The platelet is the most important cell in the bloodstream in providing endovascular immunity against Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. Both quantitative and qualitative thrombocytopenia have been ...

Natural transformation is a widespread mechanism driving genetic exchanges in bacteria. It proceeds by the capture and internalization of exogenous DNA in linear single strands, ultimately integrated in the genome by homologous recombination. It is unknown how the RecA-directed D-loop intermediate of this dedicated recombination pathway is processed. We report that resolution of the transformation D-loop depends on two endonucleases of opposing phylogenetic distribution in bacteria. One is YraN, which has co-evolved and interacts with the ComM helicase, known to extend DNA recombination at the transformation D-loop. The other is CoiA, which is restricted to the Bacillota. CoiA is shown to be a resolvase of the transformation D-loop, extended by the RadA helicase in these species. We demonstrate that both YraN and CoiA act synergistically with their cognate helicases. These findings reveal that bacteria have evolved two helicase/nuclease pairs for the maturation and recombination extension of the transformation D-loop. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Agence Nationale de la Recherche, https://ror.org/00rbzpz17, ANR-20-CE12-0004, ANR-10-BLAN-1331, ANR-17-CE13-0031, ANR-22-CE44-0044, ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID, PIA/ANR-16-CONV-0005 Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, https://ror.org/04w6kn183, FDT202001010890 European Union's Horizon research and innovation programme. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships, 101208987 National Institute of Health, USA, R35GM128674

Phage-host interactions have a role shaping microbial ecosystems, but their behavior in microgravity remains largely unexplored. In this study, experiments aboard the ISS reveal distinct evolutionary ...

A new single cell-based screening tool evaluates how well antibiotics kill bacteria and may help researchers determine which drugs perform best in patients.

Characterization of cell-free expression (CFE) systems must expand beyond single spectrophotometric measurements of a green fluorescent protein to provide meaningful metrics of system performance duri...

Antimicrobial peptides delivered to mouse lung as mRNA peptibodies eradicate multidrug-resistant pneumonia.

A reduced rate of synonymous site evolution is often presented as key evidence for selection on synonymous mutations. However, this study shows that for the paradigmatic example in bacteria, where the...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent promising alternatives to conventional antibiotics in the fight against multidrug-resistant pathogens. Here, w…

A recent study found that apparently stable coexistence between a clinically important pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and its integrated prophages can break down, setting off an evolutionary cycle ...

Bacterial flagella are elaborate machines that are inserted through the bacterial cell envelope. The regulation of flagellar gene expression is organized in hierarchical tiers that largely correlate w...