Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 09 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41579-026-01377-wIn this Review, Heinzinger, Segal and Dickson summarize recent advances in our understanding of the respiratory microbiome in health, examine how it is altered in acute and chronic respiratory diseases, and discuss its diagnostic and therapeutic potential.

The exchange of biological matter between bacterial cells drives adaptation and evolution. However, whether bacteria can exchange functional proteins remains unclear. In this work, we found that antib...

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of science, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a dee...

Umbrella toxin particles produced by Actinobacteria contain five spokes tipped with variable lectin domains. Here, Zhao et al. show that these lectins mediate species-specific binding to a previously unrecognized cell surface carbohydrate polymer and propose that the modular nature of umbrella particles enables bet hedging against unpredictable competitor encounters.

PhD position (m/f/d) for "Translation of evolutionary principles into antimicrobial treatment"

In cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of 86,149 participants across 27 European countries, Amoruso, Hernandez and colleagues identify multilingualism as a protective factor against accelerated ...

Chronic lung infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cenocepacia pose a severe threat to immunocompromised patients, particularly those with cystic fibrosis. These pathogens often...

Pathogenic Salmonella injects effector proteins into the cells of the gastrointestinal tract to penetrate and multiply within them.

Synthetic molecules targeting HilD provide an antivirulence strategy to disrupt Salmonella enterica pathogenicity.

Synthetic molecules targeting HilD provide an antivirulence strategy to disrupt Salmonella enterica pathogenicity.

A new lasso peptide antibiotic exhibits broad-spectrum activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria by interfering with bacterial protein synthesis, is unaffected by common resistanc...