Natural bacterial transformation involves the internalization and chromosomal integration of
DNA and has now been documented in∼ 80 species. Recent advances have established …

Many bacteria are naturally competent, able to actively transport environmental DNA
fragments across their cell envelope and into their cytoplasm. Because incoming DNA …

Being the principal causative agent of bacterial pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis and
septicemia, the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major global health problem. To …

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mechanism for phenotypic diversification in all
forms of life. We previously described remarkable cell-to-cell heterogeneity in epigenetic …

Natural DNA transformation is a lateral gene transfer mechanism during which bacteria take
up naked DNA from their environment and stably integrate it in their genome. The proteins …

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a frequent colonizer of the human nasopharynx that has the
potential to cause severe infections such as pneumonia, bacteremia and meningitis. Despite …

Natural bacterial transformation is a genetically programmed process allowing genotype
alterations that involves the internalization of DNA and its chromosomal integration …

Natural transformation enables bacteria to acquire DNA from the environment and
contributes to genetic diversity, DNA repair, and nutritional requirements. DNA processing …

Homologous recombination (HR) is a central process of genome biology driven by a
conserved recombinase, which catalyses the pairing of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) with …

Natural transformation enables the incorporation of exogenous DNA into host genomes and
plays a fundamental role in the evolution of microbial populations. At the center of the …