Microbe Magazine

Phage predation can shape bacterial populations in patients and in other environments, reducing the virulence of particular bacterial pathogens, according to several researchers who spoke during the 2015 ICAAC, held in San Diego last September. They described phages that target bacterial virulenc... More...

The first comprehensive survey of skin-associated, double-stranded DNA viruses reveals 90% of them as being biological “dark matter,” that is, previously unknown to science, according to Elizabeth Grice of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and her collabo... More...

The snakes of eastern North America have been suffering from a mysterious unidentified disease for several years. Snake fungal disease, as it is known, causes snakes to develop lesions that can spread if the snakes don't molt, and leads to anorexia and other fitness-reducing behaviors. Now a... More...

In an ideal world, infectious disease doctors would have immediate access to infection identification and drug resistance profile. Researchers at the NIH Clinical Center have gotten one step closer to this pipe dream by identifying and validating the use of a proxy molecule as a marker for antibi... More...

Insights into the avian immune response may reveal manipulations to keep threats to people at bay. Research conducted at the University of Alberta and published in the Journal of Virology focused on the innate immune response of ducks, one of the natural hosts of influenza A virus (IAV). A... More...

Biofilms are communities of cells protected by an extracellular matrix. This matrix is made of a number of polymeric substances, and is part of the reason why biofilms are so robust. Research performed at the University of Calgary shows that certain components of the matrix play an additional rol... More...

As if working in food microbiology isn't fun enough, researchers at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven have a yet more enviable subject: chocolate. After harvest, cocoa beans are fermented spontaneously in a mixture of lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and yeast. Of these, Kevin Verstr... More...

Microbial mats are layered communities of microbes that depend on each other for waste removal and nutrient production. They can be found in some of the most extreme niches on the planet, and an Antarctic lake that never receives direct sunlight is no exception. Recent research from a team of uni... More...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa motility is inversely related to its ability to form biofilms. New research from Boston Children's Hospital shows that this relationship is at least partially reciprocally regulated. Scientists working with Simon Dove iden... More...