The horizontal acquisition of virulence plasmids is potentiated by production practices in plant nurseries and is sufficient to transition Rhodococcus from being beneficial to being pathogenic.

The acquisition of a virulence plasmid is sufficient to turn a beneficial strain of Rhodococcus bacteria into a pathogen.

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

Metabolomics and stable isotope labelling studies of virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis reveal a de-centralised metabolic network able to utilise various amino acids as nitrogen sources to a better extent than ammonium.

A unique, widely distributed gut bacterial enzyme selectively metabolizes plant-derived cardiac glycoside drugs.

Beneficial symbiotic bacteria encode an exceptional number of toxin-related genes that are all expressed by the symbionts in the host, supporting their key role in host-microbe interactions.