Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
banner
rleonsampedro.bsky.social
Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
@rleonsampedro.bsky.social
| Plasmids, Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance.
| Postdoctoral researcher at IPLA-CSIC.
| Microbiology & Bioinformatics.
| RicardoLeonSampedro.com
Pinned
New #BehindThePaper for our latest paper in @natcomms.nature.com (rdcu.be/e2qMK)
Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes

Cover illustration by Helena Klein (@illuzation.bsky.social).
communities.springernature.com/posts/secret...
Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes
communities.springernature.com
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
How does population density affect evolutionary trajectory?

Microbes construct their own niche which in turn reshapes their evolution.

Preprint drop from grad student @noahhoupt.bsky.social whose evolution experiments featured blue/white colonies, 1000 generations, a lab move, and much more!
Interested in eco-evolutionary feedbacks? Microbial experimental evolution? Pleiotropy? Filamentous phages??

Check out our latest preprint, now up on BioRxiv!

biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

For a quick summary, peep the thread below...🧵 (1/10)
biorxiv.org
February 5, 2026 at 2:08 AM
New #BehindThePaper for our latest paper in @natcomms.nature.com (rdcu.be/e2qMK)
Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes

Cover illustration by Helena Klein (@illuzation.bsky.social).
communities.springernature.com/posts/secret...
Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes
communities.springernature.com
February 5, 2026 at 7:33 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
🧬New paper out! We report the first isolation of viable B. bacteriovorus predators from human gut microbiota. www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic.... Great work of Mario Romero @migueldiezfdz.bsky.social @josete600.bsky.social and @rosacampo.bsky.social
Frontiers | Genome assembly and functional predation analysis of novel Bdellovibrio isolates from human gut microbiota
IntroductionPredatory bacteria of the Bdellovibrio and like organisms (BALOs) have long been postulated as living antimicrobials, yet their occurrence and ec...
www.frontiersin.org
February 2, 2026 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
In this issue: Fresh light on horse evolution, mangrove restoration as coastal flood protection, and the links between aerobic metabolism and planetary oxygenation. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/yB6J50Y5ykK
January 29, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
New paper out in PNAS!!! 🎉

Do more plasmid copies mean faster evolution?

🧵 Dive into the story

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Plasmid mutation rates scale with copy number | PNAS
Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA molecules that spread by horizontal transfer and shape bacterial evolution. Plasmids are typically present at mul...
www.pnas.org
January 27, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! 👁️

We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ plasmids evolve.

‼️Check Paula’s 🧵 and the paper👇

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
January 27, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
Application deadline for this postdoc position in my group closing next week 🦠 thank you all who have shared so far!
🔊 Job Opportunity: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Bacterial Evolution.

Looking to recruit a postdoc to join a UKRI FLF-funded project on antibiotic resistance evolution in the microbiome 🦠

3 years funding, deadline 26th Jan, please share!
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
Job profile
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk
January 19, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Lab ready. Looking forward to what comes next here.
First day of wet lab after what feels like an eternity!
January 16, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
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
Carbapenem-resistance oprD mutations reshape Pseudomonas aeruginosa host-pathogen interactions during infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684370v1
October 25, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
I’m excited to share this article from my PhD, exploring the role and prevalence of peptide deformylases! It has been a truly enriching and fascinating scientific journey. Thank you, @amazeld.bsky.social, for welcoming me into your lab and giving me the scientific freedom to follow my curiosity!
We've come full circle! I began my postdoctoral career by identifying the peptidyl deformylase gene. Today, we show that half of bacterial species harbor multiple PDF genes (up to 7, for always a single Met-tRNA transformylase), and while the role of these PDFs ... academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Unraveling the Prevalence and Multifaceted Roles of Accessory Peptide Deformylases in Bacterial Adaptation and Resistance
Abstract. Peptide deformylases (PDFs) are enzymes that are essential for bacterial viability and attractive targets for antibiotic development. Yet, despit
academic.oup.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics!
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
Conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution, from populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements in microbes. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-r...
www.biorxiv.org
February 21, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
2/ 🤝 This project is carried out at @cnb-csic.bsky.social is conducted in consortium with @tmcoque.bsky.social (Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria).
November 20, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
1/ Antibiotic resistance causes ➕ than 1 M deaths each year and understanding why this happens is key to stopping it.

With #HealthResearch support, @sanmillan.bsky.social is investigating how different plasmids (DNA fragments) coexist in bacteria and confer resistance.

https://tinyurl.com/3bysv6cr
November 20, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
New paper out 🎆 When an antibiotic-resistant E. coli strain lands in our gut microbiome, whether it will get established or not depends on the ecological context. We studied how other microbes, nutrients, and antibiotic exposure shape its fate.👇
🚨 Excited to share our new paper is out! 🎉
We show how interactions within gut microbiomes allow certain antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains to persist even without antibiotics, helping explain how resistance is maintained in the human gut.

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com rdcu.be/eOf63
Multi-layered ecological interactions determine growth of clinical antibiotic-resistant strains within human microbiomes
Nature Communications - The role of ecological factors in modulating the spread of antibiotic-resistance bacteria in the gut remains unclear. Here, the authors use anaerobic microcosms to study the...
rdcu.be
November 9, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
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...
Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature Microbiology
Mathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
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...
Global dissemination of npmA mediated pan-aminoglycoside resistance via a mobile genetic element in Gram-positive bacteria - Nature Communications
The authors investigate the distribution of the aminoglycoside resistance gene npmA in Gram-positive bacteria via a mobile genetic element, highlighting its global presence and cross-species transfer ...
www.doi.org
July 17, 2025 at 12:13 PM
🚨 Excited to share our new paper is out! 🎉
We show how interactions within gut microbiomes allow certain antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains to persist even without antibiotics, helping explain how resistance is maintained in the human gut.

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com rdcu.be/eOf63
Multi-layered ecological interactions determine growth of clinical antibiotic-resistant strains within human microbiomes
Nature Communications - The role of ecological factors in modulating the spread of antibiotic-resistance bacteria in the gut remains unclear. Here, the authors use anaerobic microcosms to study the...
rdcu.be
November 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
New(ish!) paper on how within-host competition and antibiotic resistance shape the fitness of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes, out in August in Plos Biology. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Competition significantly influences bacterial population dynamics, particularly in how strains interact within and between hosts. This study shows that within-host competition in Streptococcus pneumo...
journals.plos.org
October 31, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social
Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!!
With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
www.cell.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
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...
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
www.cell.com
October 22, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
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
Dissecting pOXA-48 fitness effects in clinical Enterobacterales using plasmid-wide CRISPRi screens
Nature Communications - This study investigates the effects of the carbapenem resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in clinical enterobacteria. Using CRISPRi screens, the authors revealed that the...
rdcu.be
August 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
Can we exploit past phage infection events (prophages) to decipher the specificity of phage receptor-binding proteins such as depolymerases?🔎 Happy to share our recent work at @natcomms.nature.com 🔽 #microsky #phagesky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Unlocking data in Klebsiella lysogens to predict capsular type-specificity of phage depolymerases - Nature Communications
Here, the authors exploit the genetic information encoded in Klebsiella prophages to model the interplay between bacteria, prophages, and their depolymerases, using a directed acyclic graph-model and a sequence clustering-based model.
www.nature.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro
Invited speaker Marco La Fortaleza starts the first session of the day talking about epigenetic diversification in bacterial multicellularity. #Multicellverse
October 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM