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Originally written by Matt Wood, University of Chicago , on January 20, 2026   and published in phys.org edited by Stephanie Baum , reviewed by Robert Egan Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but other bacteria sense light for less well-known functions.   Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that is known to cause difficult to treat infections in hospitalized patients. Credit: Centers for Disease Control In 2019, Sampriti Mukherjee, Ph.D., and her team at the University of Chicago discovered that far-red light, part of the light spectrum near the infrared range, prevents the formation of biofilms by the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Biofilms form when communities of bacteria cluster together and att...

Originally published by Public Library of Science on January 13, 2026 Edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan Credit: Pixabay /CC0 Public Domain In a new study , terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless "microgravity" conditions aboard the International Space Station , but the dynamics of virus-bacteria interactions differed from those observed on Earth . Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues present the findings in the open-access journal PLOS Biology . Interactions between phages—viruses that infect bacteria—and their hosts play an integral role in microbial ecosystems. Often described as being in an evolutionary "arms race," bacteria can evolve defenses against phages, while phages develop new ways to thwart defenses . While virus-bacteria interactions have been studied extensively on Earth, microgravity conditions alter bacterial physiology and the ph...

Originally published by Anne Trafton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , on December 23, 2024  A study from MIT biological engineers has yielded new insight into how bacteria in the gut microbiome adapt their CRISPR defenses as they encounter new threats. Credit: Donny Bliss, NIH Within the human digestive tract are trillions of bacteria from thousands of different species . These bacteria form communities that help digest food, fend off harmful microbes, and play many other roles in maintaining human health. These bacteria can be vulnerable to infection from viruses called bacteriophages . One of bacterial cells' most well-known defenses against these viruses is the CRISPR system , which evolved in bacteria to help t hem recognize and chop up viral DNA . A study from MIT biological engineers has yielded new insight into how bacteria in the gut microbiome adapt their CRISPR defenses as they encounter new threats . The researchers found that while bacteria grown in t...