A novel stress response pathway mediates biofilm architecture in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Author summary Biofilm formation by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa represents a major clinical challenge, with biofilms typically associated with chronic infection, increased antibi...

journals.plos.org

nature.com

Unique adaptations in sulfatases underpin colonic mucin degradation by Akkermansia muciniphila - Nature Microbiology

Structural and biochemical follow-up of a serendipitous discovery reveals that Akkermansia muciniphila carbohydrate sulfatases are uniquely adapted to digest colonic mucins in collaboration with other...

nature.com

Leucine auxotrophic marker for genetic manipulation of Mycobacterium abscessus | Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The development of a leucine auxotroph-based genetic system for Mycobacterium abscessus addresses critical challenges in mycobacterial genetics. By avoiding established antibiotic resistance markers, ...

journals.asm.org

A family of lanthipeptides with anti-phage function

Shomar, Guillaume, et al. report the genomics-driven discovery of a family of more than 2,000 lanthipeptide biosynthetic gene clusters with anti-phage potential. They experimentally demonstrate anti-p...

cell.com

From hijackers to architects: the role of prophages in bacterial genome evolution | Journal of Bacteriology

Bacteriophages (phages) are one of the most important drivers of bacterial evolution, regulating physiology, genetic diversity, population dynamics, and coevolution through complex host-phage interact...

journals.asm.org

A receptor-centered approach identifies Lom as a LamB-bound superinfection exclusion factor in bacteriophage λ

Ge et al. develop a receptor-centered strategy to identify phage proteins that target host receptors during infection and discover the λ outer-membrane protein Lom. Lom binds and occludes LamB, blocki...

cell.com

FEBS Press

Biophysical characterisation shows that NanX, a membrane transport protein from the major facilitator superfamily (MFS), forms both monomers and dimers after purification. AlphaFold modelling and sub...

febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

High-quality phage assembly from metagenomes with PALACE - Nature Biotechnology

PALACE combines homology features and deep learning to improve phage assembly from metagenomics.

nature.com

OpenEvo: An Open-Source Platform for Automated Evolution and Analysis

Here we introduce OpenEvo, a fully open-source, low-cost turbidostat platform for automated continuous culture and directed evolution experiments. Existing tools are expensive, complex, or lack open-s...

biorxiv.org

Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids

Conjugative plasmids are a class of mobile genetic elements capable of efficient transfer between bacterial cells. Although they can introduce beneficial traits such as antibiotic resistance to recipi...

biorxiv.org

Targeted DNA nicking enables efficient, single-step and counterselection-free editing of bacteriophage genomes

Genetic manipulation of bacteriophages is essential for interrogating phage biology and advancing antimicrobial therapies. However, current genome editing approaches can be inefficient, require multip...

biorxiv.org

END nucleases are antiphage defence systems targeting multiple phages with modified genomes - Nature Microbiology

The END nuclease targets eight phage families with at least ten different known DNA modifications, but not unmodified DNA. Its specificity is dictated by the C-terminal iEndoIII domain. To combat END,...

nature.com

Job Opportunity at LSHTM: Research Fellow

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working i...

jobs.lshtm.ac.uk

Bacteriophage-mediated cell lysis externalizes a metabolically valuable nutrient to broadly modulate bacterial communities

Abstract. Cobamides, including vitamin B12, are essential cofactors exchanged between organisms across diverse ecosystems including oceans, soils, and the

academic.oup.com

A Type VII-secreted toxin enables inter-mycobacterial competition - Nature Communications

Mycobacteria have not yet been reported to engage in interbacterial competition via secretion of proteinaceous toxins. Here, Benedict et al. show that some mycobacteria can use their type-VII secretio...

nature.com

Phages tame plant pathogens

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 23 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02395-3Predicting infection heterogeneity requires looking beyond the host. Phage–bacteria coevolution in tomato fields maintains diverse bacterial strategies and explains uneven disease occurrence across plant populations.

go.nature.com

Structure and substrate recognition by the bacterial twin-arginine translocation (Tat) core complex - Nature Microbiology

Cryo-EM structural, biochemical and functional analyses of the bacterial twin-arginine translocation system for protein transport across membranes reveal mechanisms of substrate binding.

nature.com