With modern technologies unearthing novel bacterial and archaeal species by the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, manually naming them all is no longer practical, scientists say.

The mysterious DNA sequences appear to help bacterial cells spot when they’ve been infected with viruses—and prompt those cells to self-destruct.

Early investigations of the microbial communities in and around sunken boats reveal that there are patterns to where bacteria settle.

The discovery puts a nail in the coffin of a long-held assumption about the limits of where the essential process can occur.

Tiny doses of maternal poo mixed with breast milk and given to Cesarean-born infants makes their gut microbiota resemble those of babies born vaginally.

Researchers Jason Gill and Paul Turner will discuss their work on bacteriophage therapy to treat drug resistant bacterial infections.

The microbes had survived on trace amounts of oxygen and were able to feed and multiply once revived in the lab.

Heather Jordan and Jennifer Wargo will discuss how metagenomics studies help uncover new and medically relevant functions of the human microbiome.

The BioCollective, a company that transforms whole stool samples into microbial metadata, is developing the US’s first national microbiome reference material.