All Asia & Oceania articles
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NewsIndustrialisation may be reshaping the evolution of our gut bacteria
Gut bacteria living in industrialised societies appear to be evolving differently from those in non-industrialised populations. Researchers found that strains from industrialised hosts had recently acquired more genes, mostly through horizontal gene transfer, suggesting that modern lifestyles may be reshaping microbial evolution inside us.
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NewsThree onion problems, one microbial answer: a five-strain consortium controls basal rot, eases salt-alkali stress and boosts growth
Onion yields and quality are increasingly threatened in China by severe soil salinization and by frequent outbreaks of basal rot. Effective, environmentally friendly measures that address both problems remain scarce. Researchers set out to build a microbial consortium that degrades salt and alkali, controls basal rot, and promotes onion growth.
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NewsToothbrush produces electricity to battle plaque-making bacteria
A new toothbrush generates electricity through bristle movement to wage war on plaque-producing pathogens. The invention successfully reduced cavity- and periodontitis-causing bacteria better than regular mechanical brushing in the mouths of 115 volunteers over 3 months.
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NewsOxford-developed vaccine recommended to enter pivotal trial against deadly Bundibugyo virus
A vaccine candidate developed by scientists at the University of Oxford has been recommended to enter a pivotal Phase 2/3 clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in a significant step towards tackling Bundibugyo virus, a potentially deadly pathogen for which no vaccine is currently approved.
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NewsEngineered plant–microbe symbiosis turns wastewater metals into photosynthetic biohybrids
A new plant–microbe strategy could change how wastewater heavy-metal pollutants are managed: instead of merely capturing toxic cadmium and lead, it converts them into light-harvesting semiconductor nanoparticles on living bacteria. The system pairs water lettuce with an engineered, fast-growing aerobic bacterium.
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NewsCould newly identified gene targets help prevent and treat Salmonella infections?
Investigators identified three genes that are essential for biofilm formation in the foodborne bacterial pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium. Their experiments showed that disrupting these genes impaired biofilm structure and adhesion, and also resulted in decreased host colonization and virulence.
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NewsResearchers reveal mechanisms of lipid accumulation and compositional remodeling in oleaginous yeast
Microbial oils are promising sustainable lipid sources for food and biofuel applications. Researchers have developed a high-coverage lipidomics workflow and integrated it with transcriptomics to investigate lipid accumulation and compositional changes in Rhodosporidium toruloides under nitrogen limitation.
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NewsBacteria-powered biocomputer tackles complex problems in parallel
Researchers have built a biocomputer that uses growing bacteria to explore many possible solutions at the same time. By guiding the microbes through microfluidic networks, the system could offer a resource-efficient way to tackle complex problems in areas such as molecular biology, encryption and AI.
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NewsWho actually benefits from H. pylori treatment? A genetic score can tell before the first pill
In two Chinese randomized trials, a genetic score built from 11 variants identified people whose gastric cancer risk fell 56%–80% after Helicobacter pylori eradication — cutting the number needed to treat from 112 to 43.
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NewsSimulator predicts jumping genes’ roles in changing genome size
Researchers have created a new computational tool that works from an inferred ancestral point and evolves forward to the modern-day genome to trace the insertion and deletion dynamics of these ’jumping genes’, known as transposable elements.
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NewsAn eight-year study of epidemiology and disease burden of child enterovirus in China
An eight-year multicenter study from China shows that while most hospitalized enterovirus cases occur in very young children and have favorable outcomes, a small number develop serious complications involving the brain, heart and other organs, leading to substantially greater use of hospital resources.
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NewsFunctional food microecology links gut microbes to One Health
A new review proposes the framework Functional Food Microecology (FFM) that connects functional foods, the gut microbiome and host health. Rather than viewing diet only as calories and nutrients, the authors described food components as signals that gut microbes can transform into bioactive molecules.
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NewsSAA1+ epithelial cells emerge as inflammatory ringleaders in periodontitis
Periodontitis is driven not only by bacteria but by how the gingival epithelium responds to them. This study maps that response at spatial and single-cell resolution, showing that a distinct serum amyloid A1 (SAA1)-high inflammatory epithelial subpopulation (SAA1+Epi) sits at the junctional epithelium, where subgingival plaque meets host tissue. ...
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NewsAdvancing toward a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B: China’s evolving role
China has made progress in preventing HBV infections through infant vaccination and measures to prevent mother-to-child transmission. However, approximately 75 million people in the country still live with chronic HBV infection. A new review examine China’s contribution to developing treatments for chronic hepatitis B.
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NewsAmino acid boosts last-resort antibiotic’s effectiveness
Colistin is a powerful, last-resort antibiotic for bacterial infections, but the number of colistin-resistant infections is growing. New research suggests that adding L-arginine, an amino acid, to colistin may overcome resistance. Lab and mouse studies show promising results, but more tests are needed before the strategy can help people.
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NewsReview explores hepatitis B surface antigen clearance rate in chronic hepatitis B virus infection treated with pegylated interferon-α
Researchers review the hepatitis B surface antigen clearance rate with pegylated interferon-α therapy in different chronic hepatitis B infection populations.
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News40-year mystery solved: Common gut virus infects bacteria, not human cells
Ever since one denizen of the gut microbiome, known as picobirnavirus, was first spotted decades ago, researchers thought it directly infected human tissue and played a role in gastrointestinal illness. But researchers have just rewritten that story: This widespread virus infects gut bacteria, not human cells.
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NewsHow evolutionary changes in a key enzyme may have tuned the protein synthesis rate
Evolutionary changes in key protein synthesis enzyme, isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase (IleRS), may help bacteria fine-tune how quickly proteins are made, report researchers. Researchers traced the enzyme’s evolutionary history and identified three distinct IleRS clades.
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NewsSelective inhibitory effects of docosahexaenoic acid on oral bacteria
Researchers evaluated four polyunsaturated fatty acids against five common oral bacteria, in single-species and mixed-species cultures, and conducted an 8-day randomized, placebo-controlled human mouth-rinse intervention, analyzing saliva by metagenomic sequencing and qPCR.
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NewsNew Chinese consensus sets out 16 recommendations for severe dengue
China has issued new clinical guidance for severe dengue as the disease spreads into new regions and increasingly affects older adults and people with underlying conditions. The consensus sets out 16 recommendations covering early warning signs, organ complications, fluid management and blood-product use.