Questions and Answers
What can drive the evolution of bacterial hosts towards higher virulence?
Mobile genetic elements (mGes)
Why are mGes maintained within the population effectively by accident?
Via transmission of Wolbachia from one host to the next
How can the acquisition of deleterious mGes be partially rescued in some microbial hosts?
Via compensatory evolution
What can lead to the extensive maintenance of mGes in certain genomes?
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What can happen to mGes in host lineages to become indispensable components of the host genome?
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How can mobile genetic elements (MGEs) affect the microorganism–eukaryotic host relationship?
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What can happen to a resistance-conferring MGE in the absence of the corresponding antibiotic?
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What systems force the maintenance of large low-copy-number plasmids in microbial hosts?
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What do toxin-antitoxin systems encode?
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How can mobile genetic elements transition from being beneficial elements to parasites over time?
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