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To date the branches on the evolutionary tree of life, researchers are looking at horizontal gene transfers among ancient microorganisms, which once seemed only to muddle the record.
The dizzying network of interactions within microbe communities can defy analysis. But a new approach simplifies the math and makes progress possible.
Studies of the energy-harvesting proteins in primitive cells suggest that key features of photosynthesis might have evolved a billion years earlier than scientists thought.
Hydrodynamics and competition guide the architectural design of biofilm fortresses.
Only a few genetic changes were enough to change an ordinary stomach bug into the bacteria responsible for the plague.
A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us.
By swapping ancient genes into modern E. coli, scientists hope to tease out the rules of evolution.
The soil teems with billions of hidden microbes. Researchers have begun to catalog how these organisms are changing the world.
Interest in a powerful DNA editing tool called CRISPR has revealed that bacteria are far more sophisticated than anyone imagined.