The SARS-CoV-2 Africa dashboard is an interactive tool that enables visualization of SARS-CoV-2 genomic information in African countries. The customizable app allows users to visualize the number of sequences deposited in each country, and the variants circulating over time. Our dashboard enables near real-time exploration of public data that can inform policymakers, healthcare professionals and the public about the ongoing pandemic.

Head-to-head comparison of third doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in US Veterans finds that both are effective against documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes.

A pentavalent live attenuated vaccine platform, MOPEVAC_NEW, was engineered to express glycoproteins from all five known pathogenic New World arenaviruses from a modified Mopeia virus. This approach induces robust antiviral antibody responses and sterile protection to prevent severe haemorrhagic fever and mortality in cynomolgus monkeys.

From metagenomics of Aedes mosquitoes from four continents, the authors analyse the mechanism by which insect-specific viruses affect mosquito vector competence to transmit dengue virus to humans.

Rebound virus in the cerebrospinal fluid of a human cohort is a possible HIV-1 reservoir.

Phage-encoded endolysins released from lysed bacteria trigger neighbouring cells to convert into cell wall-deficient L-forms that are resistant to subsequent phage infection.

Structural basis of crRNA processing, target RNA cleavage and regulation of auto-immunity in the Cas7-11-crRNA complex of Desulfonema ishimotonii.

Isolation and characterization of a selfish genetic element with a virophage lifestyle that co-infects a bloom-forming polar algae along with a partner virus.

A resource of >3,700 Ser/Thr protein kinase-substrate interactions and their transcriptional effects establishes O-phosphorylation as a dominant signalling mechanism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Depletion of CD8⁺ T cells before infection or early antiretroviral therapy initiation elucidates the role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes during formation of the latent simian immunodeficiency virus reservoir.

The SARS-CoV-2 Africa dashboard is an interactive tool that enables visualization of SARS-CoV-2 genomic information in African countries. The customizable app allows users to visualize the number of sequences deposited in each country, and the variants circulating over time. Our dashboard enables near real-time exploration of public data that can inform policymakers, healthcare professionals and the public about the ongoing pandemic.

Reports of diphtheria cases in asylum seekers in the UK remind us that understanding and mitigating the risks posed by infectious diseases to disadvantaged peoples remain important.

We present a series of commissioned articles authored by people from groups that are under-represented in research, to highlight past and present scientific contributions in microbiology and to increase the diversity of Nature Microbiology authors.

Ariangela Kozik is a research investigator at the University of Michigan where she studies the role of the respiratory microbiome, and host–microbiome interactions, in asthma pathogenesis and treatment response. Ariangela is also the vice president and a co-founder of the Black Microbiologists Association.