Extracellular appendages on gut bacteria accelerate the transfer of antibiotic-resistance genes. “The death toll from antimicrobial resistance is expected to match cancer by 2050, meaning we urgently ...

Bacteria can sneakily evade our best efforts at eradication by developing resistance to various pressures in their environment, for example, antibiotic-resistant bacteria stubbornly survive the usual ...

Conjugation has classically been considered a bacterium-to-bacterium DNA transfer driven by the donor cell and is typically plasmid-encoded. Theoretically it is possible that any type of cell can ...

Bacterial cells (black outlines) contain plasmids (red) in addition to their main genome (green). A conjugative plasmid can transfer genetic material between cells as shown here, which can spread ...

Genes responsible for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can spread from microbe to microbe through circular genetic material called plasmids, and this lateral transfer occurs in the gut. This week in ...

Combining MAGE with CAGE allowed the genome to manipulated as an editable and evolvable template. Scientists have combined a recently developed technique known as multiplex automated genome ...

Bacterial blushing: Donor (red) bacteria have a repressor that blocks red fluorescent protein (RFP). Following conjugation, a bacterium (indicated by the arrow) that lacks the repressor receives the ...

Bacteria are good at evolving to evade efforts to destroy it. But building defenses like antibiotic resistance drains limited energy resources, forcing tough survival trade-offs. A recent study has ...