Tal Dagan

Regulatory and metabolic integration accompany plasmid domestication during adaptation to a plant-associated lifestyle

This study shows that domesticated plasmids in Pantoea agglomerans enhance bacterial fitness and metabolic integration with the chromosome during adaptation to a plant-associated lifestyle.

Horizontal transfer promotes allele segregation in multicopy plasmids

This study shows horizontal transfer accelerates plasmid allele segregation by promoting homoplasmic hosts in Acinetobacter baylyi.

Evolution of plasmid domestication in plant-associated Pantoea: massive gain of genetic redundancy followed by differential gene loss

This study shows that plasmids in Pantoea bacteria evolve into chromids through massive gene gain and differential gene loss, leading to genetic redundancy and stable inheritance.

SegMantX: a novel tool for detecting DNA duplications uncovers prevalent duplications in plasmids

SegMantX detects diverged segmental duplications in plasmids, revealing that 74% contain duplicated regions, mostly mobile genetic elements.

Intracellular competitions reveal the combination of active partitioning and addiction mechanisms as most advantageous for low-copy plasmid fitness

The paper compares plasmid persistence strategies and finds that combining active partitioning with toxin-antitoxin systems maximizes plasmid fitness in prokaryotes.

Heteroplasmy is rare in plant mitochondria compared to plastids despite similar mutation rates

The paper compares heteroplasmy durations in plant mitochondria and plastids, finding plastid alleles persist longer despite similar mutation rates.

Worldwide population genomics reveal long-term stability of the mitochondrial chromosome composition in a keystone marine plant

The paper shows that the mitochondrial chromosome composition of Zostera marina remains stable across worldwide populations over 350,000 years despite individual variability.