Caging and COM-Bating Antibiotic Resistance.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) facilitates spead of antibiotic resistance elements. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Domenech et al. discover that compounds disrupting proton motive force block natural competence (COM) and interrupt intraspecies HGT and exchange of antibiotic resistance. Such strategies might minimize clinical spread of antibiotic resistance.