"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," goes the old adage, which Rice University professor James Chappell completely ignored in a recent Nature Communications publication. In the study, Chappell describes ...

Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA elements that exemplify bacterial adaptability by harboring genes for antibiotic resistance, virulence, metabolic versatility, and stress tolerance across species ...

Extrachromosomal and mobile genetic elements, including plasmids, and accessory chromosomes, are prevalent in all life domains. Elements integrated into the host chromosome replicate and segregate via ...

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 ...