You'll never dry alone: cross‐kingdom metabolic coupling supports the desiccation resilience in a macroalgal holobiont

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nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Environmental factors and microbe-microbe interactions drive the structure of the core microbiota of terrestrial microalgae

Plants and other photosynthetic organisms interact with their environment and surrounding microbiota through specialized associations. A global core microbiota has been proposed at high taxonomic levels, such as the order level. However, it remains unclear which environmental factors and how microbe-microbe interactions drive variation of this core microbiota at lower taxonomic resolution. Here, we leveraged the environmental diversity of 141 sites across the southwest of France to characterize algal populations, and their associated bacterial and fungal microbiota. We then performed a meta-analysis, combining these data with published datasets to formally identify the global core microbiota of terrestrial photosynthetic organisms, which comprises seven bacterial and five fungal orders. We next investigated diversity within this core microbiota and the environmental drivers shaping site-specific community composition. While environmental factors have a low impact on the total relative abundance of core orders, the core microbiota at the ASV-level is impacted by climatic factors, edaphic factors, and plant community descriptors. Using interaction network analysis, we finally explored how microbe-microbe interactions contribute to the assembly of stable core communities. Our results show that core ASVs occupy central positions in algal-associated microbial networks and that distinct core orders drive site-specific variation in core microbiota structure. Together, these findings highlight the importance of both environmental context and microbial interactions in shaping the composition and stability of the core microbiota associated with photosynthetic organisms. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, 951444 – PATHOCOM, erc-stg-948219, EPYC Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR-10-LABX-41 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, https://ror.org/00cwqg982, BB/ X011054/1, BBS/E/F/000PR13631

tinyurl.com

Haitian student dies by suicide after ICE issued him an ankle monitor

Pierre Damas Bel, 20, of Springfield, Ohio, expressed feeling “shame and humiliation” at having to wear an ankle monitor. The college student died by suicide days later.

nbcnews.com

A high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet can feed intestinal tumours

A ketogenic diet promotes tumour growth in the small intestine in susceptible mice. In people, diet advice might need to be tailored to individual cancer risks.

go.nature.com

Transcriptomics in the era of long-read sequencing - Nature Reviews Genetics

Advances in long-read sequencing are driving the implementation of these technologies for transcriptome profiling. The authors provide a comprehensive guide to long-read RNA sequencing, including expe...

go.nature.com

Briefing Chat: Penguins pick up PFAS pollution

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 17 April 2026

go.nature.com

Prebiotics reverse effects of anti-depressants on the gut microbiome - Quadram Institute

Scientists from the University of Ottawa and Beijing Institute of Lifeomics found that SSRIs, SNRIs and Tricyclic Antidepressants, commonly prescribed anti-depressants that target the…

buff.ly

From clonality to complexity: a journey through microbial ecology and evolution

Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 30 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00910-6Jaime Martinez-Urtaza reflects on two papers by Smith et al., who found that bacteria exist along a continuum from clonal to recombining populations, and introduced the concept of an ‘epidemic’ microbial population structure.

nature.com

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AToUT – TIRIS – Toulouse's Science In and For Society

tiris.univ-toulouse.fr

Meta-analysis of the uncultured gut microbiome across 11,115 global metagenomes reveals a new candidate biomarker of health

The human gut microbiome plays an important biological role in host health, yet over 60% of gut species remain uncultured and hence inaccessible to experimental manipulation. Here we analysed 11,115 h...

biorxiv.org

How do we digest beans? - Quadram Institute

PhD candidate Glória Máté-Koncz explains the science of how we digest beans and how we study the digestion process here at the Quadram Institute.

quadram.ac.uk

Presenting new research at an international conference: using microphysiological systems (MPS) to study microbial infections

Dr Emily Jones visits Brussels to share her latest findings and network with researchers from around the world.

cmi-norwich.ac.uk

Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation

Evolutionary histories of effector proteins secreted by fungal pathogens to mediate plant colonization remain largely elusive. While most functionally characterized effectors modulate plant immunity, ...

biorxiv.org

The Genetic Basis of Bacterial Adaptation to Hosts

Microbes colonize and interact with diverse multicellular hosts using specialized genes, many of which remain unidentified. Better understanding of host-associated gene functions is a key aspect of mi...

biorxiv.org

Pseudomonas intra-genus competition determines the protective function of synthetic bacterial communities in Arabidopsis thaliana

The plant microbiome can protect its host against detrimental bacterial strains. This study shows that competition among Pseudomonas bacteria in synthetic bacterial communities determines how well the...

journals.plos.org