Medical research

Neutral mutants can prevail in gut microbiota, enhancing diversity

Scientists at EPFL and Sorbonne propose a new model of the diversity and evolution of gut bacteria that shows how the gut environment helps neutral mutations become prevalent, with significant potential implications on health ...

Medical research

A gut bacterium's guide to building a microbiome

The mammalian gut is warm, moist, and incredibly nutrient-rich—an environment that is perfect for bacterial growth. The communities of "good bacteria" in the gut, commonly referred to as the microbiome, are vital partners ...

Oncology & Cancer

Microbiologists contribute to possible new anti-TB treatment path

As part of the long effort to improve treatment of tuberculosis (TB), microbiologists led by Yasu Morita at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have for the first time characterized a protein involved ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Essential factor for Lyme disease transmission identified

Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, hitchhikes in ticks for dissemination to mammalian hosts—including humans. An article in the 19 December issue of PLOS Pathogens identifies HrpA, an RNA helicase, ...

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