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Study provides new insights into the microbiomes of pre-industrial agricultural populations

A new study published this week demonstrates a first attempt at using the methods of ancient bacterial detection, pioneered in studies of past epidemics, to characterize the microbial diversity of ancient gut contents from two medieval latrines.

5 Oct 2020

Human gut microbes play an important role in maintaining health

Bacteria and other microorganisms in the digestive tract are linked with dozens of health conditions including high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and body mass index (BMI) according to research presented today at ESC Congress 2020.

27 Aug 2020

New group of Chlamydiae have hydrogen-producing genes that help them survive without oxygen

An international team of researchers has discovered a new group of Chlamydiae - Anoxychlamydiales - living under the ocean floor without oxygen.

27 Aug 2020

Scientists highlight the need to develop microbiome biobanking infrastructure

A team of scientists, led by CABI’s Dr Matthew Ryan, have outlined a series of challenges and opportunities presented in a necessary review of how microbiomes – biological communities including bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, protists and viruses – can be ‘banked’ and preserved for generations to come.

6 Aug 2020

Study finds fungal isolates with high levels of virulence in different hospitals

A group of researchers from Brazil, Denmark, Italy and Spain analyzed 884 samples of fungi of the genus Candida collected from 16 hospitals and found a significant number of clusters in more than one hospital.

29 Jul 2020

Newly identified enzyme provides a new tool in CRISPR genome editing toolbox

A recently discovered hypercompact CRISPR enzyme found only in huge bacteriophages, and known as CRISPR-CasΦ, is functional, a new study by Patrick Pausch, Jennifer Doudna and colleagues reports, and it provides a powerful new tool in the CRISPR genome editing toolbox, including because it can target a wider range of genetic sequences compared to Cas9 and Cas12.

17 Jul 2020

Study finds overabundance of opportunistic pathogens in the guts of persons with Parkinson's

Parkinson's disease is a common, progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disease. It currently cannot be prevented or cured.

18 Jun 2020

Biophysicists reveal molecular mechanism behind light-driven sodium pumping

An international research team has for the first time obtained the structure of the light-sensitive sodium-pumping KR2 protein in its active state.

28 May 2020

International collaborators propose a new ranking scheme to classify SARS-CoV-2

In November of 2019--likely, even earlier--a tiny entity measuring just a few hundred billionths of a meter in diameter began to tear apart human society on a global scale.

28 Apr 2020

Microbiologists discover ethane-munching microbes in hot vents

Researchers have discovered a microbe in the deep sea that eats ethane, the second most common component of natural gas.

21 Apr 2020

How a virus forms a protective shell to evade the immune system

A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses can infect all types of life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.

10 Mar 2020

Unusually large, bacteria-killing viruses discovered

Scientists have discovered hundreds of unusually large, bacteria-killing viruses with capabilities normally associated with living organisms.

13 Feb 2020

Newly discovered large phages blur the life/non-life boundary

A new study published in the journal Nature shows that there are literally hundreds of viruses large enough to consume bacteria, and with properties that are typical of a living organism rather than the non-living self-replicating packages of DNA/RNA that viruses are often assumed to be.

12 Feb 2020