Jillian F. Banfield

The paper determines the near-atomic structures of spirochete flagellar filaments, revealing how sheath proteins generate curvature and enable functional specialization.

The paper identifies three new families of archaeal extrachromosomal elements and shows their relatedness is due to horizontal gene transfer, not common ancestry.

The paper discovers and engineers an orthogonal translation system using metagenomic data to expand the genetic code with non-canonical amino acids.

This study identifies microbial cohorts in rice paddies that modulate methane emissions by shifting redox processes over the growing season.

The paper designs active RNA-guided nucleases using AI and structure-guided methods, validated by cryo-EM and functional testing across species.

The paper identifies lanthanide-coordinating 8-bladed beta-propeller enzymes in eukaryotes using bioinformatics and modeling, suggesting lanthanide biology extends beyond bacteria.

The paper identifies Ln-dependent PQQ-dependent enzymes in bacteria, showing they are widespread and involved in carbon metabolism.

The paper identifies jumbo circular extrachromosomal elements in Methanoperedens archaea, which integrate into chromosomes and carry metabolic and defense genes not found in the host.

This study shows that microbial inoculation after wildfires speeds up soil recovery by restoring microbial diversity and nutrient cycling functions, particularly nitrogen transformations.

This study identifies two novel pilins, PamA and PamB, from CPR bacteria using cryo-EM, revealing unique structural and assembly features distinct from known pilus systems.

The paper examines strain-level microbial overlap across river, groundwater, and hyporheic zone environments, finding limited establishment of transported strains despite connectivity.

The paper analyzes microbial autotrophy in soils using metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data, finding widespread RuBisCO genes and prevalence in deep, saturated soils.

The paper identifies and characterizes Borgs and mini-Borgs in Methanoperedens archaea, revealing their evolutionary origins and genomic relationships.

This study uses metagenome-guided substrate selection to enrich Terriglobus, identify co-occurring taxa, and isolate a novel species from soil.

This study shows that reduced winter precipitation lowers microbial growth efficiency and shifts soil organic carbon composition in a California grassland.

The paper introduces MODIFI, a tool for detecting DNA modifications in metagenomes, and identifies ECE-host linkages in environmental and human samples.

This paper introduces the EDEN family of foundation models for AI-programmable therapeutic design, demonstrating their ability to generate functional gene insertions, antibiotic peptides, and synthetic microbiomes.

The paper shows that microbial blooms during snowmelt drive nitrogen transformations, increasing nitrogen retention through organic and inorganic pathways.

This study shows that transgenic rice genotypes overexpressing PSY genes reduce methane emissions by altering rhizosphere microbial hydrogen cycling through changes in gene activity and metabolic pathways.

The paper uses single-cell genomics to analyze MGE-host interactions in microbiomes, revealing widespread MGE presence and host range diversity across microbial lineages.

The paper analyzes Borg archaeal extrachromosomal elements using in silico methods, revealing features similar to giant eukaryotic viruses, suggesting convergent evolution.

The paper characterizes the structural and functional diversity of rubisco by synthesizing and analyzing diverse sequences, revealing a dimeric origin and a novel large rubisco structure.

The paper identifies megaplasmids in Enterobacteriaceae species, showing they are self-transmissible, encode drug resistance, and may enhance bacterial competitiveness.

The paper identifies divergent ribosomal RNA sequences in the PTC of archaea and determines their structure, revealing sequence variation and a novel hibernation factor.

The paper uses phages to manipulate Variovorax species in microbiomes, confirming thiamine interdependencies and laying groundwork for targeted microbiome research.

The paper identifies circular 23S rRNA in archaeal ribosomes, showing they are more abundant than linear forms and confirms their structure through sequencing and modeling.

This paper engineers a plant virus to deliver a compact CRISPR-Cas system for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis.

The paper evaluates errors in long-read metagenome assemblers and identifies common issues like chimeras and phantom sequences.

The paper uses genomic and hydrographic data to show that ocean circulation structures microbial diversity and function in the South Pacific.

The paper investigates how microbial activity in grassland soils varies with depth and water availability, identifying active predatory bacteria and episymbionts in different soil layers.