Colistin is an important antibiotic of last resort, and increasing resistance to this drug via mobile phosphoethanolamine transferase genes, such as mcr-1, threatens its clinical utility. Given the discovery of mcr-1 in pigs, the ability of animals to act as vectors in the spread of colistin resistance is alarming. We show here that functionally selected Acinetobacter phosphoethanolamine transferase genes from the goose microbiome have the ability to confer clinical levels of colistin resistance when transferred into E. coli. While the genes are annotated as eptA homologs, closer study of these genes suggests that they may be mobilized within the Acinetobacter genus, suggesting that they may be mcr genes of concern instead.

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — Out of the 30 million MRIs performed in the United States every year, data shows about 22% of those are on the brain. Now, researchers at the University of Ill…

SAN DIEGO, CA—Nobel laureate Dr.

I wrote this post just after finishing the 3rd go-around of my Scientific Writing course, back in 2020(!), and then updated it in 2021 and 2023. Since then, I’ve developed a one-week intensiv…

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Abstract. The Bakta command line application is widely used and one of the most established tools for bacterial genome annotation. It balances comprehensiv

The American Society for Microbiology stands firm in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as such efforts are critical to advancing the microbial sciences for everyone.

The ISME Journal - Metabolic genes on conjugative plasmids are highly prevalent in Escherichia coli and can protect against antibiotic treatment

In this work, authors probe the molecular mechanism of re-emerging CHL susceptibility in Malawian Enterobacterales isolates, where they identify a stable truncation of resistance genes by insertion se...

Nature - There is growing evidence from metagenome-wide association studies that several common human disorders, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), are associated with intestinal dysbiosis, an...