, January 28, 2026
Regulation of extracellular vesicles for protein secretion in <i>Aspergillus nidulans</i>

Regulation of extracellular vesicles for protein secretion in Aspergillus nidulans

Rebekkah E. Pope1, Patrick Ballmann2, Lisa Whitworth3 and Rolf A. Prade1,*

This study reveals that Aspergillus nidulans boosts extracellular vesicle production when ER-trafficked enzymes are induced, uncovering how fungi remodel their secretome through vesicle-mediated secretion to adapt to changing environments and biofilm formation.

January 23, 2026
Transcriptomic response to different heme sources in <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i> epimastigotes

Transcriptomic response to different heme sources in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes

Evelyn Tevere1,a, María G. Mediavilla1,a, Cecilia B. Di Capua1, Marcelo L. Merli1, Carlos Robello2,3, Luisa Berná2,4 and Julia A. Cricco

This study uncovers how the Chagas disease parasite adapts to changes in heme, an essential molecule for its survival, providing transcriptional clues to heme metabolism and identifying a previously unreported heme-binding protein in T. cruzi.

, January 21, 2026

Sir2 regulates selective autophagy in stationary-phase yeast cells

Ji-In Ryua, Juhye Junga, and Jeong-Yoon Kim

This study establishes Sir2 as a previously unrecognized regulator of selective autophagy during the stationary phase and highlight how cells dynamically control organelle degradation.

November 26, 2021

Chromosome-condensed G1 phase yeast cells are tolerant to desiccation stress

Zhaojie Zhang1 and Gracie R. Zhang2

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss for a long time. However, less is known about the mechanism of its desiccation tolerance. In this study, we revealed that in an exponential culture, all desiccation tolerant yeast cells were in G1 phase and had condensed chromosomes. (…)

November 25, 2021

Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its first variants in fourplex real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assays

Mathieu Durand1, Philippe Thibault1, Simon Lévesque2,3, Ariane Brault4, Alex Carignan2, Louis Valiquette2, Philippe Martin2 and Simon Labbé4

The early diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is required to identify and isolate contagious patients to prevent further transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we present a multitarget real-time TaqMan reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) assay for the quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 and some of its circulating variants harboring mutations that give the virus a selective advantage. Seven different primer-probe sets that included probes containing locked nucleic acid (LNA) nucleotides were designed to amplify specific wild-type and mutant sequences in Orf1ab, Envelope (E), Spike (S), and Nucleocapsid (N) genes (…)

, October 27, 2021

Forced association of SARS-CoV-2 proteins with the yeast proteome perturb vesicle trafficking

Cinzia Klemm1,#, Henry Wood1,#, Grace Heredge Thomas1,#, Guðjón Ólafsson1,2, Mara Teixeira Torres1 and Peter H. Thorpe1

This work demonstrates that the yeast Synthetic Physical Interactions method is a rapid way to identify potential functions of ectopic viral proteins.

, July 26, 2021

Airborne bacteria in show caves from Southern Spain

Irene Dominguez-Moñino1, Valme Jurado1, Miguel Angel Rogerio-Candelera1, Bernardo Hermosin1 and Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez1

This study analyzes the factors conditioning the diversity of airborne bacteria recorded in three Andalusian show caves, subjected to different managements.

, June 18, 2021

Landscapes and bacterial signatures of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in Chilean and Spanish patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Nayaret Chamorro1,#, David A. Montero1,2,#, Pablo Gallardo3, Mauricio Farfán3, Mauricio Contreras4, Marjorie De la Fuente2, Karen Dubois2, Marcela A. Hermoso2, Rodrigo Quera5,6, Marjorie Pizarro-Guajardo7,8,9, Daniel Paredes-Sabja7,8,9, Daniel Ginard10, Ramon Rosselló-Móra11 and Roberto Vidal1,8,12

This study investigates the landscapes and alterations of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, which cause chronic inflammation of the gut, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

, June 8, 2021

Genome, transcriptome and secretome analyses of the antagonistic, yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans to identify potential biocontrol genes

Maria Paula Rueda-Mejia1, Lukas Nägeli1, Stefanie Lutz2, Richard D. Hayes3, Adithi R. Varadarajan2, Igor V. Grigoriev3,4, Christian H. Ahrens2,5 and Florian M. Freimoser1

This study highlights the value of a sequential approach starting with genome mining and consecutive transcriptome and secretome analyses in order to identify a limited number of potential target genes for detailed, functional analyses in Aureobasidium pullulans.

, May 10, 2021

Barcode sequencing and a high-throughput assay for chronological lifespan uncover ageing-associated genes in fission yeast

Catalina A. Romila1,#, StJohn Townsend1,2,#, Michal Malecki1,3, Stephan Kamrad1,2,4, María Rodríguez-López1, Olivia Hillson1, Cristina Cotobal1, Markus Ralser2,5 and Jürg Bähler1

This work presents two approaches to study chronological lifespan (CLS) for medium- to high-throughput applications, a method for Bar-seq to identify mutants showing altered CLS and a novel medium-throughput colony-forming units assay that can be largely automated by robotics.

, April 29, 2021

Proanthocyanidin-enriched cranberry extract induces resilient bacterial community dynamics in a gnotobiotic mouse model

Catherine C. Neto1,2,#, Benedikt M. Mortzfeld3,#, John R. Turbitt1,2, Shakti K. Bhattarai3, Vladimir Yeliseyev4, Nicholas DiBenedetto4, Lynn Bry4 and Vanni Bucci2,3

This study investigates the effect of a water-soluble, proanthocyanidin-rich cranberry juice extract on the short-term dynamics of a human-derived bacterial community in a gnotobiotic mouse model.

, April 15, 2021

Dry biocleaning of artwork: an innovative methodology for Cultural Heritage recovery?

Giancarlo Ranalli1, Pilar Bosch-Roig2, Simone Crudele1, Laura Rampazzi3,4, Cristina Corti3 and Elisabetta Zanardini5

This work proposes an innovative methodology based on applied biotechnology for the recovery of altered stonework: the “dry biocleaning”, which envisages the use of dehydrated microbial cells without the use of free water or gel-based matrices.

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, April 11, 2018

A novel mechanism for regulation of the type I IFN response by herpesvirus deconjugases

Soham Gupta1, Päivi Ylä-Anttila1, Maria G. Masucci1

In this article, the authors comment on the study “Herpesvirus deconjugases inhibit the IFN response by promoting TRIM25 autoubiquitination and functional inactivation of the RIG-I signalosome” by Gupta et al. (PLoS Pathog, 2018), discussing the finding of a novel mechanism for regulation of the type I IFN response by herpesvirus deconjugases.

, April 4, 2018

Metabolic disharmony and sibling conflict mediated by T6SS

Vera Troselj1 and Daniel Wall1

In this article, the authors comment on the study “Physiological Heterogeneity Triggers Sibling Conflict Mediated by the Type VI Secretion System in an Aggregative Multicellular Bacterium” by Troselj et al. (MBio, 2018) discussing that M. xanthus uses T6SS to eliminate less fit cells from their population and identified toxic effector and cognate immunity protein (TsxEI) that mediates this sibling antagonism.

, March 22, 2018

Helicobacter hepaticus polysaccharide induces an anti-inflammatory response in intestinal macrophages

Camille Danne1 and Fiona Powrie1

In this article, the authors comment on the study “A Large Polysaccharide Produced by Helicobacter hepaticus Induces an Anti-inflammatory Gene Signature in Macrophages. ” by Danne et al, (Cell Host Microbe 2017), discussing the interactions between H. hepaticus and intestinal macrophages that promote mutualism.

, March 21, 2018

Endolysosomal pathway activity protects cells from neurotoxic TDP-43

Christine Leibiger1,#, Jana Deisel1,#, Andreas Aufschnaiter2, Stefanie Ambros1, Maria Tereshchenko1, Bert M. Verheijen3,4, Sabrina Büttner2,5, and Ralf J. Braun1

In this article, the authors comment on the study “TDP-43 controls lysosomal pathways thereby determining its own clearance and cytotoxicity” by Leibiger et al. (Hum Mol Genet, 2018), proposing that ameliorating endolysosomal pathway activity enhances cell survival in TDP‑43-associated diseases.

, February 18, 2018

Two distinct penicillin binding proteins promote cell division in different Salmonella lifestyles

Sónia Castanheira1, Juan J. Cestero1, Francisco García-del Portillo1, M. Graciela Pucciarelli1,2,3

In this article, the authors comment on the study “A Specialized Peptidoglycan Synthase Promotes Salmonella Cell Division inside Host Cells” by Castanheira et al. (mBio, 2017), discussing insights in two distinct penicillin binding proteins that promote cell division in different Salmonella lifestyles.

, January 16, 2018

New perspectives from South-Y-East, not all about death

A report of the 12th lnternational Meeting on Yeast Apoptosis in Bari, Italy, May 14th-18th, 2017

Nicoletta Guaragnella1,#, Mariarita Stirpe2,#, William Burhans3, Manuela Côrte-Real4, Campbell Gourlay5, Paula Ludovico6,7, Frank Madeo8,9, Dina Petranovic10, Joris Winderickx11, Cristina Mazzoni2 and Sergio Giannattasio1

In this article Guaragnella et al. report on the 12th International Meeting on Yeast Apoptosis (IMYA12), which was held in Bari, Italy from May 14th to 18th, 2017, where more than 100 participants, among which senior and young scientists from Europe, USA, North Africa and Japan, had an intense and open exchange of achievements and ideas in the field of yeast regulated cell death (RCD).

, January 12, 2018

pH homeostasis links the nutrient sensing PKA/TORC1/Sch9 ménage-à-trois to stress tolerance and longevity

Marie-Anne Deprez1,°, Elja Eskes1,°, Tobias Wilms1, Paula Ludovico2, Joris Winderickx1

In this article, Deprez et al. discuss accumulating evidence indicates that pH homeostasis plays a prominent role in the determination of ageing and longevity, thereby providing new perspectives and avenues to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms.

, January 1, 2018

Guidelines and recommendations on yeast cell death nomenclature

Didac Carmona-Gutierrez1,‡,*, Maria Anna Bauer1,‡, Andreas Zimmermann1, Andrés Aguilera2, Nicanor Austriaco3, Kathryn Ayscough4, Rena Balzan5, Shoshana Bar-Nun6, Antonio Barrientos7,8, Peter Belenky9, Marc Blondel10, Ralf J. Braun11, Michael Breitenbach12, William C. Burhans13, Sabrina Büttner1,14, Duccio Cavalieri15, Michael Chang16, Katrina F. Cooper17, Manuela Côrte-Real18, Vítor Costa19–21, Christophe Cullin22, Ian Dawes23, Jörn Dengjel24, Martin B. Dickman25, Tobias Eisenberg1,26, Birthe Fahrenkrog27, Nicolas Fasel28, Kai-Uwe Fröhlich1, Ali Gargouri29, Sergio Giannattasio30, Paola Goffrini31, Campbell W. Gourlay32, Chris M. Grant33, Michael T. Greenwood34, Nicoletta Guaragnella30, Thomas Heger35, Jürgen Heinisch36, Eva Herker37, Johannes M. Herrmann38, Sebastian Hofer1, Antonio Jiménez-Ruiz39, Helmut Jungwirth1, Katharina Kainz1, Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis40, Paula Ludovico41,42, Stéphen Manon43, Enzo Martegani44, Cristina Mazzoni45, Lynn A. Megeney46–48, Chris Meisinger49, Jens Nielsen50–52, Thomas Nyström53, Heinz D. Osiewacz54, Tiago F. Outeiro55–58, Hay-Oak Park59, Tobias Pendl1, Dina Petranovic50,51, Stephane Picot60,61, Peter Polčic62, Ted Powers63, Mark Ramsdale64, Mark Rinnerthaler65, Patrick Rockenfeller1,32, Christoph Ruckenstuhl1, Raffael Schaffrath66, Maria Segovia67, Fedor F. Severin68, Amir Sharon69, Stephan J. Sigrist70, Cornelia Sommer-Ruck1, Maria João Sousa18, Johan M. Thevelein71,72, Karin Thevissen73, Vladimir Titorenko74, Michel B. Toledano75, Mick Tuite32, F.-Nora Vögtle49, Benedikt Westermann11, Joris Winderickx76, Silke Wissing77, Stefan Wölfl78, Zhaojie J. Zhang79, Richard Y. Zhao80, Bing Zhou81, Lorenzo Galluzzi82–84,*, Guido Kroemer84–90,*, Frank Madeo1,26,*

In this review, we propose unified criteria for the definition of accidental, regulated, and programmed forms of cell death in yeast based on a series of morphological and biochemical criteria. Specifically, we provide consensus guidelines on the differential definition of terms including apoptosis, regulated necrosis, and autophagic cell death, as we refer to additional cell death routines that are relevant for the biology of yeast.

, December 31, 2017

Burkholderia gladioli strain NGJ1 deploys a prophage tail-like protein for mycophagy

Rahul Kumar1, Sunil Kumar Yadav1, Durga Madhab Swain1 and Gopaljee Jha1

In this article, the authors comment on the study “A prophage tail-like protein is deployed by Burkholderia bacteria to feed on fungi” by Swain et al. (Nature Communications, 2017), discussing that a prophage tail-like protein (Bg_9562) is essential for mycophagy. The protein may help the bacteria to survive in certain ecological niches and, considering its broad-spectrum antifungal activity, may be potentially useful in biotechnological applications to control fungal diseases.

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, August 5, 2021

The long and winding road of reverse genetics in Trypanosoma cruzi

Miguel A. Chiurillo1 and Noelia Lander1

This Editorial provides a brief historic overview that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the molecular strategies that have been developed to genetically modify Trypanosoma cruzi, emphasizing the future directions of the field.

, April 13, 2021

Means of intracellular communication: touching, kissing, fusing

Anne Spang1

This work highlights different aspects of communication between organelles, including the importance of organellar contact sites.

, April 5, 2021

Neuropathogenesis caused by Trypanosoma brucei, still an enigma to be unveiled

Katherine Figarella1

This Editorial addresses the meningo-encephalitic stage of Trypanosoma brucei infection and the resultig neuropathogenesis as well as the impact that the application of tools developed in the last years in the field of neuroscience will have on the study of neglected tropical diseases.

, March 1, 2021

Lichens – growing greenhouses en miniature

Martin Grube1

This commentary article provides an overview on different aspects of lichen biology and the remarkable symbiotic association between fungi and algae.

, June 22, 2020

Regulation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and its effects on aging

Damiano Pellegrino-Coppola1

Aging is linked to mitochondrial function, with the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) playing a key role. Yeast is a useful model for studying how mPTP affects cell survival, aging, and related diseases.

, June 1, 2020

Fungal infections in humans: the silent crisis

Katharina Kainz1, Maria A. Bauer1, Frank Madeo1-3 and Didac Carmona-Gutierrez1

This article highlights the growing global threat of fungal infections – exacerbated by rising drug resistance and medical practices – and emphasizes the urgent need for intensified research to develop more effective antifungal strategies.

, May 4, 2020

Digesting the crisis: autophagy and coronaviruses

Didac Carmona-Gutierrez1, Maria A. Bauer1, Andreas Zimmermann1,2, Katharina Kainz1,
Sebastian J. Hofer1, Guido Kroemer3-7 and Frank Madeo1,2,8

This article reviews the multifaceted role of autophagy in antiviral defense and highlights how coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, interact with this pathway, raising the possibility that targeting autophagy could offer novel therapeutic strategies against COVID-19.

, February 10, 2020

Raman-based sorting of microbial cells to link functions to their genes

Kang Soo Lee1, Michael Wagner2,3 and Roman Stocker1

In this article, the authors comment on the study “An automated Raman-based platform for the sorting of live cells by functional properties” by Lee et al. (Nat Microbiol, 2019), which presents a high-throughput optofluidic platform that integrates Raman microspectroscopy and microfluidics to accurately link microbial phenotypes to genotypes within complex communities, enabling efficient functional sorting and analysis of microbiome members.

, December 17, 2019

Viral attenuation by Endonuclease G during yeast gametogenesis: insights into ancestral roles of programmed cell death?

Jie Gao1, Sabrina Chau1 and Marc D. Meneghini1

This article relates to the study “Meiotic viral attenuation through an ancestral apoptotic pathway” by Gao et al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci, 2019), which shows that programmed cell death may have evolved as a viral defence mechanism, as demonstrated by yeast studies showing that the mitochondrial nuclease Nuc1 translocates to the cytosol during meiosis to attenuate dsRNA viruses, linking viral control to meiotic cell death processes.

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Microbial Cell

is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes exceptionally relevant research works that implement the use of unicellular organisms (and multicellular microorganisms) to understand cellular responses to internal and external stimuli and/or human diseases.

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FAQs

Whether you’re preparing a manuscript, reviewing a paper, or just exploring the journal, this FAQ answers the essentials—from scope and founders to impact and how to submit. Prefer a tailored path? Pick For authors or For reviewers below.

Peer-reviewed, open-access research using unicellular organisms (and multicellular microorganisms) to understand cellular responses and human disease.

The journal (founded in 2014) is led by its Editors-in-Chief Frank Madeo, Didac Carmona-Gutierrez, and Guido Kroemer

Microbial Cell has been publishing original scientific literature since 2014, and from the very beginning has been managed by active scientists through an independent Publishing House (Shared science Publishers). The journal was conceived as a platform to acknowledge the importance of unicellular organisms, both as model systems as well as in the biological context of human health and disease.

Ever since, Microbial Cell has very positively developed and strongly grown into a respected journal in the unicellular research community and even beyond. This scientific impact is reflected in the yearly number of citations obtained by articles published in Microbial Cell, as recorded by the Web of Science (Clarivate, formerly Thomson/Reuters):

The scientific impact of Microbial Cell is also mirrored in a series of milestones:

2015: Microbial Cell is included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), a selection of developing journals drafted by Clarivate Analytics based on the candidate’s publishing standards, quality, editorial content, and citation data. Note: As an ESCI-selected journal, Microbial Cell is currently being evaluated in a rigorous and long process to determine an inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), which allows the official calculation of Clarivate Analytics’ impact factor.

2016: Microbial Cell is awarded the so-called DOAJ Seal by the selective Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ Seal is an exclusive mark of certification for open access journals granted by DOAJ to journals that adhere to outstanding best practice and achieve an extra high and clear commitment to open access and high publishing standards.

2017: Microbial Cell is included in Pubmed Central (PMC), allowing the archiving of all the journal’s articles in PMC and PubMed.

2019: Microbial Cell is indexed in the prestigious abstract and citation database Scopus after a thorough selection process. This also means that Microbial Cell obtains, for the first time, an official Scopus CiteScore as well as an official journal ranking in the Scimago Journal and Country Ranking.

2022: Microbial Cell’s CiteScore reaches a value of 7.2 for the year 2021, positioning Microbial Cell among the top microbiology journals (previously available CiteScores: 2019: 5.4; 2020: 5.1).

2022: Microbial Cell is indexed in the highly selective Science Citation Index Expanded™, which covers approx. 9,500 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. In their journal selection and curation process, Clarivate´s editors apply 24 ‘quality’ criteria and four ‘impact’ criteria to select the most influential journals in their respective fields. This selection is also a pre-requisite for inclusion in the JCR, which features the impact factor.

2022: Microbial Cell is listed in the Journal Citation Reports™ (JCR), and obtains its first official Journal Impact Factor™ (JIF) for the year 2021: 5.316.

Check Article Types and Manuscript Preparation guidelines. Submit online via Scholastica.