Colistin is considered to be an antimicrobial of last-resort for the treatment of multidrug-
resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections. The recent global dissemination of mobilized …

An essential feature of bacterial plasmids is their ability to replicate as autonomous genetic
elements in a controlled way within the host. Therefore, they can be used to explore the …

Bacterial conjugation is an efficient and sophisticated mechanism of DNA transfer among
bacteria. While mobilizable plasmids only encode a minimal MOB machinery that allows …

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is a highly uniform clone that diverged
recently from the enteric pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. Despite their close genetic …

Bacterial conjugation in Gram-negative bacteria is triggered by a signal that connects the
relaxosome to the coupling protein (T4CP) and transferosome, a type IV secretion system …

Nosocomial infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae are emerging
as a major health problem worldwide, while community-acquired K. pneumoniae infections …

IncX plasmids are narrow host range plasmids of Enterobactericeae that have been isolated
for over 50years. They are known to encode type IV fimbriae enabling their own conjugative …

The large conjugative multidrug resistance (MDR) plasmid pOLA52 was sequenced and
annotated. The plasmid encodes two phenotypes normally associated with the …

Conjugative coupling proteins (CPs) are proposed to play a role in connecting the
relaxosome to a type IV secretion system (T4SS) during bacterial conjugation. Here we …

Timely and accurate RNA synthesis depends on accessory proteins that instruct RNA
polymerase (RNAP) where and when to start and stop transcription. Among thousands of …