ERC Starting Grant · 2025
Plasmid Evolutionary Innovation and Adaptation to Defense Systems
Plasmids are self-copying genetic elements that can move between bacterial species. They frequently carry antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes, making understanding the factors that affect their spread through bacterial communities an urgent challenge. Exploiting bacteria’s natural defence systems to block plasmid spread is an exciting possibility. Recent years have seen a huge increase in the known number of ‘anti-phage’ systems that stop bacterial viruses (phage) from gaining a foothold in the cell. Some of these systems also defend against incoming plasmids, but the pace of discovery has outstripped the ability to experimentally test all relationships. We need computational approaches:…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.