Microbe Magazine

In 1999, ASM News reported the 50 most-cited articles from ASM journals during the 100 years 1899–1999 (M. Schaechter and J. L. Ingraham, ASM News 65:276–281, 1999). In this ranking, our paper on “Transformation of intact yeast cells treated with alkali” (H. It... More...

The following Correction appeared in Microbe, April 2010, p. 141:

The disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico brings to mind an emergency operation that John Hogan and I threw together to process the oily debris generated by a spill and the resulting cleanup of no. 4 heating oil at Rutgers University in 1983. The oily debris included soil, woody fragments, veg... More...

Sugar is both the fuel of animal life and the starting material for fermentation, a potential source of renewable liquid fuels. But presently, sugar can be obtained only from relatively few crops, such as cane, sugar beets, and the energy input-intensive and otherwise environmentally harmful corn... More...

Two families of archaea and bacteria, respectively, alone in the known world of prokaryotes, contain distantly related viral elements from both of two separate apparent families of virus, according to Jaana K. H. Bamford and colleagues of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. First author Matti J... More...

In Escherichia coli, a complex of 10 proteins is known to be essential for cell division. Mark D. Gonzalez and Jon Beckwith of the Harvard Medical School, et al. identified domains of one of these proteins, FtsL, which are necessary for its interaction with another ... More...

The endemic dimorphic fungi are primary pathogens with worldwide distribution. Infections caused by these fungi can cause severe disease in those immunocompromised by AIDS, malignancy, and pharmacologic immunosuppression. Thomas D. Sullivan of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues ... More...

Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa often results in major morbidity, and frequently, in mortality. No single drug attains optimal kill or suppression of resistance, which is estimated to occur in one-third to one-half of all patients. George L. Drusano and c... More...

30 July–2 August 2010.

Binary fission is a most impressive invention. In one fell swoop, it ensures that progeny cells are born alike and endowed with the same potential for growth and survival. Simple as it sounds, it must have taken considerable evolutionary contortions to make it function so well throughout the livi... More...