Latest Articles
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceMicrobial Functional Responses to Cholesterol Catabolism in Denitrifying SludgeSteroids are ubiquitous and abundant natural compounds that display recalcitrance. Biodegradation via sludge communities in wastewater treatment plants is the primary removal process for steroids. To date, compared to studies for aerobic steroid degradation, the knowledge of anaerobic degradation of steroids has been based on only a few model organisms. Due to the increase of anthropogenic impacts, steroid inputs may affect microbial...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceExisting Climate Change Will Lead to Pronounced Shifts in the Diversity of Soil ProkaryotesThere have been many studies highlighting how plant and animal communities lag behind climate change, causing extinction and diversity debts that will slowly be paid as communities equilibrate. By virtue of their short generation times and dispersal abilities, soil bacteria might be expected to respond to climate change quickly and to be effectively in equilibrium with current climatic conditions. We found strong evidence to the...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceIs Host Filtering the Main Driver of Phylosymbiosis across the Tree of Life?Phylosymbiosis is a pattern defined as the tendency of closely related species to host microbiota whose compositions resemble each other more than host species drawn at random from the same tree. Understanding the mechanisms behind phylosymbiosis is important because it can shed light on rules governing the assembly of host-associated microbiotas and, potentially, their coevolutionary dynamics with hosts. For example, is phylosymbiosis...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceMetapopulation Structure of CRISPR-Cas Immunity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Its VirusesPseudomonas aeruginosa is a widespread opportunistic pathogen and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis patients. Microbe-virus interactions play a critical role in shaping microbial populations, as viral infections can kill microbial populations or contribute to gene flow among microbes. Investigating how...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyArabinose-Induced Catabolite Repression as a Mechanism for Pentose Hierarchy Control in Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824Clostridium acetobutylicum can ferment a wide variety of carbohydrates to the commodity chemicals acetone, butanol, and ethanol. Recent advances in genetic engineering have expanded the chemical production repertoire of C. acetobutylicum using synthetic biology. Due to its natural properties and...
EditorialAnnouncement of the 2019 BLAST Conference: “BLAST XV: 15th International Conference on Bacterial Locomotion and Signal Transduction”An exciting conference showcasing cutting edge research in bacterial signal transduction, chemotaxis, and motility will be held in January 2019. This conference, called Bacterial Locomotion and Signal Transduction (BLAST), will be held in New Orleans, LA, USA, under the auspices of chair Birgit Scharf.
Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesRibosome Profiling of Synechocystis Reveals Altered Ribosome Allocation at Carbon StarvationRibosome profiling accesses the translational step of gene expression via deep sequencing of ribosome-protected mRNA footprints. Pairing of ribosome profiling and transcriptomics data provides a translational efficiency for each gene. Here, the translatome and transcriptome of the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis were compared under carbon-replete and carbon starvation conditions. The latter may be experienced when...
EditorialWHONDRS: a Community Resource for Studying Dynamic River CorridorsThe Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS) aims to galvanize a global community to provide the scientific basis for improved management of dynamic river corridors. WHONDRS is a global research consortium working to understand connections among dynamic hydrology, biogeochemistry, and microbiology in river corridors from local to global scales.
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyFecal Microbiota Transplantation Beneficially Regulates Intestinal Mucosal Autophagy and Alleviates Gut Barrier InjuryThe gut microbiota plays a crucial role in human and animal health, and its disorder causes multiple diseases. Over the past decade, FMT has gained increasing attention due to the success in treating Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although FMT appears to be effective, how FMT functions in the recipient remains unknown....
Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyPersistent Interactions with Bacterial Symbionts Direct Mature-Host Cell Morphology and Gene Expression in the Squid-Vibrio SymbiosisA long-term relationship between symbiotic partners is often characterized by development and maturation of host structures that harbor the symbiont cells over the host’s lifetime. To understand the mechanisms involved in symbiosis maintenance more fully, we studied the mature bobtail squid, whose light-emitting organ, under experimental conditions, can be transiently or persistently colonized by...