Publications

Background: Phosphorus (P) is a fundamental macronutrient for plant and microbial growth, but its availability in soils is often constrained by strong interactions with minerals and organic matter. While the role of bacteriophages in P cycling has gained attention, plasmids remain comparatively underexplored despite their central role in horizontal gene transfer. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence, diversity, and ecological relevance of plasmid-borne genes involved in P acquisition across soils with contrasting P availability. Results: Using curated plasmid databases and soil metagenomes from diverse biomes, we identified a broad repertoire of plasmid-encoded P-acquisition genes. These genes encompassed regulatory pathways, transport systems, organic P mineralization, and inorganic P solubilization. Regulatory and transporter genes were the most abundant categories, with phoB, phoP, and ugpC among the most frequently detected. When additional analyses were performed using habitat-specific P classifications and continuous P gradients, these associations appeared weak and were not significant after multiple-testing correction. These results suggest that plasmid-encoded P-acquisition genes are broadly distributed across environments rather than tightly constrained by measured soil P levels, while taxonomic assignment revealed that Pseudomonadota were the predominant plasmid hosts, followed by Bacillota and Actinobacteriota, suggesting broad host diversity. Conclusions: This study provides a genomic overview of plasmid-borne genes associated with P acquisition in soils. Our results show that these genes are widespread across plasmids from diverse environments and host taxa, suggesting that the soil mobilome may represent an important reservoir of functions related to microbial P metabolism. While the presence and relative abundance of these genes indicate their potential ecological relevance, functional expression and ecological impact remain to be experimentally validated. These findings expand current knowledge of plasmid contributions to nutrient cycling and highlight the mobilome as a potential target for future studies aiming to better understand microbial strategies for P acquisition in soil ecosystems.

DOI:

10.1186/s40793-026-00887-7External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00036459External link

DOI:

10.1126/sciadv.aeb8246External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00036700External link

DOI:

10.7554/eLife.105029.3External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00037136External link

Most microbes grow in spatially structured communities, and this profoundly shapes their ecology and evolution. At the microscale, short interaction ranges and steep nutrient gradients underlie cross-feeding, quorum sensing, and niche construction, generating spatial patterns that influence microbial behavior, community assembly, and stability. Here, we review theoretical and experimental evidence for how spatial organization drives eco-evolutionary processes, including founder effects during colonization, allele surfing during range expansion, emergent patterns that facilitate multilevel selection, and the exploration of rare epistatic genotypes. While the ecological and evolutionary consequences of spatial structure at the microscale are becoming clearer, linking these processes across scales to predict community- and ecosystem-level outcomes remains a major challenge. Addressing spatial interactions explicitly in microbiome research will be key. Recent advances in computational modeling, cultivation approaches, and omics now offer unprecedented opportunities to meet this challenge, providing fresh insights into how spatial structure governs the organization and dynamics of the microbial world across scales.

DOI:

10.1093/femsre/fuaf067External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00034306External link

High-throughput sequencing has generated an unprecedented volume of data. However, researcher-submitted data in repositories requires extensive curation and quality control for reuse. These tasks are hindered by the multiplicity of repositories, the sheer volume of the data, and the complexity of virus (meta)data curation. To address these challenges, VirJenDB offers a user-friendly platform to facilitate versioned, community-driven curation, and ontology development. Virus sequences were ingested from 16 sources, including ~200 fields of metadata or standards, covering taxonomy, sample, and host information. Up to 85 metadata fields have undergone at least one round of curation, and are linked to 15.4 million virus sequences, with 88 % from those infecting eukaryotes and the remaining infecting prokaryotes. Subsets were created, including a novel collection of 0.91 million viral operational taxonomic unit (vOTU) sequences across all viruses, while keeping the original sequences from each vOTU to facilitate downstream analyses, e.g. sequence variation. The VirJenDB web portal (https://www.virjendb.org) provides HTTPS and Application Programming Interface (API) access to the sequence datasets and metadata, offering a search engine, filtering, download, visualizations, and documentation. VirJenDB aims to connect the phage and eukaryotic virus research communities by supporting webtool integration, meta-analyses, and metadata schema extensions.

DOI:

10.1093/nar/gkaf1224External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00030017External link

Background: Temperate phages play a central role in the evolution and pathogenicity of Staphylococcus aureus. Sa3int phages provide highly human-specific virulence factors that promote immune evasion and survival within the host. The reversible excision of these phages which occurs without phage production and bacterial lysis allows the simultaneous expression of phage virulence genes and the hlb gene where they usually integrate. However, the regulatory mechanisms that control phage assembly and the cross-talk with host factors remain poorly understood. Methods and results: We analyzed the regulatory mechanism controlling late gene transcription of Sa3int phage Φ13. We identified a functional promoter, P ₂₃, located upstream of the late phage genes that control DNA processing and packaging, capsid assembly, bacterial lysis and immune evasion. SAOUHSC_02200, the gene located upstream of P ₂₃ , encodes for a late transcriptional regulator (Ltr). Mutating the P ₂₃ TATA-box or the ltr gene abolished P ₂₃ activity and formation of mature intact phage particles, thus confirming the role of Ltr in regulating P ₂₃ activity. Four direct repeats upstream of the P ₂₃ transcriptional start site were identified as potential Ltr binding sites. RT-qPCR analysis confirmed that Ltr-dependent P ₂₃ activation is essential for the expression of late genes and the subsequent Φ13 propagation. Furthermore, comparative analysis of P ₂₃ activity and ltr expression in different host strain backgrounds revealed strain-specific differences that appear to depend on the alternative sigma factor SigB and its downstream effector SpoVG. Conclusions: Ltr controls the expression of late phage genes, thereby regulating phage assembly and lysis. This process is modulated by SpoVG activity.

DOI:

10.1186/s12985-026-03167-5External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00035967External link

DOI:

10.1038/s41579-024-01107-0External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00017943External link

This article summarises the activities of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses Bacterial Viruses Subcommittee, detailing developments in the classification of bacterial viruses. We provide here an overview of all new, abolished, moved and renamed taxa proposed in 2024, approved by the Executive Committee, and ratified by membership vote in 2025. Through the collective efforts of 74 international contributors of taxonomy proposals in this round, 43 ratified proposals have led to the creation of one new phylum, one class, four orders, 33 families, 14 subfamilies, 194 genera and 995 species. These proposals mark significant progress in refining the taxonomy of bacterial viruses. Key updates include the creation of new orders and families that include existing taxa to better reflect genomic and evolutionary relationships. As sequencing and bioinformatics approaches continue to advance, further expansion and refinements in viral taxonomy can be anticipated in the coming years.

DOI:

10.1099/jgv.0.002111External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00028013External link

DOI:

10.1128/mmbr.00022-25External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00027918External link

DOI:

10.1038/s41587-025-02946-9External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00029607External link

Correlation networks are commonly used to explore microbiome data. In these networks, nodes are microbial taxa and edges represent correlations between their abundances. As clusters of correlating taxa (co-abundance clusters) often indicate a shared response to environmental drivers, network visualization contributes to the system understanding. Currently,most tools for creating and visualizing co-abundance networks from microbiome data either require the researcher to have coding skills or are not user-friendly, with high time expenditure and limited customizability. Furthermore, existing tools lack a focus on the association between environmental drivers and the structure of the microbiome, even though many edges in correlation networks can be understood through a shared association of two taxa with the environment. For these reasons, we developed SpeSpeNet (Species-Species Network, https://tbb.bio.uu.nl/SpeSpeNet), a practical and user-friendly R-shiny tool to construct and visualize correlation networks from taxonomic abundance tables. The details of data preprocessing, network construction, and visualization are automated, require no programming ability for the web version, and are highly customizable, including associations with user-provided environmental data. Here, we present the details of SpeSpeNet and demonstrate its utility using three case studies.

DOI:

10.1093/ismeco/ycaf036External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00026957External link

Background: Arctic soils are climate-critical areas, where microorganisms play crucial roles in nutrient cycling processes. Acidobacteriota are phylogenetically and physiologically diverse bacteria that are abundant and active in Arctic tundra soils. Still, surprisingly little is known about acidobacterial viruses in general and those residing in the Arctic in particular. Here, we applied both culture-dependent and -independent methods to study the virome of Acidobacteriota in Arctic soils. Results: Five virus isolates, Tunturi 1–5, were obtained from Arctic tundra soils, Kilpisjärvi, Finland (69°N), using Tunturiibacter spp. strains originating from the same area as hosts. The new virus isolates have tailed particles with podo- (Tunturi 1, 2, 3), sipho- (Tunturi 4), or myovirus-like (Tunturi 5) morphologies. The dsDNA genomes of the viral isolates are 63–98 kbp long, except Tunturi 5, which is a jumbo phage with a 309-kbp genome. Tunturi 1 and Tunturi 2 share 88% overall nucleotide identity, while the other three are not related to one another. For over half of the open reading frames in Tunturi genomes, no functions could be predicted. To further assess the Acidobacteriota-associated viral diversity in Kilpisjärvi soils, bulk metagenomes from the same soils were explored and a total of 1881 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) were bioinformatically predicted. Almost all vOTUs (98%) were assigned to the class Caudoviricetes. For 125 vOTUs, including five (near-)complete ones, Acidobacteriota hosts were predicted. Acidobacteriota-linked vOTUs were abundant across sites, especially in fens. Terriglobia-associated proviruses were observed in Kilpisjärvi soils, being related to proviruses from distant soils and other biomes. Approximately genus- or higher-level similarities were found between the Tunturi viruses, Kilpisjärvi vOTUs, and other soil vOTUs, suggesting some shared groups of Acidobacteriota viruses across soils. Conclusions: This study provides acidobacterial virus isolates as laboratory models for future research and adds insights into the diversity of viral communities associated with Acidobacteriota in tundra soils. Predicted virus-host links and viral gene functions suggest various interactions between viruses and their host microorganisms. Largely unknown sequences in the isolates and metagenome-assembled viral genomes highlight a need for more extensive sampling of Arctic soils to better understand viral functions and contributions to ecosystem-wide cycling processes in the Arctic. ¹dEr⁵zbⁿHYtsQKⁱgHwMEJhVⁱdeo Abstract

DOI:

10.1186/s40168-025-02053-6External link

University Bibliography Jena:

fsu_mods_00023295External link