Collections

Collections

Browse our Collections – bringing together peer-reviewed content from across the Society’s publishing platform on a range of hot topics and subject areas.

1 - 20 of 38 results

- Anaerobe
  
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  Anaerobic clinical microbiology remains a challenge due to specialist culture requirements, coupled with the increase in and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The normal human microbiota is primarily composed of anaerobic bacteria, and is now recognised as a source of life-threatening anaerobic infection. More recent metataxonomic and metagenomic sequencing has extended interest in the potential role of the microbiota in a plethora of other aspects of human health, from obesity to mental health. In addition, the successful use of faecal microbiota transplants for the treatment of clostridial infection raises potential unchartered long-term consequences and possibilities.
  In conjunction with Anaerobe 2019 and Anaerobe 2021, this collection will provide scientific insights into the future impact of anaerobic bacteria in human health and disease, addressing the implications of recent microbiota studies as well as the continued threat of emerging and re-emerging anaerobic infection.
  This collection is open for submissions – please submit your article here, stating that your manuscript is part of the Anaerobe collection.
- Antimicrobial Resistance
  
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  Antimicrobial drugs underpin much of modern medicine. Bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses that exhibit resistance to antimicrobials threaten the efficacy of therapeutics and impose significant global healthcare and economic burdens. In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the emergence of pan-drug resistant bacterial and fungal infections in hospitals is a stark reminder of the looming antimicrobial resistance crisis.
  
  That bacteria would develop resistance to antibiotics through mutation was predicted as early as the discovery of penicillin, but the observation of resistance gene transfer between strains in the 1950s heralded the beginning of a period of rapid discovery of resistance mechanisms. Research into the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance proceeded alongside the development of the field of molecular biology and the decades since have seen tremendous advances in our understanding. Still, there is much to learn about where, when and how multi-drug resistance evolves, which organisms are involved and how chains of transmission might be broken before clinicians are faced with intractable infections. Today, multidisciplinary research seeks to answer these questions and the latest advances in sequencing technologies and analysis capacities promise insights into the dynamics of resistance from single cells to complex microbial communities.
  
  Guest-edited by Prof. Willem van Schaik and Dr. Robert Moran, this Antimicrobial Resistance special collection aims to highlight research on the emergence, accumulation and spread of antimicrobial resistance, with a particular focus on opportunistic pathogens and the mobile genetic elements therein.
- Arboviruses and their Vectors
  
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  Curated by Journal of General Virology Editor Dr Eng Eong Ooi (Duke NUS Medical School) and Advisory Board Member Dr Esther Schnettler (Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine), this collection presents the latest advances in arbovirus research. This collection was launched in conjuction with IMAV 2017 and in line with IMAV 2019 welcomes submissions of original research articles, Insight Reviews and full-length Reviews.
  
  Find out more about how to submit to the collection here.
- Avian Infectious Diseases
  
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  Infectious diseases continue to threaten the sustainability, productivity and growth of the poultry industry worldwide and some present a risk to public health. Many are also present in wild bird populations, with the potential to spill over into domestic birds.
  
  Previously curated by Professor Paul Britton and Dr Mike Skinner, in line with the ‘Pathogenesis and Molecular Biology of Avian Viruses’ Focused Meeting, this collection and the Focused Meeting have been expanded to include bacteria and parasites.
  
  Guest-edited by organisers of the Avian Infectious Diseases 2021 Focused Meeting, Dr Holly Shelton (The Pirbright Institute) and Dr Andrew Broadbent (The Pirbright Institute and University of Maryland), this collection presents high-quality work from Journal of General Virology and Journal of Medical Microbiology on important avian pathogens: their interactions with the host, cell biology, molecular epidemiology and methods of control.
  
  This collection is open for submissions in both participating journals, Journal of General Virology and Journal of Medical Microbiology.
  
  Image credit: iStock/Sonja Filitz.
- Bacterial Cell Envelopes
  
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  The surfaces of bacteria are critically important. They form the first line of defence against external biotic and abiotic threats and are modified in many different ways to resist phagocytosis, phage predation and antimicrobial attack. Bacterial cell envelopes are selectively permeable to allow the uptake of important nutrients and to facilitate the export of waste products. Complex protein machines span across these structures to transport molecules that build and maintain the envelope. Bacteria often encode multiple different protein secretion systems that assemble surface structures such as pili and flagella. Many of these systems secrete proteins that mediate interactions with other living organisms. The essential nature of bacterial cell envelopes is reflected by the fact that they serve as targets for many of our most effective antibiotics.
  
  Over the years, Microbiology has published many important findings that have contributed enormously to our understanding of the structure, function and biogenesis of bacterial envelopes. Here we celebrate the journal’s 75^th year with a special collection of reviews guest-edited by Professor Tracy Palmer and Dr Yinka Somorin that highlights some of the most important areas of current research in this vibrant research field.
  
  Image shows transmission electron micrograph of a dividing Citrobacter rodentium cell attached to infected mouse colonic epithelium. Characteristic ‘Attaching and Effacing lesions’ or raised pedestals can be seen beneath adhered C. rodentium, formed by the accumulation of host cell actin mediated by the bacterial type III protein secretion system. Effacement of the local brush border villi around the site of attachment is also observed. Courtesy of Dr James Connolly (Newcastle University).
- Bacteriophage
  
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  Bacteriophages were discovered 100 years ago and have since been a key tool used in biological research. Initially used as model organisms for work in genetics and molecular biology, bacteriophages are now known to be one of the major drivers of bacterial evolution and diversification. The introduction of sequencing technologies, phage genomics and metagenomics has highlighted their tremendous diversity and roles in controlling ecological systems within a range of environments. Due to their specificity, phage genomes are now also being manipulated as therapeutics, potentially providing an alternative to conventional antibiotics. Giant phages have also discovered and may represent a novel genus of living organism.
  Guest-edited by Professor Tetsuya Hayashi (Kyushu University), this collection brings together original Research Articles, Methods, Mini Reviews, and full-length Reviews relating to the diversity of bacteriophages and genomics-based research with a focus on their roles in the evolution of bacteria and ecosystems. Microbial Genomics also welcomes large-scale genomic analyses of bacteriophages which provide the basis for developing novel phage therapies.
  This collection is now open for submissions. Submit here and state that your manuscript is part of the Bacteriophage Collection.
- Candida
  
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  In conjunction with the Candida and Candidiasis 2020 meeting, Microbiology Society is bringing together research on Candida biology – species that are major causes of infectious disease in AIDS patients, cancer chemotherapy patients, premature infants, etc. The polymorphic yeast Candida albicans is the most important fungal pathogen in humans. Beyond the clinics, basic research in this organism deals with a variety of topics of interest, like the genetics and molecular biology behind antifungal drug resistance; the molecular determinants of endurance to nutritional, pH and oxidative stress imposed by the host defences; or its interactions with both the host epithelia and bacterial partners that share the mucosal microbiota with the fungus. This collection of research articles published on diverse aspects of Candida biology showcases the journals’ range of Candida research. This collection is now open to submissions, authors are invited to submit on any aspect of Candida research. Please note in your submission that your manuscript is part of the Candida collection.
- Coronaviruses
  
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  Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can infect a range of hosts. They are known to cause diseases including the common cold, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in humans.
  
  In January 2020, China saw an outbreak of a new coronavirus strain now named SARS-CoV-2. Although the animal reservoir for the SARS and MERS viruses are known, this has yet to have been confirmed for SARS-CoV-2. All three strains are transmissible between humans.
  
  To allow the widest possible distribution of relevant research, the Microbiology Society has brought together articles from across our portfolio and made this content freely available.
  
  Image credit: "MERS-CoV" by NIAID is licensed under CC BY 2.0, this image has been modified.
- CRISPR
  
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  The discovery of the CRISPR-Cas system has led to a sea of change in the microbiological sciences. Since then laboratories all over the world have joined the race to understand and exploit CRISPR. The insights gained about this system led to applications in industry to protect bacterial species against their viral parasites. In addition, CRISPR-Cas has been turned into a versatile genome editing method that has the potential to treat human genetic diseases.
  
  Find out more about CRISPR in this collection of articles by watching this video.
  
  Image credit: iStock/ibreakstock
- David Rowlands collection
  
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  Each year, the Microbiology Society Council offer Honorary Membership to distinguished microbiologists who have made a significant contribution to the science. In 2019, David J. Rowlands (Emeritus Professor of Virology, University of Leeds) was appointed an Honorary Member.
  This collection brings together Journal of General Virology articles authored by David Rowlands.
- Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
  
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  Ebola first became headline news in 2014–2016 when it was transmitted throughout West Africa. In 2019, this severe and often fatal disease has once again been declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) with over 1700 deaths in this latest outbreak. With vaccines now available, this outbreak could be contained, but only with increased production and delivery of vaccines within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  
  This collection brings together articles from our portfolio of journals on Ebola virus disease. The Microbiology Society has made this content freely available in the interests of widest possible distribution of relevant research.
- Ethnopharmacology
  
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  A concerted effort to characterise, assess and exploit the extensive written and oral record of natural products used in pre-modern European medicine has not been made. This is despite the presence in pre-modern European medical texts of natural products known to be effective in vivo (e.g. Artemisia spp. were used to treat malaria in medieval England) or shown to possess antimicrobial and/or immunomodulatory qualities in vitro (e.g. Allium spp., Plantago spp., Urtica spp.). Given rising antimicrobial resistance and a stalled R&D pipeline for compounds to treat and prevent infection, a thorough scientific evaluation of European ethnopharmacology is overdue.
  
  This collection brings together original articles, mini-reviews, and full-length reviews written by researchers from diverse fields including microbiology, chemistry, botany and the history of medicine, along with industry contacts, to reveal the current state of the art of the field and define areas for collaboration, methods development and translational research.
- Feed the World
  
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  With the United Nations' resolution to eliminate world hunger by 2030 and the globe's population heading towards nine billion, the agriculture industry needs to increase livestock production from the same, or less, land. Livestock uses the most agricultural land (80% including grazing land and cropland for feed). Africa and Asia are the continents with the largest share of the world's uncultivated land, but attempts to develop and expand current capacity in order to meet the growing food demand are halted by deadly killers in the form of viruses, bacterial and protozoan parasites. As such, this area of research is hugely important to ensuring the availability of food for the world’s population.
  
  The ‘Feed the World’ collection brings together articles published across the journal portfolio, focussing on food security, and agriculture and livestock diseases that have an economic impact on humans and animals. Guest edited by Alison Mather (Quadram Institute) and Nigel French (University of New Zealand) for Microbial Genomics; Colin Crump (University of Cambridge) for Journal of General Virology, and Sharon Brookes (Animal Plant Health Agency) for Journal of Medical Microbiology.
  
  This collection is now accepting submissions via any participating journal. Please indicate that your submission is part of the ‘Feed the World’ collection.
- Fungal spotlight: Host-associated microbiomes
  
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  Fungi comprise a distinct eukaryotic lineage often associated with their important role as degraders of organic substrates in the environment. However, fungi also form well-known symbiotic association with higher plants, as mycorrhizae, or with algae as lichens. Additionally, fungi are a critical component of the environmental microbiome associated with both plants and animals. The functional role of fungi in these interactions is poorly understood. Increasingly fungi are being recognized as opportunistic pathogens of animals, including humans, and as plant pathogens, are a threat to the global supply of food. Fungi themselves may harbour their own unique microbiome or organise the microbiome of the substrate they colonise.
  
  This collection will feature studies of fungi in host-associated microbiomes, functional analysis of host-fungal or fungal-microbe interactions, the genetic and genomic diversity of host-associated fungi, as well as the impacts of environmental fungi in natural and manmade ecosystems. It is guest edited by Professor Corby Kistler (University of Minnesota), Dr. Ferry Hagen (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute), Dr. David Fitzpatrick (Maynooth University), and Dr. Daniel Croll (University of Neuchâtel).
  
  Image credit: Corby Kistler (University of Minnesota), US Department of Agriculture (public domain), and Biotec, Thailand
- Global Pneumococcal Sequencing collection
  
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  Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of pneumonia, septicaemia and meningitis in young children. The global deployment of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) which targets up to 13 of the >100 serotypes has effectively reduced the incidence of pneumococcal disease in children worldwide. However, there are still ~9 million cases of disease and over 300,000 deaths annually, in part due to replacement with non-vaccine serotypes and persistence of vaccine serotypes.
  
  The Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project (GPS) is a worldwide genomic surveillance network of >100 scientists. The project is set out to investigate the adaptive changes in pneumococcal populations before and after the vaccine introduction through whole-genome sequencing. At present, the project has sequenced >26,000 pneumococcal isolates from >50 countries and identified emerging lineages with multidrug resistant and high virulence comprising the benefit of PCV programme at international level.
  
  This collection includes genomic surveillance analyses at the national-level and captures important insights, including identification of emerging serotypes and lineages after vaccine implementation. Such insights can inform vaccine use at the national level, and the design of future vaccines. Many of these studies were led by in-country partners, working closely with the GPS team, to enhance local capacity for future genomic surveillance of pathogens.
- ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profiles
  
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  Journal of General Virology ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profiles are a freely available series of concise, review-type articles that provide overviews of the classification, structure and properties of individual virus orders, families and genera.
  ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profiles are written by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) study groups, comprised of leading experts in the field. The profiles summarise the individual chapters from the ICTV’s online 10th Report on Virus Taxonomy, and provide the latest taxonomic information on viruses.
  The Microbiology Society is publishing these citable profiles online, while the full chapters are available to all through the ICTV website, thanks to a five-year Biomedical Resources grant from the Wellcome Trust.
- Implications of climate change for terrestrial microbiomes and global cycles
  
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  Soil microbiomes are highly diverse ecosystems that play a central role in ecosystem functioning and regulating global biogeochemical cycles. Through these processes, soil microbes make major contributions to the production and consumption of greenhouse gases. They also regulate the availability of essential nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, thereby influencing plant growth and global primary productivity. As such, soil microbial communities are intimately involved in climate feedback processes.
  
  Predicting the contribution and response of soil microbiomes to future climate change represents a major research challenge. For example, uncertainties remain around the extent to which soils will act as a source or sink of carbon under future climate scenarios. A greater understanding of the microbial molecular pathways involved in biogeochemical cycling will be essential if we are to predict these outcomes. Similarly, further insight is needed into the response of soil microbial communities to climate extremes, such as drought, floods and increasing salinity, so that we can predict and mitigate changes to vital ecosystem services.
  
  The special collection ‘Implications of climate change for terrestrial microbiomes and global cycles’ guest-edited by Drs Michael Macey (Open University), Sarah Worsley (UEA), and Geertje van Keulen (Swansea University), aims to highlight key research investigating the role of soil microbiomes in climate feedback processes, and their response to global change. It will also include articles on the characterisation of biogeochemical cycles and terrestrial microbiomes. We would also like to invite contributions on advances made in affordable and sustainable research methods, e.g. focussing on in situ activities where access to energy and/or data sources may be unreliable or unavailable.
  
  This collection is open for submissions – please submit your article here, stating that your manuscript is part of the ‘Implications of climate change for terrestrial microbiomes and global cycles’ collection.
  
  Image credit: Guido Gerding - external homepage, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- JMM Profiles
  
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  Journal of Medical Microbiology is now publishing ‘JMM Profiles’ in one of three categories; Pathogen Profile, Antimicrobial Profile and Diagnostic Profile. These articles will provide a brief summary review in each of these areas. The profiles are fully citable and free to read for 30 days after publication, and will make an excellent resource for education or reference.
  
  Please see our introductory Editorial for further information.
- Marine Microbiology
  
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  Covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface, the Oceans represent an incredibly diverse, yet understudied ecosystem. In particular, microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, viruses and archaea) mediate key ecosystem processes in these marine systems and account for a majority of the biodiversity. These resilient microbial species have evolved by partitioning a multitude of environmental resources including variable temperature, ocean currents, light availability, pressure and nutrients. At the same time, the dynamic nature of marine systems allows for complex biotic interactions that aggregate into microbiomes, or microbial communities. Various environmental factors influence biogeographic patterns that allow for distinct community assemblages across marine habitats (e.g., water column vs. sediment).
  
  Ultimately, understanding the relationship between ecological and evolutionary processes and the environment will elucidate the factors driving marine microbial distributions and community structure. In order to understand these complex dynamics, marine microbiology necessitates interdisciplinary science, encompassing fields such as biogeochemistry, oceanography, ecology, geology, chemistry and microbiology. It also represents incredible potential for discovery, with impacts on our ability to manage and utilize the oceans as a sustainable resource.
  
  Guest-edited by Dr. Katherine Duncan and Dr. Alex Chase, this Marine Microbiology special collection aims to highlight key research on marine microorganisms as they underpin the complex processes of our blue planet.
- Metals in Microbiology
  
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  Metals catalyse almost a half of all microbial reactions and yet can poison microorganisms. Metal handling systems - that maintain metal homeostasis - are thus vital to sustain microbial life. For microbial pathogens, the challenge of metal homeostasis is exacerbated by host immune defences that restrict metal access and that exploit the microbicidal activity of metals. There are opportunities to produce new antimicrobials that subvert microbial metal-handling systems or that use metals directly or combined with other compounds. The prevalence of metalloenzymes also means that engineering the metal-supply in microorganisms is highly relevant to industrial biotechnological processes, with metalloproteins contributing to bioenergy production, bioremediation, biomedicine, synthesis of high value industrial feedstocks and more.
  
  Guest-edited by Dr Jennifer Cavet (University of Manchester) and Dr Karrera Djoko (Durham University), this collection of keynote research articles will highlight research on metal-microbe interactions, bringing together advances in our understanding of how microbes handle metals, the utilization of metals in proteins and the importance of metal handling systems in host-pathogen interactions. It will also include research that exploits these systems in industrial processes, the development of metal-related antimicrobials and in metal bioremediation and biorecovery.
  
  Image credit: Jin Hong

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