Scientists' call to action: Microbes, planetary health, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and protists, are essential to life on Earth and the functioning of the biosphere. Here, we discuss the key roles of microorganisms in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting recent and emerging advances in microbial research and technology that can facilitate our transition toward a sustainable future. Given the central role of microorganisms in the biochemical processing of elements, synthesizing new materials, supporting human health, and facilitating life in managed and natural landscapes, microbial research and technologies are directly or indirectly relevant for achieving each of the SDGs.

Guidelines to support the design, and selection and appraisal of multimedia teaching aids for microbiology education.

Microbiology education has a serious handicap - the lack of visibility of the players of the subject and their interactions - which engenders a disproportionate reliance upon multimedia teaching aids (MTAs). The International Microbiology Literacy Initiative (IMiLI) is creating educational resources in societally-relevant microbiology complemented by appropriate MTAs. However, proper guidance supporting microbiology educators in locating and selecting, or commissioning the creation of, adequate MTAs for different target audiences and learning objectives is lacking.

A concept for international societally relevant microbiology education and microbiology knowledge promulgation in society.

Executive Summary: Microbes are all pervasive in their distribution and influence on the functioning and well-being of humans, life in general and the planet. Microbially-based technologies contribute hugely to the supply of important goods and services we depend upon, such as the provision of food, medicines and clean water. They also offer mechanisms and strategies to mitigate and solve a wide range of problems and crises facing humanity at all levels, including those encapsulated in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations.

This is the Age of Microbial Technology: Crucial roles of learned societies and academies.

Microbial technologies constitute a huge and unique potential for confronting major humanitarian and biosphere challenges, especially in the realms of sustainability and providing basic goods and services where they are needed and particularly in low-resource settings. These technologies are evolving rapidly. Powerful approaches are being developed to create novel products, processes, and circular economies, including new prophylactics and therapies in healthcare, bioelectric systems, and whole-cell understanding of metabolism that provides novel insights into mechanisms and how they can be utilised for applications.

Food systems microbiome-related educational needs.

Within the European-funded Coordination and Support Action MicrobiomeSupport (https://www.microbiomesupport.eu/), the Workshop 'Education in Food Systems Microbiome Related Sciences: Needs for Universities, Industry and Public Health Systems' brought together over 70 researchers, public health and industry partners from all over the world to work on elaborating microbiome-related educational needs in food systems.

The Pareto principle: To what extent does it apply to resource acquisition in stable microbial communities and thereby steer their geno-/ecotype compositions and interactions between their members?

The Pareto principle, or 20:80 rule, describes resource distribution in stable communities whereby 20% of community members acquire 80% of a key resource. In this Burning Question, we ask to what extent the Pareto principle applies to the acquisition of limiting resources in stable microbial communities; how it may contribute to our understanding of microbial interactions, microbial community exploration of evolutionary space, and microbial community dysbiosis; and whether it can serve as a benchmark of microbial community stability and functional optimality?

Microbiology education: a significant path to sustainably improve the human and biosphere condition.

In this short piece, I connect the dots between the pervasive influence of microbial activities on our health and that of the planet, including their positive and negative roles in current polycrises, our ability to influence microbes to promote their positive influences and mitigate their negative impacts, the roles of everyone as stewards and stakeholders in personal, family, community, national, and global wellbeing, the need for stewards and stakeholders to possess relevant information in order to fulfil their roles and obligations, and the compelling case for microbiology literacy and introduction of a societally relevant microbiology curriculum in school.

A Road to Microbiology Literacy (and More): an Opportunity for a Paradigm Change in Teaching.

Microbial activities pervasively impact the wellbeing of all organisms, including humans, and the functioning of the planet itself. In order for society to form informed opinions and take effective actions related to its welfare, it must be able to understand the causes of issues of importance and to appreciate the range of possible responses and their likely effectiveness. Society must become microbiology literate.

Weaponising microbes for peace.

There is much human disadvantage and unmet need in the world, including deficits in basic resources and services considered to be human rights, such as drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, healthy nutrition, access to basic healthcare, and a clean environment. Furthermore, there are substantive asymmetries in the distribution of key resources among peoples. These deficits and asymmetries can lead to local and regional crises among peoples competing for limited resources, which, in turn, can become sources of discontent and conflict.

Coupled C, H, N, S and Fe biogeochemical cycles operating in the continental deep subsurface of the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

Microbial activity is a major contributor to the biogeochemical cycles that make up the life support system of planet Earth. A 613 m deep geomicrobiological perforation and a systematic multi-analytical characterization revealed an unexpected diversity associated with the rock matrix microbiome that operates in the subsurface of the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB). Members of 1 class and 16 genera were deemed the most representative microorganisms of the IPB deep subsurface and selected for a deeper analysis.

Bacterial tRNA landscape revisited.

The updated Wobble Hypothesis reasonably explains why some 40 tRNA species are sufficient to decode the 61 amino acid codons of the Universal Genetic Code. However, we still have no clue why eubacteria lack tRNA isoacceptors with ANN anticodons, whereas eukaryotes universally lack eight GNN anticodons, only one of which is also absent in bacteria. Direct tRNA sequencing could resolve the patterns of nucleoside modification that had been driving the divergent evolution in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, but this task will require the development of AI-supported base-callers that can recognize modified nucleosides without any subsequent analytical verification.

Microbial biotechnology to assure national security of supplies of essential resources: energy, food and water, medical reagents, waste disposal and a circular economy.

The core responsibility of governments is the security of their citizens, and this means protecting their safety, nutrition and health. Microbiology and microbial biotechnology have key roles to play in improving supply security of essential resources. In this paper, we discuss the urgent need to fully and immediately exploit existing microbial biotechnologies to maximize supply security of energy, food and medical supplies, and of waste management, and to invest in new research specifically targetting supply security of essential resources.

Multiple intertwined crises facing humanity necessitate a European Environmental Research Organization.

The planet is experiencing all manner of environmental crises, and crises that have their origins in the environment, including global warming, pollution of the air, soil, marine systems and freshwater, loss of habitats and species extinctions, transmission of deadly animal infections to humans, the spread of antimicrobial resistance, to name just a few. Planetary boundaries are being successively breached. Devising and implementing optimal solution and mitigation strategies urgently requires the best possible scientific brains to be harnessed and focused on environmental crises.

Microbial Biotechnology is 15! An adventure in journal parenting.

This year, 2022, Microbial Biotechnology (MBT) celebrates its 15th birthday. In journal terms, 15 is adulthood. It has been a privilege to develop the idea, launch the journal, nurture it in its infancy and stimulate and support it during its adolescence and early adulthood.

The darkest microbiome-a post-human biosphere.

Microbial technology is exceptional among human activities and endeavours in its range of applications that benefit humanity, even exceeding those of chemistry. What is more, microbial technologists are among the most creative scientists, and the scope of the field continuously expands as new ideas and applications emerge. Notwithstanding this diversity of applications, given the dire predictions for the fate of the surface biosphere as a result of current trajectories of global warming, the future of microbial biotechnology research must have a single purpose, namely to help secure the future of life on Earth.

COVID-19: long covid and its societal consequences.

COVID-19 is an acute, highly transmissible respiratory infection that is potentially lethal, but often mild, sometimes asymptomatic, especially in the young. However, it has become clear that, in some patients, there may be sequelae involving tissues other than the lung, resulting in other types of morbidity, and sometimes longer term consequences that are often termed 'long covid'. In this Lilliput, we summarize recent findings about COVID-19 sequelae, with a particular focus on long covid.

SARS-CoV-2 biology and variants: anticipation of viral evolution and what needs to be done.

The global propagation of SARS-CoV-2 and the detection of a large number of variants, some of which have replaced the original clade to become dominant, underscores the fact that the virus is actively exploring its evolutionary space. The longer high levels of viral multiplication occur - permitted by high levels of transmission -, the more the virus can adapt to the human host and find ways to success. The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is starting in different parts of the world, emphasizing that transmission containment measures that are being imposed are not adequate.

Microbiome Yarns: bacterial predators, tissue tropism and molecular decoys.

This Crystal Ball speculates on the potential of molecular decoys for prevention and therapy in infectious diseases. It is dedicated to the memory of Singh Chhatwal, who pioneered research on disguises and decoys produced by Streptococcus, and so much more.