eLife is pleased to present a Special Issue to highlight recent advances in the mechanistic understanding of microbiome function.

Ancient features of the p53 regulatory network are coupled to the stem cell compartment in normal and pathologic contexts.

In wild baboons, a female's adverse early experiences can influence her offspring's survival years after the original adversity was experienced.

Maternal spindle transfer is a feasible approach to enhance embryonic developmental of compromised oocytes, which can represent a new strategy for patients with forms of infertility refractory to current treatments.

Virus infection in mosquitoes initiates a highly discriminatory process in which fragments of viral RNA are reverse transcribed to create DNA copies that serve as templates of small antiviral RNAs.

Genetic knockout of the histone demethylase Kdm6a in the mouse germ line leads to elevated cancer incidence in genetically wild type offspring.

Fine mapping of transposable element presence/absence variation amongst 216 Arabidopsis strains uncovers widespread novel genetic diversity that underlies differences in transcription and DNA methylation patterns.

A novel paternal effect based on nicotine exposure reveals that offspring exhibit an adaptive, yet nonspecific, resistance to multiple toxins.

Worms with increased levels of the epigenetic mark H3K9me2 have a longer lifespan that can be passed down to future generations.

Live-cell microscopy and genome-wide screens reveal how slow transitions in metabolism can underlie metabolic memory, providing a model for organisms demonstrating similar history-dependent behaviour and routes to improve industrial microbes.