https://phys.org/biology-news/microbiology/ en-us The latest science news on microbiology and cell biology. The dangers of antibiotic overuse have become increasingly clear in recent decades. Excessive use accelerates the evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, raising the alarming prospect of infections that no longer respond to existing drugs and pose a serious threat to public health. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hidden-dna-bacteria-faster-route.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:40:01 EDT news704376601 Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and collaborators have uncovered one of the earliest steps in DNA replication: the moment a cell first opens its DNA to begin making a copy of its genome. The findings, published in Nature Communications, reveal where DNA first begins to "unzip" inside living cells and identify a molecular gate that helps prepare DNA for copying. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-cells-dna.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:20:03 EDT news704371141 Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a method for systematically developing novel, complex combinations of probiotics and prebiotics to more effectively maintain gut health and treat various gastrointestinal diseases. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-robotics-gut-microbiome-therapies.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:00:01 EDT news704366382 La Trobe University scientists have uncovered the critical role fatty cell structures play in our body's early detection and defense against viruses. Published in Nature Communications, the discovery could open the door to a new type of antiviral strategy that harnesses the body's innate defense mechanisms rather than targeting individual viruses. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fat-cell-block-viral-antiviral.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:00:01 EDT news704111702 A moth caterpillar identified by the agribusiness sector as one of the most destructive pests of soybean, cotton and corn crops may harbor fungi and bacteria in its gut that can degrade expanded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam. In an article published in the journal BMC Microbiology, researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil presented the results of a study investigating the gut microbiota of Helicoverpa armigera and its role in degrading this petroleum-derived plastic. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-destructive-crop-caterpillar-harbors-fungi.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:30:01 EDT news704039282 Why can zebrafish regenerate damaged gut nerves while humans largely cannot? Michigan State University researchers have developed a new research tool that allows them to remove gut neurons in zebrafish and watch them regenerate in real time, helping scientists investigate one of regenerative biology's biggest questions. The work is published in the journal Stem Cell Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-zebrafish-rebuild-brain-networks-days.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 15:30:01 EDT news704038503 Spliceosomal introns are noncoding DNA sequences located between exons in many eukaryotic protein-coding genes. Most are removed post-transcriptionally by RNA splicing and do not encode proteins, but they have been implicated in various regulatory processes, including gene transcription, mRNA nuclear export and the generation of protein diversity. Whether spliceosomal introns are essential for fundamental cellular life has long been unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-yeast-survives-spliceosomal-introns.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 15:20:05 EDT news704031421 A patient with a severe infection is prescribed a potent antibiotic. Hopes for improvement are high, but just after treatment is given, resistance to the drug increases thousands of times. How could this happen? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-environmental-bacteria-ferry-genes-boost.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 13:20:05 EDT news704029321 Scientists at the University of Lincoln have discovered a promising new way to help protect crops from one of climate change's growing threats to global food production—increasing soil salinity. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-microbes-soils-impacts-climate.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:40:07 EDT news704022061 For cells to function properly, they must produce the right amount of each protein. It is a delicate balance: Both too little and too much can compromise essential cellular functions. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has now shown that even a modest excess of tubulin—the protein that assembles into microtubules, the cell's internal scaffolding—is enough to disrupt tissue architecture and reduce cell viability. Published in Nature Communications, the study demonstrates that the quantity of a protein is just as important as its function. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-slight-overproduction-tubulin-cellular-health.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:40:04 EDT news703947121 Antibiotics are a medical marvel, but many microbes are gaining the ability to resist and tolerate these therapeutics. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have uncovered how S. pneumoniae adapts to antibiotic exposure and immune pressures. Their findings reveal that changes in RNA regulation enable bacteria to enter a state of antibiotic tolerance. The results provide a deeper understanding of how pathogens survive treatment and could inform strategies to improve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics. The findings were published in Cell Host & Microbe. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-antibiotic-tolerant-bacteria-hidden-rna.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 14:00:04 EDT news703940161 In 2012, Nature revealed that humans provide a home to thousands of different species of microbes in a series of papers that opened a path to understanding the impact of the human microbiome on our health. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-great-barrier-reef-microbiome-reveals.html Ecology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:35 EDT news703850574 A team of Vermont researchers has discovered that mysterious black skin lesions afflicting catfish in Lake Memphremagog and other New England and Canadian lakes are caused by a transmissible cancer—the first identified in a freshwater fish species. The cancer cells behave more like parasites than conventional tumors, moving from fish to fish. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-transmissible-cancer-cells-fish-parasites.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:24 EDT news703842242 An international research team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) investigated how the shape of black corals influences the functions of their cilia. The findings are published in the journal Communications Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-coral-microscopic-cilia-food.html Ecology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:00:02 EDT news703931701 Microbes in the gut, lungs and biofilms do not simply exist as perfectly mixed populations; instead, they grow in layered and clustered three-dimensional (3D) arrangements. This spatial organization shapes how nutrients and chemical signals move between neighboring cells and how much oxygen different microbes can access. Scientists are increasingly recognizing that the relative spatial arrangement of microbes plays a role in digestion, immunity and overall health. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-colonies-3d-microbial-architectures-liquid.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:01 EDT news703929421 Deep learning approaches have transformed how scientists predict the activity and function of DNA sequences in the genome. A new AI tool called Corgi (Context-aware Regulatory Genomics Inference), developed by Martin Vingron's bioinformatics group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics allows researchers to predict how the genome behaves across different cell types. The findings could help improve efforts to mimic the activity of cells virtually, with potential applications in basic research and medicine. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-tool-dna-sequences-genes.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:50:01 EDT news703867682 Some microorganisms that hold great promise for research have long lain dormant in historical collections. But only through new methods are their diversity and potential becoming apparent. The team led by Professor Christian Jogler at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena examined one such collection: bacterial strains isolated between the 1980s and the early 2000s by Heinz Schlesner from various bodies of water in northern Germany, including the Schlei, a Baltic Sea fjord, as well as ponds and a wastewater lagoon. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-decades-strains-reveal-brakhagea-budding.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:10:01 EDT news703867381 African sleeping sickness and related diseases can be treated only with toxic and sometimes ineffective drugs. Now, University of Connecticut researchers show in Nucleic Acids Research that a crucial enzyme could be the key to safer, more effective medicines. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sickness-parasite-reveals-enzyme-weak.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 15:20:13 EDT news703856221 Researchers at the University of Vienna have discovered a key mechanism that enables sea anemones to regenerate into fully developed organisms from disorganized clusters of cells. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that the so-called Notch signaling pathway controls tissue organization and the formation of the body axis. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sea-anemone-cells-reform.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:40:07 EDT news703852441 How do microorganisms orient themselves to find the optimal habitat? Scientists have thoroughly investigated so-called magnetotactic bacteria, which use the Earth's magnetic field as a biological compass. Some eukaryotic single-celled organisms—that is, more complex organisms like ciliates, which, unlike bacteria, have a cell nucleus—also possess this capability. But how they acquire it has largely remained a puzzle. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unusual-bestows-magnetic-celled.html Evolution Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:00:01 EDT news703784221 Protein aggregates are associated with the development of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. These are found more often in certain areas of cells known as membraneless organelles. Do these organelles promote this protein clumping, or do they protect the cell by temporarily absorbing the aggregates? Professor Simon Ebbinghaus and Mailin Becker from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, set out to answer this question with their new, self-developed method, "confocal Fast Relaxation Imaging," or cFReI. They report their findings in the journal PRX Life. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cell-imaging-method-protein-organelles.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:00:03 EDT news703782421 Why do some brains survive long after death when most other soft tissue decays? That's the question a research team led by Alexandra Morton-Hayward at the University of Oxford set out to answer. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-human-brains-outlast-soft-tissues.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:20:01 EDT news703772218 Microbial communities are considered particularly diverse—in soil, water and the human body. A common assumption in ecology is that the greater the diversity of available nutrients, the more species can coexist. A research team at the University of Tübingen has now shown that the opposite can be true. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-greater-nutrient-variety-counterintuitively-microbial.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:00:09 EDT news703772102 New research has uncovered the complex biological history preserved within DNA traces found on the Shroud of Turin, offering fresh insights into one of the world's most studied and debated historical artifacts. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-shroud-turin-dna-biological-history.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:00:06 EDT news703770901 Honeybees do not like cold weather. When temperatures dip, they can become sluggish and unable to fly. But no matter the conditions in the outside world, they try to keep their hives close to a comfortable 34°C–36°C (93°F–97°F). However, extreme weather, both hot and cold, can overwhelm this internal temperature control and ultimately cut their lives short. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bees-probiotic-diet-extreme-temperatures.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:00:06 EDT news703758461 A parasite carried by billions of people worldwide often causes harmful infections during pregnancy and in immunocompromised individuals and is a leading infectious cause of blindness in South America. Once it enters the body, it can rapidly multiply, spreading from one cell to the next. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-widespread-parasite-earth-genome.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:20:03 EDT news703756801 Researchers at EMBL Hamburg and collaborators at the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) have mapped how the influenza A virus rewires infected human cells in unprecedented detail. To do this, the researchers used a customized experimental workflow to directly observe how proteins interact inside intact infected cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-flu-virus-rewires-human.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:04 EDT news703500120 Cells are like metropolises, home to millions of molecular residents. If one were to stand atop a high-rise, trying to identify most of its inhabitants would seem an impossible task. Even with the sophisticated imaging tools currently available to scientists, it is challenging to zoom in on specific molecules and view them with a high degree of detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-proteins-scientists-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:20:06 EDT news703498960 As sea levels rise due to climate change, encroaching seawater will likely make freshwater environments saltier. In a new study, MIT researchers have shown how that increase in salinity might affect microbial ecosystems found in environments such as rivers and estuaries. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-influx-salt-affect-microbial-ecosystems.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:00:12 EDT news703496766 Climate change is altering the spread of waterborne diseases around the world, according to a comprehensive review published today in Nature Reviews Microbiology. The publication is the most up-to-date, comprehensive analysis examining how climate change influences waterborne diseases. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-climate-reshapes-waterborne-disease-pathogens.html Ecology Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:00:05 EDT news703427371