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.

Resource allocation in bacteria and adaptation to nutritional downshifts are characterized using a combination of quantitative proteomics and coarse-grained physiological modelling.

Accounting for species interactions is shown to be crucial for building more robust predictions of how climate change will affect the carbon cycle.

Temporal single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of viral and host transcriptional responses during human cytomegalovirus infection of macrophages and monocytes reveals molecular features influencing distinct infection courses and suggests additional latency reservoirs.

Cryo-EM structure of Geobacter cytochrome OmcZ nanowires identifies mechanism of electron conductance.

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.

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.