Healthy land
Land has a wide variety of uses: agricultural, residential, industrial, and recreational. Microbes play a key role in the terrestrial ecosystem, providing symbiotic relationships with plants. Human use of land has led to the exhaustion of nutrients in soils, contamination of land, and a reduction in biodiversity. Applying our knowledge of microbes will be essential in restoring the biodiversity of affected ecosystems. Greater research into how microbes impact human life on land could all have a positive impact, by increasing crop production, repurposing areas of land and improving microbial biodiversity in soil, land, and water.
News
Long-term nitrogen fertilisation reshapes soil microbes and links to PAH fate
Long-term nitrogen fertilisation does more than change soil nutrients. A 15-year field study found that different application rates reshaped bacterial and fungal communities and altered their genetic potential for carbon, nitrogen and PAH metabolism, suggesting that fertiliser management and legacy pollution should be considered together.
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NewsSauce-flavor Baijiu distillers’ grains offer nutritional and functional value
A new review examines the nutritional composition, fermentation upgrading and feeding applications of sauce-flavor Baijiu distillers’ grains. It considers microbial structures, organic acids, peptides and polyphenols alongside conventional nutrients. Studies in cattle, poultry and pigs illustrate how processing and diet formulation shape feeding outcomes.
NewsEven parasites have parasites - intracellular fungus infecting mildew more common than previously thought
Ampelomyces, an intracellular fungus that infects the plant disease powdery mildew, is far more common than previously known. By screening museum samples of powdery mildews up to around 150 years old, researchers discovered that not only is Ampelomyces quite common, but many specimens labeled as Ampelomyces are misidentified.
NewsScientists recently discovered a novel relationship between a shelled amoeba and an unknown flagellate using single-cell transcriptomics
A new study is the first to report a shelled microbial eukaryote housing a flagellated microbial eukaryote. This shows there is much we do not know about the microbial world.
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News
Eels transmit a virus through biting: a discovery that changes our understanding of viral infections in fish
Contrary to what was previously believed, viruses infecting fish are not transmitted exclusively through water acting as an abiotic vector. A team of researchers has demonstrated that a virus affecting European eels can spread very efficiently through biting during aggressive interactions between individuals.
NewsThe only critically endangered crane went from 140 to 5,616 — but the numbers aren’t the full picture
A perspective proposes scoring conservation by six dimensions of population health after finding antibiotic residues and 62 microplastic particles per gram in crane droppings at Poyang Lake.
NewsAI tool CLARA accelerates the development of bioreactors
In large-scale industrial bioreactors, the smallest differences in temperature, pH value or oxygen content determine the success or failure of a process. Researchers have now presented the CLARA software toolbox, which can be used to simulate the processes in the reactors 10,000 times faster.
NewsWastewater bacteria could offer a window into community health
Wastewater may reveal much more about a community than which viruses are circulating. Researchers found that gut-associated bacterial patterns in sewage were linked with rates of chronic disease, health behaviours and socioeconomic conditions across several Ohio communities.
NewsHidden toxicity unmasked: engineered E. coli sets record for hemostatic compound dencichine
Dencichine, the hemostatic active ingredient of the herb panax notoginseng is hard to obtain, with earlier engineered E coli strains low-yielding and growing poorly. Researchers have traced the growth defect to a hidden toxicity and their fix resulted in a final strain that produced the highest reported titer to date.
NewsBiodegradable plastics show strikingly different fates under landfill conditions
Not all biodegradable plastics behave the same once they reach landfill-like environments. Researchers found that PHB broke down almost completely within weeks and PLA degraded substantially over several months, while PBAT barely mineralised, revealing how strongly biodegradation depends on environmental conditions and microbial activity.
NewsImproving heat-resilient indigenous livestock using local AI models built on gut microbiome data
Researchers have proposed a policy roadmap of an AI-driven precision farming approach to further improve indigenous and other livestock breeds’ abilities to withstand extreme conditions in farming operations of all sizes and types.
NewsMethane-consuming organisms create nanowires that grow on electrode – and can generate a small amount of electricity
Certain anaerobic methanotrophic archaea consume methane and convert it into electricity, as research conducted four years ago revealed. New research now shows that these methane-consuming organisms do this by producing nanowires through which they can transmit the electricity they generate.
FeaturesBuried in the Himalayas: What wetland soil Is telling us about climate change
High up in the Indian Himalayan Region lie wetlands that most of us will never see. New research suggests these quiet, high-altitude wetlands are playing a far bigger, and far more substantial, role in the planet’s carbon budget than anyone expected, say Shweta Kadam and Dr Om Prakash Sharma who sits on AMI’s Climate Action Advisory Group.
NewsGenetic hitchhikers make Aspergillus infections even harder to treat
Resistance to antifungal medicines in the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is proving more persistent than previously thought. Research shows that fungicides used in agriculture, even those with a different mode of action from these medicines, can help maintain this resistance. This is because different resistance genes ‘hitchhike’ together.
NewsNative bacterial SynCom improves acidic soil and boosts lettuce growth
A synthetic community of two native soil bacteria helped reduce acidity and strongly boost lettuce growth in greenhouse experiments. Delivered on a sugarcane-processing residue, the microbes also increased nutrient availability and reshaped root-zone microbial activity.
NewsHidden microbial ecosystems of leatherback turtles offer new insights for Caribbean marine conservation
Scientists studying leatherback sea turtles in Puerto Rico have uncovered distinct microbial communities on the animals, their eggs, and the sand surrounding their nests.
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.
NewsAMI members call for microbiome-focused approach to EU biotechnology regulation
Members of Applied Microbiology International (AMI) have urged the European Commission to put microbial communities at the heart of environmental risk assessments for genetically modified microorganisms, as part of its response to the EU Biotech Act consultation.
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.
NewsNew AI tool helps scientists identify bacteria hidden in soil
A handful of soil holds a crowded world of bacteria, fungi and other organisms. Scientists can collect their DNA, but much of it remains difficult to identify. Now, researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that recognizes bacterial DNA in tiny genetic fragments, making it faster and easier to study the complex communities living in soil.
NewsInternational review reveals importance of hidden Arctic root processes for climate change
A new review has revealed the critical role that plant roots play in shaping how Arctic tundra ecosystems respond to climate change. It highlights how processes occurring beneath the soil surface could help scientists better understand how one of the fastest-changing ecosystems on Earth will influence the future climate.
NewsScreening for putative essential genes in Brucella abortus strains A19 and S2308 using transposon mutagenesis
The categorization of functional genes in Brucella requires refinement. This knowledge gap was addressed by classifying gene essentiality through constructing a transposon mutant library. Mariner transposon mutant libraries were independently constructed for Brucella abortus A19 and S2308.
NewsLeaf spectra reveal hidden nitrogen-fixing nodules in soybean roots
Soybean roots may no longer need to be dug up to reveal how well they are forming nitrogen-fixing nodules. Researchers have shown that hyperspectral signals from leaves can predict below-ground nodule traits, offering a non-destructive way to track plant–microbe partnerships under drought and salt stress.