Genes aren't just transferred from parents to their offspring. Nature has found other ways to pass on genetic information, ...

Dense packaging of genomic DNA is crucial for organismal survival, as DNA length always far exceeds the dimensions of the cells that contain it. Organisms, therefore, use sophisticated machineries to ...

Histones are DNA-organizing proteins built around a characteristic histone fold—three α-helices (α1, α2, α3) connected by two loops—that mediates both histone-histone and histone-DNA interactions 1,2.

Research has shed important new light on the enemies-turned-allies that allow bacteria to exchange genes, including those linked to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The insights, which expand our ...

Bacteria are constantly moving by help of motility organs called flagella or pili to colonize new niches. Also, bacteria can exchange information, like “speaking to each other”, and thus acquire new ...

Over the past two decades, high‑throughput sequencing has dramatically expanded our understanding of the gut microbiome's composition.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising twist in how bacteria share genes—including those that spread antibiotic resistance. Tiny virus-like particles called gene transfer agents (GTAs), once ancient ...

Bacteria possess unique traits with great potential for benefiting society. However, current genetic engineering methods to harness these advantages are limited to a small fraction of bacterial ...

Transposons are critical drivers of bacterial evolution that have been studied for many decades and have been the subject of Nobel Prize winning research. Now, researchers from Cornell University have ...

Colibactin is a powerful toxin produced by Escherichia coli and other bacteria living in the human gut. This highly unstable bacterial product causes mutations in DNA that have been linked to ...

If you are anything like us, whenever you plan a journey, you spend a remarkable amount of time thinking about the start and ...