Modulation of Hachiman defence by a type II toxin-antitoxin system via balancing trade-off between the fitness cost and antiphage activity
March 2026
Hachiman systems provide innate antiphage immunity across prokaryotic domains. The system encodes a HamA nuclease and a HamB helicase both of which exhibit great diversity in sequence. Phylogenetic...
Advances in polyethylene biodegradation and bioconversion: Microbial, enzymatic, and biotechnological insights
March 2026
Polyethylene (PE) is one of the most widely used plastics worldwide and is valued for its versatility, durability, and cost-effectiveness. However, the chemical stability of PE combined with its widespread...
Genetically encoded biosensors enabled high-throughput screening of microbial cell factories
March 2026
•Genetically encoded biosensors couple product synthesis to detectable HTS outputs.•Synthetic biology and AI-driven strategies accelerate precise biosensor engineering.•Optimization protocols are detailed...
Advances in microbial mevalonolactone production: from fermentative mevalonate accumulation to downstream lactonization
March 2026
Mevalonolactone (MVAL) is a high-value feedstock for the cosmetic industry, with (R)-(-)-MVAL as the sole bioactive enantiomer. Chemical synthesis, which is the traditional method for MVAL production,...
Heterologous expression of Vibrio natriegens transporters enhances the growth of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis on glutamate
March 2026
Bacterial growth modulation is crucial in microbial synthetic biology. In this study, we found that glutamate is an extremely poor carbon source for Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The slow...
Archaeasins as a promising resource for developing next-generation antibiotics uncovered via deep learning
December 2025
Fighting against antibiotic resistance has an unexpected ally, archaea. Despite the extensive exploration of antimicrobial peptides in bacteria and eukaryotes, the archaeal domain has been overlooked....
Unraveling microbial life from a high-altitude hydrothermal system in the Andes plateau and their potential for nitrogen transformations
December 2025
Terrestrial hydrothermal systems provide a window for studying the biogeochemical interactions that occur in hot and gas-rich ecosystems resembling the conditions found in early life on Earth. The biogeochemical...
Bacterial co-cultivation for the degradation of polystyrene plastics
December 2025
•Microbial co-culture was proposed for the management of polystyrene waste.•The degradation of PS by co-culture was 2.85 times greater than pure culture.•Polystyrene was recycled to muconic acid through...
Decoupling growth phase dependency and metal ion inhibition: A dual engineering strategy for the high-yield biosynthesis of microcin J25 in Escherichia coli
December 2025
Microcin J25 (MccJ25) has received substantial attention as a potential solution to the global threat of infection caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, the industrial fermentation of MccJ25...
Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis genome resources and metabolite profiling at the strain level and their ability to alleviate anxiety-like behavior in a sleep-deprived mouse model
December 2025
Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis is a well-known probiotic with potential benefits for alleviating sub-health symptoms, including immune dysfunction and anxiety. Given the strain-specific nature...
Identification and functional characterization of a potential l-Homoserine exporter in Corynebacterium glutamicum
December 2025
•A novel l-Homoserine exporter was identified in C. glutamicum.•The exporter significantly enhances l-Homoserine tolerance and export capacity.•The exporter greatly increases l-Homoserine productio...
Simultaneous co-cultivation of the thermoacidophilic methanotroph, Methylacidiphilum sp. RTK17.1, and the microalga, Galdieria sp. RTK37.1, for single cell protein production
December 2025
The verrucomicrobial methanotroph, Methylacidiphilum sp. RTK17.1, and the microalgae, Galdieria sp. RTK37.1 are both thermoacidophilic microorganisms isolated from geothermally heated soils at Rotokawa,...
Electricity generation and dibenzothiophene biodegradation using a novel electroactive bacterium Lysinibacillus macroides AP in microbial fuel cells
December 2025
Polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles, such as dibenzothiophene (DBT), and their alkylated derivatives are recognized as persistent and toxic contaminants that pose major risks to the environment...
Systems metabolic engineering of glutathione biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Pathway balancing coupled with enzyme screening for high-titer production
December 2025
•Novel plasmid-free S. cerevisiae produces 997.46 mg·L⁻¹ glutathione.•Gsh1-Gsh2 fusion resolves γ-glutamylcysteine bottleneck in GSH pathway.•DO-coupled fed-batch boosts GSH titer 2.9 × vs. flasks in...
Diversity analysis of phytase-producing bacteria from coastal seawater and sediment and characterization of their phytases
December 2025
•Diversity of phytate-utilizing bacteria in coastal marine environments was analyzed.•Twenty-seven phytase-producing bacterial strains were isolated.•Five phytases were expressed and characterized.•Phytase...
A novel therapeutic strategy of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
September 2025
Staphylococcus aureus is a major public health threat, largely due to its remarkable capacity to develop antimicrobial resistance. Zhang et al. recently demonstrated a highly innovative approach to...
Genotypic and molecular characterization of a moderately thermophilic cyanobacterium, Gloeocapsa sp. strain BRSZ
September 2025
A unicellular-colonial cyanobacterium, designated “BRSZ,” was isolated from a neutral-alkaline hot spring in Thailand. Morphological characterization revealed distinctive features consistent with those...
Production of dicarboxylates from ω-amino acids using a cofactor- and co-substrate-free in vitro biosynthetic system
September 2025
Dicarboxylates are valuable platform compounds with a broad range of applications. The in vitro biosynthetic system used to produce dicarboxylates from ω-amino acids via the natural pathway requires...
Analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing data to examine the gastric inflammation-to-cancer transition and evaluation of the effect of probiotic on precancerous lesions
September 2025
•PR-enriched pit mucous cells drive the inflammation-to-cancer transition.•Gene set was rigorously validated across multiple external cohorts.•Probiotics modulate the gastric cancer-associated tumor-immune...
Screening of molecular elements and improvement of heat resistance in a thermophilic bacterium
September 2025
•Engineered G. stearothermophilus SL-1-H1 survives at 85 °C via gene overexpression.•Developed first efficient electroporation for Geobacillus (10⁴ CFU/µg DNA).•Synergistic gene overexpression (e.g.,...
Tumor-targeting bioluminescent bacteria for in vivo imaging
September 2025
As the understanding of bacteria-mediated cancer therapies deepens, bacteria such as Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) have become a promising platform for cancer therapy. However, their potential...
The role of microbiota dysbiosis in Parkinson’s disease: Pathophysiology and therapeutic opportunities
September 2025
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by debilitating motor and non-motor symptoms. Its etiology is multifactorial, with no single definitive cause...
Production of cycloastragenol in metabolically engineered yeast
September 2025
Cycloastragenol is a bioactive, high-value triterpenoid derived from Astragalus membranaceus. Conventional plant-based extraction and chemical synthesis methods are expensive. To our knowledge, this...
Superoxide-mediated O2 activation drives radical cyclization in ergot alkaloid biosynthesis
June 2025
Conventional heme enzymes utilize iron–oxygen intermediates to activate substrates and drive reactions. Recently, Chen et al. discovered a novel NADPH-independent superoxide mechanism of heme catalase...
Cytochrome P450-catalyzed allylic oxidation of pentalenene to 1-deoxypentalenic acid in pentalenolactone biosynthesis
June 2025
Pentalenolactone is a sesquiterpene antibiotic from Streptomyces. Its biosynthetic pathway has been elucidated, except for the oxidation of pentalen-13-al to 1-deoxypentalenic acid. In this study, we...