The Secor Lab seeks a postdoctoral researcher to investigate bacteriophage biology in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. The successful candidate will help define how phiBB-1 controls h...

YprA-family helicases represent a key hub in the prokaryotic defense network. Through phylogenetic analysis of YprA, Bell and colleagues identify a distinct class of defense systems, called ARMADA. AR...

Cell-to-cell cooperation through membrane vesicles enhances antibiotic persistence

L-type pyocins are a class of bacteriocin-like proteins with antibacterial activity. Here, the authors show that these proteins kill the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa by inhibiting the BAM complex a...

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

AMSTERDAM—Academic publishing giant Elsevier announced Tuesday the launch of Paywally And Friends, a new animated series for children ages three to seven that teaches young viewers the importance of…

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded three new Centers for Accelerating Phage Therapy to Combat ESKAPE Pathogens (CAPT-CEP)—the first coordinated U.S. research...

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02355-xThe prophage of a clinical Enterobacter isolate uses an RNA-guided transcription factor to alter flagellar composition, leading to enhanced bacterial motility and improved gut colonization in a mouse model.

An immunity-like system functions as a lysis control hub to promote gene transfer agent particle release from host bacterial cells, suggesting that bacterial immune systems may be co-opted to promote ...

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Nature Communications - The efficiency of horizontal gene transfer between different bacterial lineages is often unclear. Here, Figueroa et al. show that lateral transduction is the primary driver...

Gallego-del-Sol et al. show that arbitrium-coding phages can sense non-cognate peptide signals from other phages to regulate lysis-lysogeny decisions. This crosstalk affects lysis-lysogeny outcomes of...

Tak et al. discover that bacteria use 2′,3′-cGAMP, the same signaling molecule employed by mammalian cGAS-STING, for phage defense. In response to phage, 2′,3′-cGAMP activates filament formation of Ca...

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 10 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02288-5RNA-targeting CRISPR in Listeria seeligeri restricts the lytic cycle of temperate phages but tolerates prophage acquisition while also preventing induction—a system that enables acquisition of beneficial prophages while mitigating the risks of lysis.

Nature Microbiology - This study highlights that Schlafens are ancient, mechanistically conserved immune effectors that mediate antiviral immunity in organisms ranging from humans to bacteria.

Pathogenic bacteria rely on the stringent response to adapt to environments within the host. Here, Michaud et al. show that iron-sulfur cluster damage acts as a conserved signal that triggers the stri...

The Bikard lab at Institut Pasteur in Paris is seeking to hire postdoctoral researchers. We are investigating bacteria / bacteriophages interactions, and the genetic innovation that happens at this in...

Author summary Many of the pathogenic mechanisms by which Borrelia burgdorferi causes disease involve cell envelope interactions with host components. To further elucidate the role of peptidoglycan in...

A library of 400 phage protein-coding genes is used to find a trove of antiphage systems, revealing systems that target tail fibre and major capsid proteins.