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Liraglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, is used to induce weight loss. The drug reshapes the gut bacterial community in diet-induced obese mice relative to untreated obese and lean controls, which may contribute to its metabolic benefits. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/333
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences representing 29 ASVs.
August 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM
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Metabolic profiling of S. aureus revealed suppressed central carbon and energy metabolism as a shared resistance mechanism. Notably, supplementation with metabolites like pyruvate, citrate, and fumarate enhanced antibiotic efficacy. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2ZV
Antimicrobial resistance phenotype of bacteria. (A) Growth curve. (B) Hemolysis test of drug-resistant bacteria. ddH2O was set as the positive control. (C and D) Bacterial survival at different concentrations of amoxicillin or nalidixic acid. The results were shown as mean ± SEM, and the significant difference was determined by two-tailed Student t test, ns indicated no significant difference, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.
July 7, 2026 at 6:54 PM
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#MicrobiologyMonday: Farming fish and shrimp produces large volumes of wastewater. How can we treat it sustainably? 🌊🦠Indigenous cyanobacteria–bacteria biofilms already adapted to mariculture effluent can help! #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2Rn
Morphology and microscopic images of the CBC in PBRs treating MWW. (a) The combined form of bacteria and algae; (b) bacterial and algal polymers.
March 23, 2026 at 3:02 PM
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#MicrobiologyMonday: Bacteria and fungi living on and inside Bombax ceiba (a tropical tree) shift dramatically with the seasons and habitat. The findings, published in #JournalSpectrum, have implications for sustainable agriculture and conservation. asm.social/2Nv
Relative abundance of the dominant bacterial phyla and fungal class averaged across endophytic and epiphytic niches of plant parts (nectar, leaf, branch, trunk, coarse root, root tip) and soil in different seasons (autumn and spring) in rice growing fields of B. ceiba.
February 2, 2026 at 6:41 PM
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Cathepsin S (CTSS), a lysosomal protease, is a central driver of influenza-induced epithelial injury, acting downstream of viral replication and cytokine signaling to promote apoptosis, inflammation, and barrier disruption. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2IH
Pathogenesis dynamics and transcriptomic changes during influenza infection in mice.
December 5, 2025 at 6:25 PM
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#MicrobiologyMonday: Species of Aspergillus show promise as biocontrol agents. For example, a newly identified strain inhibited growth of an array of plant pathogens in the lab, while also boosting disease resistance and plant growth. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2wJ
(A) Inhibitory effect of strain J7 on 10 pathogenic fungi, a1: control; a2: co-cultivation; a3: filtrate-modified medium culture.
August 4, 2025 at 2:21 PM
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Through genomic and phenotypic analyses—including measurements of exopolysaccharides and siderophores—researchers elucidate the adaptive evolution of classic K. pneumoniae transitioning to convergent K. pneumoniae within the host. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2wn
Temporal dynamics of plasmid carriage and virulence-associated features in white phenotype isolates.
July 31, 2025 at 8:14 PM
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To address challenges associated with longitudinal microbiome analyses, researchers developed longitudinal microbial data distance (LorDist), an innovative method to model temporal microbial dynamics with enhanced precision. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2vM
(A) Suppose there are n subjects sampled at k time points respectively, and each sample of subjects has m features. The different sizes of the circles represent different sizes of abundance. (B) This table is a pseudo-matrix composed of curves, each representing the change in abundance of a certain feature of a subject during the sampling time points. (C) A series of distance matrices, each representing the distance between each subject in a different feature dimension. (D) The final distance matrix between each subject.
July 24, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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Bacteria can be selfish..."Selfish" bacterial uptake of polysaccharides minimizes release of smaller sugars into the environment, ensuring cells get a return on their enzymatic invest. This #JournalSpectrum paper outlines how to identify selfish bacteria: asm.social/2vh
Heterotrophic utilization of polysaccharides as shown with a fluorescently labeled polysaccharide (FLAPS).
July 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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What determines if Neisseria meningitidis colonization progresses into invasion? A study #JournalSpectrum shows that the outcome of meningococcal infection of the epithelium is highly dependent on specific donor-strain interactions. Get the full story: asm.social/2uV
Transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) development during meningococcal infection. (A) Baseline TEER with median of n = 24 (D1-D4) or n = 36 (D5-D7) uninfected epithelial at t = 0. (B) TEER of epithelial layers over time in uninfected (red) and infected (blue) conditions. Dotted lines represent the mean of triplicate measurements (D1–D4) or single measurements (D5–D7) of individual strains. Solid blue lines represent the mean of all infected conditions. TEER fold change after 24 h of infection stratified by infecting meningococcal strain (C) or epithelial cell donor (D). t = 24 dots represent mean of triplicate (D1–D4) or single (D5–D7) measurements. Performed statistical tests: Kruskal-Wallis test (A), permutation-based Friedman test (C, D), Dunn’s post hoc test with Benjamini-Hochberg multiple comparison correction (C, D). Dunn’s test P values are grouped by level of significance, where *, **, and *** indicate P values of less than 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively. UI, uninf
July 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM
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Citrocin, an antimicrobial peptide widely used in animal feed, has strong anti-biofilm effects against the foodborne pathogen L. monocytogenes; the compound limits bacterial motility & suppresses biofilm-related amino acid metabolism. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2ty
(A) The antibacterial effect of Citrocin against L. monocytogenes (a 0.15 mg/mL Citrocin; b 0.15 mg/mL Citrocin after treatment at 121°C; c equal amount of PBS solution). (B) MBC detected by agar plate method. (C) Effect of Citrocin on biofilm formation. (D) Effect of Citrocin on biofilm elimination.
June 26, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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Researchers identified a previously unrecognized antimicrobial peptide produced by human platelets (dermcidin), which impedes proliferation of MRSA and promotes the antibacterial effect of platelets on the pathogen. Explore the study in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2rA
Dermcidin promoted the inhibitory effect of platelets against MRSA
June 4, 2025 at 4:37 PM
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The β-lactam antibiotic amoxicillin (AMX) enhances methanogenesis by selectively shaping microbial communities, improving biomethane yield by 3.89 times to and improving production efficiency. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2oW
Morphology of methanogenic communities on the 5th, 15th, and 25th days of cultivation at 20,000× magnification.
May 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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#MicrobiologyMonday: Metal-tolerant soil bacteria have varied genomic features that help them adapt to different metal ions. Combining strains with complementary tolerances could boost metal accumulation for diverse uses. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2oO
MTC of 16 metal-tolerant bacterial isolates. Sixteen isolates were grown on Luria-Bertani (LB) medium
May 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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Natural and commercially available lung surfactants minimize the cytolytic capacity of S. aureus supernatants against primary human cells, in part by reducing transcript abundance of virulence factors. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2oC
Surfactant from mouse and rat lungs protects human primary cells from S. aureus-mediated cytotoxicity.
May 2, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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For the first time, researchers developed a nanoparticle-based biosensor integrated with multiple cross-displacement amplification for visual and rapid identification of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. Read the article in #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2nD
Schematic diagram of HBV&HCV-MCDA-AuNPs-LFB assay′s principle
April 25, 2025 at 2:35 PM
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Bacteria that adhere to epithelial cells, form intracellular bacterial communities or transition to filamentous forms are morphotype-positive. Research in #JournalSpectrum shows that morphotype-positive UPEC strains harbor a more virulence genes. asm.social/2jZ
A mode of morphological transformation cycle of MP UPEC. This mode includes the following three stages of MP UPEC invasion of the urine epithelium: UPEC initially adopts a rod-shaped form, adheres to epithelial cells, and penetrates them through fimbriae and other adhesins. It then replicates extensively within these cells, transitioning from a dispersed rod-shaped to a dense, clustered, spherical form known as IBCs. Once the host epithelial cells perish, numerous UPEC are released into the external environment in a filamentous form. These UPEC then revert to their original rod-shaped form, seeking new epithelia of the urinary tract to adhere to, thus completing a full cycle of morphological transformation, leading to a constant invasion of the urinary tract system. UPEC, uropathogenic Escherichia coli; IBC, intracellular bacterial community; MP, morphotype positive.
March 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
asm.org
The alarmone (p)ppGpp and transcription factor DksA reduce the efficacy of ꞵ-lactam and other antibiotics by modulating availability of peptidoglycan and cell membrane-associated metabolites via a reduction in membrane permeability. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2j5
The graph showing the ability of growth of different mutant strains of V. cholerae in the presence of sublethal doses of (A) ampicillin, (B) imipenem, (C) aztreonam, and (D) vancomycin antibiotics. Unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction was used to determine statistical significance (P < 0.05), with significance calculated relative to the N16961 strain (P-values < 0.05 (*), <0.01 (**), P-values < 0.001 (***) and P-values < 0.0001 (****).
March 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
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Using experimental evolution, scientists explored how the morphology of clinical & environmental isolates of Vibrio cholerae change in stressful conditions, like iron depletion and oxidative stress. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Colony variants observed at different harvest times compared to parental strains of the V. cholerae isolates. The colony morphologies of the LB negative control remain stable over the course of the experiment. The variants were labeled by combining the strain designation, stress conditions (X, oxidative stress; ID, iron depleted; HO, osmotic stress; IR, iron replete), and harvest time in days.
February 18, 2025 at 4:41 PM
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Plant phytochemicals emulsified with a biodegradable nanosponge can kill hypoxia-induced dormant Mycobacterium abscessus & improve skin wound infection in mice, highlighting the therapeutic potential of phytochemical nanoemulsions: asm.social/2hz #JournalSpectrum
Fabrication scheme of biodegradable polymeric nanoemulsions incorporating carvacrol and eugenol.
February 12, 2025 at 8:30 PM
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The ABCC11 gene polymorphism determines earwax characteristics and regulates composition of the ear canal microbiota/its metabolic pathways. These insights could help elucidate the pathogenesis of ear diseases. Learn more in #JournalSpectrum: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Relative abundance of ear canal bacteria in each subject.
January 31, 2025 at 7:48 PM
asm.org
The MultiTax-human database integrates data from multiple sources and uses advanced classification techniques to provide a a high-resolution reference tool specifically designed for human microbiome research. Learn more in
#JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2gD
Profiling the human microbiome using MultiTax-human database.
January 29, 2025 at 4:57 PM
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The immune system creates fibrin clots to trap Group A Streptococcus (GAS) and prevent spread. For the first time, scientists show that GAS can delay their escape from fibrin clots to access deeper tissue and cause more invasive disease. #JournalSpectrum: asm.social/2gc
WT GASAP53 triggers fibrin clot dissolution when enmeshed in fibrin clots in the presence of hPg. Fluorescently labeled fibrinogen was combined with thrombin to form fibrin clots, which entrapped GASAP53 cells prior to initiation of live imaging. (A) hPg is added to the solution after fibrin clots are formed. (B) hPg is pre-incubated with GAS for 5 min prior to fibrin clot formation.
January 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
therad-lab.bsky.social
Latest research from the lab where we took a deep dive into organ specific immune responses and how these are affected by fungal strain variation. Now online from @JournalSpectrum
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
#immunosky #microsky 🧪🍄
Organ-specific immune responses are strain-dependent in a mouse model of Cryptococcus neoformans brain infection | Microbiology Spectrum
Cryptococcal meningitis is a fungal infection that causes a wide variation of clinical disease in patients. This variation is thought to be partly due to the diversity of fungal strains that cause the...
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February 4, 2026 at 8:02 AM
erikfyhom.bsky.social
Editorial: society journals matter—supporting science through renewed commitment @JournalSpectrum doi.org/10.1093/fems...
December 8, 2025 at 5:03 PM