Since more than 20 years now, my research work focuses on the fascinating power of bacteria to adapt to their environment: from flexibility of the catabolic pathways to sporulation for a cellulolytic anaerobic bacterium, host adaptation of the zoonotic pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium, antibiotic resistance of the zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter and adaptation of streptococci through horizontal gene transfers mediated by mobile genetic elements. Keeping in mind the global bacterial physiology, I am interested in characterizing these mechanisms of adaptation at the molecular level. My current research projects aim at determining biotic and abiotic factors (cell surface composition, stress, sub-lethal antibiotic concentrations, biofilm) that promote transfer by conjugation of Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICEs) and Integrative Mobilizable Elements (IMEs) of streptococci and elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms of regulation.