Ole Skovgaard

This study identifies two categories of extrachromosomal replicons in bacteria and shows that large replicons replicate in sync with the chromosome and use its replication machinery for stable inheritance.

The paper shows that chromosomal copy number changes can drive rapid adaptation in bacteria under nutrient stress by increasing the copy number of a secondary chromosome encoding a beneficial operon.

The paper deletes a chromosomal integron in Vibrio cholerae and shows it has no detectable effect on physiology, proving its genetic and functional isolation.

The paper shows toxin-antitoxin systems regulate cassette recombination dynamics in chromosomal integrons by killing cells when excision rates are too high.