OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Current Opinion in Microbiology is 20. 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 2021-09-01 to 2025-09-01.)

Article	Citations
Editorial overview: Fungal diversity: Now for something completely different	128
Editorial Board	120
Citrobacter rodentium(ϕStx2dact), a murine infection model for enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli	119
Convergence in domesticated fungi used for cheese and dry-cured meat maturation: beneficial traits, genomic mechanisms, and degeneration	113
PhoU: a multifaceted regulator in microbial signaling and homeostasis	99
Renal implications of coronavirus disease 2019: insights into viral tropism and clinical outcomes	87
Innovative approaches in the discovery of terpenoid natural products	79
The mycobiome: interactions with host and implications in diseases	77
In vivo studies on Citrobacter rodentium and host cell death pathways	75
Genetic mechanisms governing sporulation initiation in Clostridioides difficile	74
Editorial overview: Antibiotics special issue	74
Synthetic microbial communities for studying and engineering the tree microbiome: challenges and opportunities	73
Vertebrate and invertebrate animal infection models of Candida auris pathogenicity	73
The mass spectrometry of microbiome-mediated metabolism of food: challenges and opportunities	72
Commensal inter-bacterial interactions shaping the microbiota	70
Genetic and environmental factors shape the host response to Helicobacter hepaticus: insights into IBD pathogenesis	67
Seizing the moment: now is the time for integrated global surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in wastewater environments	66
Citrobacter rodentium infection at the gut–brain axis interface	65
Editorial overview: Unraveling microbiome complexity	65
Co-opting bacterial viruses for DNA exchange: structure and regulation of gene transfer agents	64
Function of autophagy genes in innate immune defense against mucosal pathogens	62
Molecular basis of synchronous replication of malaria parasites in the blood stage	61
Fungal effectors: past, present, and future	61
Editorial Board	60
Ca2+-calmodulin signalling at the host-pathogen interface	58

Fungus–insect interactions beyond bilateral regimes: the importance and strategy to outcompete host ectomicrobiomes by fungal parasites	57
Control of bacterial second messenger signaling and motility by heme-based direct oxygen-sensing proteins	56
Crosstalk between (p)ppGpp and other nucleotide second messengers	56
Insights into Alphaproteobacterial regulators of cell envelope remodeling	55
The impact of the host microbiota on Candida albicans infection	54
Increasing the PACE of characterising novel transporters by functional genomics	52
Innovative and potential treatments for fungal central nervous system infections	51
Coevolution of a generalist pathogen with many hosts: the case of the amphibian chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis	51
Manipulation of host cell plasma membranes by intracellular bacterial pathogens	51
Editorial overview: Human fungal pathogens: An increasing threat	50
Advances in regulation of homeostasis through chromatin modifications by airway commensals	50
Assembly of the exosporium layer in Clostridioides difficile spores	49
Neuroinvasion and neurotropism of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection	49
Defining the expanding mechanisms of phage-mediated activation of bacterial immunity	48
Soterobionts: disease-preventing microorganisms and proposed strategies to facilitate their discovery	47
Bottlenecks and opportunities in antibiotic discovery against Mycobacterium tuberculosis	46
Editorial Board	46
Connecting microbial community assembly and function	46
Antifungal drug-resistance mechanisms in Candida biofilms	46
Group 3 innate lymphoid cells mediate host defense against attaching and effacing pathogens	46
Editorial overview: Bacterial microcompartments to the fore as metabolism is put in its place	44
Conditionally unutilized proteins and their profound effects on growth and adaptation across microbial species	41
Activation of complement-like antiparasitic responses in Anopheles mosquitoes	41
Host control by SPβ phage regulatory switch as potential manipulation strategy	39
How do interactions between mobile genetic elements affect horizontal gene transfer?	39
Pain killers: the interplay between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and Clostridioides difficile infection	39
The maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy and its role in maternal and infant health	39
Toward merging bottom–up and top–down model-based designing of synthetic microbial communities	38
The human vaginal microbiota: from clinical medicine to models to mechanisms	37
Protein stoichiometry, structural plasticity and regulation of bacterial microcompartments	37
The longitudinal and cross-sectional heterogeneity of the intestinal microbiota	37
Bacteriophage communities are a reservoir of unexplored microbial diversity in neonatal health and disease	36
What’s for dinner? How Citrobacter rodentium’s metabolism helps it thrive in the competitive gut	35
Cell cycle regulation in Escherichia coli: from governing principles, checkpoints, and control variables to molecular mechanisms	35
Differences and similarities between innate immune evasion strategies of human coronaviruses	35
The power of the small: the underestimated role of small proteins in bacterial and archaeal physiology	35
Dissecting skin microbiota and microenvironment for the development of therapeutic strategies	35
Toothpicks, logic, and next-generation sequencing: systematic investigation of bacteriophage-host interactions	35
Ready, STAT3, Go! Bacteria in the race for M2 macrophage polarisation	34
Ecological and functional roles of bacteriophages in contrasting environments: marine, terrestrial and human gut	33
Environmental adaptation and diversification of bacterial two-component systems	33
Editorial overview: Turtles all the way down: Bacterial cell regulation across scales	32
Regulation of para-cresol production in Clostridioides difficile	31
Editorial Board	31
A tale of two nitrous oxide reductases: a cautionary perspective	31
Editorial overview: There and back again: a phage’s tale	31
Second messenger signaling in Clostridioides difficile	30
Cell cycle-regulated ApiAP2s and parasite development: the Toxoplasma paradigm	30
Antibiotic tolerance: targeting bacterial survival	30
Reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance in the context of One Health	30

The intricate organizational strategy of nucleus-forming phages	30
Phage transmission strategies: are phages farming their host?	30
Editorial overview: Recent advances in fundamental and translational research on parasitic protists	29
The importance of persistence and dormancy in Trypanosoma cruzi infection and Chagas disease	28
PII-like signaling proteins: a new paradigm in orchestrating cellular homeostasis	28
New targets for antimalarial drug discovery	28
Biological and bioinformatic tools for the discovery of unknown phage–host combinations	27
Emergence and adaptation of the cellular machinery directing antigenic variation in the African trypanosome	27
Mycoviruses and their role in fungal pathogenesis	27
SOS-independent bacterial DNA damage responses: diverse mechanisms, unifying function	27
The metabolic pathways and transporters of the plastid organelle in Apicomplexa	27
Chemical communication in plant–microbe beneficial interactions: a toolbox for precise management of beneficial microbes	26
Is Cryptococcus neoformans a pleomorphic fungus?	26
Investigating bacterial evolution in nature with metagenomics	26
Virulence-associated factors as targets for phage infection	25
Predicting the evolution of antibiotic resistance	25
Editorial overview: Return of the phages — a new golden era of molecular discovery and synthetic biology	25
Editorial overview: emerging avenues in antimicrobial research	25
Beyond resistance: antifungal heteroresistance and antifungal tolerance in fungal pathogens	25
Archaeal key-residents within the human microbiome: characteristics, interactions and involvement in health and disease	25
Evolutionary ecology theory — microbial population structure	24
Surface-displayed glycopolymers of Clostridioides difficile	24
Activation of the extracytoplasmic function σ factor σV by lysozyme in Clostridioides difficile	24
Temporospatial control of topoisomerases by essential cellular processes	24
Gram-positive pathogens, inflammation, and the host lipid environment	23
Deciphering mechanisms and implications of bacterial translocation in human health and disease	23
Strains to go: interactions of the skin microbiome beyond its species	23
Clostridioides difficile peptidoglycan modifications	23
Editorial Board	23
Can a microbial community become an evolutionary individual?	23
Editorial overview: Microbial cell regulation across multiple scales	23
Immune-metabolic interactions between Leishmania and macrophage host	22
The promise of CRISPR-associated transposons for bacterial functional genomics	22
Evolutionary relationships among shell proteins of carboxysomes and metabolosomes	22
The ribosome as a small-molecule sensor	22
Horizontal gene transfer and beyond: the delivery of biological matter by bacterial membrane vesicles to host and bacterial cells	22
Prokaryote pangenomes are dynamic entities	22
Cooperative defenses during enteropathogenic infection	22
Host genetics regulate the plant microbiome	21
Host-directed therapies for malaria: possible applications and lessons from other indications	21
Plasmids of Clostridioides difficile	21
Editorial Board	21
Microbiome rescue: directing resilience of environmental microbial communities	20
Engineering genetic circuits: advancements in genetic design automation tools and standards for synthetic biology	20
Editorial overview: current state and future of the microbiome field: why context matters	20
Editorial overview: Niche-specific and species-specific host-fungal interactions — how do they impact human health?	20
The promise of copper ionophores as antimicrobials	20
Phage defense origin of animal immunity	20