Gareth McVicker
@mcvickermicro.bsky.social
#TeamPlasmid PI. Bacterial plasmid genetics & TA systems in EAEC, Klebsiella & Yersinia (+ more) at NTU. Opinions my own, etc. He/him.
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Plasmids are small, mobile DNA elements that enable bacteria to exchange genetic material, including genes for antibiotic resistance.
We study these genetic vehicles with the aim to uncover how they facilitate the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
#AntibioticResistance
We study these genetic vehicles with the aim to uncover how they facilitate the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
#AntibioticResistance
July 11, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Plasmids are small, mobile DNA elements that enable bacteria to exchange genetic material, including genes for antibiotic resistance.
We study these genetic vehicles with the aim to uncover how they facilitate the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
#AntibioticResistance
We study these genetic vehicles with the aim to uncover how they facilitate the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
#AntibioticResistance
Thanks @fnobrega.bsky.social for an excellent first talk of talks at @mgeworkshop.bsky.social ... Very well-run event!
June 16, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Thanks @fnobrega.bsky.social for an excellent first talk of talks at @mgeworkshop.bsky.social ... Very well-run event!
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Cool paper showing 🦠 recipient response to #plasmid conjugation
Capsule blocks conjugation, preventing MPF between donor:recipient. However, conjugation exploits recipient strain heterogeneity of capsule thickness, conjugating to cells with less capsule
#MicroSky 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Capsule blocks conjugation, preventing MPF between donor:recipient. However, conjugation exploits recipient strain heterogeneity of capsule thickness, conjugating to cells with less capsule
#MicroSky 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 15, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Cool paper showing 🦠 recipient response to #plasmid conjugation
Capsule blocks conjugation, preventing MPF between donor:recipient. However, conjugation exploits recipient strain heterogeneity of capsule thickness, conjugating to cells with less capsule
#MicroSky 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Capsule blocks conjugation, preventing MPF between donor:recipient. However, conjugation exploits recipient strain heterogeneity of capsule thickness, conjugating to cells with less capsule
#MicroSky 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
On our way to @mgeworkshop.bsky.social for @lotox.bsky.social to present later. Looking forward to some amazing talks! @arom-ntu.bsky.social #mgeworkshop
June 16, 2025 at 5:31 AM
On our way to @mgeworkshop.bsky.social for @lotox.bsky.social to present later. Looking forward to some amazing talks! @arom-ntu.bsky.social #mgeworkshop
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
I am Honoured to have received the 2nd Prize at NTU's ⭐️ STAR (Science & Tech Annual Research) Conference!
Special thanks to my supervisors @conmeehan.bsky.social @blackpassiflora.bsky.social and collaborators @danwhiley.bsky.social @Kate Cox for the incredible support.
@arom-ntu.bsky.social
Special thanks to my supervisors @conmeehan.bsky.social @blackpassiflora.bsky.social and collaborators @danwhiley.bsky.social @Kate Cox for the incredible support.
@arom-ntu.bsky.social
June 11, 2025 at 11:14 AM
I am Honoured to have received the 2nd Prize at NTU's ⭐️ STAR (Science & Tech Annual Research) Conference!
Special thanks to my supervisors @conmeehan.bsky.social @blackpassiflora.bsky.social and collaborators @danwhiley.bsky.social @Kate Cox for the incredible support.
@arom-ntu.bsky.social
Special thanks to my supervisors @conmeehan.bsky.social @blackpassiflora.bsky.social and collaborators @danwhiley.bsky.social @Kate Cox for the incredible support.
@arom-ntu.bsky.social
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Almost ready for #MGEworkshop - my first time presenting, not just at an event but 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 as I'm barely 9 months into my #PhD But I'm reminding myself of the words of my favourite fictional scientist #WalterBishop #Fringe #ADHD #WomeninSTEM #MolMicro
June 7, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Almost ready for #MGEworkshop - my first time presenting, not just at an event but 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 as I'm barely 9 months into my #PhD But I'm reminding myself of the words of my favourite fictional scientist #WalterBishop #Fringe #ADHD #WomeninSTEM #MolMicro
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in plasmid biology for a while. Excellent stuff.
I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv:
CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6 👇
CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6 👇
May 12, 2025 at 1:05 PM
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in plasmid biology for a while. Excellent stuff.
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv:
CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6 👇
CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6 👇
May 12, 2025 at 5:11 AM
I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv:
CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6 👇
CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/6 👇
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
cool preprint from a few months back: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Really intriguing IS strategy to become fixed in plasmids, where the IS cuts up any plasmid that doesn't contain the insertion sequence
Really intriguing IS strategy to become fixed in plasmids, where the IS cuts up any plasmid that doesn't contain the insertion sequence
RNA-guided nucleases enable a gene drive of insertion sequences in plasmids
Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and the interactions between them are a major source of evolutionary innovation. Insertion sequences, the simplest MGEs usually encoding only the necessary genes for tra...
www.biorxiv.org
May 12, 2025 at 9:36 AM
cool preprint from a few months back: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Really intriguing IS strategy to become fixed in plasmids, where the IS cuts up any plasmid that doesn't contain the insertion sequence
Really intriguing IS strategy to become fixed in plasmids, where the IS cuts up any plasmid that doesn't contain the insertion sequence
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New preprint on E. coli's intimin protein from Oslo, Tübingen & @arom-ntu.bsky.social
New preprint on E. coli's intimin protein from Oslo, Tübingen & @arom-ntu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org
May 12, 2025 at 11:59 AM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New preprint on E. coli's intimin protein from Oslo, Tübingen & @arom-ntu.bsky.social
New preprint on E. coli's intimin protein from Oslo, Tübingen & @arom-ntu.bsky.social
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
🧬 Thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at the 3rd Annual MGE Workshop. If molecular mayhem is your jam, join me and explore "From Stability to Chaos: The Role of MGEs in an Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Outbreak”
#MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro
#FirstYearPhD
#MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro
#FirstYearPhD
MGE Workshop
www.ukmgeworkshop.org
May 1, 2025 at 6:15 AM
🧬 Thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at the 3rd Annual MGE Workshop. If molecular mayhem is your jam, join me and explore "From Stability to Chaos: The Role of MGEs in an Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Outbreak”
#MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro
#FirstYearPhD
#MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro
#FirstYearPhD
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Preprint below has been a long time coming, here just in time for #microbio25 ! (if the train wifi lets me)
With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social
#MicroSky
🧵
With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social
#MicroSky
🧵
Stealth plasmids: rapid evolution of deleted plasmids can displace antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646151v1
March 31, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Preprint below has been a long time coming, here just in time for #microbio25 ! (if the train wifi lets me)
With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social
#MicroSky
🧵
With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social
#MicroSky
🧵
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
🚨New publication🚨
We show that K. Pneumoniae bacteriophages can be incorporated into alginate to create an antibiofilm matrix effective against clinical K. pneumoniae strains
academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...
We show that K. Pneumoniae bacteriophages can be incorporated into alginate to create an antibiofilm matrix effective against clinical K. pneumoniae strains
academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...
Bacteriophage-embedded and coated alginate layers inhibit biofilm formation by clinical strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae
AbstractAims. This study aimed to determine the antibiofilm properties of Klebsiella pneumoniae phages previously isolated from Thai hospital sewage water.
academic.oup.com
April 25, 2025 at 10:47 AM
🚨New publication🚨
We show that K. Pneumoniae bacteriophages can be incorporated into alginate to create an antibiofilm matrix effective against clinical K. pneumoniae strains
academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...
We show that K. Pneumoniae bacteriophages can be incorporated into alginate to create an antibiofilm matrix effective against clinical K. pneumoniae strains
academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
It's incredible that a resistance integrative and mobilizable element can spread while also holding back their helper plasmids with such a clever trick!
From @vincentburrus.bsky.social lab
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
From @vincentburrus.bsky.social lab
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Conjugative transfer inhibition of IncA and IncC plasmids by pervasive SGI1-like elements via relaxosome assembly interference
Broad-host-range IncA and IncC conjugative plasmids propagate multidrug resistance in bacteria and mobilize chromosomal resistance islands, including Salmonella Genomic Island 1 (SGI1) across genera. ...
www.biorxiv.org
April 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
It's incredible that a resistance integrative and mobilizable element can spread while also holding back their helper plasmids with such a clever trick!
From @vincentburrus.bsky.social lab
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
From @vincentburrus.bsky.social lab
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
The second great paper concerns the discovery in Eva Top's group that an enigmatic protein encoded by IncP-1beta plasmids modulates the IncP-1 circuitry in E. coli to make the plasmid a burden in this host: Elg et al recently accepted in Molecular Biology and Evolution doi.org/10.1093/molb...
pendingpublications
Pending Publication
doi.org
April 4, 2025 at 8:51 AM
The second great paper concerns the discovery in Eva Top's group that an enigmatic protein encoded by IncP-1beta plasmids modulates the IncP-1 circuitry in E. coli to make the plasmid a burden in this host: Elg et al recently accepted in Molecular Biology and Evolution doi.org/10.1093/molb...
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
It is a privilege to be an author on two great plasmid papers already this year. The first was McLean et al in Nature Microbiology focused on KorB and the discovery that it is a CTPase by Yung Le's group at the John Innes Institute in Norwich. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
KorB switching from DNA-sliding clamp to repressor mediates long-range gene silencing in a multi-drug resistance plasmid - Nature Microbiology
Structural and single-molecule analyses show the CTPase, KorB, is a sliding DNA clamp that interacts with a clamp-locking protein KorA to inhibit gene expression over distances of more than 1 kb in th...
www.nature.com
April 4, 2025 at 8:43 AM
It is a privilege to be an author on two great plasmid papers already this year. The first was McLean et al in Nature Microbiology focused on KorB and the discovery that it is a CTPase by Yung Le's group at the John Innes Institute in Norwich. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
And in a clash, we have @c-cornbill.bsky.social from Warwick (supervisor @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social) talking about the variability in AMR evolution in different host mimicking media in the "AMR - Mechanism and Regulation" (2/5)
April 1, 2025 at 9:23 AM
And in a clash, we have @c-cornbill.bsky.social from Warwick (supervisor @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social) talking about the variability in AMR evolution in different host mimicking media in the "AMR - Mechanism and Regulation" (2/5)
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
And finally, last talk of the day is
... me! I'll be talking in the "Urogenetial Microbes in Health and Disease" at 17:00 where I will go through our preliminary project looking at where AMR genes/strains/species potentially come from during treatment (5/5) #microbio25.
Come see them all!!
... me! I'll be talking in the "Urogenetial Microbes in Health and Disease" at 17:00 where I will go through our preliminary project looking at where AMR genes/strains/species potentially come from during treatment (5/5) #microbio25.
Come see them all!!
April 1, 2025 at 9:23 AM
And finally, last talk of the day is
... me! I'll be talking in the "Urogenetial Microbes in Health and Disease" at 17:00 where I will go through our preliminary project looking at where AMR genes/strains/species potentially come from during treatment (5/5) #microbio25.
Come see them all!!
... me! I'll be talking in the "Urogenetial Microbes in Health and Disease" at 17:00 where I will go through our preliminary project looking at where AMR genes/strains/species potentially come from during treatment (5/5) #microbio25.
Come see them all!!
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
@danwhiley.bsky.social who will be speaking on Helicobacter suis in UK farmed pigs and retail meat products. Really interesting work! (15:30) (4/5)
April 1, 2025 at 9:23 AM
@danwhiley.bsky.social who will be speaking on Helicobacter suis in UK farmed pigs and retail meat products. Really interesting work! (15:30) (4/5)
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Then later this afternoon we have a double bill in the "Exploring Hidden Threats" session with Kate Cox (MBiol student with @conmeehan.bsky.social) talking about creating a molecular epi framework for M. Leprae (15:15) followed by.. (3/5)
April 1, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Then later this afternoon we have a double bill in the "Exploring Hidden Threats" session with Kate Cox (MBiol student with @conmeehan.bsky.social) talking about creating a molecular epi framework for M. Leprae (15:15) followed by.. (3/5)
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Come see @aurelianachilengue.bsky.social speak about doing molly epi for M. tuberculosis without the need for a reference genome (e.g. H37Rv) this afternoon at poster 049! #microsoc25
April 1, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Come see @aurelianachilengue.bsky.social speak about doing molly epi for M. tuberculosis without the need for a reference genome (e.g. H37Rv) this afternoon at poster 049! #microsoc25
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Today's the day for the majority of the @arom-ntu.bsky.social talks at #Microbio25. First up we have Chantelle Endley who will be talking about cell cycle control regulator cdc25 in yeast in the "Genetics and Genomics" forum (12:30). (1/5)
April 1, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Today's the day for the majority of the @arom-ntu.bsky.social talks at #Microbio25. First up we have Chantelle Endley who will be talking about cell cycle control regulator cdc25 in yeast in the "Genetics and Genomics" forum (12:30). (1/5)
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
We ALSO have multiple @arom-ntu.bsky.social posters today at #microbio25 ! (1/3)
April 1, 2025 at 10:10 AM
We ALSO have multiple @arom-ntu.bsky.social posters today at #microbio25 ! (1/3)
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Stealth plasmids: rapid evolution of deleted plasmids can displace antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646151v1
March 31, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Stealth plasmids: rapid evolution of deleted plasmids can displace antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646151v1
Reposted by Gareth McVicker
Congratulations to PhD students Rachel and Lottie, and MRes student Martyna on their publication with @mcvickermicro.bsky.social! #microsky
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
Genetic and phenotypic analysis of the virulence plasmid of a non-Shigatoxigenic enteroaggregative Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak strain
Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli O104:H4 is best known for causing a worldwide outbreak in 2011 due to the acquisition of a Shiga-like toxin alongside traditional enteroaggregative virulence traits;...
www.microbiologyresearch.org
March 28, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Congratulations to PhD students Rachel and Lottie, and MRes student Martyna on their publication with @mcvickermicro.bsky.social! #microsky
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...