Viruses are ubiquitous biological entities with important roles in microbial mortality, genetic exchange and biogeochemical cycles. Clays, the most abundant mineral constituents on Earth, function as highly effective adsorbents for viruses, critically modulating their environmental persistence and ecological impact. However, the mechanisms and environmental drivers governing virus–clay interactions remain poorly understood. Th...

While water and sediment microbial communities exhibit pronounced spatio‐temporal patterns in freshwater lakes, the underlying drivers are yet poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the importance of spatial and temporal variation in abiotic environmental factors for bacterial and microeukaryotic community assembly and distance–decay relationships in water and sediment niches in Hongze Lake. By sampling across the whole lake du...

Fusarium graminearum is an important wheat pathogen and a producer of deoxynivalenol (DON). Biosynthesis of DON is suppressed by ammonium and induced by arginine and polyamines. To better understand ammonium repression of DON biosynthesis, in this study, we functionally characterized three ammonium permease ( MEP ) genes in F. graminearum . All the mep deletion mutants were normal in growth on V8 agar. Whereas deletion of MEP1...

Summary The relative abundance of Acidobacteriia correlated positively with the concentrations of arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu) and other metals, suggesting their adaptation of the metal‐rich environments. Metagenomic binning reconstructed 29 high‐quality metagenome‐assembled genomes (MAGs) associated with Acidobacteriia , providing an opportunity to study their metabolic potentials. These MAGs contain...

Summary A LuxI/R‐like quorum sensing (QS) system (AfeI/R) has been reported in the acidophilic and chemoautotrophic Acidithiobacillus spp. However, the function of AfeI/R remains unclear because of the difficulties in the genetic manipulation of these bacteria. Here, we constructed different afeI mutants of the sulfur‐ and iron‐oxidizer A . ferrooxidans , identified the N‐acyl homoserine lactones (acyl‐HSLs) synthesized by Afe...

Summary Vibrio parahaemolyticus , the leading cause of seafood‐associated gastroenteritis worldwide, requires the two type‐III secretion systems (T3SS1 and T3SS2) and a thermostable direct hemolysin (encoded by tdh1 and tdh2 ) for full virulence. The tdh genes and the T3SS2 gene cluster constitute an 80 kb pathogenicity island known as Vp‐PAI located on the chromosome II. Expression of T3SS1 and Vp‐PAI is regulated in a quorum...

Summary Cyanophages are thought to affect the community structure, population dynamics, metabolic activity and evolution of picocyanobacteria and to impact the biogeochemical cycling in aquatic ecosystems. Here, we report an estuarine Synechococcus phage, S‐CBWM1, which represents a novel viral lineage and exhibits interesting genetic features related to phage–host interactions and evolution. S‐CBWM1 encapsidates four virion‐a...

Summary The biosynthesis of mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) in Fusarium graminearum is regulated by two pathway‐specific transcription factors Tri6 and Tri10 and affected by various host and environmental factors. In this study, we showed that cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) treatment induced DON production by stimulating TRI gene expression and DON‐associated cellular differentiation in F. graminearum . Interestingly, ex...