Phylogenomics provides support for the Gram-positive type of bacterial cell envelope being a derived character that arose independently multiple times through loss of an ancestral outer membrane.

Diverse LXG toxins delivered by the Esx pathway function as mediators of contact-dependent interbacterial antagonism within and between Gram-positive bacterial species.

A novel dimethylsulfoniopropionate lyase was identified, which catalyzes dimethyl sulfide releasing by a new mechanism and is found in several bacterial lineages, revealing its important roles in global sulfur cycling.

Chi3l1 binds to bacterial peptidoglycan, helping anchor and organize bacteria within the mucus layer.

An alternative iron storage system based on a 9.6 megadalton microbial protein compartment is able to sequester and store large amounts of iron.

The attempt to manipulate a microbiome in planta to study the ecological consequences under field conditions leaves plants and their microbes surprisingly unimpressed.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) analysis in polyextremophile red algae (Cyanidiales) provides explanations for the nonexistence of cumulative effects and eukaryotic pangenomes, and highlights differences between HGT and native genes.

GpsB in Staphylococcus aureus directly regulates the central cell division protein FtsZ, a different function from that assigned for GpsB in other closely related organisms.

A novel species-sorting experiment finds that phylogenetically and functionally distinct microbial communities emerge under different temperature conditions due to the resuscitation of latent diversity.