BMAC Weekly — 2026-W42
8 papers selected for 2026-W42.
2026-10-06–2026-10-12 · 8 papers
Recent advances in understanding the impact of microplastics on bacterial antibiotic resistance: mechanisms, evidence gaps, and One Health implications
Chongshan Dai, Dexian Zhang, Zhanhui Wang, Alfina Grasso, Paola Rapisarda, Gea Oliveri Conti
2026-10-01 · Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances
TL;DR. A review conceptualizing microplastics as mobile evolutionary interfaces where biofilms accumulate antibiotic resistance genes and can promote horizontal gene transfer, while noting that enrichment alone does not establish clinical risk.
Key signal. MP-associated biofilms increase cell density, retain extracellular DNA, and promote intercellular contact, facilitating plasmid conjugation and, in some experimental systems, transformation; field evidence demonstrates particle occurrence and ecological ARG enrichment, whereas direct transfer is best shown in defined experimental systems.
Why it matters here. Directly relevant to Fangzhou's interests in antibiotic resistance and microbial population and community ecology, since it frames how surface-associated biofilm growth and horizontal gene transfer shape the spread of resistance determinants across environmental microbial communities.
Intermediate phenotypic heterogeneity creates an optimal coexistence window in bacteria–phage communities
Jung-Ho Kim, Mattia Mattei, David Soriano‐Paños, Àlex Arenas
2026-10-02 · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
TL;DR. A trait-based modeling study finds that phage richness in bacteria-phage communities is maximized at an intermediate level of host growth-rate heterogeneity rather than increasing monotonically.
Key signal. Optimal phage diversity emerges from a trade-off between niche differentiation, which increases with host phenotypic heterogeneity, and reduced host abundance in each phage's preferred niche, with the optimum set by the match between host phenotypic dispersion and phage niche width.
Why it matters here. Connects to Fangzhou's work on microbial population dynamics and community ecology and to growth-rate heterogeneity in bacterial physiology, providing a quantitative principle for how intraspecific phenotypic variation shapes coexistence and biodiversity.
Model development for microbial growth in underground hydrogen storage reservoirs
B. Hagemann, Sebastian Hogeweg, Christian Lüddeke
2026-10-01 · Computational Geosciences
TL;DR. A new bio-reactive transport model for underground hydrogen storage couples substrate-limited Monod microbial growth with an added maximum-density limitation and flow and transport in a two-phase porous medium.
Key signal. In an example simulation of an underground hydrogen storage with active methanogens, substrates (H2 and CO2) do not become limiting in large parts of the storage, so microbial populations grow to maximum density and continuously convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane, strongly coupling with flow and transport.
Why it matters here. Relevant to Fangzhou's interests in microbial growth laws, dynamic metabolism, and population dynamics, as it extends substrate-limited growth models with a density cap and couples them to environmental transport in a subsurface community context.
Thiamine cross-feeding drives microbial coexistence in the leaf microbiome
Yiheng Hu, Johanna Bode, Daniel Gómez‐Pérez, Marco Alexandre Guerreiro, Alfredo Mari, Kun Wang, Sinja Niemann, Maryam Mahmoudi, Ariane C. Kemen, Paloma Durán, Oskar Wacker, Daniel Straub, Sven Nahnsen, Benjamin Schwessinger, Fabrice Roux, Carlos Alonso‐Blanco, Jon Ågren, Stéphane Hacquard, Eva H. Stukenbrock, Eric M. Kemen
2026-10-05 · Nature Microbiology
TL;DR. A continental-scale leaf microbiome survey identifies an asymmetric mutualism in which the yeast Dioszegia hungarica supplies thiamine via a dedicated membrane permease to the auxotrophic oomycete Albugo laibachii, promoting their coexistence.
Key signal. Dioszegia facilitates Albugo colonization by alleviating its thiamine auxotrophy through cross-feeding, and genomic and transcriptomic analyses indicate natural selection has acted on thiamine production in Dioszegia, shaping this metabolic complementation.
Why it matters here. Directly relevant to Fangzhou's interests in microbial community ecology, metabolic cross-feeding, and nutrient-driven coexistence, showing how a specific biosynthetic pathway and transporter mediate community assembly and stability in a plant microbiome.
Dissecting functional dynamics of fecal-derived in vitro stable microbial communities with metaproteomics
Angela Wang, Emily Fekete, Marybeth Creskey, Zhibin Ning, Janice Mayne, Kai Cheng, Qing Wu, Vanessa M. D’Costa, Xuguang Li, Daniel Figeys, Xu Zhang
2026-10-06 · bioRxiv
TL;DR. Large-scale quantitative metaproteomics tracked functional and community dynamics of human fecal microbiomes cultured in three media over 25 serial passages, showing that both medium and donor characteristics shape community establishment.
Key signal. Nutrient availability in the medium and microbial stress responses were key determinants of in vitro community establishment, and mucin glycan metabolism in RapidAIM medium supported Bacteroidaceae species poorly supported in other media, yielding a community most similar to the uncultured fecal inoculum.
Why it matters here. Relevant to Fangzhou's interests in microbial population dynamics and community ecology, as it uses metaproteomics to link specific nutrient substrates and stress responses to which taxa persist in an in vitro gut community.
Microbial community dynamics mediate rapid biomass loss and phosphorus recycling in pelagic Sargassum
Roberto Velázquez-Ochoa, Vivian Y. Li, Wiebke E. Krämer, Mónica Medina, Susana Enríquez
2026-10-05 · Frontiers in Plant Science
TL;DR. A study of pelagic Sargassum characterizes rapid biomass decomposition with a 16-day litter half-life and nutrient release, alongside a bacterial microbiome succession during decay.
Key signal. A microbial succession involving chemoheterotrophic and nitrogen-fixing bacteria predicts functions in biomineralization of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing compounds, and this rapid decomposition triggers swift phosphorus release that can fuel coastal eutrophication.
Why it matters here. Relevant to Fangzhou's interests in microbial community ecology and nutrient cycling, as it links stage-specific bacterial community succession to the mineralization of algal litter and the release of phosphorus in a marine system.
Grape ripeness shapes microbial community dynamics and fermentation outcomes during modified pied de cuve wine fermentations
Katherine Bedoya, Luis Buetas, Nicolás Rozés, Albert Mas, M. Carmen Portillo
2026-10-02 · International Journal of Food Microbiology
TL;DR. A wine fermentation study shows that grape ripeness shapes bacterial and fungal community composition and fermentation outcomes when using a modified pied de cuve inoculation strategy compared with commercial inoculation and spontaneous fermentation.
Key signal. PdC inoculation consistently improved fermentation kinetics compared with spontaneous fermentation, particularly at 13% potential alcohol, and preserved higher Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain diversity than commercial inoculation while an indigenous strain showed strong competitive ability against QA23.
Why it matters here. Directly relevant to Fangzhou's interests in fermentation ecology, microbial population dynamics, and community ecology, as it examines how an ecological driver (grape ripeness) and inoculation strategy shape strain diversity and community succession during alcoholic fermentation.
Certified Design Regions under Parametric Plant Uncertainty with Application to Antithetic Integral Feedback
Rudra Prakash, Shaunak Sen
2026-10-09 · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
TL;DR. A preprint formulates robust controller tuning under parametric plant uncertainty as a set-inversion problem and computes certified design regions for antithetic integral feedback controllers using validated range enclosures.
Key signal. For an antithetic integral feedback controller on a two-species gene-expression cascade, a tensor-product Bernstein enclosure certifies 83.2% of the design plane versus 50.9-58.9% for baseline enclosures, and for a fifth-order loop the certified fraction increases from 34.4% to 73.8%.
Why it matters here. Relevant to Fangzhou's interests in biomolecular reaction networks, cell-fate circuits, and data-driven design of biological networks, as it provides certified design regions for controllers acting on gene-expression cascades under parameter uncertainty, though it is an enabling computational method rather than a biological study.