Bacteria are social beings which live in dense microscopic communities and engage in constant interaction with their neighbors. These interactions lead to elaborate spatial structuring of bacterial communities and contribute to spreading of genetic material including antibiotic resistance genes. Here I utilize next-generation DNA sequencing and single cell genomics to provide unprecedented data to determine the spatial structuring of bacterial communities, its underlying metabolic reasons, and how it contributes to transfer of antibiotic resistance genes within bacterial communities. This information is of high fundamental microbial ecological interest and directly contributes to medical sciences by increasing our predictive understanding of the spreading of antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity traits among bacteria.

2020

2026