Mobile genetic elements were identified and tracked as they exchanged between multidrug-resistant bacteria causing infections at a single hospital.

A new experimental system of horizontal gene transfer demonstrates that host retrotransposons facilitate the transfer of host genes into poxviruses.

The identification of horizontally transferred genes, and commonly transferred functions, can provide a window into the selective forces acting on species within an ecosystem.

Killing their neighbors allows bacteria to steal genes, including antibiotic resistance genes, which we observed under a microscope, quantified, modeled, and predicted potentially guiding strategies to combat it.

Parallel horizontal gene transfer has spread a bacteriolytic gene family to all domains of life, and has bestowed a niche-transcending adaptation in recipients that must deploy antibacterial molecules to survive in a bacterial world.

Cells resolve unassigned codons with near-cognate suppression, frameshifting, and ribosomal rescue mechanisms, demonstrating that unassigned codons are permissible in both natural and engineered genetic codes as barriers to horizontal gene transfer.

Horizontal gene transfer between distantly related bacterial species is frequent and widespread and can be efficiently identified using alignment-free methods.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) helps slightly beneficial genes persist in microbial populations, incentivising cells to invest in costly DNA uptake, even in the presence of harmful selfish genetic elements.

Active selfish genetic elements in infected cells aid virus adaptation by catalyzing the transfer of host genes to virus genomes.

Adapting bacteria to use an introduced metabolic pathway recapitulates natural mutations and offers a novel bioremediation strategy.