All plants studied in natural ecosystems are symbiotic with fungi (1), which obtain nutrients while either positively, negatively, or neutrally affecting host fitness (2). Plant adaptation to selectiv...

Soil bacteria colonize plants without causing visible disease, yet many suppress host growth. The prevalence and evolutionary reach of this cryptic inhibition are unknown, because phenotyping hundreds...

Drought conditions in soil systems lead to elevated concentrations of natural antibiotics, as well as the enrichment of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, highlighting a link between climate and the...

Taillefer et al. show that a bacterial type VI secretion system is lost or attenuated during experimental evolution when it provides no competitive advantage but is maintained in the presence of susceptible competitors. T6SS inactivation arises through diverse regulatory and structural mutations, revealing how ecological context shapes antibacterial weapon evolution.

Small molecules produced by TIR (Toll-interleukin-1 receptor) domains are essential for plant immune signaling. A central TIR-derived signal is 2ʹcADPR, a cyclic ADP-ribose (ADPR) molecule that is gen...

Author summary Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that can cause severe invasive infections. S. aureus produces many toxins during infection, of which α-toxin (AT) is clinically relevant. AT is a po...

A colibactin-producing symbiont in honeybee guts defends against opportunistic pathogens and confers protection.

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working i...

Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial and fungal pathogens constitute a severe threat to public health. The pace at which new antimicrobials are being rel…

DNA repair systems are essential to maintain genome integrity and stability. Some obligate endosymbionts that experience long-term symbiosis with t...

A plant receptor detects caterpillar attack and triggers emission of chemical cues to attract predatory wasps.

Plants and animals respond to pathogen attack by mounting innate immune responses that require intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins. These immune receptors detect pathog...