Phosphate (Pi) is one of the most important nutrients for plant growth and productivity, as it is an essential building block for a wide range of biomolecules. However, Pi is often poorly available in soils because of its low mobility and tendency to bind strongly to soil particles (Wang et al. 2025). This limitation poses a particular challenge for legumes, where symbiotic nitrogen fixation in root nodules demands high energy and phosphorus inputs. Under Pi limitation, nodules number is tightly regulated through the long-distance signaling pathway called autoregulation of nodulation (AON) to avoid an energetic imbalance (Isidra-Arellano and Valdes-López 2024). Although phosphate starvation responses (PSR) are well-characterized, the precise mechanisms by which Pi status is directly integrated into the genetic control of rhizobial nodulation have remained unclear.

Microbiology; Virology

L-3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), synthesized from L-tyrosine, is a direct precursor to dopamine. L-DOPA is the gold-standard treatment for Parki…

November 25th, 2025 at the Spine Building in Liverpool Rising levels of antimicrobial resistance threaten healthcare systems and economies worldwide. Phage therapy has proven to be an effective last-r...

Phage therapy holds potential against Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Here, the authors demonstrate that biofilm heterogeneity limits phage effectiveness an...

Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Bacterial immune systems have evolved in response to diverse molecular "parasites", yet their ecological roles remain poorly understood. This Essay explores how interactions between mobile genetic ele...

Cryo-EM of phage Bas63 reveals unique capsid and tail features, offering insights into Felixounavirus evolution and architecture.

Bacteriophages offer promising alternatives to antibiotics for treating drug-resistant infections and engineering microbiomes, but applications are limited by inability to select phages infecting spec...

P. aeruginosa type IV pili (T4P) are complex surface-exposed nanomachines used for twitching motility and biofilm formation. Exposure to bacteriophages that use T4P as their primary receptor can selec...

In situ structures reveal molecular insights into infection initiation of bacteriophage Ur-lambda.

Ghatbale et al. adapted a co-evolutionary technique to develop Klebsiella pneumoniae phages to be highly active longitudinally against K. pneumoniae clinical isolates, including drug resistant isolate...

The constant arms race of bacteriophages and their bacterial hosts has inspired major breakthroughs in biotechnology and shaped phages as fierce predators with great clinical potential to fight multid...

The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.

Dihydrodichlorofluorescein derivatives have been employed as reporters of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in innumerable studies. Their...