MicrobeWorld

Thank you for you post on conjugative transposons! Conjugative transposons are certainly fascinating driving forces of microbial evolution. However, I think that too often the public is bombarded with information about how microbes, especially those containing antibiotic resistant traits, are evolving to harm us rather than help us, when in reality, trillions of bacteria on and within us are working to keep us alive. One example of this specifically is the gut bacteria that help us degrade the complex carbohydrates we consume. Right now, I am looking at how new polysaccharides in our diet are challenging our gut bacteria to evolve and degrade these new substrates. In fact, many carbohydrate utilization loci within the genomes of these bacteria are located on conjugative transposons and seem to have acquired their polysaccharide utilization loci via lateral gene transfer.