Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
As we enter 2017, Nature Microbiology completes its first year as a journal dedicated to publishing work of the highest quality from across the field. And what a year it has been. We take this opportunity to mark up the report card and check on our progress.
Marine microorganisms inhabit diverse environments and interact over different spatial and temporal scales. To fully understand how these interactions shape genome structures, cellular responses, lifestyles, community ecology and biogeochemical cycles, integration of diverse approaches and data is essential.
The biologically active form of vitamin B1 is not required by Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, challenging the paradigm that this vitamin is essential for all living organisms.
Type VII protein secretion systems are most widely associated with virulence in bacterial pathogens. A new study reveals a type VII system-secreted nuclease toxin that specifically affects clonally unrelated strains, thus placing type VII secretion directly into the fray of microbial competition.
Bacterial infection of the bladder can lead to mucosal remodelling and increased predisposition to recurrent infection, changing the way we view host susceptibility and providing new opportunities to develop novel therapeutics.
The symbiosis between UCYN-A and haptophyte picoplankton plays a major role in oceanic nitrogen cycling. Though it bears some resemblance to freshwater examples, making it an interesting marine model, UCYN-A diversity means that many questions remain.
Metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic approaches are used to resolve the taxonomic and functional characteristics of gastrointestinal microbiota from four families with multiple cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus.
During bacterial infection, tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase is secreted by monocytes and binds to macrophages via a TLR4–MD2 complex to induce phagocytosis and chemokine production, thereby serving as a primary defence system against infection.
The S-oxidizing symbiont of the bivalve Codakia orbicularis encodes all proteins required for biological nitrogen fixation. The symbiont's NifH is phylogenetically close to free-living N-fixing Proteobacteria associated with seagrass sediment.
The chemosynthetic symbionts of the bivalve Loripes lucinalis and nematode Laxus oneistus are found to encode nitrogen fixation genes, with evidence for active nitrogen fixation.
The metabolomes of 260 strains of Pseudomonas were indexed, enabling the discovery and evolutionary relationships of 4 molecules — a poaeamide analogue, and the bananamides 1, 2 and 3 — a molecular sub-family of cyclic lipopeptides.
Removal of thiamin (vitamin B1), a compound previously considered essential to all living organisms, does not impact the growth or survival of the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi.