Plasmids have a key role in the horizontal transfer of genes among bacteria. Although
plasmids are catalysts for bacterial evolution, it is challenging to understand how they can …

Plasmids are important drivers of bacterial evolution, but it is challenging to understand how
plasmids persist over the long term because plasmid carriage is costly. Classical models …

It is difficult to understand plasmid maintenance in the absence of selection and theoretical
models predict the conditions for plasmid persistence to be limited. Plasmid-associated …

Multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens have become a serious global human health threat,
and conjugative plasmids are important drivers of the rapid spread of resistance to last …

Plasmids are key disseminators of antimicrobial resistance genes and virulence factors, and
it is therefore critical to predict and reduce plasmid spread within microbial communities. The …

Plasmids are genetic elements that play a role in bacterial evolution by providing new genes
that promote adaptation to diverse conditions. Plasmids are also known to reduce bacterial …

Extra-chromosomal genetic elements are important drivers of bacterial evolution, and their
evolutionary success depends on positive selection for the genes they encode. Examples …

The current epidemic of antibiotic resistance has been facilitated by the wide and rapid
horizontal dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in microbial communities …

The evolutionary pressures that determine the location (chromosomal or plasmid-borne) of
bacterial genes are not fully understood. We investigate these pressures through …

Plasmid acquisition is an important mechanism of rapid adaptation and niche expansion in
prokaryotes. Positive selection for plasmid-coded functions is a major driver of plasmid …