Healthy plants host diverse but taxonomically structured communities of microorganisms, the
plant microbiota, that colonize every accessible plant tissue. Plant-associated microbiomes …

From the standpoints of both basic research and biotechnology, there is considerable interest
in reaching a clearer understanding of the diversity of biological mechanisms employed …

We present two standards developed by the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) for
reporting bacterial and archaeal genome sequences. Both are extensions of the Minimum …

The paucity of enzymes that efficiently deconstruct plant polysaccharides represents a major
bottleneck for industrial-scale conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels. Cow rumen …

The reconstruction of bacterial and archaeal genomes from shotgun metagenomes has
enabled insights into the ecology and evolution of environmental and host-associated …

Immune systems distinguish “self” from “nonself” to maintain homeostasis and must differentially
gate access to allow colonization by potentially beneficial, nonpathogenic microbes. …

Microbial communities are critical to ecosystem function. A key objective of metagenomic
studies is to analyse organism-specific metabolic pathways and reconstruct community …

Bacteria living on and in leaves and roots influence many aspects of plant health, so the
extent of a plant’s genetic control over its microbiota is of great interest to crop breeders and …

Desert plants are hypothesized to survive the environmental stress inherent to these regions
in part thanks to symbioses with microorganisms, and yet these microbial species, the …

Culture-independent molecular surveys using the 16S rRNA gene have become a mainstay
for characterizing microbial community structure over the past quarter century. More recently …