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Last update: 2026-10-28
2026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Ravi Pal, Matthias P. Machner
Pathogenic bacteria are remarkably inventive when it comes to manipulating their hosts. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, McCaffrey et al. identify a previously uncharacterized bacterial effector from Legionella pneumophila that modifies not host proteins but messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to dampen the host inflammatory response.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0132026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Ming Qi, Xiaoyan Liu, Frank J. Gonzalez
Qi et al. review advances in diverse microbe-mediated modifications of bile acids (BAs) and the development of AI-assisted pipelines for discovering metabolic reactions. They examine microbiota-BA interactions and the multifaceted immunomodulatory effects of BAs in intestinal diseases, offering a roadmap for BA-based preventative and therapeutic strategies.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0102026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Huimin Zheng, Pan Li, Xia Chen
In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Chen et al. show that a gut microbial metabolite reprograms adipose ceramide metabolism to influence ovarian function. By placing adipose tissue between microbial and reproductive signaling, the study reveals how inter-organ communication couples the metabolic and ovarian dimensions of polycystic ovary syndrome.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0052026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Na Jiao, Lixin Zhu, Ruixin Zhu
Tumor genetics and the microbiome both shape colorectal cancer, but their reciprocal interplay remains poorly defined. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Jiao et al. show that mutant KRAS favors Bacteroides acidifaciens, which signals back through a SusF-ARHGEF2 axis to reinforce RAS-MAPK signaling.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0072026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Mangesh V. Suryavanshi, Aaron W. Miller
Qi et al. identify Corynebacterium glucuronolyticum-like bacteria as urinary pathobionts that promote calcium oxalate crystallization through two complementary mechanisms: degradation of the crystallization inhibitor hippuric acid and biofilm-mediated crystal aggregation. The work reframes microbiome contributions to stones as discrete, targetable microbial functions rather than generalized dysbiosis.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0062026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Guolei Zhao, Teresa R. O’Meara
Skin colonization is central to Candidozyma auris success as a healthcare-associated pathogen. In a recent Science paper, Merrill et al. show that during skin colonization, C. auris occupies hair follicles and exposes chitin, which is associated with induction of IFNγ responses that remodel follicular keratinocytes to promote fungal persistence.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0042026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Abigail E. Rose, Wenhan Zhu
Two recent papers in Cell Host & Microbe move microbiome therapeutics beyond selecting “beneficial” strains. By turning bacterial surfaces into oral vaccine couriers and resident microbial metabolism into a controllable reactor, they show how location, control, and measurable output can transform the gut into a precision platform for cancer immunotherapy.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0082026-10-14 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Fangfang Li, Xue Li, Aiming Wang
Whether mobile virus-derived siRNAs can pre-immunize uninfected plant tissues has been a long-standing assumption in plant biology. In this issue, Albertini et al. demonstrate that they indeed establish an AGO1-dependent immune zone of adjacent uninfected short-range cells, and this mobile pre-immunization is impacted by viral suppressors of RNA silencing.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0082026-10-05 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Kimberly S. Vasquez, Daniel P.G.H. Wong, Kent Kotaka, Saria McKeithen-Mead, Miguel F. Pedro, Feiqiao Brian Yu, Sunit Jain, Xiandong Meng, Steven K. Higginbottom, Brian C. DeFelice, Norma Neff, Ami Bhatt, Carolina Tropini, Karina B. Xavier, Justin L. Sonnenburg, Benjamin H. Good, Kerwyn Casey Huang
Vasquez et al. use high-resolution lineage tracking to follow tens of thousands of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron lineages in the mouse gut. They show that rapid evolution can overcome colonization resistance, enabling adaptive strains to spread between hosts, while community diversity reshapes the evolutionary landscape without preventing adaptation and transmission.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0022026-09-30 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Chao Pan, Taotao Zhou, Liqin Ye, Canyu Yang, Qinyu Li, Hongyu Liu, Fenqing Tang, Gulixian Aili, Shidong Zhou, Yong Gan
An oral enzyme-responsive co-delivery nanoplatform is designed to achieve controlled release of tryptophan and the metabolism inhibitor NLG919, specifically in the large intestine. This design redirects tryptophan metabolism toward immunostimulatory microbial indole derivative production, while blocking the immunosuppressive kynurenine pathway, thereby synergistically eliciting robust antitumor immunity in colorectal cancer.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0112026-09-09 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Hao Liu, Huiling Shang, Hui Chen, Chuhui Zhou, Bin Luo, Di Zhao, Zhengxiu Xiao, Yimin Cui, Yuhang Zhang, Ri-hua Xie
(Cell Host & Microbe 34, 942–958.e1–e15; May 13, 2026)
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.09.0032026-09-09 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Weixuan Chen, Min Zhao, Sen Yan, Meng Li, Chuan Ye, Chuyu Yun, Lingkai Zhang, Yuejian Mao, Zhiyuan Yan, Yongping Wen, Yong Ding, Xinyu Qi, Kai Wang, Changtao Jiang, Yanli Pang
Chen et al. reveal that C. aerofaciens mitigates PCOS pathology through activation of the adipose HIF-2α-ceramide signaling pathway. C. aerofaciens activates this pathway through production of indole-3-acetamide (IAM). Construction of an engineered probiotic strain expressing IAM synthase to stably produce IAM shows therapeutic efficacy in a mouse PCOS model.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0152026-09-08 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Kuan Qi, Huahui Wu, Shuqing Yan, Xiao Xiao, Heng Zhang, Zhiyong Shen, Rong Chen, Aisi Fu, Yuxiang Tan, Yongzhi Wang, Yang Gao, Dongai Yao, Zixin Deng, Tongzu Liu, Hua Xu, Tiangang Liu, Ran Liu
Qi et al. identify Corynebacterium glucuronolyticum-like (C. glucuronolyticum-like) bacteria enriched in the urine of calcium oxalate (CaOx) stone patients and show that they promote CaOx crystallization through hippuric acid degradation and biofilm formation. Hippuric acid or cranberry prevents C. glucuronolyticum-like bacteria-driven crystallization, providing a microbiota-based preventive strategy.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0092026-09-07 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Xiaoshan Xie, Yue Wei, Jiaying Zheng, Zhikai Zheng, Xijie Chen, Jiarui Wang, Ning Ma, Xiaoling Huang, Peng Zhang, Boyu Zhang, Hanyong Cai, Li Ma, Lishi Xiao, Qingxin Liu, Wenyu Wang, Sachiyo Nomura, Shi Chen, Xiangqi Meng, Mong-Hong Lee
Xie et al. reveal that Streptococcus anginosus promotes gastric immune evasion via extracellular vesicles that deliver a bacterial chromatin remodeler to host cells, co-opting TEAD1 to upregulate ZDHHC11 and stabilize PD-L1 through palmitoylation. Targeting this axis potentiates anti-PD-1 therapy, offering a potential strategy to improve immunotherapy in SA-positive gastric cancer.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0112026-09-04 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Ying Jiao, Cillian Hao Cheng, Xiang Gao, Weixun Li, Fenfen Ji, Cong Liang, Pingmei Huang, Lok Hin Ko, Liufang Ye, Issac Chung Hin Kam, Alvin Ho-Kwan Cheung, Wei Kang, Jun Yu, Chi Chun Wong
Jiao et al. identify Bacteroides acidifaciens as a bacterial pathogen that accumulates in CRC patients and mice harboring oncogenic mutant KRAS. B. acidifaciens selectively promotes the tumorigenesis of KRAS-mutant CRC via the SusF-ARHGEF2 axis, forming a positive feedforward signaling cascade. Targeting B. acidifaciens or SusF-ARHGEF2 crosstalk may suppress KRAS-mutant CRC progression.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0102026-09-02 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Daniele Albertini, Emanuel A. Devers, Gregory Schott, Rajendran Rajeswaran, Maëlle Jacquemettaz, Olivier Voinnet
The movement of virus-derived (v)siRNAs between plant cells has prompted the widespread yet unproven assumption that they help immunize as-yet-uninfected tissues. Albertini et al. now show that reiterated 3–4 cell immunization events mediated by mobile vsiRNAs drive the core of plant antiviral RNAi and may paradoxically benefit certain viruses.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0052026-09-02 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Yushan Xia, Hua Qi, Xin-Yang Wei, Jun-Tao Zhang, Wenao Hu, Yu-Jun Liu, Xin-Yi Song, Xue Liu, Chongyuan Wang, Ning Jia
Xia et al. discovered that phage SSB/SSAP or NrdAB-mediated dGTP elevation activates DRT2 to synthesize a repetitive neo gene by rolling-circle reverse transcription. The resulting Neo protein depolarizes bacterial membranes and induces cell death, while the DRT2 ncRNA template can be reprogrammed for user-defined DNA synthesis.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.08.0062026-08-21 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Kathleen McCaffrey, Stefan Gaussmann, Garrett Z. Ng, Tristan Dewald, Mark Helm, Frederic Allain, Elizabeth L. Hartland
McCaffrey et al. describe the isolation of a secreted bacterial enzyme from Legionella pneumophila that mediates 8-oxo-guanine (oxo8G) modifications of host mRNAs to inhibit their expression. This study demonstrates how a bacterial pathogen can exploit mRNA modifications to limit host responses to infection and promote virulence.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.07.0182026-08-17 · Volume 34 · Issue 10
Gala Ramón-Zamorano, Sheila Mainye, Jessica Kimmel, Inge de Krijger, Abhishek Kanyal, Vendula Horáčková, Jonas Gockel, Martijn van den Broek, Yangyang Guo, Michaela Petter, Max Graser, Andrés Guillén-Samander, Michiel Vermeulen, Tobias Spielmann, Richárd Bártfai
Proteins are major players in the regulation of chromatin organization, which is poorly characterized in organisms such as the malaria parasite. Ramon-Zamorano et al. provided a comprehensive characterization of chromatin-associated proteins, which revealed critical insights into the biology of the parasite related to gene regulation, transmission, and cell cycle control.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.07.016