Viruses are known to use the genetic machinery of the human cells they invade to make copies of themselves. As part of the process, viruses leave behind remnants throughout the genetic material ...

New research shows that a large, ubiquitous mobile genetic element changes the antagonistic weaponry of Bacteroides fragilis, a common bacterium of the human gut. Bacteria evolve rapidly in the human ...

A component of the human intestinal flora that has been little studied to date is the focus of a new study. Plasmids are small extrachromosomal genetic elements that frequently occur in bacterial ...

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs), or transposable elements (TEs), are a kind of mobile genetic material; in nature, they can change places in within the genome of a species, or even move across ...

Unquestionably, we will emerge from this revolutionary period with modified views of components of cells and how they operate, but only, however, to await the emergence of the next revolutionary phase ...

Bacteria evolve rapidly in the human gut by sharing genetic elements with each other. Bacteriodales is a prolific order of gut bacteria that trade hundreds of genetic elements. Little is known, ...