Inglés (Estados Unidos)

ibbtec@unican.es

Mª Pilar Garcillán Barcia (IP)

IBBTEC; Albert Einstein, 22; 39011 Santander - Cantabria
maria.garcillan@unican.es
942 206 796
Functional Plasmidomics
Principal Investigator
Microbiology & Genomics
Department of Microbiology & Genomics

My early interest in molecular genetics led me to pursue a PhD on the mechanism of rolling-circle transposition of the insertion sequence IS91. During that time, I became fascinated by the plethora of mobile genetic elements, with plasmids reigning as the true kings. I turned to plasmids during my postdoc, demonstrating the transfer of the relaxase as a substrate from the donor to the recipient cell through plasmid conjugation. I also embarked on a long and productive journey to develop a plasmid classification system based on relaxase phylogeny, with applications in clinical microbiology. Additionally, I worked on synthetic biology projects exploring the use of plasmids in distributed computation within bacterial populations. As a CSIC tenured scientist, I founded the Functional Plasmidomics Lab at IBBTEC in 2018, where we are advancing our understanding of diverse plasmid functions and their peculiarities across different bacterial species.

Functional Plasmidomics

Research lines

Plasmids have long served as a powerful ally to molecular biologists, who have engineered them as cloning and expression vectors, and as a formidable foe to clinicians due to their role in antibiotic resistance dissemination. Yet, beyond this anthropocentric view, plasmids play a crucial role in bacterial evolution in the natural world. Despite their well-known and widely studied involvement in antimicrobial resistance, they harbor untold secrets about bacterial physiology and ecology, along with vast biotechnological potential waiting to be uncovered. Our lines of research include the development of bioinformatics tools to assist the genomic comparison of plasmids from various, largely underexplored bacterial phyla, harnessing the accessory genome to refine molecular epidemiology of relevant pathogens, investigating plasmid-encoded T6SSs from both a genomic and functional perspective, and developing plasmid anti-transfer strategies.

Collaborators

Eric Cascales (Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée, CNRS, France)
Eduardo Rocha (Institut Pasteur, France)
Kaitlin Tagg (Centers for Disease Control, USA)
Peter Pristas (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia)
Tue Kjærgaard Nielsen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Manel Camps (University of California at Santa Cruz, USA)
Damien Devos (Institut Pasteur Lille, France)
Íñigo Lasa y Cristina Solano (Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain)
Francisco Rodríguez-Valera (Universidad Miguel Hernández, Spain)
David Albesa (Instituto Biofisika, Spain)
Jorge Calvo (Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla, Spain)
Elena Cabezón (IBBTEC, Spain)

Funding

EMBO Scientific Exchange Grants to group members Arancha Peñil Celis (Ref. 10739, 2024), María del Mar Quiñonero Coronel (Ref. 10617, 2024) and Daniel García López (Ref. 11430, 2025).
Unravelling the Plasmidome of Extremophilic Bacteria for Biotechnological Innovation (PLASMEX) (BISAS24004). Bilateral Joint Mobility Actions CSIC-SAS 2024.
Using the Salmonella accessory genome to pinpoint the source of human illness from chickens (75D30123P18303). 2023-2024. Centers for Disease Control (USA).
Novel Bacterial Polymers: Exploiting the Green Commons (TED2021-129640B-I00). Proyecto de Transición Ecológica y Transición Digital 2021. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and NextGenerationEU.
Plasmid supremacy (PID2020-117923GB-I00). I+D Projects 2020. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.
Nanocursos en Biociencias. IV Call Formavanz Programme. Fundación General CSIC.

Abstract The increasing prevalence of bacteria resistant to many or all types of antibiotics poses a major health crisis. Novel classes of antibiotics are only slowly being developed and alternative strategies are needed to tackle the issue. Mobile geneti

Anna Berggreen Skovmand, Nicolai Juel Paaske, Arancha Peñil-Celis, Amalie Elisabeth Schønemann, Lærke Lund Hansen, Witold Kot, M. Pilar Garcillán-Barcia, Tue Kjærgaard Nielsen

BioxRiv preprint. Posted March 28, 2025. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.28.645910

Encounter rates and engagement times limit the transmission of conjugative plasmids

Rodriguez-Grande J, Ortiz Y, Garcia-Lopez D, Garcillán-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F, Fernandez-Lopez R.

PLoS Genet. 2025 Feb 7;21(2):e1011560.

The Type IV Secretion System of Patescibacteria is homologous to the bacterial monoderm conjugation machinery

María del Mar Quiñonero-Coronel, Pedro J. Cabello-Yeves, Jose M Haro-Moreno, Francisco Rodríguez-Valera, M. Pilar Garcillán-Barcia

(preprint, in press in Microbial Genomics)

Mobile genetic elements define the non-random structure of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi pangenome

Peñil-Celis A, Tagg KA, Webb HE, Redondo-Salvo S, Francois Watkins L, Vielva L, Griffin C, Kim JY, Folster JP, Garcillan-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F.

mSystems. 2024 Aug 20;9(8):e0036524.

Specificities and commonalities of the Planctomycetes plasmidome.

Quiñonero-Coronel MDM, Devos DP, Garcillán-Barcia MP.

Environ Microbiol. 2024 May;26(5):e16638.

Type II bacterial toxin-antitoxins: hypotheses, facts, and the newfound plethora of the PezAT system

Chan WT, Garcillán-Barcia MP, Yeo CC, Espinosa M.

FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2023 Sep 5;47(5):fuad052.

A novel and diverse group of Candidatus Patescibacteria from bathypelagic Lake Baikal revealed through long-read metagenomics

Haro-Moreno JM, Cabello-Yeves PJ, Garcillán-Barcia MP, Zakharenko A, Zemskaya TI, Rodriguez-Valera F.

Environ Microbiome. 2023 Feb 23;18(1):12.

The Facts and Family Secrets of Plasmids That Replicate via the Rolling-Circle Mechanism

Garcillán-Barcia MP, Pluta R, Lorenzo-Díaz F, Bravo A, Espinosa M.

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2021 Dec 8;86(1):e0022220.

Pathways for horizontal gene transfer in bacteria revealed by a global map of their plasmids

Santiago Redondo-Salvo, Raúl Fernández-López, Raúl Ruiz, Luis Vielva, María de Toro, Eduardo P C Rocha, M Pilar Garcillán-Barcia, Fernando de la Cruz

Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 17;11(1):3602. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17278-2.

ArdC, a ssDNA-binding protein with a metalloprotease domain, overpasses the recipient hsdRMS restriction system broadening conjugation host range

Lorena González-Montes, Irene Del Campo, M Pilar Garcillán-Barcia, Fernando de la Cruz, Gabriel Moncalián

PLoS Genet. 2020 Apr 29;16(4):e1008750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008750. eCollection 2020 Apr.

Comparative genomics of the conjugation region of F-like plasmids: five shades of F.

Fernandez Lopez R, De Toro Hernando M, Moncalian G, Garcillán-Barcia MP and de la Cruz F

Fernandez Lopez R, De Toro Hernando M, Moncalian G, Garcillán-Barcia MP and de la Cruz F (2016) Comparative genomics of the conjugation region of F-like plasmids: five shades of F. Front Mol Biosci. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2016.00071

Genomics of high molecular weight plasmids isolated from an on-farm biopurification system.

Martini MC, Wibberg D, Lozano M, Torres Tejerizo G, Albicoro FJ, Jaenicke S, van Elsas JD, Petroni A, Garcillán-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F, Schlüter A, Pühler A, Pistorio M, Lagares A, Del Papa MF. Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 20;6:28284. doi: 10.1038/srep28284.

[PubMed]

Degenerate primer MOB typing of multiresistant clinical isolates of E. coli uncovers new plasmid backbones.

Garcillán-Barcia MP, Ruiz Del Castillo B, Alvarado A, de la Cruz F, Martínez-Martínez L. Plasmid. 2015 Jan;77:17-27. doi: 10.1016/j.plasmid.2014.11.003.

[pubmed]

Plasmid Flux in Escherichia coli ST131 Sublineages, Analyzed by Plasmid Constellation Network (PLACNET), a New Method for Plasmid Reconstruction from Whole Genome Sequences.

Lanza VF, de Toro M, Garcillán-Barcia MP, Mora A, Blanco J, Coque TM, de la Cruz F. PLoS Genet. 2014 Dec 18;10(12):e1004766. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004766.

[pubmed]

Bringing them together: plasmid pMV158 rolling circle replication and conjugation under an evolutionary perspective.

Lorenzo-Díaz F, Fernández-López C, Garcillán-Barcia MP, Espinosa M. Plasmid. 2014 Jul;74:15-31. doi: 10.1016/j.plasmid.2014.05.004.

[pubmed]

Key components of the eight classes of type IV secretion systems involved in bacterial conjugation or protein secretion.

Guglielmini J, Néron B, Abby SS, Garcillán-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F, Rocha EP. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014;42(9):5715-27. doi: 10.1093/nar/gku194.

[pubmed]

Plasmid conjugation from proteobacteria as evidence for the origin of xenologous genes in cyanobacteria.

Encinas D, Garcillán-Barcia MP, Santos-Merino M, Delaye L, Moya A, de la Cruz F. J Bacteriol. 2014 Apr;196(8):1551-9. doi: 10.1128/JB.01464-13.

[pubmed]

Genomic analysis of the emergence and evolution of multidrug resistance during a Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak including carbapenem and colistin resistance.

López-Camacho E, Gómez-Gil R, Tobes R, Manrique M, Lorenzo M, Galván B, Salvarelli E, Moatassim Y, Salanueva IJ, Pareja E, Codoñer FM, Alvarez-Tejado M, Garcillán-Barcia MP, De la Cruz F, Mingorance J. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2013 Oct 23.

[pubmed]

Ordering the bestiary of genetic elements transmissible by conjugation.

Garcillán-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F. Mob Genet Elements. 2013 Jan 1;3(1):e24263.

[pubmed]

A degenerate primer MOB typing (DPMT) method to classify gamma-proteobacterial plasmids in clinical and environmental settings.

Alvarado A, Garcillán-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F. PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e40438.

[pubmed]

Daniel García López

Sheila González Gutiérrez

Antonio Mesa Galán

Arancha Peñil Celis

María Del Mar Quiñonero Coronel

IBBTEC

Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria.
PCTCAN - Cl. Albert Einstein, 22
39011 Santander

Mª Pilar Garcillán Barcia (IP)

Functional Plasmidomics

Research lines

Collaborators

Funding

Abstract The increasing prevalence of bacteria resistant to many or all types of antibiotics poses a major health crisis. Novel classes of antibiotics are only slowly being developed and alternative strategies are needed to tackle the issue. Mobile geneti

Encounter rates and engagement times limit the transmission of conjugative plasmids

The Type IV Secretion System of Patescibacteria is homologous to the bacterial monoderm conjugation machinery

Mobile genetic elements define the non-random structure of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi pangenome

Specificities and commonalities of the Planctomycetes plasmidome.

Type II bacterial toxin-antitoxins: hypotheses, facts, and the newfound plethora of the PezAT system

A novel and diverse group of Candidatus Patescibacteria from bathypelagic Lake Baikal revealed through long-read metagenomics

The Facts and Family Secrets of Plasmids That Replicate via the Rolling-Circle Mechanism

Pathways for horizontal gene transfer in bacteria revealed by a global map of their plasmids

ArdC, a ssDNA-binding protein with a metalloprotease domain, overpasses the recipient hsdRMS restriction system broadening conjugation host range

Comparative genomics of the conjugation region of F-like plasmids: five shades of F.

Genomics of high molecular weight plasmids isolated from an on-farm biopurification system.

Degenerate primer MOB typing of multiresistant clinical isolates of E. coli uncovers new plasmid backbones.

Plasmid Flux in Escherichia coli ST131 Sublineages, Analyzed by Plasmid Constellation Network (PLACNET), a New Method for Plasmid Reconstruction from Whole Genome Sequences.

Bringing them together: plasmid pMV158 rolling circle replication and conjugation under an evolutionary perspective.

Key components of the eight classes of type IV secretion systems involved in bacterial conjugation or protein secretion.

Plasmid conjugation from proteobacteria as evidence for the origin of xenologous genes in cyanobacteria.

Genomic analysis of the emergence and evolution of multidrug resistance during a Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak including carbapenem and colistin resistance.

Ordering the bestiary of genetic elements transmissible by conjugation.

A degenerate primer MOB typing (DPMT) method to classify gamma-proteobacterial plasmids in clinical and environmental settings.

Daniel García López

Sheila González Gutiérrez

Antonio Mesa Galán

Arancha Peñil Celis

María Del Mar Quiñonero Coronel

Sobre nosotros

Eventos

Contacto

Login

About us

Events

Contact

Login

IBBTEC

Mª Pilar Garcillán Barcia (IP)

​Functional Plasmidomics

Research lines

Collaborators

Funding

Abstract The increasing prevalence of bacteria resistant to many or all types of antibiotics poses a major health crisis. Novel classes of antibiotics are only slowly being developed and alternative strategies are needed to tackle the issue. Mobile geneti

Encounter rates and engagement times limit the transmission of conjugative plasmids

The Type IV Secretion System of Patescibacteria is homologous to the bacterial monoderm conjugation machinery

Mobile genetic elements define the non-random structure of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi pangenome

Specificities and commonalities of the Planctomycetes plasmidome.

Type II bacterial toxin-antitoxins: hypotheses, facts, and the newfound plethora of the PezAT system

A novel and diverse group of Candidatus Patescibacteria from bathypelagic Lake Baikal revealed through long-read metagenomics

The Facts and Family Secrets of Plasmids That Replicate via the Rolling-Circle Mechanism

Pathways for horizontal gene transfer in bacteria revealed by a global map of their plasmids

ArdC, a ssDNA-binding protein with a metalloprotease domain, overpasses the recipient hsdRMS restriction system broadening conjugation host range

Comparative genomics of the conjugation region of F-like plasmids: five shades of F.

Genomics of high molecular weight plasmids isolated from an on-farm biopurification system.

Degenerate primer MOB typing of multiresistant clinical isolates of E. coli uncovers new plasmid backbones.

Plasmid Flux in Escherichia coli ST131 Sublineages, Analyzed by Plasmid Constellation Network (PLACNET), a New Method for Plasmid Reconstruction from Whole Genome Sequences.

Bringing them together: plasmid pMV158 rolling circle replication and conjugation under an evolutionary perspective.

Key components of the eight classes of type IV secretion systems involved in bacterial conjugation or protein secretion.

Plasmid conjugation from proteobacteria as evidence for the origin of xenologous genes in cyanobacteria.

Genomic analysis of the emergence and evolution of multidrug resistance during a Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak including carbapenem and colistin resistance.

Ordering the bestiary of genetic elements transmissible by conjugation.

A degenerate primer MOB typing (DPMT) method to classify gamma-proteobacterial plasmids in clinical and environmental settings.

Daniel García López

Sheila González Gutiérrez

Antonio Mesa Galán

Arancha Peñil Celis

María Del Mar Quiñonero Coronel

Sobre nosotros

Eventos

Contacto

Login

About us

Events

Contact

Login

IBBTEC

Functional Plasmidomics