This is the first study to isolate and characterize F. oxysporum isolates from a built environment, as well as one that has been exposed to space. The characterization and analysis of these two genomes may have important implications for the medical, agricultural, and food industries as well as for the health of the crew who coinhabit the ISS with these strains.

Soil microbes produce a diverse array of natural products, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Volatile compounds are important molecules in soil habitats, where they mediate interactions between bacteria, fungi, insects, plants, and animals. We measured the VOCs produced by a broad diversity of soil- and dust-dwelling Actinobacteria in vitro. We detected a total of 126 unique volatile compounds, and each strain...

Soil-associated plasmids have the potential to transfer antibiotic resistance genes from environmental to clinical microbial strains, which is a public health concern. A specific resource is needed to aggregate the knowledge of soil plasmid characteristics so that the content, host associations, and dynamics of antibiotic resistance genes can be assessed and then tracked between the environment and the clinic. Here, we present RefSoil...

Photosynthetic microbes are the predominant sources of organic carbon in the sunlit regions of the ocean. During photosynthesis, nitrogen and carbon metabolism are coordinated to synthesize nitrogen-containing organics such as amino acids and nucleic acids. In large regions of the ocean, nitrogen is thought to limit the growth of phytoplankton. The impact of nitrogen limitation on the synthesis of organic carbon is not well understood,...