Scientists have genetically modified isolated microbes for decades. Now, using CRISPR, they intend to target entire microbiomes.

Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts.

Saliva tests screen staff and students at University of Illinois; Study ranks species most susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection; COVID-19 clinical trials test drugs that inhibit kinin system

Last year, scientists discovered a unique, energy-generating, light-absorbing protein previously unknown to exist in oceanic life. They named the protein proteorhodopsin.1 The bacteria that harbor it are a distinct phylogenetic group known as SAR86. This year, scientists learned that as much as 10 percent of the ocean's surface is occupied by these proteorhodopsin-containing bacteria--as many as 1x105 cells per milliliter of sea water.2 The researchers, led by marine microbiologist Edward DeLo

A survey of trillions of base pairs of microbial DNA reveals a considerable degree of stop codon reassignment.

Viruses abound in the world’s oceans, yet researchers are only beginning to understand how they affect life and chemistry from the water’s surface to the sea floor.

Highlights from a series of three webinars on the future of genome research, held by The Scientist to celebrate 60 years of the DNA double helix

Ned Shaw US scientists have reason to feel both heady and scared. The federal government recently released unprecedented billions of dollars to fund bioterrorism research. Yet, the merits of this sudden shift in focus are being debated, and some worry that the money will be squandered or wasted. "I have been really very upset by the focus on bioterrorism," says Stanley Falkow, professor of microbiology and immunology and of medicine at Stanford University. "Everybody's talking about it, but th

So far, six animal species are known to carry transmissible, “parasitic” forms of cancer, but researchers are still mystified as to how cancer can become infectious.