Phage hijacks host phosphorothioate DNA modification machinery to circumvent bacterial Ssp defences - Nature Microbiology

The phage-encoded protein PptA enables its DNA to masquerade as the host and evade cleavage, providing a potential foundation for engineering therapeutic phages that could bypass this widespread defen...

nature.com

Designing fiber–gut microbiome interactions with active learning - Nature Chemical Biology

Dietary fibers are a primary energy source for gut bacteria and shape the composition and function of the microbiome. Now, an active learning approach integrating explainable machine learning, Bayesia...

nature.com

AI design of gut microbiomes - Nature Chemical Biology

The gut microbiome converts dietary fiber into metabolites that shape human health, but identifying the right combinations of microorganisms and nutrients has been a challenge. A machine learning fram...

nature.com

CRISPR–Cas regulates expression of embedded anti-phage defence systems - Nature

CRISPR–Cas systems transcriptionally tune diverse innate defences using CRISPR RNA-like guides to balance antiviral protection with fitness, and hyperactivate these defences when compromised, establis...

nature.com

The pQBR mercury resistance plasmids: a model set of sympatric environmental mobile genetic elements

Plasmids are extrachromosomal mobile genetic elements that can facilitate rapid bacterial adaptation by transferring genes between individuals. Whilst plasmids are known to exist in diverse habitats a...

microbiologyresearch.org

Surface architecture of the bacterial envelope determines phage adsorption route in pathogenic Escherichia coli O157:H7

The outermost surface layers of Gram-negative bacteria determine phage access to terminal receptors, yet their genetic basis has been mapped almost exclusively in laboratory strains that lack them. He...

biorxiv.org

A family of lanthipeptides with anti-phage function

Bacteria produce natural products to adapt to their environments, with phage interactions as major ecological and evolutionary drivers. While some nat…

sciencedirect.com

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

Structure and evolution-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases

The design of RNA-guided nucleases with properties not limited by evolution can expand programmable genome-editing capabilities. However, generating diverse multidomain proteins with robust enzymatic ...

science.org

Phage host range: determinants, dynamics and applications - Nature Reviews Microbiology

Comprehensive assessment of the host range of phages is a prerequisite for their safe and effective use in multiple applications but is rarely undertaken. This Review outlines the molecular and ecolog...

nature.com

Perturbations shift the composition of bacterial DNA carried by virus-like particles in the murine gut microbiome

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a driving force in microbial evolution that allows community members to rapidly evolve to cope with environmental stressors and competition. Despite the importance of...

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

California Will Vote on a Billionaire Tax. Billionaires Aren’t Happy.

nytimes.com

Wikipedia Is Battling for the Soul of the Internet

nytimes.com

The Common Good Economy

Economics - Innovation - Inclusive Growth - Public Purpose | Mariana Mazzucato

marianamazzucato.com

Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils - Nature Microbiology

An 8-year soil meta-omic time series shows how mobile genetic elements shape permafrost microbial diversity and impact a range of functions, including carbon and nutrient cycling.

nature.com

Antibiotics stimulate protein transfer to persister cells

The exchange of biological matter between bacterial cells drives adaptation and evolution. However, whether bacteria can exchange functional proteins remains unclear. In this work, we found that antib...

science.org

In situ genetic modification of gut bacteria

The crucial role of the gut microbiome in human health has driven a need to understand bacterial function within their complex native ecosystem. Howev…

sciencedirect.com

Same-day tagmentation PCR-based whole genome sequencing of bacteriophage genomes from a single plaque without DNA extraction - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Same-day tagmentation PCR-based whole genome sequencing of bacteriophage genomes from a single plaque without DNA extraction

nature.com

Science sleuths uncover more than 100 suspicious images in Thermo Fisher antibody catalogue

Scientists have long worried about the reliability of commercial antibodies, and the latest findings have sparked fresh concerns.

go.nature.com

Biohub releases a world model of protein biology

/PRNewswire/ -- Biohub today announced the release of a world model of protein biology: a scientific engine for prediction, design, and discovery that can map...

prnewswire.com

Co-migration of hundreds of microbial species over metres drives selection and promotes non-motile hitchhikers - Nature Communications

Migration of microbial communities is poorly understood. Here, the authors use a meso-tube assay to show that hundreds of microbial species co-migrate over metre scales via chemotaxis, which restructu...

nature.com

Revisiting the life cycle of temperate phages - Nature Reviews Microbiology

The life cycle of temperate bacteriophages involves lytic or lysogenic cycles and has historically served as a model for studying genetic regulation. This Review provides an updated overview of these ...

nature.com