Electric vehicles (EVs) use high-powered rechargeable batteries to store electrical energy that powers their motors. Most EV batteries use a specific mixture of metals to hold the battery’s charge, called nanoscale lithiated nickel manganese cobalt oxides, aka NMC materials. NMC materials can store a large amount of energy, making them ideal for batteries, but the metals themselves can be toxic in soil and water if the batteries are not properly recycled.  

NMC batteries leave behind a specific combination of toxic metals, so researchers can study how bacteria respond to this waste when it enters the environment. By understanding how bacteria adapt to toxic metals, scientists hope to predict how new technologies like EV batteries will affect the environment. 

In 2019, a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota reported that a common soil bacterium called Shewanella oneidensis can rapidly evolve resistance to NMC materials, but they didn’t know how. True beneficial gene evolution usually develops over thousands of generations, but Shewanella oneidensis adapted much more quickly. The team recently conducted a follow-up study to determine the genetic mechanisms behind this bacterium’s unique metal resistance.

They started by analyzing the complete DNA sequences of 33 Shewanella colonies that were resistant to either pure NMC waste or individual metals like nickel and cobalt, using a process called whole-genome sequencing. They expected to find DNA mutations in genes that control how bacteria take up and expel toxic metals that would give the resistant Shewanella an advantage in surviving NMC metal toxicity. However, they didn’t find any DNA mutations in metal-related genes. Instead, they found that a specific DNA region was duplicated 10 to 15 times in all 33 NMC-resistant or metal-resistant colonies. This result suggested to the researchers that a temporary adaptation, not true gene evolution, was responsible for the bacteria’s metal resistance. 

The researchers wanted to know more about the duplicated DNA region in metal-resistant Shewanella, so they focused on 2 gene duplication mechanisms that might serve as temporary adaptations in Shewanella. The first mechanism directly duplicates DNA regions to create extra copies of a gene, via a process called gene duplication amplification. The second mechanism moves DNA segments, called mobile genetic elements, into different DNA sections to create extra copies of a gene. 

To test whether either of these mechanisms was causing the gene duplication in Shewanella, the team grew the bacteria in different liquid media containing only cobalt, only nickel, or cobalt and nickel together. The researchers used a technique that measures the exact amount of DNA in a given sequence, called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), to calculate how many duplicated DNA regions were in each genome sequence. They found that neither cobalt nor nickel alone triggered DNA duplication. But the bacteria grown in the media with cobalt and nickel together had 8 additional copies of the DNA region. This suggested that something about the combination of nickel and cobalt triggered gene duplication. 

To determine whether this gene duplication only occurred with nickel and cobalt, the team substituted copper and zinc for nickel in the growth media. They exposed Shewanella cells to different combinations of these metals using a grid pattern in a 96-well plate, a technique called a checkerboard assay. Then they repeated the qPCR process to measure the duplicated DNA region. They found that no other combinations of metals triggered gene duplication, suggesting that nickel and cobalt are especially toxic together, and that the gene duplication responds to this combined toxicity.

Finally, the researchers identified the function of the duplicated DNA region. They found that one of the genes within the region turned on a special protein that pushes metal ions and other toxins out of the cell, called an efflux pump protein. The team hypothesized that this efflux pump protein was responsible for removing cobalt and nickel from the bacteria’s cells. To test this theory, they grew modified Shewanella cells without the efflux pump gene in media containing cobalt, nickel, or cobalt and nickel together. They found that the modified bacteria grew well in the nickel-only treatment, but didn’t grow in the cobalt-only or combined treatments, which indicated that the efflux pump protein is necessary for Shewanella to resist cobalt toxicity. 

Based on their experiments, the team concluded that nickel and cobalt together trigger a gene duplication event in Shewanella oneidensis. This gene duplication event increases the number of efflux proteins in Shewanella that can expel cobalt and underlies its unique NMC resistance. They suggested that future researchers study temporary adaptations similar to gene duplication in bacteria to track how they respond to electronic waste and other new technologies.

The post How do bacteria adapt to toxic metal waste? appeared first on Sciworthy.

By burying thousands of pairs of cotton underwear across Switzerland, scientists uncovered striking differences in biological activity from one type of land to another. The results showed that gardens had especially active soils, while lawns were much quieter underground. Soil supports the global food system while also storing water, carbon, and essential nutrients. It is [...]

New findings raise questions about the role of microbes living in the lungs. More than 35 trillion bacteria live throughout the human body, forming microbiomes in the gut, mouth, lungs, skin, and urogenital tract. Researchers increasingly recognize that these microbial communities are connected to both health and disease, but much about what individual microbes do [...]

An unusual immune signature in lung cancer has led researchers toward a potential therapy involving tumor microbes and MAIT cells. Bacteria living inside lung tumors may be doing more than simply occupying the tumor environment. In preclinical research from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, researchers found that [...]

For more than a decade, scientists have known that strange bacteria living in aquatic mud can conduct electricity along distances thousands of times longer than a single bacterial cell. Such long-range electrical conduction should be extraordinarily difficult for a living organism, and how they accomplish the feat has remained a biological mystery.

Now, researchers say they have found the wiring. Inside so-called cable bacteria, scientists have discovered an elaborate network of nickel-rich nanoribbons arranged into what amounts to a naturally grown electrical cable.

The structure is unlike the conventional machinery biology normally uses to move electrons and may represent the first known example of a metal-organic framework produced by a living organism.

What surprised lead study author Dr. Filip Meysman, a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, most was not how alien the structure looked, but how familiar it was.

“It had a very familiar feeling: a braided wire consisting of thin individual wires surrounded by a protective shell layer,” Meysman told The Debrief. “This is very similar to the power cords that we use to charge our smartphones, only the cable bacterial version is 20,000 times smaller in size. Evolution came up with this design 600 million years earlier than electrical engineers.”

Meysman’s comparison is not simply rhetorical. Molecular-clock estimates suggest the cable bacteria lineage may have diverged roughly 560 million years ago, although when their unusual electrical capabilities evolved is still unknown.

Published in Nature Communications, the findings could eventually provide researchers with a biological blueprint for creating flexible, biodegradable electronics that organisms effectively manufacture themselves.

Cable bacteria first attracted scientific attention because of their outstanding ability to move electrons over centimeter-scale distances. The multicellular organisms live in sediments where different layers offer different chemical resources. Cells buried deeper can harvest electrons from sulfide, while cells closer to oxygen-rich water dispose of them.

The result is an organism that successfully separates parts of its metabolism across space, with electrical current passing along the filament connecting them.

Scientists eventually identified dozens of parallel fibers running through the bacteria’s outer layers as the likely electrical pathways. Measurements later showed conductivity reaching levels unusual for any biological material and, in some experiments, comparable to materials used in electronic inks. The new study notes previously reported conductivity values reaching up to 500 siemens per centimeter.

But knowing where the current traveled was not the same as knowing how it traveled.

Most biological electron conduction relies on proteins containing metal-bearing cofactors, commonly iron-containing structures such as hemes or iron-sulfur clusters. Electrons typically move between those sites in a sequence of molecular transfers often described as “hopping.”

Previous research showed that cable bacteria did not fit neatly into that model. Their conducting fibers were associated with sulfur-bound nickel rather than the usual iron cofactors. At the same time, theoretical work suggested electron movement was too fast to be explained by conventional non-adiabatic hopping alone.

The mystery deepened in 2024, when some of the same researchers examined cable bacteria at temperatures approaching that of liquid helium and found that their electrical behavior matched an unusually efficient multistep hopping mechanism. But even then, the extraordinary conductivity challenged standard models of electrons simply hopping between isolated molecular sites.

The new structural work may help explain why.

Rather than a series of small, separated metal cofactors, the researchers have now found an extended nickel-organic structure running through the conductive fibers.

Using electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and computer modeling, the team found that each conductive fiber contains roughly 11 extraordinarily thin nanoribbons, about 1.4 nanometers across.

Those ribbons pass through the center of the fiber and are built from repeating nickel bis-dithiolene complexes, which the researchers call NiBiD. Nickel atoms are linked through sulfur-containing organic molecules, creating planar units that appear to stack into an extended, highly ordered electrical pathway.

That arrangement may explain the extraordinary conductivity. Rather than electrons simply jumping between isolated metal centers, the stacked structure creates extensive electronic interaction and delocalization, allowing charge to spread across overlapping molecular networks. In that sense, the bacterial wire begins to resemble an organic electronic material more than a conventional biological electron-transfer chain.

The arrangement also appears mechanically well-suited to the bacteria’s lifestyle.

Cable bacteria move through sediment and can bend sharply while maintaining electrical contact between cells. A single rigid conducting strand could be vulnerable to damage. Multiple intertwined nanoribbons, however, offer something closer to braided copper wire: strength, flexibility, and redundancy at the same time.

The discovery also appears to broaden scientists’ understanding of what biology can manufacture.

Metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, are structures in which organic molecules link together metal centers into larger networks. Chemists have spent years designing them for uses ranging from gas storage and chemical separation to catalysis and electronics.

Until now, the researchers say, no one had observed a metal-organic framework configuration naturally constructed inside a living organism.

Cable bacteria appear to have arrived at the idea on their own, and this natural version appears to conduct electricity exceptionally well.

Previous electrical conductivity measurements of cable bacteria used the entire cross-section of their conductive fibers. But the new structural work indicates that the current is concentrated within a much smaller network of nanoribbons.

Recalculating conductivity based on the estimated dimensions of those conducting channels, the researchers found that an individual nanoribbon could have a conductivity of roughly 150 to 15,000 siemens per centimeter.

That range, the researchers say, ranks among the highest reported for any metal-organic structure. The upper figure remains an estimate, however, instead of a direct measurement of a single nanoribbon.

“We need to be able to isolate the individual nanoribbons from the cable bacteria and connect them electrically with electrodes,” Dr. Meysman explained. “This would provide the direct proof of the high conductivity. We are currently working on such nanoscale electrical measurements.”

Doing so would let researchers determine whether the extraordinary conductivity predicted for an individual nanoribbon holds up experimentally.

If it does, the technological implications could extend well beyond understanding an unusual microbe.

Researchers have long been interested in bio-based electronics because living systems can manufacture sophisticated materials through self-assembly while operating under relatively mild conditions. Biological materials can also be flexible and potentially biodegradable.

Their weakness has usually been electrical performance. Cable bacteria suggest nature may have found a way around that tradeoff.

Scientists still do not know exactly how cable bacteria biosynthesize the nickel-organic framework, and parts of the nanoribbon architecture remain unresolved.

But evolution has already solved one problem materials scientists would like to reproduce: how to build a highly conductive, flexible electrical pathway largely from organic components under biological conditions.

Dr. Meysman says one especially promising possibility is flexible printed electronics, where conductive inks are deposited onto surfaces to create circuits, sensors, and other electronic components.

“The material produced by the bacteria provides a flexible and conductive material, and so flexible printed electronics—conductive inks—emerges as a promising application domain,” Dr. Meysman said.

“The challenge is to demonstrate that the biomaterial can be made in a cost-effective fashion,” Meysman added, “and that it has the same—or even better—properties than the electronic ink materials currently in use.”

Ultimately, for hundreds of millions of years, bacteria buried in mud may have been growing microscopic power cables.

Scientists are only now beginning to understand how they work.

The study, “Highly efficient long-range conduction through a biosynthetic nickel-organic framework,” appeared in Nature Communications.

Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan.  Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com 

MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to behave like transistors, making it possible to build living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto growth material in a Petri dish. In conventional electronics, transistors act as switches that control whether electrical current flows. In the biological system developed at MIT, engineered bacteria perform a similar role by [...]

The plume can reach breathing height, but the actual infection risk remains uncertain.

Biologists studying how bacteria break down a new generation of plant-based bioplastics -- long-chain aliphatic polyesters -- have discovered an enzyme that can dismantle both plastic and antibiotics.

The post Scientists Discover Soil Bacteria Enzyme that Breaks Down Both Plastic and Antibiotics appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

That’s now just 1 billion years for all the apparatus to hit on the lucky combination randomly, unless we start with design principles.

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Scientists in Arkansas have developed a machine-learning approach that can identify potentially disease-causing strains of a poultry bacterium by analyzing not only which genes are present, but also how those genes are arranged across the genome. The method focuses on the “genetic neighborhoods” surrounding genes, offering a new way to distinguish harmful strains of Enterococcus cecorum from closely related strains that do not cause disease.

E. cecorum is commonly found in poultry environments, and many of its strains are harmless. However, pathogenic strains can cause arthritis, bone infections and lameness, creating serious animal-welfare problems and economic losses for poultry producers. Because pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains can share many of the same genes, identifying the genetic features associated with disease has been challenging.

The research team, led by Aranyak Goswami of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station’s Center for Agricultural Data Analytics, examined the organization of genes within genomic islands. These are segments of DNA that bacteria often acquire from other microorganisms through horizontal gene transfer. Genomic islands can carry genes involved in antibiotic resistance, bacterial survival, movement of DNA and virulence, making them important regions for understanding how pathogens emerge.

Rather than treating the bacterial genome as a simple list of genetic components, the researchers analyzed it as a structured map. They investigated which genes occurred near one another, the order in which they appeared and the way groups of neighboring genes formed recurring units known as genomic-island cassettes. This architecture provided information that could be missed when genes are examined individually.

“The machine-learning model recognizes patterns in gene order much like it recognizes patterns in language,” Goswami said. In the same way that a language model can learn that certain words frequently appear together, the computational system learned that particular combinations and arrangements of bacterial genes were associated with pathogenic strains. The approach therefore captures relationships among genes rather than relying only on the presence or absence of individual DNA sequences.

For the proof-of-concept study, the researchers analyzed the genomes of 145 E. cecorum strains isolated from poultry. The dataset included 95 nonpathogenic strains and 50 pathogenic strains capable of causing illness. The analysis found that disease-associated strains were more likely to contain genomic islands enriched in genes linked to antimicrobial resistance and the transfer of genetic material between bacteria.

Those findings do not mean that every bacterium carrying such genes will necessarily cause disease. Instead, the researchers describe the system as an exploratory classification and research tool. It identifies patterns that may help scientists investigate why some bacterial lineages become harmful, while also providing clues about how resistance and virulence traits move through bacterial populations.

Current monitoring methods for E. cecorum often depend on culturing the bacterium or screening for specific genes. Such techniques remain valuable, but they may overlook broader genomic relationships. The new pipeline could complement these approaches by evaluating the wider context in which genes occur. Additional testing with larger and more geographically diverse datasets will be necessary before the method can be used for routine flock surveillance or diagnostic decision-making.

The researchers believe the strategy could eventually be adapted to other bacterial species affecting animals, humans, wildlife and plants. Goswami’s team is beginning to examine Enterococcus faecalis, a close relative of E. cecorum and a frequent cause of hospital-acquired infections in humans. They also plan to apply the pipeline to Escherichia coli and other bacteria to study how nonpathogenic lineages acquire the genomic configurations associated with disease. The study, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, demonstrates how machine learning and comparative genomics can reveal hidden signals in bacterial DNA and may help researchers track the evolution of emerging pathogens.

Subject of Research: Animals

Article Title: Genomic-island cassette architecture provides interpretable signal for exploratory classification of poultry-associated Enterococcus cecorum lineages

News Publication Date: 7-Jul-2026

Web References: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1882753

References: Frontiers in Microbiology, DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2026.1882753

Image Credits: UA University Relations photo by Chieko Hara

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, computational biology, bacterial pathogens, Enterococcus cecorum, genomic islands, genomic architecture, antibiotic resistance, poultry disease, pathogen surveillance, comparative genomics

As parasites become increasingly resistant to existing drugs, researchers at the University of California, Riverside are working to

The global expansion of chicken farming has created conditions that allow Campylobacter to spread, mix and adapt more readily. Commercial poultry farms now hold billions of chickens, creating a vast habitat where bacteria can move, mix and adapt. An analysis from the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research at the University of Oxford found that [...]

What about attempts to test their virulence in humans? The approach in the Stanford lab sure sounds like a new form of gain-of-function research to me.

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Gut bacteria helped some adults tolerate peanuts in a first human trial.

Talk about homework: a large class of undergraduates at an unnamed university in Utah became the unfortunate subject of a severe public health response after an extraordinary bungle in a science lab.

In September of last year, the group of lab students were tasked with identifying a bacterium known as P. shigelloides, a relatively harmless pathogen known to cause diarrhea when ingested. But as lab results came in, students were alarmed to find the specimens handed out in class were actually the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, a potentially deadly pathogen that causes meningitis.

Unlike P. shigelloides, the bacterium N. meningitidis calls for high-security practices, like double gloves, disposable clothes, and fit-tested N95 masks, as the bare minimum. (In one unfortunate case from 2012, a 25-year old microbiologist whose lab was ill equipped to handle N. meningitidis died mere hours after exposure to the aerosolized microbe.)

According to People, Utah public health authorities soon raided the Utah stockroom, finding samples labeled “N. meningitidis.” That discovery prompted a recommendation that all 33 of the exposed students begin a cautionary antibiotic regimen, especially given that the lab participants were only wearing gloves and lab coats at the time of exposure.

On top of the antibiotics dose, at least two people sought medical attention due to possible exposure symptoms, which included a painful and invasive spinal tap.

It was only after the frenzy that further professional lab tests identified the offending pathogen as Neisseria sicca, a bacterium “commonly found in the upper respiratory tract” that is “nonpathogenic in immunocompetent persons,” according to a recently-filed Center for Disease Control study of the Utah lab incident.

Student misidentification notwithstanding, the event underscores the importance of accurately labeling microbial cultures — lest aspiring biologists become victims of their own studies.

More on pathogens: Meta’s AI Data Center Caught Leaking Deadly Bacteria Into Water Town Uses for Irrigation

The post 33 Students Treated for Deadly Bacteria Exposure When Classroom Experiment Goes Horribly Wrong appeared first on Futurism.

Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.

Macrobiological features have been cited as irreducibly complex, including animal joints and the trap mechanisms of carnivorous plants, even the cell itself.

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Warming is expected to fuel the spread of food-borne pathogens. We might not be prepared.

© Melanie Moser/CDC, via Associated Press

In 1982, she led the research team that figured out how to genetically alter plants, a discovery that would eventually transform global agriculture.

A gum disease bacterium may contribute to aortic valve calcification through inflammation, according to preliminary human tissue and mouse research. A bacterium best known for damaging gums may also be involved in the hardening of the heart’s aortic valve. Preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Scientific Sessions 2026 points to [...]