Communications Biology - DNA-based monitoring uncovers contrasting salinity-driven diversity patterns of bacterial and protist plankton in the Baltic Sea area

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 was awarded jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

Abstract. Parasitic fungi of the phylum Chytridiomycota are known parasites of phytoplankton yet little is known about drivers of their diversity and host

Viruses are ubiquitous mobile genetic elements that are obligate symbionts of cellular life forms and replicate exclusively within host cells. The ...

A funded MSCA Doctoral Network using response diversity knowledge to leverage efficient ecosystem preservation and restoration.

A genomic screen reveals homologues of ESCRT components in mirusviruses that infect unicellular aquatic eukaryotes.

Abstract. Phytoplankton undertake daily vertical migration through the water column to optimize light and nutrient access while avoiding predators. However

An 8-year soil meta-omic time series shows how mobile genetic elements shape permafrost microbial diversity and impact a range of functions, including carbon and nutrient cycling.

Cellular metabolism is widely understood as an integrated network of redox reactions, energy conservation, and biosynthetic pathways. Here we show that across diverse prokaryotic lineages, loss of red...

SLU - Science and Education for Sustainable Life

Discovery bolsters theory that ancient mitochondria formed brand-new, specialized ‘sacs’ in cells by shedding their outer membranes.

Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 23 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41579-026-01306-xComprehensive assessment of the host range of phages is a prerequisite for their safe and effective use in multiple applications but is rarely undertaken. This Review outlines the molecular and ecological determinants of phage host range and discusses the importance of these determinants for developing phage-based applications.

Vacancy at Department of Agroecology - Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Aarhus University

Uncultured open-ocean Asgard archaea can harvest light energy using rhodopsins and diverse hydroxylated carotenoid antennas.

Intense, ultrashort X-ray pulses have been used to probe the extraordinary reactions that occur in a light-sensing receptor, resolving a biochemical conundrum.

Detecting active phage-bacteria interactions in natural microbial communities remains a major limitation for understanding their ecological dynamics and associated co-evolutionary processes. Here, we applied metaHi-C, a chromosome conformation capture method, to resolve active virus-host associations in a freshwater microbial community. From >900 microbial and >33,000 viral Hi-C-assembled genomes, we identified 100 high-confidence phage-host linkages spanning major freshwater bacterial lineages, including Limnohabitans, Acidimicrobium, Synechococcus, Candidatus Nanopelagicus, Candidatus Planktophila, Candidatus Methylopumilus and Polynucleobacter. The inferred networks revealed diverse infection patterns, including broad-host-range phages, cellular-level co-infection, kill-the-winner dynamics and one-to-one interactions. These ecological patterns were associated with signatures of diversifying selection in host-interaction genes, consistent with host-range expansion, alongside conserved genomic regions in broad-host-range and co-infecting phages, indicating functional constraints on essential infection modules. Together, these results demonstrate that metaHi-C enables direct linking of community-level infection dynamics to underlying evolutionary processes, revealing how these forces shape bacterial population dynamics of freshwater bacteria. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, 101117028 Generalitat Valenciana, https://ror.org/0097mvx21, “VIRHOS” project, Ref. CIPROM/2021/006

In the current issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Liu et al. establish a scalable framework and find that protist predation drives bacterial metabolic cooperation. This study offers insights for investigat...

This Genome Watch article explores how protein language models are transforming phage–host specificity prediction by capturing meaningful biological information from viral sequences, from individual p...

Many organisms survive harsh environments by switching into special survival modes. Some bacteria do this by forming spores—dormant, highly resilient cells that can persist for years or even centuries...

The viral shunt is a fundamental ecosystem process which diverts the flux of organic carbon fixed through photosynthesis during algal bloom events ...

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...

Auxiliary metabolic genes, acquired by cyanobacterial viruses (cyanophages) from their hosts, are thought to manipulate host metabolism during infection. A recent study by Nadel et al. performed in vi...

Sztanko et al. demonstrate that Pseudomonas aeruginosa prophages encode proteins resembling the type IV pilus minor pilin protein, FimU. These prophage-expressed FimU proteins are incorporated into th...