Bacteria are a major domain of prokaryotic microorganisms characterized by the absence of a membrane-bound nucleus, typically possessing a single circular chromosome, 70S ribosomes, and peptidoglycan-containing cell walls. They exhibit diverse morphologies (e.g., cocci, bacilli, spirilla) and metabolic strategies, including aerobic, anaerobic, phototrophic, chemolithotrophic, and heterotrophic lifestyles. Bacteria reproduce primarily by binary fission and undergo extensive horizontal gene transfer via transformation, transduction, and conjugation, driving rapid adaptation. They occupy virtually all ecological niches, form complex communities such as biofilms, and play central roles in biogeochemical cycles, host-associated microbiomes, biotechnology, and pathogenesis research.
The largest study of its kind has found hospital workers' phones are carrying the same superbugs that kill millions of people worldwide each year. An international team of researchers, including several from Bond University, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 24, 2026
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The black soldier fly converts organic waste into biomass. The cricket brings crunchy protein to the dinner plate. The mealworm can break down plastic.
Ecology
Jun 23, 2026
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Sight-threatening antibiotic-resistant eye infections are becoming a significant threat to vision in dogs, cats and horses, according to a new comprehensive review published in Veterinary Ophthalmology by researchers from ...
Veterinary medicine
Jun 23, 2026
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26
If you are anything like us, whenever you plan a journey, you spend a remarkable amount of time thinking about the start and the middle. Is everything packed? What time should we leave? Will there be traffic? Is there a faster ...
A new study provides the first insights into how thylakoid membranes—the internal compartments where oxygen-producing photosynthesis takes place—emerged during evolution. By comparing the genomes of cyanobacteria with and ...
Evolution
Jun 22, 2026
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16
How large, fully folded proteins can pass through cell membranes without destroying them has long been one of the open questions in cell biology. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Leonid Sazanov and Ziyu Zhao at the ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 22, 2026
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A remarkable quality of bioengineering is that scientists can take biological processes honed by millions of years of evolution and use them to efficiently create drugs, chemicals and other products to improve our lives. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 21, 2026
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31
Microorganisms from our planet could survive on celestial bodies where water is present, such as Mars. That is the conclusion of Ph.D. candidate Tommaso Zaccaria after experiments with simulated space conditions. Our immune ...
Astrobiology
Jun 21, 2026
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31
Genes are not passed on exclusively from parents to their offspring. Some are mobile and can also jump to other species, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen have now shown. The direct ...
Evolution
Jun 20, 2026
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349
New antibiotic candidates for drug-resistant bacteria may reside inside prions, misfolded proteins in the brain best known for rare and fatal degenerative brain diseases. Prion and prion-like proteins may hide short peptides, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 19, 2026
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