Gene Transfer News and Research

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Gene Transfer is the insertion of genetic material into a cell.

Researchers Discover How Bacteria Use Powerful Molecular Motors to Spread Drug Resistance

Every year bacteria kill more than a million people worldwide through infections that no longer respond to antibiotics. In many cases, why those bacteria are so hard to stop comes down to their uniquely powerful structure.

1 Jul 2026

New Evolutionary Framework Views Psychedelic Compounds as Crucial Ecological Tools

Natural hallucinogens, such as psilocybin, mescaline, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and related compounds, have generally received attention for their effects on human perception, emotion, and cognition.

25 Jun 2026

RNA-Based Barcoding Tool Tracks Virus-Host Interactions Inside Bacterial Communities

An interdisciplinary team of Rice University researchers has uncovered previously unknown relationships between bacteriophages - viruses that infect bacteria - and their bacterial hosts, offering a powerful new tool for next-generation microbiome engineering.

17 Jun 2026

Researchers Reconstruct the Billion Year History of Osmotrophic Eukaryotic Evolution

Decomposers are crucial for keeping Earth habitable, breaking down dead biomass and returning key nutrients, like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, back into the ecosystem.

5 Jun 2026

How Genetic Bonuses Help Gut Bacteria Adapt to Industrialization

Billions of microorganisms-primarily bacteria, viruses, and fungi-colonize our gut. This complex community is known as the microbiome.

7 May 2026

Is Fast Food Harming the Gut Health of Seagulls? We Could be About to Find Out

A brand new study looking at the impact of fast food on the gut health of seagulls has just won funding from the Royal Society.

22 Apr 2026

Scientists Map Gene Sharing Networks in Wastewater Treatment Biofilms

Wastewater treatment systems are hotspots for mobile genetic elements proliferation and exchange, where dense biofilms create ideal conditions for horizontal gene transfer.

24 Mar 2026

Study Reveals Planet-Wide Network of Interconnected Microbiomes

In a new study published in Cell, scientists in the Bork Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveal that microbes living in similar habitats are more alike than those simply inhabiting the same geographical region.

10 Feb 2026

Backyard Soil Bacterium Produces Antibiotic Built to Outsmart Resistance

Early in 2025, scientists discovered a promising new antibiotic in a soil sample from a lab technician's backyard.

16 Jan 2026

New Pangenomic Approach Enables Unprecedented Scaling for Genetic Data

Researchers at the University of California have created a novel data structure and compression method that allows pangenomics to process genetic information at previously unattainable scales.

14 Jan 2026

How Complex Microbial Communities Drive the Evolution and Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance

A new scientific review has uncovered how complex microbial communities, including those in the human gut and the natural environment, act as powerful engines that drive the evolution and spread of antimicrobial resistance.

11 Dec 2025

New Research Highlights a More Efficient CAR T Treatment

This review article focuses on the transformative potential of in vivo CAR T cell treatment in overcoming the constraints of standard CAR T cell production.

8 Sep 2025

Discovery of De Novo Genes Sheds Light on Peach Evolution and Traits

The emergence of new genes is a central driver of evolutionary innovation. While mechanisms such as duplication and horizontal gene transfer have been widely studied, de novo gene birth represents a unique pathway where functional genes arise from noncoding DNA.

8 Sep 2025

New Insights Reveal Bacterial Roots of Key Plant Hormone Enzymes

Terpenoids play vital roles in plant ecology-from repelling pests to attracting pollinators-and are produced by terpene synthases (TPSs) enzymes.

19 Aug 2025

TUM Scientists Develop Breakthrough Method to Monitor CAR-T Cells

In modern immunotherapy, modified immune cells are introduced into the body to attack tumors and other targets.

16 Jun 2025

Chitin Facilitates Gene Transfer Across Species Through Natural Transformation Among Vibrio cholerae

A study in PNAS reveals that chitin promotes gene transfer in marine environments by binding environmental DNA and enhancing natural transformation in Vibrio cholerae, with implications for microbial evolution and ecosystem diversity.

6 Jun 2025

Repairing DNA Double-Strand Breaks May Improve Genomic Stability by Limiting Organelle-to-Nucleus Gene Transfer

A new study in Nature Plants reveals that DNA double-strand break repair (DSBR) pathways help prevent gene transfer from organelles to the nucleus in plants. Disruption of DSBR increases the risk of genomic instability through endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT).

2 Jun 2025