Microbiome

While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent priority, biologists also learned more about how brains process information, how to define individuality and why sleep deprivation kills.

Carpenter ants need endosymbiotic bacteria to guide the early development of their embryos. New work has reconstructed how this deep partnership evolved.

To stay healthy, humans and some other animals rely on a complex community of bacteria in their guts. But research is starting to show that those partnerships might be more the exception than the rule.

New studies help to explain how microbes in the gut can shape a host’s fear responses.

In the “underground economy” for soil nutrients, fungi strike hard bargains and punish plants that won’t meet their price.

Researchers hope that the genes of a glowing squid can illuminate how animals evolved organs for beneficial bacteria.

How does evolution select the fittest “individuals” when they are ecosystems made up of hosts and their microbiomes? Biologist debate the need to revise theories.

Maria-Luiza Pedrotti is illuminating the unseen worlds of plastic-eating bacteria that teem in massive ocean garbage patches.

The dizzying network of interactions within microbe communities can defy analysis. But a new approach simplifies the math and makes progress possible.