Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102684
Sophia A Adler , Grayson L Chadwick , Dipti D Nayak
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Assembly and maturation of methyl-coenzyme M reductase in methanogenic archaea” [Curr Opin Microbiol, 87 (2025) 102637]","authors":"Sophia A Adler , Grayson L Chadwick , Dipti D Nayak","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102684","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102684"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145733934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-11-25DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102682
Matthew M Morales , Katrina M Jackson , Bridget M Barker
Coccidioidomycosis (CM), commonly known as Valley fever, is a respiratory infection caused by the inhalation or implantation of infectious arthroconidia produced by the dimorphic human fungal pathogens Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii from the environment. The current endemic range includes the southwestern region of the United States and parts of South and Central America. Infected individuals may experience a spectrum of symptoms from asymptomatic to severe respiratory symptoms. Importantly, the fungus can disseminate to other tissues to produce severe symptoms, and in some cases, death. Despite significant effort from Coccidioides researchers to develop effective vaccines against Valley fever, there is currently no human vaccine available. This review highlights the recent advances in understanding host immune response and addressing knowledge gaps in the field.
{"title":"Current perspectives of host-pathogen dynamics in coccidioidomycosis","authors":"Matthew M Morales , Katrina M Jackson , Bridget M Barker","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102682","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102682","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Coccidioidomycosis (CM), commonly known as Valley fever, is a respiratory infection caused by the inhalation or implantation of infectious arthroconidia produced by the dimorphic human fungal pathogens <em>Coccidioides immitis</em> and <em>Coccidioides posadasii</em> from the environment<em>.</em> The current endemic range includes the southwestern region of the United States and parts of South and Central America. Infected individuals may experience a spectrum of symptoms from asymptomatic to severe respiratory symptoms. Importantly, the fungus can disseminate to other tissues to produce severe symptoms, and in some cases, death. Despite significant effort from <em>Coccidioides</em> researchers to develop effective vaccines against Valley fever, there is currently no human vaccine available. This review highlights the recent advances in understanding host immune response and addressing knowledge gaps in the field.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102682"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102700
Crislaine KS Rocha, Ángeles Hueso-Gil, Lorea Alejaldre, Juan Rico, Paula Múgica-Galán, Ángel Goñi-Moreno
Microbes process input information into output responses through diverse genetic and metabolic mechanisms, effectively making them physical systems that compute. These computations profoundly shape the environment, from driving key chemical cycles in the soil to influencing the planet’s atmosphere. Yet the complexity of natural microbial computations remains poorly understood, including the symbolic representation of information and the underlying algorithmic principles. Synthetic biology provides tools to implement simple but effective genetic circuits in living cells, enabling human-defined computations. These are typically Boolean gates and circuits for combinatorial input processing, but they also include sequential logic, memory-based systems, analog circuits, and distributed computations in cellular consortia. Twenty-five years after the first synthetic genetic circuits were built, the field is now exploring new approaches to move closer to the computing power of natural microbes. With a focus on bacteria, this review examines both natural and synthetic functions with the aim of bridging the complexity gap between them and argues that understanding and formalizing the ways in which microbes compute may be essential for improving synthetic genetic circuitry.
{"title":"Exploring the computing power of microbes that shapes the environment","authors":"Crislaine KS Rocha, Ángeles Hueso-Gil, Lorea Alejaldre, Juan Rico, Paula Múgica-Galán, Ángel Goñi-Moreno","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102700","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102700","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microbes process input information into output responses through diverse genetic and metabolic mechanisms, effectively making them physical systems that compute. These computations profoundly shape the environment, from driving key chemical cycles in the soil to influencing the planet’s atmosphere. Yet the complexity of natural microbial computations remains poorly understood, including the symbolic representation of information and the underlying algorithmic principles. Synthetic biology provides tools to implement simple but effective genetic circuits in living cells, enabling human-defined computations. These are typically Boolean gates and circuits for combinatorial input processing, but they also include sequential logic, memory-based systems, analog circuits, and distributed computations in cellular consortia. Twenty-five years after the first synthetic genetic circuits were built, the field is now exploring new approaches to move closer to the computing power of natural microbes. With a focus on bacteria, this review examines both natural and synthetic functions with the aim of bridging the complexity gap between them and argues that understanding and formalizing the ways in which microbes compute may be essential for improving synthetic genetic circuitry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102700"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145910941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102706
Joshua Williams, Ioannis P Nezis, Antonia P Sagona
The rising incidence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacterial infections has strongly necessitated the development and deployment of alternative therapeutics. Bacteriophages (phages) are one such alternative, discovered in the early twentieth century. While a key tool in landmark molecular biology studies throughout the twentieth century, their popularity as an antimicrobial in clinical contexts was largely overshadowed by the development and use of antibiotics. The global threat of AMR has since reignited interest in utilizing phages as therapeutics. A key advantage of phages is their genetic tractability, allowing for the generation of a cornucopia of derivatives armed with numerous exogenous functions depending on the end use. A nascent yet growing interest in this field is the arming of phages for direct and selective human tissue entry to eradicate intracellular bacterial infections, where many bacterial species exert their pathogenesis. Engineering phages in such a way also opens opportunities to study the complex, multilayered cellular mechanisms behind phage–eukaryote interactions. In this review, we discuss the progress of phage genetic engineering with an emphasis on phage–eukaryote interactions and how knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms may serve further development of this prospective enhancement of engineered phages.
{"title":"Genetically engineered bacteriophages — their roles in combating intracellular bacterial infections and unraveling phage–eukaryote interactions","authors":"Joshua Williams, Ioannis P Nezis, Antonia P Sagona","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102706","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102706","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rising incidence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacterial infections has strongly necessitated the development and deployment of alternative therapeutics. Bacteriophages (phages) are one such alternative, discovered in the early twentieth century. While a key tool in landmark molecular biology studies throughout the twentieth century, their popularity as an antimicrobial in clinical contexts was largely overshadowed by the development and use of antibiotics. The global threat of AMR has since reignited interest in utilizing phages as therapeutics. A key advantage of phages is their genetic tractability, allowing for the generation of a cornucopia of derivatives armed with numerous exogenous functions depending on the end use. A nascent yet growing interest in this field is the arming of phages for direct and selective human tissue entry to eradicate intracellular bacterial infections, where many bacterial species exert their pathogenesis. Engineering phages in such a way also opens opportunities to study the complex, multilayered cellular mechanisms behind phage–eukaryote interactions. In this review, we discuss the progress of phage genetic engineering with an emphasis on phage–eukaryote interactions and how knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms may serve further development of this prospective enhancement of engineered phages.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102706"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146017680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102699
Zackary J Jay , Matthew Kellom , Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh , Roland Hatzenpichler
The recent demonstration that members of at least three classes of archaea affiliated with the Thermoproteota superphylum are involved in the production of the climate-active gas methane has sparked discussions about how well we understand the diversity of methanogens. Here, we show that members of all three of these lineages, as well as several other, yet uncultured and physiologically uncharacterized groups within the Thermoproteota that encode the key enzyme of anaerobic methane cycling, methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR), are widely distributed in anoxic ecosystems. We postulate that the taxonomic, metabolic, and ecological diversity of methanogenic and MCR-encoding Thermoproteota are poorly understood, and that the contribution of methylotrophic and thermoproteotal methanogenesis to methane production is largely unknown. We hypothesize that thermoproteotal methanogens could contribute, potentially substantially, to methane emissions in many anoxic environments that harbor methylated precursors, including wetlands, sediments, peat, rice paddies, wastewater sludge, and geothermal systems. We highlight the necessity to experimentally test the (eco)physiology of these widely distributed archaea using both culture-dependent (in vitro) and culture-independent (in situ) approaches to assess their potential contribution to methane emissions. Last, we stress the importance of remaining agnostic about the physiology of MCR-encoding Thermoproteota in the absence of experimental data because most of these archaea also carry the genetic potential to grow non-methanogenically.
{"title":"Ecology of methyl-coenzyme M reductase encoding Thermoproteota","authors":"Zackary J Jay , Matthew Kellom , Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh , Roland Hatzenpichler","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102699","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102699","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The recent demonstration that members of at least three classes of archaea affiliated with the Thermoproteota superphylum are involved in the production of the climate-active gas methane has sparked discussions about how well we understand the diversity of methanogens. Here, we show that members of all three of these lineages, as well as several other, yet uncultured and physiologically uncharacterized groups within the Thermoproteota that encode the key enzyme of anaerobic methane cycling, methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR), are widely distributed in anoxic ecosystems. We postulate that the taxonomic, metabolic, and ecological diversity of methanogenic and MCR-encoding Thermoproteota are poorly understood, and that the contribution of methylotrophic and thermoproteotal methanogenesis to methane production is largely unknown. We hypothesize that thermoproteotal methanogens could contribute, potentially substantially, to methane emissions in many anoxic environments that harbor methylated precursors, including wetlands, sediments, peat, rice paddies, wastewater sludge, and geothermal systems. We highlight the necessity to experimentally test the (eco)physiology of these widely distributed archaea using both culture-dependent (<em>in vitro</em>) and culture-independent (<em>in situ</em>) approaches to assess their potential contribution to methane emissions. Last, we stress the importance of remaining agnostic about the physiology of MCR-encoding Thermoproteota in the absence of experimental data because most of these archaea also carry the genetic potential to grow non-methanogenically.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102699"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145862207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102698
Vorrapon Chaikeeratisak , Poochit Nonejuie , Chase J Morgan
The increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections poses a major threat to humankind, with 10 million deaths predicted in 2050 as a result. Phage therapy has therefore regained attention as a promising approach to combat these pathogens. However, the ongoing evolutionary arms race between phages and bacteria has driven the accumulation of phage defense systems in bacterial populations, which can compromise the efficacy and generalizability of phage applications. Recently, nucleus-forming phages have been discovered and classified under the newly established phage family ‘Chimalliviridae’. Chimalliviruses orchestrate a highly organized, nucleus-based replication that physically segregates phage DNA from host defenses, thereby enhancing replication efficiency and conferring resistance to a wide array of host defenses. Their unique replication strategy and subcellular organization far exceed that of classical phages, positioning them as candidates for a new class of ‘next-generation phages’ with superior therapeutic potential and biocontrol capabilities. This review will cover the current landscape of chimallivirus discovery, highlighting their association with bacterial pathogens, unique replication machinery, and interaction with bacterial defenses. Furthermore, it provides insights into chimallivirus-based therapeutic applications.
{"title":"Nucleus-forming phages: from subcellular organization and viral–host interplay to prospects for phage applications","authors":"Vorrapon Chaikeeratisak , Poochit Nonejuie , Chase J Morgan","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102698","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102698","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections poses a major threat to humankind, with 10 million deaths predicted in 2050 as a result. Phage therapy has therefore regained attention as a promising approach to combat these pathogens. However, the ongoing evolutionary arms race between phages and bacteria has driven the accumulation of phage defense systems in bacterial populations, which can compromise the efficacy and generalizability of phage applications. Recently, nucleus-forming phages have been discovered and classified under the newly established phage family ‘Chimalliviridae’. Chimalliviruses orchestrate a highly organized, nucleus-based replication that physically segregates phage DNA from host defenses, thereby enhancing replication efficiency and conferring resistance to a wide array of host defenses. Their unique replication strategy and subcellular organization far exceed that of classical phages, positioning them as candidates for a new class of ‘next-generation phages’ with superior therapeutic potential and biocontrol capabilities. This review will cover the current landscape of chimallivirus discovery, highlighting their association with bacterial pathogens, unique replication machinery, and interaction with bacterial defenses. Furthermore, it provides insights into chimallivirus-based therapeutic applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102698"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145797402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102704
John Beckley, Rodolphe Barrangou
Over the past decade, improvements in sequencing technologies and computational tools have advanced our understanding of the composition and function of microbial communities in various environments. Now, in order to manipulate and engineer these communities, we need technologies that enable broadly applicable and specific alterations to establish and modulate the molecular basis for their functional roles. Recent advances in bacteriophage engineering strategies, synthetic biology techniques, and in silico approaches have greatly expanded our ability to perform in situ perturbations. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-Cas systems in particular can provide an efficient means of engineering phages, and can also be delivered as a recombinant payload to perform precision genome editing directly in the host environment. Modified Cas effectors have been developed that allow for increasingly diverse edits with applications in the fields of medicine, food, and agriculture. In this review, we discuss recent advances in using bacteriophages to deliver various clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-Cas effectors. While challenges remain regarding the phylogenetic breadth of deployment, recombinant phages generally present a unique and effective means to rationally engineering microbial community function and composition.
{"title":"Phage-mediated delivery of CRISPR payloads","authors":"John Beckley, Rodolphe Barrangou","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102704","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102704","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the past decade, improvements in sequencing technologies and computational tools have advanced our understanding of the composition and function of microbial communities in various environments. Now, in order to manipulate and engineer these communities, we need technologies that enable broadly applicable and specific alterations to establish and modulate the molecular basis for their functional roles. Recent advances in bacteriophage engineering strategies, synthetic biology techniques, and <em>in silico</em> approaches have greatly expanded our ability to perform <em>in situ</em> perturbations. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-Cas systems in particular can provide an efficient means of engineering phages, and can also be delivered as a recombinant payload to perform precision genome editing directly in the host environment. Modified Cas effectors have been developed that allow for increasingly diverse edits with applications in the fields of medicine, food, and agriculture. In this review, we discuss recent advances in using bacteriophages to deliver various clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-Cas effectors. While challenges remain regarding the phylogenetic breadth of deployment, recombinant phages generally present a unique and effective means to rationally engineering microbial community function and composition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102704"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145973113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102697
Tom J Arrowsmith , Maria Puiu , Tim R Blower
Shutoff of host translation is a common immunity strategy employed by bacteria to defend against predatory bacteriophages. Many bacterial toxin–antitoxin systems specifically target and inactivate tRNAs to achieve translational inhibition, potentially in response to phage infection. Common modes of action include modification, cleavage or re-allocation of target tRNAs. Recent studies have also identified key determinants of specificity for tRNA-targeting toxins. Herein, we discuss toxin action and specificity in the context of phage defence. As a counterpoint, we consider virally encoded tRNAs as counter-defences and drivers of phage evolution.
{"title":"tRNAs as toxin targets in phage defence and a focus of counter-defence against abortive infection","authors":"Tom J Arrowsmith , Maria Puiu , Tim R Blower","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102697","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102697","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Shutoff of host translation is a common immunity strategy employed by bacteria to defend against predatory bacteriophages. Many bacterial toxin–antitoxin systems specifically target and inactivate tRNAs to achieve translational inhibition, potentially in response to phage infection. Common modes of action include modification, cleavage or re-allocation of target tRNAs. Recent studies have also identified key determinants of specificity for tRNA-targeting toxins. Herein, we discuss toxin action and specificity in the context of phage defence. As a counterpoint, we consider virally encoded tRNAs as counter-defences and drivers of phage evolution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102697"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145797403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-17DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102696
Natasha Torriero-Smith , Benjamin A Rogers , Michael J McDonald , Jeremy J Barr
Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that selectively prey on bacteria. Their use in treating antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections is steadily increasing due to the need for alternative therapies. The application of phage therapy is not without its challenges, including difficulties associated with isolating phages against a target strain, the limited infectivity of a phage, the cost and complexity of producing well-characterised phage stocks, and the emergence of phage resistance. The directed adaptation of phage to a specific bacterial target, also known as ‘phage training’, leverages the natural evolutionary capacity of phages and can be used to bolster their bacterial killing abilities. Phage training dates back almost as far as phage therapy itself, being used to expand the therapeutic use of phages. Numerous reports showcase the success and benefits of phage training in vitro and its potential to operate effectively within the framework of phage therapy. However, the time needed to train a given phage, followed by genotypic and phenotypic characterisation of both pre- and post-trained phages, is a major limitation. Here, we explore oversights of the phage training process and propose some considerations and solutions to help drive the field forward to enable its feasible integration into phage therapy.
{"title":"Harnessing ‘phage training’ to bolster the therapeutic potential of bacteriophages","authors":"Natasha Torriero-Smith , Benjamin A Rogers , Michael J McDonald , Jeremy J Barr","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102696","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102696","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that selectively prey on bacteria. Their use in treating antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections is steadily increasing due to the need for alternative therapies. The application of phage therapy is not without its challenges, including difficulties associated with isolating phages against a target strain, the limited infectivity of a phage, the cost and complexity of producing well-characterised phage stocks, and the emergence of phage resistance. The directed adaptation of phage to a specific bacterial target, also known as ‘phage training’, leverages the natural evolutionary capacity of phages and can be used to bolster their bacterial killing abilities. Phage training dates back almost as far as phage therapy itself, being used to expand the therapeutic use of phages. Numerous reports showcase the success and benefits of phage training <em>in vitro</em> and its potential to operate effectively within the framework of phage therapy. However, the time needed to train a given phage, followed by genotypic and phenotypic characterisation of both pre- and post-trained phages, is a major limitation. Here, we explore oversights of the phage training process and propose some considerations and solutions to help drive the field forward to enable its feasible integration into phage therapy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102696"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145780622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-08-30DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2025.102656
Alexander Tøsdal Tveit , Marc G. Dumont , Tilman Schmider
The biological sink for atmospheric methane consists of atmospheric methane-oxidizing bacteria (atmMOB) that persistently oxidize atmospheric methane as carbon and energy source and conventional methanotrophs that transiently oxidize atmospheric methane after exposure to elevated methane concentrations. The ecology and environmental activity of atmMOB have been studied for several decades, but until the first detailed characterization in 2019 of an atmMOB in pure culture that can grow with air as the sole energy (methane, carbon monoxide and molecular hydrogen) and carbon (methane and carbon dioxide) source, their physiology was mostly unexplored. Here we summarize the available knowledge about atmMOB physiology, including the kinetics of atmospheric methane oxidation, energy yields during growth on methane and other trace gases from air, carbon assimilation and physiological diversity. We use this background to identify knowledge gaps that should be targeted to support future research on atmMOB.
{"title":"Physiology of atmospheric methane-oxidizing bacteria","authors":"Alexander Tøsdal Tveit , Marc G. Dumont , Tilman Schmider","doi":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102656","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.mib.2025.102656","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The biological sink for atmospheric methane consists of atmospheric methane-oxidizing bacteria (atmMOB) that persistently oxidize atmospheric methane as carbon and energy source and conventional methanotrophs that transiently oxidize atmospheric methane after exposure to elevated methane concentrations. The ecology and environmental activity of atmMOB have been studied for several decades, but until the first detailed characterization in 2019 of an atmMOB in pure culture that can grow with air as the sole energy (methane, carbon monoxide and molecular hydrogen) and carbon (methane and carbon dioxide) source, their physiology was mostly unexplored. Here we summarize the available knowledge about atmMOB physiology, including the kinetics of atmospheric methane oxidation, energy yields during growth on methane and other trace gases from air, carbon assimilation and physiological diversity. We use this background to identify knowledge gaps that should be targeted to support future research on atmMOB.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10921,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in microbiology","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 102656"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144920425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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