Prokaryotes have engineered sophisticated surface nanomachines that have allowed them
to colonize Earth and thrive even in extreme environments. Filamentous machineries …

Being the principal causative agent of bacterial pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis and
septicemia, the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major global health problem. To …

Horizontal DNA transfer (HDT) is a pervasive mechanism of diversification in many microbial
species, but its primary evolutionary role remains controversial. Much recent research has …

The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the leading causes of fatal infections
affecting humans. Intriguingly, phylogenetic analysis shows that the species constitutes one …

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mechanism for phenotypic diversification in all
forms of life. We previously described remarkable cell-to-cell heterogeneity in epigenetic …

Natural DNA transformation is a lateral gene transfer mechanism during which bacteria take
up naked DNA from their environment and stably integrate it in their genome. The proteins …

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a frequent colonizer of the human nasopharynx that has the
potential to cause severe infections such as pneumonia, bacteremia and meningitis. Despite …

From a common ancestor, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus mitis evolved in
parallel into one of the most important pathogens and a mutualistic colonizer of humans …

The universal administration of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) had been
demonstrated as an effective way to prevent Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. However …

Abstract Background The respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (the
pneumococcus) is a genetically diverse bacterium associated with over 101 …