OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Current Opinion in Microbiology is 21. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-10-01 to 2025-10-01.)

Article	Citations
Editorial overview: Fungal diversity: Now for something completely different	135
Editorial Board	128
In vivo studies on Citrobacter rodentium and host cell death pathways	124
Commensal inter-bacterial interactions shaping the microbiota	116
Synthetic microbial communities for studying and engineering the tree microbiome: challenges and opportunities	107
Vertebrate and invertebrate animal infection models of Candida auris pathogenicity	93
Genetic mechanisms governing sporulation initiation in Clostridioides difficile	84
PhoU: a multifaceted regulator in microbial signaling and homeostasis	83
Innovative approaches in the discovery of terpenoid natural products	78
Editorial overview: Antibiotics special issue	77
Genetic and environmental factors shape the host response to Helicobacter hepaticus: insights into IBD pathogenesis	77
The mass spectrometry of microbiome-mediated metabolism of food: challenges and opportunities	76
The mycobiome: interactions with host and implications in diseases	76
Citrobacter rodentium(ϕStx2dact), a murine infection model for enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli	76
Convergence in domesticated fungi used for cheese and dry-cured meat maturation: beneficial traits, genomic mechanisms, and degeneration	74
Renal implications of coronavirus disease 2019: insights into viral tropism and clinical outcomes	68
Editorial Board	67
Seizing the moment: now is the time for integrated global surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in wastewater environments	67
Insights into Alphaproteobacterial regulators of cell envelope remodeling	66
The impact of the host microbiota on Candida albicans infection	65
Manipulation of host cell plasma membranes by intracellular bacterial pathogens	64
Co-opting bacterial viruses for DNA exchange: structure and regulation of gene transfer agents	63
Editorial overview: Unraveling microbiome complexity	63
Coevolution of a generalist pathogen with many hosts: the case of the amphibian chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis	62
Control of bacterial second messenger signaling and motility by heme-based direct oxygen-sensing proteins	61

Crosstalk between (p)ppGpp and other nucleotide second messengers	59
Fungus–insect interactions beyond bilateral regimes: the importance and strategy to outcompete host ectomicrobiomes by fungal parasites	58
Ca2+-calmodulin signalling at the host-pathogen interface	57
Function of autophagy genes in innate immune defense against mucosal pathogens	55
Fungal effectors: past, present, and future	55
Increasing the PACE of characterising novel transporters by functional genomics	55
Advances in regulation of homeostasis through chromatin modifications by airway commensals	53
Citrobacter rodentium infection at the gut–brain axis interface	53
Molecular basis of synchronous replication of malaria parasites in the blood stage	53
Neuroinvasion and neurotropism of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection	52
Defining the expanding mechanisms of phage-mediated activation of bacterial immunity	52
Assembly of the exosporium layer in Clostridioides difficile spores	52
Editorial overview: Human fungal pathogens: An increasing threat	52
Soterobionts: disease-preventing microorganisms and proposed strategies to facilitate their discovery	50
Bottlenecks and opportunities in antibiotic discovery against Mycobacterium tuberculosis	50
Group 3 innate lymphoid cells mediate host defense against attaching and effacing pathogens	49
Connecting microbial community assembly and function	48
Antifungal drug-resistance mechanisms in Candida biofilms	47
Innovative and potential treatments for fungal central nervous system infections	47
Editorial Board	46
Editorial overview: Bacterial microcompartments to the fore as metabolism is put in its place	45
Activation of complement-like antiparasitic responses in Anopheles mosquitoes	44
Pain killers: the interplay between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and Clostridioides difficile infection	43
How do interactions between mobile genetic elements affect horizontal gene transfer?	42
Host control by SPβ phage regulatory switch as potential manipulation strategy	42
Toward merging bottom–up and top–down model-based designing of synthetic microbial communities	40
The human vaginal microbiota: from clinical medicine to models to mechanisms	39
The maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy and its role in maternal and infant health	39
Conditionally unutilized proteins and their profound effects on growth and adaptation across microbial species	39
The power of the small: the underestimated role of small proteins in bacterial and archaeal physiology	38
Protein stoichiometry, structural plasticity and regulation of bacterial microcompartments	38
What’s for dinner? How Citrobacter rodentium’s metabolism helps it thrive in the competitive gut	38
Differences and similarities between innate immune evasion strategies of human coronaviruses	37
Ready, STAT3, Go! Bacteria in the race for M2 macrophage polarisation	37
Cell cycle regulation in Escherichia coli: from governing principles, checkpoints, and control variables to molecular mechanisms	36
The longitudinal and cross-sectional heterogeneity of the intestinal microbiota	36
Toothpicks, logic, and next-generation sequencing: systematic investigation of bacteriophage-host interactions	36
Dissecting skin microbiota and microenvironment for the development of therapeutic strategies	36
Bacteriophage communities are a reservoir of unexplored microbial diversity in neonatal health and disease	35
Environmental adaptation and diversification of bacterial two-component systems	34
Ecological and functional roles of bacteriophages in contrasting environments: marine, terrestrial and human gut	34
Editorial overview: Turtles all the way down: Bacterial cell regulation across scales	34
Editorial Board	33
The intricate organizational strategy of nucleus-forming phages	33
Editorial overview: There and back again: a phage’s tale	33
Phage transmission strategies: are phages farming their host?	33
A tale of two nitrous oxide reductases: a cautionary perspective	33
Regulation of para-cresol production in Clostridioides difficile	32
Antibiotic tolerance: targeting bacterial survival	32
Second messenger signaling in Clostridioides difficile	32

Reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance in the context of One Health	31
Cell cycle-regulated ApiAP2s and parasite development: the Toxoplasma paradigm	31
Virulence-associated factors as targets for phage infection	30
New targets for antimalarial drug discovery	30
Biological and bioinformatic tools for the discovery of unknown phage–host combinations	30
Investigating bacterial evolution in nature with metagenomics	30
The importance of persistence and dormancy in Trypanosoma cruzi infection and Chagas disease	30
Editorial overview: Recent advances in fundamental and translational research on parasitic protists	30
PII-like signaling proteins: a new paradigm in orchestrating cellular homeostasis	29
Beyond resistance: antifungal heteroresistance and antifungal tolerance in fungal pathogens	29
Is Cryptococcus neoformans a pleomorphic fungus?	29
Chemical communication in plant–microbe beneficial interactions: a toolbox for precise management of beneficial microbes	29
SOS-independent bacterial DNA damage responses: diverse mechanisms, unifying function	28
The metabolic pathways and transporters of the plastid organelle in Apicomplexa	28
Emergence and adaptation of the cellular machinery directing antigenic variation in the African trypanosome	28
Mycoviruses and their role in fungal pathogenesis	27
Archaeal key-residents within the human microbiome: characteristics, interactions and involvement in health and disease	27
Editorial overview: Return of the phages — a new golden era of molecular discovery and synthetic biology	27
Can a microbial community become an evolutionary individual?	26
Activation of the extracytoplasmic function σ factor σV by lysozyme in Clostridioides difficile	26
Editorial overview: emerging avenues in antimicrobial research	26
Strains to go: interactions of the skin microbiome beyond its species	26
Predicting the evolution of antibiotic resistance	25
Deciphering mechanisms and implications of bacterial translocation in human health and disease	25
Evolutionary ecology theory — microbial population structure	25
Surface-displayed glycopolymers of Clostridioides difficile	24
Clostridioides difficile peptidoglycan modifications	24
Temporospatial control of topoisomerases by essential cellular processes	24
Horizontal gene transfer and beyond: the delivery of biological matter by bacterial membrane vesicles to host and bacterial cells	24
Gram-positive pathogens, inflammation, and the host lipid environment	24
Cooperative defenses during enteropathogenic infection	23
Editorial Board	23
Host genetics regulate the plant microbiome	23
Editorial overview: Microbial cell regulation across multiple scales	23
Microbiome rescue: directing resilience of environmental microbial communities	23
Immune-metabolic interactions between Leishmania and macrophage host	23
Prokaryote pangenomes are dynamic entities	22
Evolutionary relationships among shell proteins of carboxysomes and metabolosomes	22
The ribosome as a small-molecule sensor	22
Plasmids of Clostridioides difficile	22
Editorial overview: current state and future of the microbiome field: why context matters	21
Host-directed therapies for malaria: possible applications and lessons from other indications	21
The multifaceted roles of Myb domain–containing proteins in apicomplexan parasites	21
Editorial Board	21
Flagellotropic phages: common yet diverse host interaction strategies	21
Editorial overview: Niche-specific and species-specific host-fungal interactions — how do they impact human health?	21
The promise of CRISPR-associated transposons for bacterial functional genomics	21
Phage defense origin of animal immunity	21