BACKGROUND : Metagenomics allows unprecedented access to uncultured environmental microorganisms. The analysis of metagenomic sequences facilitates gene prediction and annotation, and enables the assembly of draft genomes, ...

Heterotrophic bacteria proliferate in organic-rich environments and systems containing sufficient essential nutrients. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the nutrients required in the highest concentrations. The ratio ...

Hypoliths are microbially colonized translucent rocks that represent a key refuge niche in extreme arid environments such as the Antarctic Dry Valleys. These cryptic microbial assemblages are crucial as they mediate ...

Micro-organisms inhabiting animal guts benefit from a protected and nutrient-rich environment while assisting the host with digestion and nutrition. In this study we compare, for the first time, the bacterial and fungal ...

Notwithstanding, the severe environmental conditions, deserts harbour a high diversity of adapted micro-organisms. In such oligotrophic environments, soil physicochemical characteristics play an important role in shaping ...

A significant proportion of the Earth's surface is desert or in the process of desertification. The extreme environmental conditions that characterize these areas result in a surface that is essentially barren, with a ...

BACKGROUND: The biology of human migration can be observed from the co-evolutionary relationship with infectious diseases. While many pathogens are brief, unpleasant visitors to human bodies, others have the ability to ...

BACKGROUND : The archaeological incidence of ancient human faecal material provides a rare opportunity to explore the taxonomic composition and metabolic capacity of the ancestral human intestinal microbiome (IM). Here, ...

The central Namib Desert is hyperarid, where limited plant growth ensures that biogeochemical processes are largely driven by microbial populations. Recent research has shown that niche partitioning is critically involved ...

Endemic to the Namib Desert, Fairy Circles (FCs) are vegetation-free circular patterns surrounded and delineated by grass species. Since first reported the 1970’s, many theories have been proposed to explain their appearance, ...