Antibiotics are powerful drugs used in the treatment of bacterial infections. The inappropriate
use of these medicines has driven the dissemination of antibiotic resistance (AR) in most …

Antibiotics target essential cellular functions but bacteria can become resistant by acquiring
either exogenous resistance genes or chromosomal mutations. Resistance mutations …

The evolution of antibiotic resistance carries a fitness cost, expressed in terms of reduced
competitive ability in the absence of antibiotics. This cost plays a key role in the dynamics of …

Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA elements that can be found throughout bacteria, as
well as in other domains of life. Nonetheless, the evolutionary processes underlying the …

Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium and Staphylococcus aureus are both common
commensals and major opportunistic human pathogens. In recent decades, these bacteria …

Enterococcus faecium is a major species in infections by vancomycin-resistant enterococci
(VRE). New variants of the pathogen have emerged and become dominant in healthcare …

Bioaugmentation, or the inoculation of microorganisms (eg, bacteria harboring the required
catabolic genes) into soil to enhance the rate of contaminant degradation, has great …

Ever since antibiotics were introduced into human and veterinary medicine to treat and
prevent bacterial infections there has been a steady selection and increase in the frequency …

Multidrug resistance (MDR) of pathogens is an ongoing public health crisis exacerbated by
the horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes via conjugative plasmids. Factors that …

The fitness effects of a mutation can depend, sometimes dramatically, on genetic
background; this phenomenon is often referred to as “epistasis.” Epistasis can have …