Antibiotic resistance is a global public health crisis responsible for more than a million deaths annually. By 2050, the ...

In short, while bacteria may not have “sex lives” in the way humans do, their frequent DNA exchanges play a crucial role in ...

New research reveals that bacteria form species and maintain cohesion through frequent DNA exchange within species. This ...

Scientists widely believed that bacteria, due to their unique genetic exchange mechanisms and the vast size of their global populations, did not — and could not — form distinct species.

Transformation is a genetic exchange mechanism by which “naked” DNA is taken up by bacteria. This newly acquired DNA may include genes that enable bacteria to perform tasks that were previously ...

Now Tulane University researchers have identified a unique genetic signature in bacteria that can predict their likelihood of developing antibiotic resistance, according to a new study published in ...

Here, the authors characterize the utilization of 20 medicinal polysaccharides by 28 human gut Bacteroides and Parabacteroides species, revealing substantial variability in bacterial growth ...

"This is effectively a heritable, reversible type of genetic regulation," she said. She posits that scientists may eventually be able to use inversions to create a toggleable bacterial system to ...

These symbiotic relationships provide clues as to how genetic material was exchanged between bacteria and beetles. Key findings highlight the role of horizontal gene transfer, the incorporation of ...