A new study published in PLOS Genetics has identified an extreme mutational hotspot within the genome of Pseudomonas ...

Microbes Were Once Responsible for the Biggest Mass Extinction Ever Experienced by Earth, Claim Researchers For most people, ...

In bacteria, mutations in plasmids can accumulate surprisingly fast. What does this mean for us humans, who have to fight with these new antibiotic resistant strains? Now, say that a few days ...

Disinfectants induce oxidative damage in bacteria, but a single mutation triggers the expression of genes that help the microbe survive. Sneha Khedkar is an Assistant Editor at The Scientist. She has ...

Studying the function, rate, type and distribution of point mutations can therefore give us insights into the evolutionary pressures on bacterial pathogens.

T4 viruses with mutations in certain genes produce unassembled viral components. These particles are combined in the test tube in an effort to learn how the genes of a virus specify its shape By R ...

In previous work, they determined that bacteria spread in three phases: infection of an initial site, such as the lungs; ...

A gene mutation causes porous gut and retinal barriers, allowing bacteria to travel from one to the other, triggering retinal degeneration in mice. Converting photons into electrical signals requires ...

Bacteremia, also known as blood poisoning, happens when bacteria enter the bloodstream and spread through the body. Normally, the immune system fights off bacteria before they cause serious harm. But ...

Max Planck researchers discovered a 5,000-fold increase in the mutation rate in the genome of *Pseudomonas fluorescens*. The mutation regularly occurred in the promoter region of the *rpoS* gene and ...