Volume 7 Issue 4, April 2022

Focused research efforts provide important advances in science, but huge global problems will only be solved through interdisciplinary collaborations, argues David Ng.

Microbiological research has made important discoveries about how life responds to non-terrestrial environments, such as those found aboard the International Space Station. As human space exploration transitions to longer, deep-space missions, microorganisms will continue to play an increasingly critical role in astronaut health, habitat sustainability and mission success.

Space exploration carries with it risks of biological contamination. Here, the planetary protection efforts currently in place to control microbial contamination during space exploration are discussed, including plans related to sample and crew returns to Earth from other Solar System destinations such as Mars.

Bacterial taxa within the murine gut microbiota affect susceptibility to the widely used dextran sodium sulfate model of colitis.

A multiyear study links viral activity in the surface ocean with the habitat range of the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus.

“Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects” — a hypothesis formulated by Lourens Baas Becking in 1934 — is used to frame research that analyses the sharing of Escherichia coli strains across humans, livestock and wildlife animals.

Metabolic changes in auxotrophs enrich the microbial community exometabolome and increase drug resistance.

Metagenomics-based surveillance could transform global efforts to detect risks to human health within a One Health framework.

Following bacterial infection, macrophages undergo metabolic changes that activate antibacterial responses. However, pathogens can exploit host immunometabolites as a signal for virulence induction. This Review examines the crosstalk between pathogens and macrophage immunometabolism.

Sources of microbial metabolites in the surface ocean, their roles in ecology and biogeochemistry, and methods that can be used to analyse them are reviewed.

The SARS-CoV-2 Lambda variant has been prevalent in Latin America. An analysis of the neutralization capacity of antibodies elicited by CoronaVac and BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2 Lambda in plasma from healthcare workers and patients in Chile reveals that BNT162b2 elicits higher neutralizing antibody titres than CoronaVac.

To promote expression of the most recently acquired CRISPR spacers, the transcribed leader region upstream of CRISPR arrays interacts with the conserved repeats bordering the newest spacer, with the resulting interaction promoting tracrRNA hybridization with the second repeat and accelerating crRNA processing

Using microbiome data analysis and a self-establishing metabolically cooperating yeast community model, the authors show that the presence of auxotrophs in a microbial community increases metabolic interactions between cells and fosters antimicrobial drug tolerance.

The human gut microbiota can metabolize xanthan gum, a food additive that was introduced to our diets relatively recently in processed foods. A Ruminococcaceae species can degrade this complex polysaccharide and, in some individuals, Bacteroides intestinalis can grow on the released oligosaccharide products.

High-resolution sampling across thousands of kilometres of open ocean reveals a hotspot of viruses at the boundary of major oceanic gyres that, at times, shaped the abundance and biogeography of marine picocyanobacteria.

Phylogeography and phylogenomic analyses of E. coli isolates collected from humans and domesticated and wild animals across 99 households in Nairobi reveal strong intra-household, and lower but detectable inter-household and inter-host, strain-sharing patterns.

Large-scale gut microbiome analysis of a widely use mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease reveals that the gut microbiome is a driver of variability across genetically identical mice, in particular two species that are associated with variable treatment endpoints.