The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria has been a
rising problem for public health in recent decades. It is becoming increasingly recognized …

Highlights•Phage-mediated transduction drives bacterial evolution.•pac-phages can
package any bacterial DNA.•Both pac and cos phages can transfer mobile genetic …

Horizontal gene transfer is important in the evolution of bacterial and archaeal genomes. An
interesting genetic exchange process is carried out by diverse phage-like gene transfer …

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can create tremendous genetic diversity in organisms,
especially those which reproduce asexually. The three classical mechanisms for HGT in …

Alphaproteobacteria, which are the most abundant microorganisms of temperate oceans,
produce phage-like particles called gene transfer agents (GTAs) that mediate lateral gene …

Diverse prokaryotes produce gene transfer agents (GTAs), which are bacteriophage-like
particles that exclusively package pieces of the producing cell's genome and transfer them …

Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are virus-like particles encoded and produced by many
bacteria and archaea. Unlike viruses, GTAs package fragments of the host genome instead …

Horizontal gene transfer occurs via a range of mechanisms, including transformation,
conjugation and bacteriophage transduction. Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are an …

Highlights•Viruses and their components are repeatedly exapted for diverse host
functions.•Virus components are often exapted to function in antiviral defense.•Defective …

Highlights•Viruses in the family Polydnaviridae are associated with parasitoid wasps.•
Polydnaviruses exhibit traits associated with viruses and endogenous viral elements.• …