A cohesive strain cluster causes benthic cyanotoxic blooms in rivers worldwide.

Over the last two decades, proliferations of benthic cyanobacteria producing derivatives of anatoxin-a have been reported in rivers worldwide. Here, we follow up on such a toxigenic event happening in the Areuse river in Switzerland and investigate the diversity and genomics of major bloom-forming riverine benthic cyanobacteria. We show, using 16S rRNA-based community profiling, that benthic communities are dominated by Oscillatoriales.

Complete genome sequence of strain Ins1, a spore-forming filamentous bacterium isolated from a deep geothermal reservoir.

We report the complete genome sequence of strain Ins1, a gram-positive filamentous spore-forming bacterium, isolated from deep geothermal fluids used for electricity production. This is the first complete (circular) genome assigned to the species .

Improved methods to assess the effect of bacteria on germination of fungal spores.

Bacterial-fungal interactions (BFI) play a major role on ecosystem functioning and might be particularly relevant at a specific development stage. For instance, in the case of biological control of fungal pathogens by bacteria, a highly relevant kind of BFI, in-vitro experiments often assess the impact of a bacterium on the inhibition of actively growing mycelia. However, this fails to consider other stages of plant infection such as the germination of a spore or a sclerotium.