The global population is predicted to reach >9 billion by 2050, putting unprecedented pressure on already scarce natural resources. To tackle the population increase and the associated increased consumption there is an urgent need to increase food production in a sustainable manner. One important pressure on global food security that is often overlooked is that posed by plant pathogens, which cause devastating losses in staple crops including rice and wheat each year. This special Focus issue of Nature Reviews Microbiologyon Plant–Microbe Interactions presents five Reviews from leading experts discussing the latest advances in our understanding of the relationship between bacterial, viral and eukaryotic filamentous pathogens and their plant hosts.

Nature Reviews Microbiologyturned 10 in October 2013. To mark the occasion of our 10th anniversary, we have commissioned a special Essay series entitled Microbiology Pioneers. We asked leading scientists across the different disciplines within microbiology to contribute an Essay on the individual or individuals who they feel have been the pioneers in their field. Each Essay in the series will have a different slant, with some focusing purely on the science and others being more personal, but we hope that each will be a fascinating read, providing an insight into the contributions of some unsung heroes. The image showsEscherichia coliexpressing the DsRed-Express2 fluorescent protein. Image courtesy of Sanna Koskiniemi, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

In this series of articles, Nature Reviews Microbiology explores some of the most recent technological developments and their applications, highlighting the ways in which this powerful toolkit is changing the face of modern-day microbiology.

The twentieth century was without doubt 'the age of the antibiotic'; all the known major antibiotic drug classes were identified, and the widespread use of antibiotics saw a substantial decrease in mortality and morbidity from common bacterial infections. However, that age is now well and truly over; the emergence of resistance to most commonly used antibiotics and the dwindling number of new antibiotics making it through the drug discovery pipeline pose a double threat to our continued protection from bacterial pathogens. In addition to limiting the spread of resistance through more prudent use of our current arsenal, it will become increasingly important to identify new classes of antibiotics and to develop alternative antimicrobial strategies that can replace antibiotics as they become ineffective. In this series of articles, Nature Reviews Microbiologyhighlights a number of alternative antimicrobial approaches that are currently being developed.

In this article series, Nature Reviews Microbiology highlights the distinct features of a range of vector-borne pathogens and the diseases they cause, as well as how the host responds to these infections.

High-throughput — or next-generation — sequencing has changed the face of microbiology. The genomic era for bacteriologists began less than 20 years ago, when the Sanger method was used to sequence the first complete bacterial genome sequence. Over the past 8–10 years, the advent of next-generation techniques has dramatically increased the speed and reduced the costs of sequencing, such that it is now possible to sequence a bacterial genome in a few days. This Focus brings together a specially commissioned series of articles that looks at some of the most innovative and interesting applications of next-generation sequencing in microbiology, along with a realistic assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the different sequencing platforms available.

In recent decades enormous effort has been made to elucidate the pathogenesis of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. Autoimmunity is a multifactorial process in which genetic, immunological, environmental and hormonal factors act in concert, representing what was termed some years ago the “mosaic of autoimmunity”. The May 2011 Special Issue on Cutting Edge Issues in Immunology and Autoimmunity summarizes our current understanding of this complex mosaic. The accompanying selection of recent articles from across the Springer Nature provide further insight into this topic.

Mucosal surfaces are in direct contact with the external environment, making them the first point of contact between a host and an invading pathogen. Furthermore, mucosa are colonized by an array of commensal and beneficial microorganisms, meaning that the mucosal immune system must be able to differentiate between friend and foe. This Focus highlights the latest research providing insights into the composition of our mucosal microbial communities, the host and environmental factors that shape these communities, their interaction with the immune system and the impact of antibiotics on them.

Fermentation processes used in the ancient world to make wine and bread demonstrate how applied microbiology is intertwined with human history.

To highlight the problem of resistance to antimicrobials, Nature Reviews Microbiology presents a set of specially commissioned articles that focus on key issues in the field, including the role of antibiotic resistance in nature, how the spread of antimicrobial resistance could be limited and the pharmaceutical strategies that are used to overcome resistance to various classes of antimicrobials. The Focus issue is accompanied by a joint Web Focus with Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

Nature Cell BiologyandNature Reviews Microbiologypresent a set of specially commissioned articles that highlight recent progress in our understanding of how microorganisms exploit the cell biology of their host.