If you still remember that “Dear King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti,” you’ll likely also recall the corresponding taxonomic ranks of biology: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, ...

In a groundbreaking study, researcher Kostas Konstantinidis has reshaped our understanding of microbial life, challenging the long-standing belief that bacteria do not form distinct species. For years ...

Earth's bacteria are evolving to survive in space. Several strains sourced from the International Space Station (ISS) differed from the same strains on Earth, having qualities specifically adapted to ...

Rather than a slow, gradual process as Darwin envisioned, biologists can now see how evolutionary changes unfold on much more accelerated timescales. Using an accelerated arms race between bacteria ...

Microbes often display cooperative behavior in which individual cells put in work and sacrifice resources to collectively ...

Bacterial cells have lots of interesting abilities. They can easily share genes with one another and evolve; they can pass a kind of memory onto offspring; and they can change and adapt in a variety ...

In a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, scientists show that the SAMD9 and SAMD9L genes, key players in antiviral immunity in humans and involved in rare genetic diseases, share very ...

The genetic culprits responsible for the spread of multidrug resistance (MDR) in bacteria have been identified by new research mapping 100 years of bacterial evolution. Experts at the Wellcome Sanger ...

Lines of bacterial genome sequences are made to evolve independently by introducing high-activity insertion sequences, each simulating decades of evolution in the wild in just weeks. The genome ...

Tiffany Taylor, professor of microbial ecology and evolution at the University of Bath in the U.K., recommends the books that shaped her career and her outlook on life. When you purchase through links ...