Browse Articles

In this Review, Ogoina et al. examine the emergence of mpox and its epidemiology, the viral life cycle, transmission dynamics, risk factors and clinical characteristics. They also explore current and future prevention and control strategies, including the therapeutic and vaccine landscape, as well as the urgent need for integrated surveillance, equitable access to countermeasures, and Africa-led research to address the ongoing multi-clade threat.

In this Review, Ormsby and Quilliam discuss how plastic pollutants create a critical, novel habitat for complex microbial communities, highlighting the community composition, assembly dynamics and key functional traits of the plastisphere. They explore the dual public health risks of pathogen dissemination and enrichment of antimicrobial-resistance determinants.

This Genome Watch article explores how taking into account known phylogenetic relationships can improve computational efficiency for genomics, enabling improved genome data compression and faster sequence search as datasets continue to expand.

This study uncovers how Pseudomonas aeruginosa acquires colistin resistance in magnesium-depleted environments created by Candida albicans by accumulating unique mutations in the lipid A biosynthetic pathway.

In this Review, the authors describe current knowledge of microbial phosphorus cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and discuss how microbial communities respond to environmental and anthropogenic pressures. They also propose the Microbial Phosphorus Adaptive Evolution Theory (MPAET) — a mechanistic framework linking persistent phosphorus limitation to evolutionary adaptations across cellular, genomic and community scales.

Funk and colleagues show that acquisition of a multibasic cleavage site in H5 haemagglutinin is the result of the combination of insertion-prone RNA sequences and the formation of transient RNA structures during replication by the viral RNA polymerase.

This study shows that some human microbiota bacteria can metabolize immunodominant peanut allergens, thus modulating IgE-mediated anaphylaxis.

In this Review, Otero et al. explore how human herpesviruses evade humoral immune responses and consider the resulting implications for developing effective vaccines and treatments for diseases caused by these common viral pathogens.

Andreano, McLellan and Rappuoli introduce ‘reverse vaccinology 3.0’, a transformative approach that could revolutionize the field of vaccinology and contribute to addressing global health challenges.

In this Review, Singh and colleagues discuss the impacts of key climate extremes on soil-borne pathogens, plant microbiomes and host physiology that ultimately determine disease outcomes, as well as the eco-evolutionary mechanisms by which pathogens, hosts and microbiomes may adapt to climate extremes. Finally, they propose an integrated pathway for harnessing microbiomes to address the critical challenges posed by climate extremes.

This study shows that FhaB is a critical colonization factor that enables Bordetella species to colonize a protected niche at the base of the cilia of epithelial cells.

The Asgard archaea have become a cornerstone of archaeal research, particularly for studies aiming to unravel the origin and early evolution of eukaryotes. This Review outlines the current state of the research field focusing on these intriguing microorganisms and discusses future research directions aiming to resolve their diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution.

This study shows that amino acids facilitate microbial iron acquisition in environments that exhibit low nutrient concentration and where siderophores are highly diluted.

This study uncovers druggable kinases and proteases required for host cell egress of the apicomplexan parasite Babesia divergens.

Varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection causes varicella and herpes zoster and, rarely, severe central nervous system (CNS) complications, including encephalitis. Ogunjimi et al. review the evidence linking herpes zoster with stroke and dementia, summarize innate and adaptive immune responses to VZV-related CNS disease, and debate the consequences of vaccination.

A recent study found that HIV-associated changes in the gut microbiome correlate with peripheral CD4⁺ T cell counts and are linked to differences in mucosal immune responses and susceptibility to opportunistic infection.

This study identified the molecular mechanisms that contribute to species specificity and compatibility between mosquito vectors and flavivirus species.

This Genome Watch article explores how protein language models are transforming phage–host specificity prediction by capturing meaningful biological information from viral sequences, from individual proteins to entire genomes.

In this work, Kalanxhi and Laxminarayan review the evidence supporting the links between climate change and antimicrobial resistance, highlight opportunities for action and identify areas wherein further research is needed to understand the nature of these complex relationships.