The term “plasmid” was coined by Joshua Lederberg in 1952 to describe extrachromosomal genetic elements observed during studies of bacterial conjugation and antibiotic resistance. Their transformation ...

Antibiotic resistance is a critical threat to global human health. Plasmids are a major driver contributing to this problem as they facilitate the horizontal dissemination of resistance genes via ...

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs), defined in this Review as segments of DNA that are capable of moving within genomes and/or among cells, have profound influence on the ecology and evolution of all ...