Environmental Science · Ecology
A cocktail of two bacteria-killing viruses reduced Staphylococcus aureus in laboratory tests and in UHT milk. It also fully blocked production of one staphylococcal toxin in an in vitro assay, though the study did not test the approach in commercial dairy production or people.
Intensive poultry farming has changed how Campylobacter jejuni moves among chickens and wild birds, according to an analysis of 2,747 genomes. The researchers estimate a roughly 100-fold rise in chicken-to-wild-bird transfers since 1900 and found that chicken-adapted strains often carry genes linked to antimicrobial resistance and survival in chickens.
Researchers have isolated the first cultivated virus known to infect a chrysophyte, an aquatic protist that can both photosynthesize and consume prey. Its genome contains a proteorhodopsin-like gene, a type of gene not previously reported in a virus, although predictions suggest the protein may not function as a light-driven proton pump.
