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Ainsley Beaton

@ainsley-beaton.bsky.social
133 followers 160 following 29 posts

PDRA at the University of Glasgow 🧫🧬 Also interested in rugby, books and cycling

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Reposted by Ainsley Beaton
Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Now published in JBac. Absolutely great publishing experience!!! Thank you to editors and reviewers.https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jb.00286-26 Another great one from @tommclean.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @hbio-isp.bsky.social
journals.asm.org
TrbA binds and locks a sliding clamp KorB to repress transcription on multi-drug resistance plasmids | Journal of Bacteriology
Precise regulation of gene expression ensures gene products are produced at the right time and in the right amounts. Recent works uncovered a new mechanism of bacterial gene regulation based on a clamp sliding and locking in a multi-drug resistance plasmid, RK2. KorB functions as a CTP-dependent DNA-sliding clamp capable of traveling over a long genomic distance. Sliding KorB is captured and locked in place by a partner protein, KorA, forming a stable complex at target promoters to repress transcription. Here, we show that another RK2 regulator, TrbA, also uses this clamp sliding-locking mechanism, and identify an aromatic interface enabling TrbA-KorB-mediated transcriptional repression. Our findings show how a single sliding clamp integrates multiple partners to build a complex transcriptional regulatory network.
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
🧵 New paper! 🦠🐝🐜🦇 This was a particularly fun one to write: we took a look beyond the usual view of Streptomyces as soil bacteria and explored the surprisingly diverse interactions they have with animals. From nematodes and insects to bats and humans 👇
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Had a great time at VTEC in Aberdeen last month. Lucky to have such a fantastic conference so close to home 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 My first VTEC, and it was brilliant to meet so many new people and hear about the diverse work happening across the STEC field. Bonus: picking up a wee poster prize thanks to @femsmicro.org
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Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Good to see this in the @microbiologysociety.org special collection, Advances in the Biology of Actinomycetes. OrrA directly controls WblA, a key regulator of sporulation and antibiotic production. A great team effort @johninnescentre.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
microbiologyresearch.org
Defining the OrrA regulon and its role in development and antibiotic production in Streptomyces venezuelae NRRL B-65442
Streptomyces bacteria have complex life cycles involving hyphal growth, sporulation and the production of diverse specialised metabolites, including antibiotics. In this study, we investigated the rol...
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Another paper out in the @microbiologysociety.org special issue on Advances in the biology of Actinomycetes! Congratulations to everyone involved @matthutchings.bsky.social @barriewilks.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
microbiologyresearch.org
Defining the OrrA regulon and its role in development and antibiotic production in Streptomyces venezuelae NRRL B-65442
Streptomyces bacteria have complex life cycles involving hyphal growth, sporulation and the production of diverse specialised metabolites, including antibiotics. In this study, we investigated the rol...
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Really pleased to finally see this out! More insights into the global regulator MtrA and how it helps S. ven sense and respond to its environment.
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Keith @keithdunn.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
The 2026 Barkley Marathons began with one of the strongest fields ever. The starting field came from 15 Counties as well as 15 States, and included ten women. The course seemed not to care. Over 70% of the field is done. #BM100
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 25/12/2025
A microscope that cost less than £50 and took under 3 hours to build using a common 3D printer could be transformative for students and researchers with limited funding
newscientist.com
The world’s first fully 3D-printed microscope blew up in 2025
A microscope that cost less than £50 and took under 3 hours to build using a common 3D printer could be transformative for students and researchers with limited funding
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Science News @scinews.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Exceptional young performers reached their peak quickly but narrowly mastered only one interest. By contrast, exceptional adults reached peak performance gradually with broader, multidisciplinary practice. However, elite programs are designed to nurture younger talent.
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Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
New preprint. Work led by @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social & Rebecca Devine. They show the highly conserved Streptomyces MtrAB two component system activates ectoine production and triggers sporulation in response to osmotic stress in Streptomyces venezuelae www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
MtrAB activates ectoine production and triggers sporulation in response to osmotic stress in Streptomyces venezuelae
The MtrAB two-component system is a master regulator of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces species. MtrA is also required for sporulation under certain growth conditions, which means that on some...
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Reposted by Ainsley Beaton
Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
bioRxiv by @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social from @matthutchings.bsky.social on the role of MtrAB in Streptomyces venezuelae
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Reposted by Ainsley Beaton
Tom McLean @tommclean.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Delighted to see the main work from my PhD finally published in @mbio.bsky.social! It all started with the observation that deleting the cutRS two-component system in S. venezuelae caused this amazing explorer phenotype in the presence of glucose. But what was going on?! (1/n)
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Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Very happy to see this remarkable work published. Led by @tommclean.bsky.social and @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social. We show how Streptomyces bacteria sense & respond to misfolded secreted proteins. A great collaboration with @barriewilks.bsky.social #microsky 1/2 journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10....
journals.asm.org
The conserved two-component systems CutRS and CssRS control the protein secretion stress response in Streptomyces
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Reposted by Ainsley Beaton
Justine Rudkin @scousemicrobe.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
PhD opportunity to come and work in Glasgow, developing advanced tissue culture models to study Staphylococcus aureus colonisation and infection #microsky #PhD #DTPprogram Enquiries from potential applicants are welcome. www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate... www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
gla.ac.uk
University of Glasgow - Postgraduate study - Centres for Doctoral Training - NorthWest Biosciences - Our Projects - Understanding Pathogens, from Molecules to Phenotypes - Justine Rudkin
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
It can only be a last day when there are this number of primers in the bin
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Don’t know why I’d never thought of a commute coffee before now
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
8 am on a Monday. Do I just go home?
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
After a great week at #microbio25 I’m set up on the train with a good book and a coffee which is the perfect way to travel 📚. That’s if the last few nights of missing my 9pm bed time in favour of the pub don’t mean that I immediately fall asleep 🤣
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
@liam-rooney.bsky.social gave an incredibly interesting talk about novel imaging techniques for infection biology and that’s great BUT look at the tiny wee sad face inside this digitally cross sectioned and optically clear galleria is! It looks like how I feel in the mornings
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
And so begins a very long train journey from Norwich to Liverpool via every stop in between for Microsoc 2025
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
dussl's making headlines! 🌞 Why one Glaswegian is marketing SPF to Scotland's wettest city. heraldscotland.com/news/25028013.one-glaswegian-marketing-spf-scotlands-wettest-city/?ref=li
heraldscotland.com
Why one Glaswegian is marketing SPF to Scotland's wettest city
Meet the 30-year-old entrepreneur behind dussl, the Glasgow skincare brand selling sunscreen to the UK city where it rains nearly 200 days a year.
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Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Very happy to share this work led by @tommclean.bsky.social and @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social. The conserved Streptomyces sensor kinase CutS senses disulphide bond formation outside the cell. If it fails CutS activates CutR which switches on production of foldase HtrA3 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Extracellular redox sensors control the protein secretion stress response in Streptomyces
Translocating unfolded polypeptides across membranes is essential in all domains of life and in bacteria requires the conserved Sec machinery and ATP. Bacterial Sec substrates fold outside the cell an...
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Further insight into how CutRS functions in Streptomyces and some thoughts on how its redox state detection via conserved dual cysteine residues in the extra cellular domain of a sensor kinase may be present in almost all bacteria @tommclean.bsky.social @matthutchings.bsky.social
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Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces. Remarkable work led by @katienoble241.bsky.social and Rebecca Devine demonstrates why antibiotic biosynthesis is often switched on in solid cultures and off in liquid. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis
Streptomyces bacteria make diverse specialised metabolites that form the basis of ~55% of clinically used antibiotics. Despite this, only 3% of their encoded specialised metabolites have been matched ...
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
First #toadwatch of the season and it was busy! 28 toads and 8 frogs were given a lift to the pond 🐸 Toads return to the pond they spawned in each year to breed, often covering great distances to do so. Due to habitat fragmentation they are increasingly killed by cars whilst on their journey
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
It’s official @tommclean.bsky.social and I have peaked in terms of our scientific writing 📄
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Ainsley Beaton @ainsley-beaton.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Wonderfully artistic advertising from @microbesng.bsky.social. They are already my favourite sticker maker and now we may need to add posters and plasmid sequencing to that
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 21/02/2025
Legitmately thrilled to share our latest work, in which @fernpizza.bsky.social solved an experimental challenge in plasmid biology as old as the field: measuring how plasmids compete and evolve within individual cells!
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John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
VACANCY - We’re seeking a Proteomics Scientist to work alongside our experienced platform manager to help serve the growing needs of proteomics-based technology at the John Innes Centre (JIC). www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/pr... Closing date - 2 March 2025 Contract - Full-time, indefinite
jic.ac.uk
Proteomics Scientist | John Innes Centre
The John Innes Centre (JIC) seeks a talented, motivated individual as a proteomics specialist to serve the growing needs of proteomics-based technology at JIC, which is a globally recognized…
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