All Microbiological Methods articles
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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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NewsHerpes infection detailed in human skin model
Researchers have traced step by step how herpes simplex virus 1 infects the multiple layers of skin cells. Using human hair-bearing skin organoids as a model, the researchers mapped how the virus spreads and which signaling molecules cells release to their neighbors upon being infected.
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NewsStudy uses artificial intelligence to design potential antiviral compounds
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-guided strategy to discover molecules that inhibit deoxyhypusine synthase (DHPS), a human enzyme involved in eIF5A hypusination, a process that supports the replication of a broad range of viruses. The researchers experimentally tested AI-generated molecules.
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NewsVirus-based tool opens a faster route to studying cowpea genes
Genome sequencing of cowpea has provided researchers with numerous candidate genes, and genetic transformation has enabled studies of traits such as drought and heat tolerance. A new study reports sustained gene silencing across seven cowpea varieties and demonstrates the system’s utility for investigating jasmonate regulation during leafminer infestation.
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NewsResearchers engineer the first bacterial biocatalyst of a toolbox to produce greener pharma and food ingredients
To produce pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, and flavours and fragrances, it is often necessary to oxidise alcohols. But there is a more sustainable route: living organisms, including fungi, produce galactose oxidases, proteins that can carry out the same reactions on alcohols and simple sugars under mild conditions, using oxygen.
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NewsNobel Prize: Light-seeking algae gave us a switch for nerve cells
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 is awarded for optogenetics - a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain. But the road to the award began when Peter Hegemann wondered how the single-celled alga Chlamydomonas, is able to swim towards a light source.
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NewsNew microscopy investment will help unlock solutions to costly crop diseases
The James Hutton Institute has secured £640,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) ALERT 2025 programme to install a new confocal microscope that will enable scientists to undertake a range of studies at the cellular level, while also opening up new scientific possibilities through enhanced imaging capabilities.
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News‘Molecular movie’ fills in blanks of how non-enveloped viruses infect cells
Researchers have answered a longstanding question about how certain non-enveloped viruses punch through the cell membrane to deliver their genetic material. The findings deepen understanding of virology and could aid the biotech industry’s search for ways to deliver relatively large therapeutic agents into cells to treat or prevent disease.
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NewsCell by cell: New machine-learning-based method reveals what can make bacteria dangerous
A new method detects fluorescently labelled bacteria inside human cells and uses machine learning to analyse microscopy images. This allows researchers to measure, in the same experimental system, how efficiently bacteria enter cells, how strongly they accumulate inside them, and what kind of DNA damage they induce.
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NewsPromega launches Paradyme™ 27GY STR System, mnimising stutter artifacts in forensic DNA analysis
Promega Corporation has launched Paradyme™ 27GY STR System, the first commercially available short tandem repeat (STR) analysis kit to include the company’s Reduced-Stutter Polymerase (RSP). This novel enzyme significantly reduces the most common type of confounding artifact in forensic DNA analysis.
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NewsNew tool closes gap on untapped potential of phages
A new tool to mutate bacteriophages – viruses that infect bacteria – provides a big leap forward in both our understanding of how they function, and our ability to harness their full potential. The new method allows for genome-wide mutagenesis of bacteriophages using CRISPR-Cas technology.
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NewsResearch illuminates the bustling molecular communities inside bacterial cells
Scientists have often thought of cells as small bustling cities with parts that resemble factories, power grids, and shipping systems. Past research hasn’t had the tools to probe more deeply into how those different components interact, but researchers have now deployed cryo-electron tomography to visualise how different cellular processes are connected.
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NewsDirect rescue of segmented negative-sense RNA viruses from complementary DNA in monkey kidney Vero cells
This technology enables the direct rescue of segmented negative-sense RNA viruses from complementary DNA in monkey kidney Vero cells, facilitating safer and more efficient live-attenuated vaccine production.
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NewsScientists reveal tissue culture-free (“ex vitro”) transformation method for trees
This technology introduces a novel “ex vitro” transformation method that utilizes Agrobacterium rhizogenes to genetically modify the roots of woody plants without the necessity for tissue culture.
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NewsNabsys announces first publication showcasing CRISPR/Cas9 mediated approach to expand the capabilities of electronic genome mapping
This study is the first to demonstrate the potential of combining Electronic Genome Mapping (EGM) with CRISPR/Cas9 to both characterize CRISPR/Cas9 activity and enhance the capabilities of genome mapping.
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NewsNew standardised, contemporary strain panels address a long-standing barrier in AMR research
PACE and the UK Health Security Agency have released five new contemporary antimicrobial resistance (AMR) strain panels, giving innovators worldwide a resource to test novel therapeutics and diagnostics against today’s resistance patterns.
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NewsNovel database reveals hidden diversity and potential of deep-sea microbes
Scientists have spearheaded Global Ocean Reference Genomes Dark (GORG-Dark), the first global atlas of single-cell microbes living in the aphotic ocean. It contains more than 9,600 genomes from individual microbial cells collected across a broad range of depths and locations, including the Mariana Trench and the Antarctic.
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NewsAn IBEC device simulates natural conditions to grow biofilms and test their antibiotic susceptibility more accurately
Researchers have developed XpertBiofilm, a simple and accessible device that allows biofilms to be grown under continuous, controlled liquid flow, similar to what bacteria encounter in the human body — for example, in lung mucus, blood or urine.
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NewsBreakthrough optimization of chlamydospore fermentation for Cladophialophora guangxiense HX2
The dark septate endophyte Cladophialophora guangxiense HX2 exhibits excellent control efficacy against tomato bacterial wilt but industrial production of its chlamydospores has been challenging. Researchers have optimized the liquid fermentation process using chlamydospore yield of strain HX2 as the key response indicator.
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NewsMosquito waste reveals viruses hiding in plain sight
When public health researchers want to know whether diseases such as COVID-19 or polio are circulating in a community, they can look for genetic evidence in wastewater. Source: Dana Price/Rutgers University Dana Price of the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology sets a mosquito-waste collection trap in the field ...