Baptiste Darracq
PhD student - PGB lab - Institut Pasteur | integrons, bacterial immunity
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqHappy to share the last work of @jmartinkus.bsky.social, led by @dukasju.bsky.social Immunity arrays associated with Rhs and CDI toxins and linked to a novel genetic element (XPC cassette) confer protection against competitors. @currentbiology.bsky.social Kudos !! www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqTaming wild replicons: evolution and domestication of large extrachromosomal replicons #MicroSky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqOur new paper is out in @narjournal.bsky.social We show that natural transformation enables bacteria to shuffle integron cassettes, boosting their phenotypic diversity. academic.oup.com/nar/article/... 1/5
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqCurious 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...
- Reposted by Baptiste Darracq@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/...
- Reposted by Baptiste Darracq1/10 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...
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqPhages 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/...
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqSo 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!
- Reposted by Baptiste Darracq🧬 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-...
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqAt 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!
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqOur 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
- Habemus paper! Our story on integron-encoded anti-phage defenses is now out in @science.org! 16 new systems, small versions of known ones, and a lot more in this highly-collaborative study. Many thanks to everyone involved, especially my supervisor @epcrocha.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/bapt...
- Reposted by Baptiste DarracqOur 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/...
- Reposted by Baptiste Darracq🧪 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/...
- 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/...
- The integron of our favorite model Vibrio cholerae was mostly “dark matter” as most cassettes had no known role. We found this intriguing and cloned 88 cassettes, testing them for phage resistance. We found 16 defensive cassettes and named the systems after gallic mythology
- On the bioinformatic side, eloilittner.bsky.social found a diverse arsenal of anti-phage defenses in SCIs. Strikingly, systems in integrons are always compact (< 3 genes), and smaller than their homologs outside integrons (likely due to cassette size constraints)
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View full threadHave also a look at our back-to-back study for mobile integrons by Nicolas Kieffer from @jaescudero.bsky.social group ! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... + a similar story in V. parahaemolyticus by @landongetz.bsky.social from @themaxwelllab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...