Life sciences
24 Mar 2026
Use of controversial weedkiller inadvertently selects for drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to hospitals
Agricultural soils exposed to glyphosate may be unexpected breeding ground for hospital ‘superbugs’
85 news posts in Frontiers in Microbiology
Life sciences
18 Mar 2026
Scientists discover ‘consortium' of bacteria cooperating to eat phthalate plasticizers that single microbes can’t stomach
‘Microbial cross-feeding’ and previously unknown enzymes help community of bacteria to digest toxic phthalate esters
Featured news
17 Feb 2026
Bacteria frozen in ancient underground ice cave found to be resistant against 10 modern antibiotics
A bacterial strain thriving in icy environments could sharpen antibiotic resistance crisis – or help solve it, new research shows
Featured news
02 Dec 2025
Dynamic duo of bacteria could change Mars dust into versatile building material for first human colonists
In this guest editorial, Dr Shiva Khoshtinat and co-authors present a bold approach for construction on Mars, harnessing microbial partnerships to transform Martian regolith into structural materials
Featured news
30 Sep 2025
Natural antimicrobial drugs found in pollen could help us protect bee colonies from infection
Pollen gathered by honeybees contains antimicrobial-producing bacteria that protect the hive against disease
Featured news
10 Jul 2025
Chemicals from turmeric and rhubarb could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria lurking in wastewater
Scientists monitoring wastewater find a range of antibiotic-resistant bacteria — but natural compounds show promise for fighting them off.
Featured news
21 May 2025
Biodiversity in Antarctic soils may be greatly underestimated after surprising discovery
Researchers used high-throughput DNA sequencing to measure biodiversity along a transect – a succession from recently exposed to mature soil – in front of a glacier in Antarctica. To capture a detailed ecological ‘time sequence’ they distinguished between intracellular and extracellular DNA from living versus dead or locally extinct species. They found an abundance of previously unsuspected interactions between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, eg, algae with heterotrophic bacteria and fungi with actinobacteria. The results imply that novel mutualistic interactions play an essential role in shaping this system, and that biodiversity in Antarctica may be much greater than previously thought.
Featured news
14 Feb 2025
Dangerous bacteria lurk in hospital sink drains, despite rigorous cleaning
Researchers from Spain sampled sink drains from different wards in a single modern university hospital where state-of-the-art cleaning protocols are adhered to. Through culturing and DNA barcoding, they found 67 species of bacteria. These included Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, notorious for their potential to cause healthcare-associated infections. Several strains detected proved resistant to modern antibiotics, including cephalosporins and carbapenems. Sink drains thus appear to function as reservoirs for known and emerging pathogens of concern.
Featured news
17 Dec 2024
Patients whose allergies cause the sniffles have different fungi living in their noses, compared to healthy people
Scientists investigated the noses of people with asthma and allergic rhinitis and found that the fungi in their noses are different to healthy people, suggesting future targets for treatments.
Health
30 Aug 2024
Promising antibiotic candidates discovered in microbes deep in the Arctic Sea
Researchers from Finland and Norway developed a new suite of methods for the screening of antivirulence activity of unknown compounds of bacterial origin. The compounds tested had been derived from actinobacteria living inside invertebrates in the Arctic Sea. They found two interesting compounds with strong antivirulence or antibacterial effects against enteropathogenic E. coli. These results demonstrate the potential of prospecting novel habitats for promising new antibacterial drugs, to solve the current global antibiotics crisis.
Featured news
08 Aug 2024
Microbes conquer the next extreme environment: your microwave
Researchers have measured the diversity of microbes inside microwaves for the first time. They showed that microwaves harbor a specialized community of locally adapted microbial genera, which resembles that reported on kitchen surfaces and in another extreme, highly irradiated habitat: on solar panels. This finding has potential biotechnological applications, in processes that require microbes resistant to thermal shock, radiation, and desiccation.
Featured news
08 Feb 2024
Why studying astronauts’ microbiomes is crucial to ensure deep space mission success
In a new Frontiers’ guest editorial, Prof Dr Lembit Sihver and his co-authors explore the impact the microbiome has on human health in space. They also discuss potential applications as well as challenges of the study of the microbiome of astronauts.
Featured news
05 Dec 2023
What makes invasive plants successful? Here are five Frontiers articles you won’t want to miss
At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, it’s impossible to cover all of them. Here are just five amazing papers you may have missed.
Life sciences
01 Dec 2023
Scientists raise alarm as bacteria are linked to mass death of sea sponges weakened by warming Mediterranean
Researchers from Spain and Turkey have shown that Vibrio bacteria are playing a role in the outbreaks of mortality of a sessile marine organism, the dark stinging sponge (Sarcotragus foetidus).
Featured news
08 Nov 2023
Could willow bark provide our next life-saving antiviral medicine?
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists have found that specially processed samples of willow bark extract have an antiviral effect which isn’t seen in already known medical compounds from willow bark, such as salicylic acid, the precursor to modern aspirin. The extract worked against two common types of virus with very different structures, enteroviruses and coronaviruses, suggesting the potential for a new broad-spectrum antiviral to help us fight viruses that are otherwise hard to treat. From a seasonal cold to a stomach bug, nobody likes catching a virus — and epidemics can be devastating. We need safe, sustainable antiviral options to treat the outbreaks of the future. Scientists in Finland have now shown that an extract of willow bark — a plant which has already provided several medicines, including the precursor to modern aspirin — has a broad-spectrum antiviral effect in cell sample experiments. The extract worked both on enveloped coronaviruses, which cause colds as well as Covid-19, and non-enveloped enteroviruses, which cause infections such as flu and meningitis. There are no clinically approved drugs which work against enteroviruses directly, so this extract could be a future game-changer. “We need broadly acting and efficient tools to combat […]