The 28th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, known colloquially as COP28, is being held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 31 November to 12 December 2023. Microbes are integral members of climate systems. They produce and consume greenhouse gases, their ecology is affected by environmental variables, and they can be engineered for the sustainable production of chemicals or applied in waste recycling. This month's focus issue highlights different aspects of microbes and climate, including the spread and emergence of infectious diseases, how microbial interactions are modulated by the environment and the urgent need to recognize microbes in climate discussions.

See Editorial

This image shows a variety of antimicrobials chosen to reflect the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. This is discussed in our Editorial to mark World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (18–24 November) with the theme of ‘Preventing antimicrobial resistance together’. In the associated Turning Points article, Jimmy Nkaiwuatei, the co-founder and Head of Research, Discovery and Innovations at Students Against Superbugs Africa, describes the aim of this youth-led organization in tackling the problem of antimicrobial resistance through education and outreach in Africa.

See Editorial

This image shows a lake in Canada, just one of the 308 lakes across the country that were sampled to generate a metagenomic compendium with the goal of assessing the breadth of bacterial metabolic potential and how it varies depending on regional land use changes.

See Garner et al.

This image shows intercellular extensions induced by chikungunya virus infection of mouse embryonic fibroblasts, stained to detect the viral membrane proteins (red), tubulin (green) and nuclei (blue). Intercellular extensions project from infected cells, form stable contacts with neighbouring cells, and are here shown to promote antibody-resistant intercellular virus transmission in vitro and in vivo.

See Yin et al.

Shown is the false smut in a rice panicle. The disease rice false smut caused by Ustilaginoidea virens threatens the world’s rice production by reducing grain yield and quality. Liu et al. identify a microbiota-induced metabolic defence in rice to protect against rice false smut, charting a sustainable path to manage globally prevalent panicle diseases.

See Liu et al.

Shown here are 3D segmentations, based on cryo-electron tomograms, highlighting the microbial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (in blue) either capturing prey (Escherichia coli minicells, shown in green), or inside prey (Vibrio cholerae, shown in yellow) forming the so-called bdelloplast. Red filaments in predator cells represent retracted flagellar filaments of B. bacteriovorus. The bdelloplast has the characteristic ‘bubble-like’ tentative seal.

See Kaplan et al.

Shown is the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Baltar and colleagues used multi-omics approaches to characterize the microbial communities in the mesopelagic water column beneath the ice in this region, finding a mixotrophic bacterial group with previously unrecognized importance for ocean carbon and sulfur cycling.

See Baltar et al.

Shown is an artistic transformation of the intraerythrocytic life cycle of Babesia duncani. Pallavi Singh, Choukri Mamoun, Stefano Lonardi, Karine le Roch and colleagues report a comprehensive suite of multi-omics analyses that reveal evolution, drug sensitivity and virulence mechanisms of this parasite, which causes a malaria-like disease in humans and animals.

See Singh et al.

The graphic shows a closed, anaerobic test tube containing anaerobic fungi (coloured brown and purple) that degrade plant cell wall material (coloured white and blue). Lankiewicz et al. report that Neocallimastigomycetes fungi can break the chemical bonds in lignin without the use of oxygen. Their findings shed light on how plant biomass is broken down in anaerobic environments.

See Lankiewicz et al.

Shown are vectorized false-coloured images of L-form-like Enterococcus faecalis cells that are in the process of escaping the cell wall sacculus. Wohlfarth et al. report that L-form escape is triggered by the phage-derived endolysin Ply007, which functions as a peptidoglycan hydrolase. In Gram-positive bacteria, L-form conversion enables transient escape from further phage infection.

See Wohlfarth et al.

This light micrograph shows colonies and single cells of Phaeocystis globosa, a harmful algal bloom species that grows in marine waters. Colonies are known to evade viral infection, whereas the population dynamics of single cells are strongly controlled by viruses. In this issue, a Polinton-like virus infecting P. globosa was isolated and characterized. This virus, called Gezel-14T, is shown to have a virophage lifestyle — it parasitizes infections of another P. globosa virus, the giant virus PgV-14T.

See Roitman et al.

Shown is an image of the top decoration of a ger, a Mongolian nomadic dwelling, in Inner Mongolia. Using a hybrid, ultra-deep metagenomic sequencing strategy, a high-quality gut genome catalogue for Inner Mongolians was presented, increasing the diversity of publicly available gut metagenomes and providing insights into genomic elements present in the human gut microbiome.

See Jin et al.