Frontiers in Microbiology | New and Recent Articles

BackgroundPost-stroke depression (PSD) is the most common neuropsychiatric complication following stroke. Puerarin (PU), the principal bioactive compound extracted from the medicinal and edible plant Pueraria lobata, has shown beneficial therapeutic effects in both depression and stroke. However, the therapeutic effect of PU on PSD and its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investig…

Polymicrobial periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is often defined by recovery of two or more microorganisms from the same clinical episode, but this numerical definition is biologically incomplete. A second organism may represent a true co-pathogen, colonization, contamination, reagent background, nonviable DNA after antimicrobial exposure, or an analytically plausible signal of uncertain clini…

Anti-staphylococcal lytic agents, such as lysostaphin (LSN), a glycyl-glycyl (Gly-Gly) peptidase, have long been considered for the management of chronic and complicated bacterial infections typically resistant to conventional antibiotics, but their use is restricted by poor pharmacokinetic properties. We generated half-life extended lysostaphin constructs by fusing the lysin - either alone or ch…

Purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB), a major subgroup of purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB), have emerged as a promising platform for integrating wastewater treatment with resource recovery through the simultaneous production of value-added products, including single-cell protein (SCP), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), hydrogen, lipids, pigments, and other biomass-derived compounds. Although substanti…

Heat stress (HS) is a primary environmental constraint threatening ruminant production, welfare and reproductive efficiency amid global warming. Current studies mostly focus on either systemic physiological damage or local ruminal dysfunction separately, while the bidirectional crosstalk between the rumen and host, as well as its amplifying effect on systemic pathology, remains to be systematical…

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) wound infections remain a major clinical challenge due to antibiotic resistance and biofilm persistence. Although phage therapy has re-emerged as a promising alternative, its efficacy is limited by poor stratum corneum penetration following conventional topical application. Here, we isolated and characterized a lytic MRSA phage, Pelagios, and eva…

Western ghats in India, one of the world’s biodiversity hot spots is the reservoirs of microbial resources having agricultural and industrial significance. However, the diversity of plant growth-promoting microbial communities associated with the plants and soil in the Western Ghats is untapped vault. The current emphasis on natural farming is more depending on the indigenous microbial communitie…

Phillyrin is a critical bioactive constituent of Forsythiae Fructus, exhibiting multiple pharmacological properties, but suffers from poor membrane permeability and low oral bioavailability. In this study, we developed a novel, green method employing whole-cell biocatalysts and natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) for the cinnamoylation of phillyrin to improve its liposolubility and bioactivit…

Endophytic bacteria play an important role in plant growth promotion and stress tolerance, offering sustainable alternatives to chemical inputs in agriculture. In this study, an endophytic bacterial strain P1 was isolated and identified as Pseudomonas stutzeri, a plant-associated bacterium exhibiting multiple plant growth–promoting traits (PGPTs). Biochemical (qualitative and quantitative) and in…

IntroductionSeasonal variation can influence plant metabolite composition and modify antimicrobial performance; however, the relationship between seasonal metabolomic changes and antibacterial activity remains poorly understood in many arid-land medicinal plants. To our knowledge, this is the first study to integrate GC–MS metabolomics, antibacterial screening, and phage–extract interaction testi…

The Phytophthora blight of Panax notoginseng, caused by Phytophthora cactorum, is a devastating oomycete disease. Biocontrol strategies hold immense potential for inhibiting the spread of P. cactorum. We isolated 72 actinobacteria from soil and screened their antagonistic activity against P. cactorum. Both strain J36 and its cell-free filtrate exhibited strong antagonistic activity against P. cac…

BackgroundAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder with significant sex differences in diagnostic rates; males being diagnosed more frequently than females. Gut microbiota alterations may contribute to ADHD via the microbiota-gut-brain axis. However, previous microbiota studies have predominantly used male or mixed-gender samples, neglectin…

Intestinal fucosylation, the enzymatic addition of fucose to glycoconjugates, represents a pivotal regulatory mechanism that modulates host–microbiota crosstalk in the gastrointestinal tract. This review comprehensively synthesizes current advances in the molecular mechanisms, multilevel regulatory networks, and functional implications of intestinal mucosal fucosylation. This review focuses on α(…

Airborne dispersion of microorganisms is a constant ecologically significant global process. However, the initial stage of this process, the uplift of microbes to the atmosphere, remains poorly understood as an ecological filter. Differential aerosolization could serve as a potent selector allowing a subset of microorganisms to disperse via air more efficiently, providing potential advantages in …

IntroductionColorectal cancer (CRC) has been linked with gut microbiota dysbiosis, thereby fostering the discovery of disease-associated microbial signatures. However, the use of covariate–adjusted methods accounting for confounders effects on microbiome shifts is far from being a gold standard approach, leading to spurious microbial-disease associations. This study aimed to characterize stool mi…

IntroductionShigella flexneri (S. flexneri) is an important zoonotic pathogen. Infections caused by this bacterium in nonhuman primates, especially cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis), represent major health risks and biosecurity concerns for laboratory animal facilities. Characterizing S. flexneri isolates originating from captive cynomolgus monkeys is essential for implementing targeted di…

The skin microbiome is an integral component of the cutaneous ecosystem and contributes to barrier, immune, and metabolic homeostasis. Available evidence is examined across three distinct levels: microbial community structure, functional activity, and host biological response. This ecological–functional distinction is necessary because taxonomic abundance alone does not establish microbial activi…