A. H. M. Zuberi Ashraf

The paper discovers that Snodgrassella alvi, a core bee gut bacterium, is naturally competent, enabling high rates of DNA transfer between strains, which has implications for its evolution and potential microbiome engineering applications.

This study identifies biofilm-forming adhesins in Snodgrassella alvi that are essential for its mutualistic colonization of the bee gut.

The paper develops a one-step genome editing method for Snodgrassella alvi, enabling gene knockouts and insertions with high accuracy and validation of mutant phenotypes.