Applied and Environmental Microbiology: Table of Contents Volume 91, Issue 11

Streptococcus thermophilus is one of the most extensively applied members of the lactic acid bacteria, being extensively used as a bacterial starter culture in the production of fermented foods, including cheeses and yogurt. Bacteriophage infections present a significant threat to industrial dairy fermentations, which can lead to substandard production processes and product quality. Understanding phage-host interactions, which commence with the recognition and binding of a given bacteriophage to a particular host-encoded, cell surface-associated receptor, is essential for developing strategies to minimize phage-related risks in dairy fermentations. This study identifies the specific cell surface polysaccharide structure produced by Streptococcus thermophilus as the receptor required for infection by phage P738, bridging a key knowledge gap in phage-host interactions in this important industrial bacterial species. By elucidating how phage P738 recognizes and binds to its host, this work offers valuable information to aid strain selection and the development of phage-robust starter cultures.

Gypsum and other sulfate salts are common on Mars, and many of these deposits are thought to have formed from acidic fluids early in the planet’s history. Understanding the life that survives and thrives in similar environments on Earth is therefore crucial for evaluating whether these Martian sulfates are or ever were habitable. One such environment where acidic gypsum occurs is in sulfuric acid caves, where extremophilic microorganisms drive the precipitation of sulfate minerals by oxidizing hydrogen sulfide gas from the cave atmosphere. Here, we characterized the communities of microorganisms on freshly formed and ancient gypsum in the Frasassi Caves and found that the gypsum deposits hosted microbial communities that changed based on chemical energy availability and the age of the gypsum. Our findings underscore the importance of chemical and microbiological interactions in shaping habitable niches and provide context for searching for past or present life in acidic Martian sulfates.

Currently, there are 17 countries on the list of megadiverse countries also known as the Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Perú, Ecuador, the United States, Australia, China...

Cutibacterium acnes is known to play a significant role in the pathology of acne vulgaris and several other disorders. Conventional methods of treating C. acnes infections using antibiotics face an ever-aggravating antibiotic resistance challenge. Endolysins present a promising alternative with advantages such as specificity and low-to-no chances of resistance. The current study compares the antibacterial activity of the full length as well as its N- and C-terminal domains of an endolysin from phage CAP 10-3. In addition, the dose-dependent effect and specificity of the N-terminal domain (which showed the most significant anti-C. acnes activity) are also explained. These findings can pave the way for developing alternative peptide-based anti-C. acnes therapeutics.

We present a viral succession-based framework for estimating PMI in buried remains. Our study identifies stage-specific viral biomarkers and identified nine viral families significantly correlated with PMI. By combining metagenomics and machine learning, we developed an Extremely Randomized Trees (ERT) model that achieved a low prediction error (test set: R² = 0.96, MAE = 2.54 days). Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that viral and bacterial communities exhibit significant consistency and correlation during cadaver decomposition. This study not only provides a novel tool for the accurate estimation of forensic PMI but also advances our insight into viral regulation of bacteria and their interactions during cadaver decomposition.

Life on Earth has existed for nearly 4 billion years, and for most of that time, it was microbial (1). The diverse world we see around us today owes its entire existence to a few foundational events c...