Bacteria News

January 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Bacteria Found to Eat Forever Chemicals -- And Even Some of Their Toxic Byproducts

Jan. 23, 2025 — A team has identified a strain of bacteria that can break down and transform at least three types of PFAS, and, perhaps even more crucially, some of the toxic byproducts of the bond-breaking ...

New Study Reveals How a 'Non-Industrialized' Style Diet Can Reduce Risk of Chronic Disease

Jan. 23, 2025 — Researchers have found that a newly developed diet inspired by the eating habits of non-industrialized societies can significantly reduce the risk of a number of chronic diseases -- and are to share ...

Curiosity Driven Experiment Helps Unravel Antibiotic-Resistance Mystery

Jan. 23, 2025 — An international collaboration has achieved an important breakthrough in understanding the genetic mechanisms that allow bacteria to build resistance to ...

Extreme Rain Heightens E. Coli Risks for Communities of Color in Texas

Jan. 17, 2025 — Nobody wants to share a day on the water with E. coli. The bacteria is a sure sign of fecal contamination, which is washed into waterways from farm fields or sewage systems by rain. The microbes are also dangerous exposure to E. coli can lead to ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:48am EST

Little Birds, Little Poops, Little Food Safety Risk

Jan. 21, 2025 — Smaller poops from smaller birds carry very low risk of foodborne pathogens on farms, finds a new ...

Bacteria in Polymers Form Cables That Grow Into Living Gels

Jan. 17, 2025 — Experiments and modeling reveal the unexpected structure that can be seen in bacteria grown in mucus samples and ...

Reading the Genome and Understanding Evolution: Symbioses and Gene Transfer in Leaf Beetles

Jan. 17, 2025 — Scientists explored the evolutionary success of leaf beetles, the most diverse herbivores on Earth. They showed that symbioses with bacteria have ...

Gene-Edited Soil Bacteria Could Provide Third Source of Nitrogen for Corn Production

Jan. 16, 2025 — If corn was ever jealous of soybean's relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, advancements in gene editing could one day even the playing field. ...

Sophisticated Early Warning System: How Bacteria Respond to Threats

Jan. 16, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that bacteria can sense threats in advance through a general danger signal. Bacteria detect when nearby cells are dying and proactively form a protective biofilm. ...

Your Gut Bacteria Are in a Chemical Tug-of-War With Your Body

Jan. 13, 2025 — Our gut is a bustling hub of activity, home to trillions of microbes that work together with our bodies to keep us healthy. A recent study explores one fascinating aspect of this partnership: how gut ...

Research Using Non-Toxic Bacteria to Fight High-Mortality Cancers Prepares for Clinical Trials

Jan. 16, 2025 — Scientists have made 'exciting,' patient-friendly advances in developing a non-toxic bacterial therapy, BacID, to deliver cancer-fighting drugs ...

Bacterial Survival Genes Uncovered Using Evolutionary Map

Jan. 13, 2025 — Researchers have described how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus genetically adapts to humans, including mutations that allow some strains to evade the immune system and become resistant to ...

Could This Fundamental Discovery Revolutionize Fertilizer Use in Farming?

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have discovered a biological mechanism that makes plant roots more welcoming to beneficial soil ...

New Computer Models Open Door to Far More Targeted Antibiotics

Jan. 14, 2025 — The new models could give antibiotics a laser-like precision to target only specific bacteria in specific parts of the body. This would represent a major step forward in the battle against the ...

New Mechanism for Maintaining Genome Stability Discovered

Jan. 14, 2025 — New research reveals how the RapA enzyme protects against R-loop cytotoxicity in E. ...

Dangerous Bacterial Biofilms Have a Natural Enemy

Jan. 11, 2025 — Scientists have now discovered a chemical that plants produce when they're stressed prevents dangerous biofilm from forming. The breakthrough offers potential advances in healthcare as well as ...

Feeding Your Good Gut Bacteria Through Fiber in Diet May Boost Body Against Infections

Jan. 10, 2025 — A new study has found that the composition of your gut microbiome helps predict how likely you are to succumb to potentially life-threatening infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae, E.coli and other ...

Pet Dogs Often Overlooked as Spreader of Antimicrobial-Resistant Salmonella

Jan. 9, 2025 — Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella is a serious public health concern that has increased in recent years as the bacteria have developed ways to survive drugs. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease ...

Insights Into the Metabolism of the Gut Microbiota

Jan. 9, 2025 — Researchers identified a protein and a group of small ribonucleic acids (sRNAs) in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, which regulate sugar metabolism. These discoveries shed light on how this gut microbe ...

Elderberry Juice Shows Benefits for Weight Management, Metabolic Health

Jan. 8, 2025 — Elderberry juice may be a potent tool for weight management and enhancing metabolic health, according to a recent study. A clinical trial found that drinking 12 ounces of elderberry juice daily for a ...

Canceling Effect of Genetics and Environmental Changes on Bacterial Growth

Jan. 7, 2025 — Researchers conducted a high-throughput growth assay and machine learning to address the genetic and environmental interplay on bacterial growth. The findings indicated that the environmental ...

A New Way to Determine Whether a Species Will Successfully Invade an Ecosystem

Jan. 6, 2025 — A formula can be used to predict what happens when a new species is introduced into an ecosystem -- whether it will establish itself in the community or fail to gain a foothold and die ...

Some Bacteria Evolve Like Clockwork With the Seasons

Jan. 3, 2025 — Each year, most species of bacteria in a Wisconsin lake rapidly evolved, apparently in response to dramatically changing seasons, and then evolved ...

These Bacteria Perform a Trick That Could Keep Plants Healthy

Jan. 2, 2025 — Engineers showed that some types of soil bacteria can influence a plant's balance of growth and defense. The bacteria produce an enzyme that can lower a plant's immune activity and allow ...

System to Auto-Detect New Variants Will Inform Better Response to Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Jan. 1, 2025 — Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans -- including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and ...

Fly Vs. Wasp: Stealing a Defense Move Helps Thwart a Predator

Dec. 25, 2024 — Many flies are plagued by parasitic wasps, which lay their eggs in fly larvae, turning them into surrogate wombs for wasp larvae. One common fly has successfully fought off its wasp predator by ...

Evolutionary Study Reveals the Toxic Reach of Disease-Causing Bacteria Across the Plant Kingdom

Dec. 19, 2024 — The capacity of bacteria to spread disease across the Plant Kingdom may be much more widespread than previously suspected, according to new ...

How a New Gut Microbe Drives the Gut-Lung Axis

Dec. 19, 2024 — A team has discovered a new communication pathway between the gut and lung. Their findings highlight how a little-known member of the gut microbiome reshapes the lung immune environment to have both ...

Sugar Solution Fights Infection in Dairy Cows Just as Well as Antibiotics

Dec. 19, 2024 — A concentrated sugar solution could be just as effective as antibiotics at treating a common infection in dairy cows, according to a new ...

After Lockdown, Immune System Reacts More Strongly to Viruses and Bacteria

Dec. 18, 2024 — New research shows that the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on people's immune response to microorganisms. During the lockdown, inflammation level in the body was ...

Potentially Harmful Bacteria Slip Through Antimicrobial Showerheads

Dec. 18, 2024 — To guard against harmful waterborne pathogens, many consumers, including managers of health-care facilities, install antimicrobial silver-containing showerheads. But researchers now report that these ...

'Bad' Bacteria Can Trigger Painful Gut Contractions; New Research Shows How

Dec. 17, 2024 — A new study shows how one kind of bacteria, Vibrio cholerae, triggers painful intestinal contractions by activating the immune system. The research also finds a more general explanation for how the ...

Scientists Find a Vulnerability in Antibiotic Resistance Mechanism

Dec. 17, 2024 — Superbugs, bacteria that are immune to multiple antibiotics, pose a great challenge to modern medicine. Researchers have now identified a weakness in the bacterial machinery that drives antibiotic ...

Staphylococcus Aureus Thwarts Vaccines by Turning on a Protein That Halts Immune Response

Dec. 16, 2024 — After dozens of clinical trials, there are still no effective vaccines against Staphylococcus aureus. In two new studies, scientists report that the pathogen turns on the protein interleukin 10, ...