Connor Sharp

Connor Sharp

@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

Lecturer in Microbiology at the University of Reading. Interested in uncovering how bacteria fight it out and using those strategies against them

101 followers67 following12 posts

Connor Sharp
@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

🍽️ Who said metals aren’t on the menu? 🍽️ Very happy to share another collaboration with the Cunrath lab lead by @ferrytin.bsky.social. Great paper and interesting for anyone into 🪙 Iron and Zinc 🪙 , transporters or Pseudomonas 🦠! Now in BioMetals link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comIdentification of iron and zinc responsive TonB-dependent transporters in Pseudomonas aeruginosa - BioMetalsPseudomonas aeruginosa employs a repertoire of TonB-dependent transporters (TBDTs) to acquire essential nutrients, such as iron-siderophore complexes, enabling its adaptation to diverse and often host...

Connor Sharp reposted

Will Matlock
@wtmatlock.bsky.social

🚨 New preprint with @annadewar.bsky.social 🚨 Do plasmids “ameliorate” towards their hosts? Maybe… We show that the classic plasmid-host GC correlation is confounded by population structure, and argue that plasmid mobility shapes the opportunity for host-associated compositional evolution.

doi.orgMobility shapes plasmid GC content evolutionPlasmids are frequently AT-rich relative to their bacterial hosts. Despite this tendency towards lower GC content, plasmid and host chromosome GC content are positively correlated across diverse collections of plasmid-host pairs. However, the evolutionary processes underlying this pattern remain unclear. The classic model of amelioration predicts that horizontally acquired DNA gradually converges on host nucleotide composition. However, because plasmids can repeatedly transfer between bacterial hosts, the opportunity for such host-associated evolution may depend on their transmission dynamics. Using 50,936 plasmid-host pairs from a public sequence database, we found that the apparent global correlation between plasmid and host chromosome GC content was largely driven by differences between bacterial species rather than within species. We therefore accounted for plasmid and host population structure when testing how plasmid mobility shaped host-associated compositional evolution. We compared two contrasting regimes: a population of 3,682 Enterobacterales plasmids distributed across diverse host backgrounds, and six long-term host-associated plasmids from a Rhizobium leguminosarum lineage with INSeq-determined gene essentiality data. In the Enterobacterales population, GC content variation was overwhelmingly explained by plasmid lineage rather than host phylogeny, and conjugative plasmids showed greater similarity to their host chromosomes than mobilisable or non-mobilisable plasmids. In the Rhizobium leguminosarum plasmids, synonymous-site composition was more similar to the host chromosome among genes required across multiple host life stages. Together, these results support a model in which plasmid mobility influences the opportunity for host-associated evolutionary processes to alter nucleotide composition. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Wellcome Trust, 319534/Z/24/Z St. John's College, University of Oxford, UK
Connor Sharp
@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

Really excited to share a fully-funded PhD position in my lab at the University of Reading exploring how E. coli uses competition to survive in the microbiome. Perfect for anyone interested in using a mix of biochem and ecology to study pathogens. Deadline May 29th! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

findaphd.comInvestigating how E. coli exploits bacterial competition in the microbiome at University of Reading on FindAPhD.comPhD Project - Investigating how E. coli exploits bacterial competition in the microbiome at University of Reading, listed on FindAPhD.com
Connor Sharp
@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

Delighted to share that I have been awarded a Springboard award from @acmedsci.bsky.social! Excited to start investigating how E. coli uses different bacterial competition systems in the gut microbiome

Academy of Medical Sciences@acmedsci.bsky.social

We’re pleased to share the latest round of our Springboard programme 👏 This year we're supporting 55 early career researchers across the UK whose bold ideas have the potential to save lives, by investing £6.7M in discovery-driven health research 💡 ➡️ bit.ly/4syNGa8

Connor Sharp
@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

Why do bacteria carry multiple similar weapons? Great to team up with @s-booth.bsky.social again, combining some very cool experimental work and bioinformatics to investigate why bacteria keep hold of seemingly redundant weapons.

Sean Booth@s-booth.bsky.social

For my first bluesky post I'm stoked to share this work, done with fellow Foster lab alum Connor Sharp! (@magicmicrobe.bsky.social) We set out to discover why bacteria carry multiple similar weapons for attacking other bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Connor Sharp reposted

Syma Khalid
@sykhalid.bsky.social

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends. www.jbc.org/article/S002...

jbc.orgBacteriocin biophysics: From protein-protein interaction models to navigators of the bacterial cell envelopeBacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...
Connor Sharp
@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

What does competition for iron look like for pathogens in different environments? We had the chance to contribute to this great paper looking at Salmonella in the gut with the Cunrath Lab (UoStrasbourg). Salmonella relies on siderophore exploitation at low pH url: academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

academic.oup.comSalmonella relies on siderophore exploitation at low pHAbstract. Salmonella enterica, a prominent enteric pathogen, employs sophisticated iron acquisition mechanisms to overcome host-imposed iron limitation, no

Connor Sharp reposted

Tami Lieberman
@contaminatedsci.bsky.social

Proud to announce SimPhyNI, a new tool for bacterial GWAS with higher precision and scalability than existing tools. Try it out and let us know what you think!!

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social

High Precision Binary Trait Association on Phylogenetic Trees https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.24.696407v1

Connor Sharp reposted

Erik Bakkeren
@erikbakkeren.bsky.social

Can we leverage bacterial competition for targeted replacement of harmful strains? Maybe! Our recent piece in @natmicrobiol.nature.com provides a theoretical framework and a set of experiments to show what it might take: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comStrain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature MicrobiologyMathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.
Connor Sharp
@magicmicrobe.bsky.social

So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comBacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance - Nature CommunicationsBacteria employ a range of competition systems that deliver toxins to inhibit competing strains. This study shows that these systems are particularly important for the ecology of virulent and antibiot...

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