Plasmid biology in human adapted pathogens

The rise and spread of antimicrobial resistance is a recognised threat to public health, with much attention focused on the 'superbugs'. However, it is less well appreciated how plasmids (small circles of DNA) make bugs super, by acting as important vehicles for the spread of resistance and virulence. We will study plasmids in important human pathogens Shigella, which causes dysentry, and the gonococcus, a leading cause of sexually transmitted disease. Shigella, which kills around 200,000 people every year, has emerged from harmless bacteria after they acquired a single plamsid called pINV. We will study how pINV is kept by Shigella, and the way it affects how the bacterium accumulates resistance plasmids. We will use similar approaches to study gonococcal plasmids. Understanding how plasmids are maintained in bacteria should enable us to design strategies to eliminate them, thereby making bacteria harmless and/or restoring our ability to treat them with avaiable antibiotics.