Mobile Antibiotic Resistance Encoding Elements: From Biology to Epidemiology

Dear Colleagues,

The recent accumulation and analysis of bacterial genomic data, which have enabled horizontal gene transfer events to be identified, exhibit the fundamental role of these events in shaping pathogenic bacterial genomes. Horizontal gene transfer refers to the transfer of genetic material often coding for adaptive traits such as antibiotic resistance and/or virulence from the genome of one bacterial cell to that of another. This horizontal transfer constitutes the cornerstone for bacterial adaptation and evolution. Mobile genetic elements such as plasmids and integrative conjugative elements are the major facilitators of this horizontal transfer and are pivotal in the capturing, accumulation, and/or dissemination of antibiotic-resistance determinants within pathogenic bacterial species. This mobilization of the antibiotic-resistance phenotype in turn contributes significantly to the epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant pathogens not only within the hospital setting but also within and among humans, animals, and the environment.

This Special Issue seeks manuscript submissions that further our understanding on the one-health epidemiology of mobile genetic elements, as well as their genomic and functional characteristics that drive this epidemiology.

Dr. Apostolos Liakopoulos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Antibiotic resistance
• Horizontal gene transfer
• Epidemic plasmids
• Integrative conjugative elements
• Transposons
• Integrons
• Mobilome
• Genomics
• Molecular epidemiology
• One health