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Ricardo Leon-Sampedro

@rleonsampedro

| Plasmids, Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance. | Postdoctoral researcher at IPLA-CSIC. | Microbiology & Bioinformatics. | RicardoLeonSampedro.com

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28.09.2023
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Latest posts by Ricardo Leon-Sampedro @rleonsampedro

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.

09.03.2026 09:31 ๐Ÿ‘ 101 ๐Ÿ” 54 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

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 ๐Ÿงต

26.02.2026 09:54 ๐Ÿ‘ 53 ๐Ÿ” 35 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

New pre-print with @wtmatlock.bsky.social!!!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What shapes the distribution of plasmids across bacteria? Our paper shows that conjugative plasmids actually have a very narrow distribution compared to mobilizable plasmids. Conjugative systems restrict plasmid transfer!

20.02.2026 08:41 ๐Ÿ‘ 31 ๐Ÿ” 15 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Microbiome-mediated colonization resistance to and countermeasures of Klebsiella pneumoniae - Nature Communications Yang et al. summarize that Klebsiella pneumoniae affects infectious and non-infectious disease via gut colonization; commensals provide colonization resistance, but K. pneumoniae adapts via multiple m...

The incomparable Zong roped @wvschaik.bsky.social and I into a comment for Nature Comms on microbiome mediated colonisation resistance to combat Klebsiella

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

19.02.2026 09:01 ๐Ÿ‘ 16 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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What a fantastic new addition to my lab! ๐Ÿš€

Welcome @albertohca.bsky.social to the @uam.es family! Stay tuned for the science weโ€™re going to build together in the coming years!

18.02.2026 14:05 ๐Ÿ‘ 13 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
Targeted elimination of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis infections with synthetic phage-based CRISPR-Cas delivery systems - npj Biofilms and Microbiomes npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - Targeted elimination of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis infections with synthetic phage-based CRISPR-Cas delivery systems

A short research stay in 2019 (back in the pre-COVID era) at Josรฉ R. Penadรฉs lab turned into the third chapter of my PhD and today it finally sees the light.

16.02.2026 09:14 ๐Ÿ‘ 16 ๐Ÿ” 13 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

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!

05.02.2026 02:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 37 ๐Ÿ” 15 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes

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...

05.02.2026 07:33 ๐Ÿ‘ 15 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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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...

๐ŸงฌNew 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

02.02.2026 10:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 10 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Pictured is a map of plasmids, which are DNA molecules that can be transferred between bacteria. Each ring and dot represents an evolved plasmid and a mutation, respectively.

Image credit: Paula Ramiro-Martรญnez.

Pictured is a map of plasmids, which are DNA molecules that can be transferred between bacteria. Each ring and dot represents an evolved plasmid and a mutation, respectively. Image credit: Paula Ramiro-Martรญnez.

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

29.01.2026 22:00 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 7 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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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...

New paper out in PNAS!!! ๐ŸŽ‰

Do more plasmid copies mean faster evolution?

๐Ÿงต Dive into the story

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

27.01.2026 12:02 ๐Ÿ‘ 93 ๐Ÿ” 46 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 5

New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! ๐Ÿ‘๏ธ

We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally ๐‘ค๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘โ„Ž plasmids evolve.

โ€ผ๏ธCheck Paulaโ€™s ๐Ÿงต and the paper๐Ÿ‘‡

๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฑ ๐—บ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜† ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

27.01.2026 20:23 ๐Ÿ‘ 98 ๐Ÿ” 44 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Application deadline for this postdoc position in my group closing next week ๐Ÿฆ  thank you all who have shared so far!

19.01.2026 11:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 23 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Lab ready. Looking forward to what comes next here.

16.01.2026 16:46 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

New preprint out! ๐Ÿ“ฃ๐Ÿšจ

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 ๐Ÿฆ 

#Microsky

25.10.2025 12:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 17 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Iโ€™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!

12.12.2025 09:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Plasmid streamlining drives the extinction of antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission Conjugative plasmids play an important role in the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes among pathogenic bacteria. This study shows that AMR loss in evolving populations is associated with t...

Our story on plasmid streamlining is now published in PLoS Biology! With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social and @sonjalehtinen.bsky.social
#MicroSky #Mevosky
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

12.12.2025 12:09 ๐Ÿ‘ 59 ๐Ÿ” 31 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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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...

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...

21.02.2025 20:36 ๐Ÿ‘ 197 ๐Ÿ” 84 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 10 ๐Ÿ“Œ 15
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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...

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/...

20.11.2025 21:42 ๐Ÿ‘ 437 ๐Ÿ” 199 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 11 ๐Ÿ“Œ 18

Enhorabuena!! ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ

20.11.2025 12:23 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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2/ ๐Ÿค This project is carried out at @cnb-csic.bsky.social is conducted in consortium with @tmcoque.bsky.social (Instituto Ramรณn y Cajal de Investigaciรณn Sanitaria).

20.11.2025 11:03 ๐Ÿ‘ 10 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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1/ Antibiotic resistance causes โž• 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

20.11.2025 11:03 ๐Ÿ‘ 20 ๐Ÿ” 7 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

New paper out ๐ŸŽ† 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.๐Ÿ‘‡

09.11.2025 21:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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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.

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...

07.11.2025 22:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 40 ๐Ÿ” 20 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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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 ...

Our paper โ€œGlobal dissemination ofโ€ฏnpmA mediated panโ€‘aminoglycoside resistance via a mobile element in Gramโ€‘positive bacteriaโ€ is now in @natcomms.nature.com. Part of my freshly defended PhD, so doubly happy! ๐Ÿ˜„๐ŸŽ‰

๐Ÿงต (1/14)

www.doi.org/10.1038/s414...

17.07.2025 12:13 ๐Ÿ‘ 42 ๐Ÿ” 21 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3 ๐Ÿ“Œ 4

Great to have worked on this with Alex Hall, @mboum.bsky.social , Markus Reichlin, Katia R. Pfrunder-Cardozo, Nicholas Noll, and Adrian Egli; such a great team!

07.11.2025 09:15 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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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...

๐Ÿšจ Excited to share our new paper is out! ๐ŸŽ‰
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

07.11.2025 09:15 ๐Ÿ‘ 49 ๐Ÿ” 17 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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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...

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/...

31.10.2025 15:05 ๐Ÿ‘ 15 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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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...

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...

22.10.2025 13:12 ๐Ÿ‘ 77 ๐Ÿ” 42 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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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...

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...

22.10.2025 17:47 ๐Ÿ‘ 38 ๐Ÿ” 17 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0