Microbe Magazine

A modified poliovirus, under control of a rhinovirus promoter gene, replicates exclusively in cancer cells and appears effective against brain tumors without being neurotoxic, according to Matthias Gromeier of Duke University in Durham, N.C., and his collaborators. These treatments yield “miracul... More...

Methane-producing Methanosarcina acetivorans microorganisms, which are found in oil wells, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and oxygen-depleted sediments, are now implicated as being responsible for the cataclysmic Permian–Triassic (PT) extinction that occurred about 25... More...

With their 10th anniversary looming, the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005 are gathering plenty of praise these days—a rarity for rules affecting practically every country on the planet. Thus, despite difficulties in implementing these rules and applying common standards to disparate... More...

The candidate antifungal drug efinaconazole is proving effective against toenail infections. The drug diffuses relatively freely through nails and binds less strongly to keratin than do other topically applied antifungal drugs, leaving it free to fight the fungus, according to Keita Sugiura of Ka... More...

A promising candidate drug for treating tuberculosis (TB), called SQ109 and undergoing phase 2 clinical trials, acts against Mycobacterium tuberculosis as well as other microbial pathogens and parasites via several different mechanisms, according to Eric Oldfield at... More...

Influenza A viruses mutate rapidly, and have entered new hosts in recent history, sometimes with devastating consequences. Pablo Murcia of the University of Glasgow, et al. show that equine influenza virus (EIV) from 1963 infected canine tracheal explant cultures only very mildly, while 2003 EIV,... More...

When food poisoning occurs, it's critical to determine the source. The MLVA test compares multiple sections of Salmonella's most rapidly mutating genomic region in food source and patient: a match is powerful positive evidence. Now Australian investigators... More...

One can always work to make a good thing better. That spirit motivated a team of researchers who investigated cocoa bean fermentation. The key molecule to initiate flavor development is acetate, says PI Christoph Wittmann, of Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany. Production of acetate requi... More...

Culture-based identification, used to assay war wound infections, misses the many species that are difficult or impossible to culture. But Nicholas Be of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif., et al. posited that using microarrays and whole-genome sequencing to detect microbia... More...

Antibiotics kill the “good” (commensal) bacteria, along with the bad. They may render patients vulnerable to invasion, particularly by the virulent, antibiotic-resistant pathogens that frequently populate hospitals. But now a team of researchers shows that populating the GI tracts of mice with More...

Spiribacter salinus, a gammaproteobacterium of new genus and species, appears to be the most abundant species in hypersaline saltern ponds of medium (12–20%) salinity, comprising about 15% of the bacterial population, according to An-tonio Ventosa of... More...