Archaea can kill bacteria with new antibacterials

A first look into the molecular defenses of archaea highlights the importance of surveying diverse microbes to discover new types of antimicrobials

PLOS

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The salt-loving Halalkalibacterium halodurans, growing on a petri dish in the Warnecke lab, is killed by proteins secreted by the archaeon Halogranum salarium.

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Credit: Aida Sanchez-Ricol (Warnecke lab) (CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

As bacteria become increasingly resistant to antibiotics and other antibacterials, there is a growing need for alternatives. In a study published on August 14th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, Tobias Warnecke and colleagues from the University of Oxford and the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences, United Kingdom, identified untapped antimicrobials produced by archaea, single-celled organisms that make up one of the three domains of life (the other two being bacteria and eukaryotes, the group that includes us).

Microbes are in constant competition for space and resources and have developed various chemical weapons to fend off other microbial species. All of our antibiotics originally came from these defense systems, though historically, researchers have only investigated the arsenals of bacteria and fungi. There are over 20,000 species of archaea, and these cells often live surrounded by even more numerous bacterial species. The researchers predicted that to survive, the archaeal cells must have ways to compete with the bacteria, representing an unexplored trove of antimicrobials.

The researchers surveyed the genomes of over 3,700 species of archaea, looking for genes encoding proteins that could possibly be wielded against bacteria. They focused specifically on proteins that can cut the molecule peptidoglycan, an essential part of the cell walls of bacteria. The large majority of archaea don’t have peptidoglycan, so these proteins would only be necessary for microbial warfare.

These proteins were present among 5% of the archaeal species surveyed, with some species having multiple types. In the lab, the researchers tested the efficacy of some of the proteins and found that they successfully killed bacteria. They also studied the proteins’ structures, which indicated many were deployed outside of the cell, and some archaea even had components for an injection system that might directly deliver the deadly proteins to competing bacteria.

Much still remains to be discovered on how these molecular weapons may be used in the wild. The peptidoglycan-cutting proteins also represent only one type of antibacterial among many others that may be present among diverse species of archaea.

Warnecke notes, “Archaea are their own Domain of Life, different from bacteria, and different from eukaryotes (humans, plants, flies, etc.). We know very little about their social lives, including how they interact with their ubiquitous brethren - bacteria.

Warnecke adds, “Our work sheds new light on the social lives or archaea and has implications for how we understand microbial communities. It also suggests that archaea might be a large, untapped reservoir for discovering novel antimicrobials in the future.”

Romain Strock, first author, adds, “Archaea are often depicted as either lone extremophiles or syntrophic partners. Our research depicts another, darker side to their social life.”

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: https://plos.io/3HEwdeL  

Citation: Strock R, Soo VW, Misson P, Roumelioti G, Shliaha PV, Hocher A, et al. (2025) Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria. PLoS Biol 23(8): e3003235. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003235

Author countries: United Kingdom

Funding: This work was funded by core funding from the Medical Research Council (https://www.ukri.org/councils/mrc/, grant number: MC-A658-5TY40) to TW. VWCS is supported by an MRC CDA (MR/X007421/1) and AH by a Wellcome Trust CDA (227755/Z/23/Z). The funders played no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pbio.3003235 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

COI Statement

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

 

Sharing research findings with study participants is considered a moral obligation by most researchers – yet happens inconsistently, per systematic review of 96 papers across 17 years

PLOS

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Researchers perform a systematic review of 96 papers to assess other researchers’ outlooks around sharing research findings with study participants.

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Credit: Artem Podrez, Pexels (CC0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: http://plos.io/44NygXf

Article title: Current global practice and implications for future research on disseminating health research results to study participants: A systematic review

Author countries: Australia, Papua New Guinea, United Kingdom

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

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Journal

PLOS Medicine

DOI

10.1371/journal.pmed.1004569 

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

COI Statement

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

 

First transfer of behavior between species through single gene manipulation

Scientists strengthen brain cell connections to enable gift-giving courtship behavior in fruit flies.

Nagoya University

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Drosophila subobscura males regurgitate food and offer it as a gift to females during courtship.

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Credit: Tanaka et al., 2025

Researchers in Japan have genetically transferred a unique courtship behavior from one fruit fly species to another. By turning on a single gene in insulin-producing neurons, the team successfully made a species of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) perform a gift-giving ritual it had never done before. The study, published in the journal Science, represents the first example of manipulating a single gene to create new neural connections and transfer behavior between species.  

In nature, most male fruit flies court mates by rapidly vibrating their wings to create sound patterns or “courtship songs." However, Drosophila subobscura has evolved a very different strategy: males regurgitate food and offer it as a gift to females during courtship. This behavior does not exist in closely related species such as D. melanogaster.  

These two fruit fly species diverged about 30-35 million years ago. Both have a gene called “fruitless” or "fru" that controls courtship behavior in males, but they use different strategies—one species sings and the other gives gifts. The researchers found the reason for this difference: in gift-giving flies (D. subobscura) insulin-producing neurons are connected to the courtship control center in the brain, while in singing flies (D. melanogaster) these cells remain disconnected. 

“When we activated the fru gene in insulin-producing neurons of singing flies to produce FruM proteins, the cells grew long neural projections and connected to the courtship center in the brain, creating new brain circuits that produce gift-giving behavior in D. melanogaster for the first time,” Dr. Ryoya Tanaka, co-lead author and lecturer at Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Science, explained.  

The researchers inserted DNA into D. subobscura embryos to create flies with heat-activated proteins in specific brain cells. They used heat to activate groups of these cells and compared the brains of flies that did and did not regurgitate food. They identified 16-18 insulin-producing neurons that make the male-specific protein FruM, clustered in a part of the brain called the pars intercerebralis.  

“Our findings indicate that the evolution of novel behaviors does not necessarily require the emergence of new neurons; instead, small-scale genetic rewiring in a few preexisting neurons can lead to behavioral diversification and, ultimately, contribute to species differentiation,” Dr. Yusuke Hara, co-lead author from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), noted. 

"We’ve shown how we can trace complex behaviors like nuptial gift-giving back to their genetic roots to understand how evolution creates entirely new strategies that help species survive and reproduce," senior author Dr. Daisuke Yamamoto from NICT said. 

The study, “Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene” was published in the journal Science, on August 14, 2025, at DOI: 10.1126/science.adp5831. It represents the result of collaborative efforts led by Drs. Yusuke Hara and Daisuke Yamamoto at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), in partnership with researchers at Nagoya University. 

Funding: 

This research was conducted with support from KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research: "Early-Career Scientists (Project Numbers: 19K16186, 21K15137)," "Scientific Research A (Project Number: 21H04790)," "Transformative Research Areas (A): Hierarchical Bio-Navigation Science (Project Numbers: 22H05650, 24H01433)," and "Scientific Research C (Project Number: 23K05846)."  

The researchers identified 16-18 insulin-producing neurons in Drosophila subobscura that express the male-specific protein FruM. When they activated FruM expression in insulin-producing neurons in D. melanogaster, these cells grew new neural connections and successfully transferred gift-giving courtship behavior to this species for the first time.

Scientists have successfully transferred gift-giving courtship behavior from Drosophila subobscura to D. melanogaster males. They genetically engineered insulin-producing neurons in D. melanogaster to produce FruM proteins, causing these cells to grow long neural projections and connect to the courtship center in the brain.

Credit

Tanaka et al., 2025

Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adp5831 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene

Article Publication Date

14-Aug-2025

COI Statement

Authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Related News Releases

• First transfer of behavior between species through single gene manipulation
  (Nagoya University)

 

A new network could help predict health problems in your pup

An analysis of dogs and their comorbid diseases could improve canine healthcare

PLOS

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Shepard dog sitting in the grass next to the Dog Aging Project's Kit Box.

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Credit: Jocelin B. Villarreal, Dog Aging Project (CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

A network analysis of more than 26,000 dogs and their health conditions helps reveal which diseases tend to go together, providing data that veterinarians and researchers can use to help treat the problems that dog man’s best friend face, according to a study published DATE in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology by Antoinette Fang from the Fred Hutchingson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, USA, and colleagues.

As both humans and their pups age, conditions and diseases accumulate, but some are more likely to be comorbid—or occur together—than others. To better understand which conditions might co-occur in dogs as they age, the authors of this study used owner-reported data from dogs in the nationwide Dog Aging Project, a long-term study that tracks the health of dogs as they age. The scientists collected data on 160 health conditions from 26,614 dogs, and created comorbidity networks that showed which diseases tended to pop up together in pups and in what order.

The new networks showed some expected comorbidities. Diabetes tends to co-occur with blindness, for example, and dogs with kidney disease also tend to have hypertension. But the networks also revealed new connections, such as the association between low iron in the blood and an excess of protein in the urine. Analyzing when the diseases occurred showed that dogs tend to suffer hip dysplasia before osteoarthritis, have dry eye syndrome before eye ulcers, and diabetes before cataracts. While the study relied on dog owner reports, the authors hope that such networks and associations could help guide veterinary practice and give aging researchers new ideas for improving the lives of our canine companions.

The authors note, “Mining owner-reported data from the Dog Aging Project, we built the first large-scale canine comorbidity network, confirming that diabetes often occurs before cataracts and revealing that health problems tend to cluster around a few key diseases as dogs age.”

The authors say, “Because pet dogs share our homes, environments and many of our age-related diseases, mapping how their illnesses cluster and cascade offers a powerful window into the same multimorbidity processes that erode human health and points to earlier detection and prevention strategies for people too.”

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Computational Biology: http://plos.io/44WANy1

Citation: Fang A, Kumar L, Creevy KE, Promislow DE, Ma J, the Dog Aging Project Consortium (2025) Constructing the first comorbidity networks in companion dogs in the Dog Aging Project. PLoS Comput Biol 21(8): e1012728. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012728

Author countries: United States

Funding: This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health U19 grant AG057377 (DP, KC, JM), and by additional grants and private donations, including generous support from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, the Tiny Foundation Fund at Myriad Canada, the WoodNext Foundation, and the Dog Aging Institute (DP). DP received support from USDA cooperative agreement USDA/ARS 58-8050-9-004. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS Computational Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012728 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

COI Statement

Competing interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: DP is a paid consultant of WndrHLTH Club, Inc. and Infinity Research Labs.

 

Connecting biofuel and conservation policies

Summary author: Becky Ham

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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While biofuels may be part of the solution to replace fossil fuels and reduce climate-warming carbon emissions, bioenergy needs a new “climate-smart” policy to ensure that it produces both low-carbon products and promotes carbon sequestration, according to Madhu Khanna and colleagues. In this Policy Forum, Khanna et al. note that current policies to promote bioenergy in the United States, such as the Renewable Fuel Standard and Low Carbon Fuel Standard, do not distinguish between carbon intensities (CI) of the different farming practices (from tillage to fertilizer use) used to produce biofuels. They also do not account for the carbon sequestration produced by biofuel feedstocks. They suggest that new biofuel policies should include accounting of farming and production practices that reduce direct emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration. “Such a policy could lower the barriers for farmers to obtain credit for their carbon sequestration by bundling the market value of the crop with its CI and being sold into a single market for a carbon-differentiated biofuel feedstock rather than in two separate markets (a feedstock market and a carbon market),” Khanna et al. write.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adw6739 

Article Title

Climate-smart biofuel policy as a pathway to decarbonize agriculture

Article Publication Date

14-Aug-2025

 

Deep learning model successfully predicted ignition in inertial confinement fusion experiment

Summary author: Becky Ham

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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Brian Spears and colleagues built a generative machine learning model that was used to successfully predict the outcome of a recent fusion ignition experiment at the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF). Their model predicted, with a probability greater than 70%, that ignition was the most likely outcome of the experiment. The findings could guide researchers working on future inertial confinement fusion experiments, which use energetic lasers to compress and heat a capsule of hydrogen isotopes to create nuclear reactions that produce fusion energy. Ignition refers to the outcome where the fusion energy produced exceeds the laser energy used to conduct the experiment – a feat that NIF researchers accomplished in a small experiment in 2022. This success was predicted by the generative learning model developed by Spears et al., which was built using experimental data, radiation hydrodynamics simulations, and Bayesian statistics. Having a successful prediction model will provide swift guidance to fusion energy researchers as they modify experimental designs and determine whether future upgrades in laser energy and other variables might improve fusion output and efficiency, the authors note.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adm8201 

Article Title

Predicting fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility with physics-informed deep learning

Article Publication Date

14-Aug-2025