🦠 Category

microbiology

559 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.

🦠 microbiology

SCCmecExtractor: A tool for extracting Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome elements from Whole Genome Sequences

SCCmecExtractor is a lightweight, open-source Python toolkit that identifies and extracts complete Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome (SCC) elements, including those lacking methicillin resistance genes, from whole-genome assemblies across diverse staphylococcal species, thereby revealing a substantial reservoir of non-mec SCC diversity previously overlooked by existing typing tools.

MacFadyen, A. C.2026-03-31
🦠 microbiology

A replication-centered phylogeny illuminates the evolutionary landscape of bacterial plasmids

This study introduces PInc, a replication-centered classification framework based on conserved winged-helix domains in replication initiation proteins, which resolves deep evolutionary relationships and reveals the global diversity of nearly 100,000 bacterial plasmids, overcoming the limitations of traditional host-based and nucleotide-similarity typing schemes.

Nishimura, Y., Kaneko, K., Kamijo, T., Isogai, N., Tokuda, M., Xie, H., Tsuda, Y., Hirabayashi, A., Moriuchi, R., Dohra (…)2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

A set of constitutive promoters with graded strengths for gene expression in diverse cyanobacterial strains

This study characterizes a set of 25 orthogonal constitutive promoters with graded expression strengths derived from synthetic variants of the PconII promoter, demonstrating their utility for genetic engineering across diverse model and non-model cyanobacterial strains to support biotechnological applications.

Trieu, K., Bishe, B., Taton, A., Tieu, B. P., Golden, J. W.2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

A soluble host signal drives rapid, brain-predominant capsular thickening in Streptococcus pneumoniae via a putative sodium-dependent transporter (SPD_0642) and capsular prepromoter sequence

This study reveals that *Streptococcus pneumoniae* rapidly and specifically thickens its capsular layer in response to a soluble host signal, particularly within brain tissue, through a mechanism involving the SPD_0642 transporter and a specific promoter element, thereby enhancing virulence and modulating the host immune response.

Iliev, A. I., Tomov, N., Müller, A., Lekhuleni, C., von Gottberg, A., Hathaway, L. J., Rosconi, F., Baronti, D., Trillo (…)2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

Personalized microbiotas (counter-)select for antibiotic resistant strains

This study demonstrates that personalized human gut microbiota can drive the selection of antibiotic-resistant *Klebsiella pneumoniae* strains through carbohydrate competition, specifically favoring *glyR* mutations that enhance glycerol utilization, thereby revealing how native microbial contexts influence the fitness and spread of resistance.

Knopp, M., Garcia-Santamarina, S., Michel, L., Papagiannidis, D., David, S., Selegato, D. M., Wong, J. L. C., Karcher, N (…)2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

Novel but stable endosymbionts have contrasting effects on aphid dispersal and plant feeding damage in the cereal pest Diuraphis noxia

This study demonstrates that stably introducing the endosymbionts *Rickettsiella viridis* and *Regiella insecticola* into the Russian wheat aphid (*Diuraphis noxia*) produces contrasting effects on crop damage and dispersal, with *Rickettsiella* increasing feeding damage while suppressing wing formation, and *Regiella* reducing population growth and damage severity without affecting dispersal, all independent of major plant immune pathways.

Gu, X., Gill, A., Yang, Q., Ross, P., Hayward, L., Stelmach, M., Umina, P. A., Doomun, S. N. E., Berran, M., Coakley, L. (…)2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

SELECT 2.0: Refined and open access SELection Endpoints in Communities of bacTeria (SELECT) method to determine concentrations of antibiotics that may select for antimicrobial resistance in the environment

This paper introduces the refined, open-access SELECT 2.0 method to empirically determine predicted no-effect concentrations for resistance (PNECRs) for 32 antibiotics, enabling standardized environmental risk assessments to rank antibiotics by their potential to select for antimicrobial resistance in various ecosystems.

Hayes, A., Kay, S., Lowe, C., Gaze, W. H., Recker, M., Buckling, A., Murray, A. K.2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

Soil Microbial Diversity of the Imperial Palace Outer Gardens, Tokyo

This study presents the first comprehensive characterization of the soil microbiome in Tokyo's Imperial Palace Outer Gardens using 16S rRNA and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, revealing that Pseudomonadota and Actinomycetota are the dominant phyla, that monoculture vegetation correlates with reduced microbial diversity, and that the soil contains specific antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes, thereby establishing a critical baseline for future urban ecosystem and public health research.

Ando, H., Furuya, R., Ito, K.2026-03-30
🦠 microbiology

A rapid transfer of virions coated with heparan sulfate from the ECM to CD151 defines an early step in the human papillomavirus infection cascade

This study demonstrates that human papillomavirus infection initiates with a rapid, actin-dependent transfer of heparan sulfate-coated virions from the extracellular matrix to the entry factor CD151 on the cell surface, a critical early step that precedes the slower, asynchronous internalization driven by glycan and capsid processing.

Massenberg, A., Homsi, Y., Schneider, C. N., Mikulicic, S., Döring, T., Florin, L., Lang, T.2026-03-27
🦠 microbiology

Promising antimicrobial activity of Moringa oleifera seed extract fractions

This study demonstrates that fractionated Moringa oleifera seed extracts exhibit polarity-dependent bioactivity, with polar aqueous fractions showing moderate antiplasmodial effects against Plasmodium falciparum and moderately polar organic fractions displaying robust, bactericidal activity against multidrug-resistant bacterial strains, highlighting the plant's potential for integrated infectious disease management.

Futagbi, G., Donkor, M. T., Obeng, B. C., Achou, S., Adjah-Tetteh, E., Honyo, M. E., Osei, M.-M., Adukpo, S., Chama, M. (…)2026-03-27