Bacterial techniques and applications

This protocol describes a three-hybrid system to analyze RNA–protein interactions in live bacteria and a complementary forward genetics screen to identify protein and RNA mutants with desired phenotypes.

Here, Jin et al., develop a method called Barcoding Bacteria for Identification and Quantification (BarBIQ), which allows to both characterize the global microbiome and to identify and quantify single-cell bacterial members in a high-throughput manner.

Bacterial DNA transfers between cells in numerous ways and becomes integrated into the genome, with diverse consequences for bacterial genomes. In this Review, Arnold, Huang and Hanage discuss the underlying theory used to infer the selective forces acting on transferred DNA and how they shape patterns of genomic variation.