Highlights•Phage-mediated transduction drives bacterial evolution.•pac-phages can
package any bacterial DNA.•Both pac and cos phages can transfer mobile genetic …

The phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICIs) are a family of highly mobile genetic
elements that contribute substantively to horizontal gene transfer, host adaptation, and …

Bacteria encode sophisticated anti-phage systems that are diverse and versatile and display
high genetic mobility. How this variability and mobility occurs remains largely unknown …

Dormant prophages protect lysogenic cells by expressing diverse immune systems, which
must avoid targeting their cognate prophages upon activation. Here we report that multiple …

Phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICIs) are a recently discovered family of
pathogenicity islands that contribute substantively to horizontal gene transfer, host …

Polylysogeny is frequently considered to be the result of an adaptive evolutionary process in
which prophages confer fitness and/or virulence factors, thus making them important for …

The capacity of microbial pathogens to alter their host tropism leading to epidemics in
distinct host species populations is a global public and veterinary health concern. To …

The SaPIs are a cohesive subfamily of extremely common phage-inducible chromosomal
islands (PICIs) that reside quiescently at specific att sites in the staphylococcal chromosome …

Staphylococcal pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) are a family of closely related mobile
chromosomal islands that encode and disseminate the superantigen toxins, toxic shock …

Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for numerous instances of superficial, toxin-mediated,
and invasive infections. The emergence of methicillin-resistant (MRSA), as well as …