BACKGROUND The escalating crisis of multidrug resistance is raising fears of untreatable
infections caused by bacterial “superbugs.” However, many patients already suffer from …

Small RNAs are ubiquitously present regulators in all kingdoms of life. Most bacterial and
archaeal small RNAs (sRNAs) act by antisense mechanisms on multiple target mRNAs …

Small RNA regulators (sRNAs) have been identified in a wide range of bacteria and found to
play critical regulatory roles in many processes. The major families of sRNAs include true …

Almost all bacteria and many archaea contain genes whose expression inhibits cell growth
and may lead to cell death when overproduced, reminiscent of apoptotic genes in higher …

Bacteria possess numerous and diverse means of gene regulation using RNA molecules,
including mRNA leaders that affect expression in cis, small RNAs that bind to proteins or …

Our knowledge of prokaryotic defense systems has vastly expanded as the result of
comparative genomic analysis, followed by experimental validation. This expansion is both …

Bacterial genomes are remarkably stable from one generation to the next but are plastic on
an evolutionary time scale, substantially shaped by horizontal gene transfer, genome …

Bacteria form persisters, individual cells that are highly tolerant to different types of
antibiotics. Persister cells are genetically identical to nontolerant kin but have entered a …

Various mechanisms exist that enable bacteria to resist bacteriophage infection. Resistance
strategies include the abortive infection (Abi) systems, which promote cell death and limit …

Bacterial toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems are diverse and widespread in the prokaryotic
kingdom. They are composed of closely linked genes encoding a stable toxin that can harm …