genomes and correspondingly show synergistic effects in vitro Bacterial defense systems exhibit synergistic anti-phage activity www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Alberto HCA reposted
And its out! New paper for #integron aficionados. We found gene-less cassettes in superintegrons that express/silence other cassettes in the array. Here is a 🧵(if I know how to do this in Bluesky...😆) academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Alberto HCA reposted
Integron cassettes integrate into bacterial genomes via widespread non-classical attG sites www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Alberto HCA reposted
Scientists hail new #antibiotic that can kill drug-resistant bacteria - & including quotes from the awesome @bugsinblood.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/science/2024... & Original research paper here www.nature.com/articles/s41...