Plasmids drive bacterial adaptation, but how their diversity arises has remained unclear. Here, they show that in Staphylococcus aureus, mobile genetic elements repeatedly fuse and delete plasmids, re...

Strengthening Cambridge's leadership in bacteriology research Bacterial infection and antimicrobial resistance remain among the most pressing global health challenges of our time. At Cambridge, the De...

A bacterial protein fragment called corisin drives pulmonary fibrosis by infiltrating and disrupting cells' quality-control systems, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Mie…

In a process known as phenotypic heterogeneity or phenotypic variation, bacteria can produce distinct phenotypes within an isogenic population in response to shifting environmental conditions. Noise i...

Flagella are large transenvelope nanomachines but how they transit the peptidoglycan in gram-positive bacteria is poorly understood. A recent model...

Bacterial communities glued together and protected by biological polymers

Sequential peptidoglycan carboxylase activity of DacA and DacB generates a local peptidoglycan signature that recruits MapZ and establishes the division site at the Streptococcus pneumoniae cell equat...

The bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii poses a substantial threat in health care settings, readily forming biofilms on wounds and medical surfaces and contributing to persistent infections and delayed…

In a process known as phenotypic heterogeneity or phenotypic variation, bacteria can produce distinct phenotypes within an isogenic population in response to shifting environmental conditions. Noise i...

All living cells need energy, and most generate it through respiration, a series of chemical reactions normally confined to the cell membrane. Because this machinery takes up space, a cell's…

In this Review, Papenfort discusses established and emerging aspects of bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs), their molecular mechanisms and regulatory principles, and the global impact of sRNAs on cellular g...

The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.

Tiny viruses that infect bacteria could one day help us tackle infections that antibiotics can no longer treat. But first, scientists need to understand how these viruses work, and artificial…

Staphylococcus aureus divides along sequential orthogonal planes, but the function of this geometry has remained unclear. Ramos-León et al. show that orthogonal division promotes uniform deployment of...

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 17 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02450-zBacillus subtilis Ncp and NADH dehydrogenase form tube-like filaments with phospholipid-lined chambers that associate with quinones, which can expand bioenergetic capacity and support respiratory electron transfer.