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Really proud of the @prideinmicro.bsky.social team, in particular @nicholasbio.bsky.social and @katie-barnes.bsky.social for putting this together for @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social for #Pride! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Microbial cell factories enable the sustainable production of fuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, yet their performance is often constrained by inefficient metabolic flux distribution, cofactor imbalance, and pathway-associated toxicity. Spatial engineering has emerged as an effective approach to address these limitations. It does so by controlling the organization of metabolic processes. This review summarizes recent advances in spatial engineering at three levels: natural organelle engineering, artificial compartmentalization, and intercellular coordination. We discuss how these strategies enhance pathway efficiency through enzyme colocalization, metabolic insulation, and division of labor. We also underscore current challenges regarding targeting efficiency and system integration. Future directions for advancing spatial design and metabolic coordination in microbial systems are outlined.

I was trained as a pharmacist. After graduation, I worked as a lecturer at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where my research focused on the antimicrobial activity of natural compounds.

Rising anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hostility creates a crisis of exclusion in science. Queer and Trans microbiologists often navigate their careers in isolation, facing systemic barriers that limit their retention. To counter this, we established the Pride in Microbiology Network in 2023. Here, we share strategies for building safe, decentralized networks beyond institutional and geographic borders and argue that resilient scientific ecosystems depend on diversity, inclusion, and support structures that enable 2SLGBTQIA+ scientists to remain, connect, and lead.

Host-associated bacteria are found across the tree of life. In this opinion article, we propose that population genetics theory can be used to probe the conditions that form the path toward such symbioses. We illustrate how mutation-selection models generate insights into the maintenance of a symbiont under transmission between generations and from the environment. We outline how basic features of host population size and life history shape the fixation of a heritable symbiont in a host population, suggesting elevated fixation probabilities in long-lived hosts. Finally, whenever the fitness effects of the symbiont vary over time, reduced efficiency of selection increases the fixation of a deleterious symbiont. Our predictions of the properties of hosts, symbionts, and their ecological contexts that impact symbiont establishment frame expectations across systems.

Phage therapy often fails when bacteria evolve resistance. We argue that phage selection should begin with receptors whose modification imposes predictable costs, turning resistance into reduced virulence, antibiotic resensitization, or other exploitable trade-offs. Receptor-constrained evolutionary traps offer a framework for designing phages that steer—not merely suppress—bacterial evolution effectively.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in Gram-negative bacteria are primarily controlled by LpxC, a deacetylase catalyzing the committed step of LPS synthesis. Studies of LPS regulation have long focused on controlling LpxC abundance. However, recent findings on the allosteric regulation of LpxC activity suggest a broader framework for LPS synthesis control.

Mineral weathering (MWe) is a fundamental driver of nutrient release in nutrient-poor ecosystems, sustaining both nutrient cycling and plant growth. Among the strategies employed by MWe bacteria—acidification, chelation, and oxidoreduction reactions—acidification stands out as the most widespread but least understood at the ecological and genetic levels. This review synthesizes current knowledge on acidification-driven MWe bacteria, the factors determining their effectiveness, genetic determinants, and regulatory mechanisms revealed through interdisciplinary approaches (transcriptomics/proteomics, mineralogy, and geochemistry). We also highlight newly discovered genes and critically assess the limitations of current approaches, offering new perspectives on the mechanisms and evolution underlying bacterial contributions to MWe.

Mortierella alpina Peyronel 1913 (MycoBank MB 170280) is an oleaginous filamentous fungus belonging to the family Mortierellaceae (Mortierellomycota). First described from alpine soils in Italy, this saprotrophic fungus has a cosmopolitan distribution across temperate and cold climatic conditions worldwide, including Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia, and Antarctica. It inhabits diverse environments ranging from forest litter and agricultural soils to glacier forefields and plant rhizospheres.

Besides suppressing immunity, pathogen effectors hijack host biosynthetic pathways, sugar transporters, enzymes, and transcriptional regulators for nutritional gain. In Xanthomonas, AvrBs2 drives de novo nutrient synthesis from a host metabolite, while PthA4 hijacks fruit ripening to release sugars. These findings pave the way for ‘anti-nutrition’ approaches for durable crop resistance.