Horizontal gene transfer is an important evolutionary force, facilitating bacterial diversity. It is
thought to be pervasive in host-associated microbiomes, where bacterial densities are high …

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) drives microbial adaptation but is often under the control of
mobile genetic elements (MGEs) whose interests are not necessarily aligned with those of …

It has become clear in recent years that anti-phage defense systems cluster non-randomly
within bacterial genomes in so-called “defense islands”. Despite serving as a valuable tool …

Bacteriophages are obligate parasites of bacteria characterized by the breadth of hosts that
they can infect. This “host range” depends on the genotypes and morphologies of the phage …

Bacteriophage–bacteria interactions are affected by phage satellites, elements that exploit
phages for transfer between bacteria. Satellites can encode defense systems, antibiotic …

Over the past few decades, the interest in lactic acid bacteria (LAB) has been steadily
growing. This is mainly due to their industrial use, their health benefits as probiotic bacteria …

To contend with the diversity and ubiquity of bacteriophages and other mobile genetic
elements, bacteria have developed an arsenal of immune defence mechanisms. Bacterial …

Phage satellites are mobile genetic elements that propagate by parasitizing bacteriophage
replication. We report here the discovery of abundant and diverse phage satellites that were …

Phage satellites are genetic elements that couple their life cycle to that of helper phages
they parasitize, interfering with phage packaging through the production of small capsids …

Satellites are mobile genetic elements that are dependent upon the replication machinery of
their helper viruses. Bacteriophages have provided many examples of satellite nucleic acids …