Multiplexed biosensing is often limited by crosstalk between sensors. Here, authors distribute sensing across microbial communities and use timer-resolved modelling and machine learning to infer multi...

The capacity of a plasmid to express genes is constrained by parameters such as its length and copy number. Here, Maddamsetti et al. present a computational method that enables rapid and accurate dete...

Plasmids exhibit a broad range of sizes and copies per cell, and these two parameters appear to be negatively correlated. Here, Ramiro-Martínez et al. analyse the copy number of thousands of diverse b...

A biological “denial-of-spread” (DoS) strategy leverages retrotransfer to eliminate target plasmids in microbial communities.

Biomolecular condensates have emerged as a promising strategy to control metabolic reactions in living cells. Here the authors use mathematical modeling to uncover the key physical parameters that gov...

Antibiotic treatment usually selects for fast-growing bacterial cells, but that is not always the case. Here, Kim et al. show that antibiotic-induced changes in bacterial communities depend on variabi...

Synthetic operon-encoding genes for the uptake and catabolism of xenobiotic terephthalate, inserted into self-mobilisable environmental plasmid. Delivery of the plasmid-encoded trait via horizon gene...

Gene regulation in engineered microbial populations is often tuned at individual cell levels. Now, a population-wide amplification system has been devised that expands the dynamic range of plasmid tra...

Gene regulation in engineered microbial populations is often tuned at individual cell levels. Now, a population-wide amplification system has been devised that expands the dynamic range of plasmid tra...