Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is arguably the most conspicuous feature of bacterial
evolution. Evidence for HGT is found in most bacterial genomes. Although HGT can …

Strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, particularly those that are multiresistant, are an
increasing major health care problem around the world. It is now abundantly clear that both …

Abstract Prokaryotic Mobile Genetic Elements (MGEs) such as transposons, integrons,
phages and plasmids, play important roles in prokaryotic evolution and in the dispersal of …

James A. Shapiro proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological
evolution, the core organizing principle of biology. Shapiro introduces crucial new molecular …

Insertion sequences (ISs) constitute an important component of most bacterial genomes.
Over 500 individual ISs have been described in the literature to date, and many more are …

Essentially all the biological functions of DNA depend on site‐specific DNA‐binding proteins
finding their targets, and therefore 'searching'through megabases of non‐target DNA. In this …

The structure, function and reactions of nucleic acids are central to molecular biology and
are crucial for the understanding of complex biological processes involved. Revised and …

Phase and antigenic variation result in a heterogenic phenotype of a clonal bacterial
population, in which individual cells either express the phase-variable protein (s) or not, or …

SUMMARY “Common regions”(CRs), such as Orf513, are being increasingly linked to mega-
antibiotic-resistant regions. While their overall nucleotide sequences show little identity to …

Phage integrases are enzymes that mediate unidirectional site-specific recombination
between two DNA recognition sequences, the phage attachment site, attP, and the bacterial …