771 papers
Microbiology explores the invisible world of tiny life forms that shape our health, environment, and even the air we breathe. From bacteria and viruses to fungi and parasites, this field investigates how these microscopic organisms interact with us and each other, driving everything from disease outbreaks to beneficial fermentation processes. Understanding them is crucial for developing new medicines, improving food safety, and combating global health challenges.
At Gist.Science, we make the latest discoveries in this dynamic field accessible to everyone. We process every new preprint uploaded to bioRxiv in this category, transforming dense academic findings into both clear, plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries. This ensures that whether you are a student, a researcher, or simply curious, you can grasp the significance of cutting-edge science without getting lost in jargon.
Below are the most recent papers in microbiology, curated and summarized directly from the bioRxiv server to keep you at the forefront of discovery.
This study demonstrates that while active phage replication drives bacterial succession during vegetable fermentation, the overall fermentation process and metabolite production remain resilient and stable despite these viral-bacterial interactions.
This study reveals that a highly streamlined *Nitrosopumilus* population in the Baltic Sea maintains substantial vitamin biosynthesis capabilities under strong purifying selection, suggesting these retained pathways are evolutionarily conserved and ecologically significant for both the producer and the broader microbial community.
This study identifies and characterizes a distinct family of Cache domain proteins that evolved through the acquisition of covalently bound c-type heme, revealing a novel mechanism for bacterial sensory system evolution where these domains function as nitric oxide sensors or redox regulators.
This study provides the first culture-based evidence that polinton-like viruses (PLVs) isolated from the alga *Chrysochromulina parva* can utilize an Algavirales virus as a helper for replication, establishing a novel hyperparasitic relationship distinct from the previously known dependence on Imitervirales.
This study utilizes single-cell transcriptomics to map the life cycle and cell cycle gene expression dynamics of in vitro-cultured *Leishmania major* and *L. mexicana*, revealing species-specific developmental trajectories and identifying conserved cell cycle-regulated genes that link developmental transitions to specific cell cycle phases.
This study demonstrates that integrating metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from public transport systems with clinical isolates reveals extensive unrecognized diversity and evidence of transmission for multiple *Acinetobacter* species, highlighting the critical role of MAGs in genomic surveillance of man-made environments and their public health implications.
This study characterizes the central carbon metabolism of the non-model bacterium *Acinetobacter* sp. Tol 5 using 13C-metabolic flux analysis, revealing how its flux distribution, particularly through the glyoxylate shunt and TCA cycle, adapts to different carbon sources like ethanol, acetate, and lactate to inform its potential as a microbial cell factory.
This study demonstrates that the thermophilic archaeon *Sulfolobus acidocaldarius* can withstand brief and repeated exposures to near-boiling temperatures, with population mortality driven primarily by the cumulative duration of heat exposure rather than a fixed thermal threshold or DNA mismatch repair deficiency.
This paper introduces Bascet and Zorn, a scalable and reproducible bioinformatic toolkit designed to overcome current limitations in high-throughput single-cell metagenomic analysis, enabling the generation of high-resolution genome data from complex microbial communities like human saliva.
This manuscript, which originally investigated the role of two anchoring proteins in controlling daughter apical complex assembly in *Toxoplasma gondii*, has been withdrawn by the authors for revisions and should not be cited.