652 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 paper reports a 2025 outbreak of human dermatophilosis in Trondheim, Norway, caused by a highly related *Dermatophilus congolensis* clone transmitted among contact sport athletes without animal contact, highlighting a novel transmission pathway and international spread of the pathogen.
This study reports the structural and stereochemical elucidation of cyanochelin C, a novel cyanobacterial siderophore featuring two -hydroxyaspartate residues, and identifies its biosynthetic gene cluster along with a unique cyanobacteria-specific acyl hydrolase, CcsQ, responsible for its deacylation.
By introducing a time-resolved single-cell pipeline to analyze 18 diverse antimicrobial peptides in *E. coli*, this study identifies two distinct classes defined by opposing trade-offs: Class I peptides act rapidly via inner membrane permeabilization but fail in dense populations due to rapid depletion, whereas Class II peptides act more gradually with limited permeabilization but maintain efficacy against high cell densities and biofilms.
This study demonstrates that while tick-borne orthoflavivirus NS1 proteins impair pericyte support of endothelial cells, they fail to induce microvascular hyperpermeability in isolation, suggesting that the synergistic dysfunction of both endothelial cells and pericytes is required to drive vascular leakage in hemorrhagic disease.
This study of *Aspergillus flavus* populations in Yaounde, Cameroon, reveals a significant prevalence of triazole resistance and evidence of gene flow across ecological niches, highlighting the complex interplay between agricultural fungicide use, genetic diversity, and the growing threat of antifungal resistance to both food safety and human health.
This study elucidates the molecular interface between influenza hemagglutinin and MHC-II by combining deep mutational scanning and cryo-EM to reveal that diverse influenza subtypes utilize MHC-II for cell entry, with specific structural determinants on both the viral protein and the host receptor governing this interaction.
This study demonstrates that human metapneumovirus transmission in LLC-MK2 cells follows a biphasic mechanism, beginning with localized cell-to-cell spread via surface filaments and transitioning to widespread dissemination through cell-free spherical particles as infection progresses and membrane integrity declines.
Experimental evolution demonstrates that while bacteria rapidly evolve phage resistance, a diverse microbial community promotes coexistence by constraining this resistance through growth trade-offs, thereby sustaining higher phage densities and preventing extinction.
This multi-omic study of 620 children demonstrates that family context and shared environment exert a far stronger influence on gut microbiome and metabolic profiles than an autism diagnosis, thereby challenging the existence of a universal ASD-specific microbiome biomarker.
This study reveals that over 80 years of human circulation, the influenza B virus hemagglutinin evolves through complex epistatic networks that enable antigenic drift via recurring mutations while maintaining viral fitness, highlighting both similarities to and distinct differences from influenza A(H3N2) evolution.