Identifying antiphage defense systems is challenging for bacterial species where such systems are understudied. This study describes a bioinformatic pipeline that uses a small serine recombinase as a ...

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Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a driving force in microbial evolution that allows community members to rapidly evolve to cope with environmental stressors and competition. Despite the importance of...

Macrophage activation is essential for innate immunity and antimicrobial defense. We show that Enterococcus faecalis suppresses macrophage activation …

Microbial hitchhikers are rewriting the rules of horizontal gene transfer. He, Patkowski, et al. reveal how phage satellites assemble chimeric infective particles that deliver DNA across species bound...

Abstract. The genus Enterococcus comprises a diverse group of species, many of which are commensal members of the gut microbiota of humans and animals. The

Many species of bacteria produce small-molecule antibiotics that enter and kill a wide range of competitor microbes. However, diffusible antibacter...

Arbitrium is a communication system that helps bacteriophages decide between lysis and lysogeny via secreted peptides. In arbitrium, the AimP peptide binds its cognate AimR receptor to repress aimX ex...

Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Beyond Antibiotics: Emerging Strategies for Combating Bacterial Infection, May 2026, in Breckenridge, with field leaders!

Revoking vaccine guidance is a public health failure with deadly, costly, and avoidable consequences.

Many years ago I started blogging about the NIH system of extramural grant award because of my own frustrations with the system, as it appeared to be to me. Over time, I realized that there were a …

Pseudomonas syringae can detect and kill microbial predators via a chemical radar (Cra), which also allows the bacterium to infect plants despite predation pressure.

Many bacteria carry phage genome(s) in their chromosome (i.e., prophage), and this intertwines the fitness of the bacterium and the phage. Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carry filamentous phages ...

Description of the Workplace In the Atkinson lab we are interested in making discoveries about protein function and structure, with a focus on bacterial immune system components that protect against b

Biologics are delivered to the gut using phage that infects resident commensal bacteria.