Philippa Kaur

Download the Nature Podcast 26 March 2025In this episode:00:46 Newly discovered molecule shows potent antibiotic activityResearchers have identified a new molecule with antibiotic activity against a range of disease-causing bacteria, including those resistant to existing drugs. The new molecule — isolated from soil samples taken from a laboratory technician’s garden — is called lariocidin due to its lasso-shaped structure. The team say that in addition to its potent antibiotic activity, the molecule also shows low toxicity towards human cells, making it a promising molecule in the fight against drug-resistant infections.Research Article: Jangra et al.Nature News: New antibiotic that kills drug-resistant bacteria discovered in technician’s garden09:36 Research HighlightsA reduction in ships’ sulfur emissions linked to a steep drop in thunderclouds, and the epic sea-voyage that let iguanas reach Fiji.Research Highlight: Ship-pollution cuts have an electrifying effect: less lightning at seaResearch Highlight: Iguanas reached Fiji by floating 8,000 kilometres across the sea13:54 Assessing the nuances of humans’ biodiversity impactsA huge study analysing data from thousands of research articles has shown that the human impacts on biodiversity are large but are in some cases context dependent. The new study reveals that at larger scales, communities of living things are becoming more similar due to human influence, but at the smaller scale they are becoming more different. “These are generally unwanted effects on biodiversity,” says study author Florian Altermatt, “this is one more very strong argument that stopping and reducing these pressures to halt and reverse biodiversity declines is needed.”Research article: Keck et al.21:45 Briefing ChatHow a proposed green-energy facility in Chile could increase light pollution at one of the world’s most powerful telescopes, and how a calving Antarctic iceberg revealed an unseen aquatic ecosystem.Nature: Light pollution threatens fleet of world-class telescopes in Atacama DesertScientific American: Stunning Antarctic Sea Creatures Discovered after Iceberg Breaks AwaySubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too. More

Microorganisms have shaped Earth for almost four billion years. At least a trillion microbial species sustain the biosphere — for instance, by producing oxygen or sequestering carbon1. Microbes thrive in extreme environments and use diverse energy sources, from methane to metals. And they can catalyse complex reactions under ambient temperatures and pressures with remarkable efficiency.The potential to exploit these microbial abilities to substantially reduce the impact of human activities on the planet has been recognized by many2. And bacteria or fungi are already being used to produce materials, fuels and fertilizers in ways that reduce energy consumption and the use of fossil-fuel feedstocks, as well as to clean up waste water and contaminants3.Despite their wide-ranging potential, however, microbe-based technologies remain largely overlooked in international plans to combat climate change or reduce the loss of biodiversity4. For example, discussions about the role of microbial technologies in achieving fossil-free alternatives to current products and processes were minimal or absent at the United Nations conferences of the parties (COPs) in 2023 and 2024 on climate change, and on biodiversity in 2022 and 2024 (see Nature 636, 17–18; 2024).Is the COP29 climate deal a historic breakthrough or letdown? Researchers reactTo better leverage microbiology in addressing climate change and other sustainability challenges, the International Union of Microbiological Societies and the American Society for Microbiology brought us (the authors) together in December 2023 — as a group of microbiologists, public-health scientists and economists with expertise in health, energy, greenhouse gases, agriculture, soil and water. In a series of meetings, we have assessed whether certain microbe-based technologies that are already on the market could contribute to sustainable solutions that are scalable, ethical and economically viable. We have identified cases in which the technical feasibility of an approach has already been demonstrated and in which solutions could become competitive with today’s fossil-based approaches in 5–15 years.This work has convinced us that microbe-based interventions offer considerable promise as technological solutions for addressing climate change and — by reducing pollution and global warming — biodiversity loss. Here, we explain why they could be so important5 and highlight some of the issues that we think microbiologists, climate scientists, ecologists and public-health scientists, along with corporations, economists and policymakers, will need to consider to deploy such solutions at scale6.Microbial possibilitiesThe use of genomics, bioengineering tools and advances in artificial intelligence are greatly enhancing researchers’ abilities to design proteins, microbes or microbial communities. Using these and other approaches, microbiologists could help to tackle three key problems.First, many products manufactured from fossil fuels (energy, other fuels and chemicals) could be produced by ‘feeding’ microbes with waste plastics, carbon dioxide, methane or organic matter such as sugar cane or wood chips.Microbes that grow underneath artificial floating islands can transform lakes from net methane sources into carbon sinks.Credit: WaterClean TechnologiesAmong the many companies applying microbe-based solutions to address climate change, LanzaTech, a carbon-upcycling company in Skokie, Illinois, is working on producing aviation fuel on a commercial scale from the ethanol produced when microbes metabolize industrial waste gases or sugar cane. Meanwhile, the firm NatureWorks in Plymouth, Minnesota, is producing polymers, fibres and bioplastics using the microbial fermentation of feedstocks, such as cassava, sugar cane and beets. Second, microbes could be used to clean up pollution — from greenhouse gases, crude oil, plastics and pesticides to pharmaceuticals.For instance, a start-up firm called Carbios, based in Clermont-Ferrand, France, has developed a modified bacterial enzyme that breaks down and recycles polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most common single-use plastics. Another company — Oil Spill Eater International in Dallas, Texas — uses microbes to clean up oil spills, and large waste-management corporations in North America are using bacteria called methanotrophs to convert the methane produced from landfill (a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2) into ethanol, biofuels, polymers, biodegradable plastics and industrial chemicals.Drill, baby drill? Trump policies will hurt climate ― but US green transition is underwayThe company Floating Island International in Shepherd, Montana, is even building artificial floating islands on lakes and reservoirs that have been polluted by excessive nutrient run-off, so that methane-metabolizing microbes (which colonize the underside of the islands) can remove methane originating from lake sediments. The goal in this case is to transform inland lakes and reservoirs from net methane sources into carbon sinks.Finally, microbes could be used to make food production less reliant on chemical fertilizers and so more sustainable.The chemical process needed to produce ammonia for fertilizer involves burning fossil fuels to obtain the high temperatures and pressures needed (up to 500 °C and 200 atmospheric pressures), releasing 450 megatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year (1.5% of all CO2 emissions)7. Furthermore, excess chemical fertilizers that flow into rivers, lakes and oceans cause algal blooms, which enhance the emission of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than either CO2 or methane.Many bacteria and archaea can be used to produce nitrogen fertilizer with much lower greenhouse-gas emissions than synthetic fertilizers. This is because the microbes fix nitrogen at room temperature and at sea-level atmospheric pressure using enzymes known as nitrogenases that convert atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into ammonia (NH3).Several companies are now selling biofertilizers, which are formulations containing bacteria called rhizobia or other microbes that can increase the availability of nutrients to plants (see ‘Towards a bioeconomy’ and go.nature.com/3fs2xqf). A growing number of microbial biopesticides are also offering food producers a way to control crop pests without harming human or animal health or releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere8.Source: https://www.precedenceresearch.com/fertilizer-marketKeeping it safeAs more microbe-based solutions enter the market — whether bioengineered or naturally existing — biosafety considerations will become increasingly important.Many solutions, such as using bacteria to degrade crude oil or plastics, have been shown to be effective and safe in a laboratory setting9. Yet scaling up their use to the levels needed to reduce global emissions or global biodiversity loss could lead to unforeseen complications.Bacteria are being designed to break down plastic waste.Credit: Carbios–AgenceSkotchProd Certain safeguards — designing bacteria that can persist in an ecosystem for only a short time or that can exist under only specific environmental conditions — are already being developed and applied4. And, in a similar way to phased clinical trials in biomedical research, laboratory experiments could be followed by contained tests in the outdoor environment, which could then be followed by larger-scale field testing. Investigators will also need to monitor systems over time, which could involve the sequencing of environmental DNA from waste water and other approaches that are used in infectious-disease surveillance.Ultimately, the effective deployment, containment and monitoring of large-scale microbe-based solutions will require scientific communities, governments and corporations to collaboratively develop evidence-based policies and engage in clear and transparent communication about the enormous opportunities and the potential risks.Making it pay

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“The Alhambra palace, overlooking Granada in southern Spain, is one of the finest preserved examples of Moorish architecture, dating back to the thirteenth century. I’m employed by the palace’s management body to study the biodiversity in this vast complex — which has more than 2.5 million visitors per year. We manage the water features and gardens, not only to enhance their aesthetic appeal but also to protect their wildlife, with a focus on amphibians.In this photograph, taken just after sunset, when amphibians are active, I’m checking the number of Iberian ribbed newts (Pleurodeles waltl) in the pool and assessing their life stages. When I began working here, only two amphibian species remained; the others had disappeared owing to water pollution. These pools are common in the Alhambra, but much of the wildlife has been lost in recent centuries. Now, thanks to reintroduction efforts and careful management, four species are thriving. The individuals I’m observing today are the direct descendants of those I released years ago.It is valuable that so many people can see these animals in an urban environment. This raises awareness about the importance of biodiversity and how engaging with it can enhance our well-being. We now maintain the pools so that they remain transparent without the use of any chemical products, which enables invertebrates to thrive and, in turn, attracts birds that prey on them. Visitors can thus enjoy a more holistic experience, appreciating not only the cultural heritage but also the richness of its wildlife.

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Iguanas colonized Fiji after surviving an 8,000-kilometre sea voyage — the longest known oceanic migration by any land-dwelling vertebrate1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00767-z

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A company that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to ‘de-extinct’ woolly mammoths and other animals has claimed a breakthrough in its quest: the creation of hairier mice.The gene-edited ‘woolly mice’ harbour a mix of mutations modelled on those of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), as well as changes known to alter hair growth in mice, Colossal Biosciences announced in a 4 March press release and accompanying preprint.Colossal, which is based in Dallas, Texas, and worth more than US$10 billion according to its latest valuation, says the woolly mouse represents an important step towards its goal of engineering Asian elephants — the mammoth’s closest living relative — with genetic changes for key mammoth traits. “The Colossal Woolly Mouse marks a watershed moment in our de-extinction mission,” said Ben Lamm, Colossal’s co-founder and chief executive, in the press release.But some experts in mammoth genetics and genome editing question whether the mice represent a significant advance in either area, let alone a milestone on the way to bringing back woolly mammoths, which last roamed Earth some 4,000 years ago.“It’s far away from making a mammoth or a ‘mammoth mouse’,” says Stephan Riesenberg, a genome engineer at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “It’s just a mouse that has some special genes.”Shaggy-hair geneAs part of its effort to engineer mammoth-like elephants, Colossal and its collaborators are working to find gene variants that contributed to key mammoth traits, such as shaggy hair, cold tolerance and extra fat stores. To do this, they compare genomes extracted from the remains of dozens of mammoths and from other living and extinct relatives of the creatures, in search of protein-altering changes that evolved on the mammoth lineage.Credit: Colossal BiosciencesTo test the accuracy of these comparisons, a team led by Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief scientist, used gene editing to create mice with mutations similar — but in most cases not identical — to those found in mammoths. Shapiro says the group also tested several gene mutations known to affect the hair of mice but not found in mammoths.The researchers used different gene-editing tools to create mice with up to eight genetic alterations spread across seven different genes. These mice tended to have long, shaggy hair that, owing to a mutation known to affect hair colour in mice, humans and mammoths, was tawny-toned instead of the usual dark grey. “Adorability was one of the unintended consequences that we did not expect,” Lamm says. Mice with a mammoth-inspired change to a gene involved in fat metabolism were no heavier than were mice with unedited genes.The mice are only a few months old, and the researchers have not had much time to investigate how the mutations might affect their long-term health, including their fertility and propensity to develop cancers. The researchers plan to test whether the mice are any better at handling the cold than other mice, and to study their hair development.Lamm says the company has no plans to breed or sell the mice commercially. But for about $3,500, scientists can purchase a shaggy-haired mouse strain known as ‘wooly’ from the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, which first bred the mice more than two decades ago. Researchers later showed that the strain carries a mutation in a gene called Fam83g — one of the genes inactivated in Colossal’s woolly mice. The woolly mammoth’s closest living relative is the Asian elephant.Credit: Darryl Brooks/AlamyShowing that changes found in mammoth genomes can affect mouse biology is a useful proof of principle, says Alfred Roca, a population geneticist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who sees the experiments as a step towards engineering elephants with mammoth traits. “It’s a very nice visualization of where you want to end up in the mammoth.”Mammoth genomics

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“In this photo, I’m monitoring gulls near Sandgerði, a small fishing village in southwest Iceland. This area is a volcanic peninsula, and although there’s a lot of precipitation, most of the water passes through the rocks and flows underground to the sea. So the places where fresh water is available, such as the lake in Sandgerði, attract a lot of birds.Our project is to screen for strains of avian influenza (bird flu) to study how they spread. We focus on certain species of gull with migration paths that overlap here.Lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) breed in Iceland during the summertime, and in the winter they migrate to Europe or West Africa. By contrast, the Iceland gull (Larus glaucoides) breeds farther north, in Greenland or Canada, but returns to Iceland for winter. Then there are the local ones, such as the great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) and the glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus), that are here all year round.All of that mixing means that Iceland is a key location for avian influenza viruses from Europe to move into North America, and vice versa.

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