Timeline in 2008

Metagenomics has enabled researchers to compile inventories of viruses, bacteria and archaea that inhabit specific niches. Here, the authors discuss the tools that are needed for us to progress to an integrated understanding of microbial ecosystems biology.

Robert Ridley and Elaine Fletcher review the past 30 years of activity by TDR and the key achievements of the programme in tropical-disease research.

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria, which combine ammonium and nitrite or nitrate to form nitrogen gas, were discovered in the early 1990s. Here, Gijs Kuenen recalls the discovery of these bacteria and the subsequent elucidation of their roles in environmental and industrial microbiology.