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

A novel metabolic network analysis method enables large-scale computational predictions of biosynthetic capabilities across the human oral microbiome, revealing a unique cluster of fastidious microorganisms and potential metabolic interdependencies.

Phylogenomics provides support for the Gram-positive type of bacterial cell envelope being a derived character that arose independently multiple times through loss of an ancestral outer membrane.