From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 14 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01677-4Li et al. show that a Lamassu defense system protects bacteria from phage infection by activating a lethal tetrameric DNA-cutting enzyme. In the absence of phages, a protein clamp holds the enzyme as an inactive monomer, preventing self-damage.

Modification of the nucleotide pool is emerging as key to innate immunity in animals, plants and bacteria. This Review explains how immune pathways conserved from bacteria to humans manipulate the nuc...

Antimicrobial resistance is recognized as a major global health threat. Pathogens can rapidly evolve resistance which diminishes the impact of antimicrobial treatments. The presence of other microbes ...

In an experimental multicopy plasmid evolution system that allows manipulation of mutation rate and copy number, low copy number promoted enrichment of beneficial alleles whereas high copy number main...

This Genome Watch discusses recent findings in bacterial mutational hotspots, their impact on pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance, and how we can harness this knowledge to predict pathogen evolu...

Nature Microbiology - Integrons are genetic elements that capture and store gene cassettes in Vibrio species. Bioinformatic and molecular techniques show that these regions can be hotspots of phage...