Unravelling the impact of lateral transduction in the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

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Horizontal gene transfer can, in a single step, transform a benign bacterium into a virulent or drug-resistant pathogen. Bacteriophages, a type of virus that infects bacteria, drive gene transfer. We have recently identified a new form of gene transfer, lateral transduction, which is the most powerful mode of transduction described to date. Using this mechanism, bacteriophages of Staphylococcus aureus can promote the efficient transfer of hundreds of thousands of bases from the bacterial genome, allowing the bacteria to swap genes and switch from benign to dangerous very quickly. This work will investigate the universality of this mechanism, and identify whether other bacterial pathogens use the same process to evolve in nature. We will also investigate whether this mechanism of gene transfer contributes to the emergence of multi-resistance in clinical strains. This programme will make significant contributions to science, from addressing the molecular basis of fundamental biological processes to understanding the evolution of virulence and the spread of antibiotic resistance in nature.