EDITORIAL
As we take a moment to reflect on the trajectory of scientific publishing, it is clear that the core of its evolution and integrity lies in peer review. This cornerstone of science not only ensures rigorous scrutiny but also represents a tradition of mentorship, collaboration, and shared responsibility. Peer review, in its true essence, bridges the past with the future and embodies the continuum of scientific discovery. Today, we find ourselves in a world of ever-accelerating technological advancements and boundless research arenas, and yet the backbone of scientific authenticity remains deeply rooted in the dedicated work of peer reviewers. Every manuscript reviewed, every piece of constructive feedback given, and every suggested edit signifies the silent dedication of a global community that places the sanctity of scientific rigor above all else. It’s not just about upholding standards, but about mentoring the next generation, refining theories, and facilitating a culture of collective growth. Each review is a conversation, a critical examination, and, most importantly, an act of trust in the broader scientific ecosystem.
Yet, challenges persist. As we stand on the cusp of new frontiers in microbiology, the demand for reviewers and the challenges they face have never been more pressing. In this fast-paced digital age, where information dissemination is instantaneous, the need for meticulous, unbiased, and rigorous peer review cannot be understated. Misinformation, if left unchecked, can spread rapidly, eroding public trust and potentially leading to costly missteps. We, at mSystems, deeply value the multifaceted roles that each scientist assumes: as researchers, as authors, and, most crucially, as peer reviewers. It’s this trifecta that creates a balanced perspective, ensuring that every piece of research we publish stands up to the highest standards of scrutiny.
To each and every reviewer who has dedicated time and expertise to mSystems, we extend our profound gratitude. Your commitment not only serves the present but secures the legacy of scientific excellence for future generations. You are the unsung heroes, that we now identify, that ensure that the beacon of scientific integrity continues to shine brightly. In championing the cause of the American Society for Microbiology and the broader community, you are paving the path for a future where science is not just pursued, but celebrated, trusted, and integrated into the very fabric of society. Thank you for upholding the legacy and propelling us into a future built on truth and shared discovery.
Bruno Lopes Abbadi
Sophie Saphia Abby
Karim Abdelkader
Michael C. Abt
Silvia G. Acinas
Amanda N. D. Adams
Adeyinka Joseph Adebo
Benjamin Austin Adler
Nisheeth Agarwal
Narij Agarwala
Surya D. Aggarwal
Niyaz Ahmed
Tae-Hyuk Ahn
Muhammad Taj Akbar
Yukihiro Akeda
Armin Alaedini
Davide Albanese
Rodolpho Mattos Albano
Daniele Alberoni
Anna Alemany
Alison Felipe Alencar Chaves
Gajender Aleti
Leena Al-Hassan
Celeste Allaband
Alexander B. Alleman
Charlotte J. Alster
Hassan M. Al-Tameemi
Mustafa Altındis
Artur Alves
Fairoz Ali Al-Wrafy
Nana Ama Amissah
Xinli An
Karthik Anantharaman
Cheryl P. Andam
Daniel S. Andersen
Alexander C. Anderson
Lindsey N. Anderson
Rika Anderson
Nana Y. D. Ankrah
Hector Arguello
Héctor Argüello Rodríguez
Stephane Aris-Brosou
Alix Augusto Armero Villanueva
Allegra Aron
Janelle C. Arthur
Aleksandr A. Arzamasov
Phil Ashton
Sandrine Auger
Caroline Autenrieth
Charlotte Avanzi
Ranen Aviner
Joseph Atia Ayariga
Frank O. Aylward
Ali Azghani
Elizabeth Bach
Herwig Bachmann
Haoxiang Bai
Jinna Bai
Marc Alex Bailie
Jasmohan Bajaj
Djordje Bajic
Jonathon L. Baker
Ramya Balasubramanian
Nitin S. Baliga
Emily P. Balskus
Sreejata Bandopadhyay
Yuanyuan Bao
Roman Alfredo Barco
Sonia L. Bardy
Didier Barradas-Bautista
Wiley Barton
Arianna Basile
Franco Basile
Tiffany Batarseh
Buzz Baum
Megan G. Behringer
Aeriel D. Belk
Rebecca L. Bell
Daniel Bellieny-Rabelo
Alfonso Benítez-Páez
Stephane Louis Benoit
Tom Berben
Christian Berens
Hanna Leah Berman
Anthony Bertagnolli
Maria T. Bertoli
Aaron A. Best
Omolola Comfort Betiku
James E. Bina
Jordan E. Bisanz
Pradeep Bist
Aitor Blanco-Míguez
Lars M. Blank
Jon S. Blevins
Rahul Bodkhe
Jian Sheng Boey
Nick Bohmann
Tobias Bollenbach
Alte Bones
Cyril Bontemps
Emmanuelle S. Botté
David G. Bourne
Ben Bourrie
Jason Brenchley
Arianna Brevi
Colin J. Brislawn
Jose A. Brito
Chequita Brooks
Bryan Paul Brown
Shawn P. Brown
Mark P. Brynildsen
Bryan D. Bryson
Andrew A. Buckley
Daniel H. Buckley
Shelly Buffington
James Bull
Ashley N. Bulseco
Zachary M. Burcham
Liana T. Burghardt
Susheel Bhanu Busi
Mariaelena Caboni
Elisabetta Cacace
Lindsay K. Caesar
Jingyi Cai
Benjamin Calfee
Douglas Campbell
Fabrício Souza Campos
Thaisa M. Cantu-Jungles
Andres Mauricio Caraballo Rodriguez
Miguel Carda-Diéguez
Michael Carlson
Carolina Carpenter
William Franklin Carson
Monica Cartelle Gestal
Kayla A. Carter
John R. Casey
Santiago Castillo-Ramírez
Sergio Castro-Gonzalez
Jonatas da Silva Catarino
Florian Centler
Jorge Cervantes
Miguel Angel Cevallos
Yunrong Chai
Rishi Chanderraj
Yanjie Chao
Trevor C. Charles
Bala Chaudhary
Biao Chen
Chen Chen
Congying Chen
Guo Fu Chen
Hongbin Chen
Jie Chen
Liang-Jun Chen
Lianmin Chen
Pubo Chen
Tingtao Chen
Yan Chen
Marc Chevrette
Loo Wee Chia
Ludmila Chistoserdova
Byung-Kwan Cho
Ashok Choudhary
Felipe Christoff Wouters
Yuefeng Chu
Camilla Ciolli Mattioli
Ousmane H. Cissé
Gachon Claire
Claudia Claus
Friederike Katharina Clever
Gitta Coaker
Ana G. Cobian-Güemes
Marta Cobo Simón
Stephen D. Cole
Maureen L. Coleman
Jacqui Comstock
Pablo Conesa-Zamora
Sean Conlan
Bede Constantinides
Bruno Contreras-Moreira
Francesca Cordero
Paulina Corral
Clara Correia-Melo
Richard Costa Polveiro
Sneha P. Couvillion
John V. Cox
Jason M. Crawford
Douglas J. Creedon
Jonas Cremer
Alex Crits-Christoph
Scott Cunningham
Robert Czajkowski
Paul M. D'Agostino
Jan-Ulrik Dahl
Zhongmin Dai
Leslie Keiclyn Daille Enriquez
Alex Dajkovic
Paul Daly
Mary E. Davey
Lawrence A. David
Maude David
James J. Davis
Robin Dawson
Tom Delmont
Marcos De Moraes
Yijie Deng
Yu Deng
Nicole J. De Nisco
Daniel P. Depledge
Damien P. Devos
Muhe Diao
Patricia Diaz
George C. Dicenzo
Seth W. Dickey
Johan Dicksved
Christian Diener
Nicholas A. Dillon
Alexander Dilthey
Demetrius Dimucci
Yuanzhao Ding
Marcia Dinis
Alan Angelo Dispirito
Talisa Doering
Nadezhda Victoria Doncheva
Andrew C. Doxey
Daniel Christopher Ducat
Lara Dugas
Seána Duggan
Sylvia Duncan
Ashley M. Dungan
Anne K. Dunn
Sanjucta Dutta
Michael L. Dyall-Smith
Emily Ebel
Martinique Lefevre Edwards
Sabine Ehrt
Sahar El Aidy
Melissa Ellermann
Stephen P. Ellner
Mostafa S. Elshahed
David Emerson
Susanne Engelmann
Melinda Anne Engevik
Hyungjin Eoh
Tobias Jürgen Erb
A. Murat Eren
Eduard Fadeev
Camilla Fagorzi
Sicun Fan
Michael J. Federle
Conor Feehily
Na Fei
Pinghui Feng
Youzhi Feng
Isabel Fernández Escapa
Fernando Ferreira
Kenneth A. Fields
Joshua Fierer
Steven E. Finkel
Sarai Finks
J. Ross Fitzgerald
Avi I. Flamholz
Michelle Flenniken
Beverly E. Flood
Sarah M. Fortune
Iain D. C. Fraser
David N. Fredricks
Kelle C. Freel
Shiri Freilich
Nancy E. Freitag
Clemence Frioux
Ping Fu
Songzhe Fu
Yunhe Fu
Thilo M. Fuchs
Jed Fuhrman
Erika Ganda
Sukirth Ganesan
Michael G. Ganzle
Gui-Feng Gao
Erin C. Garcia
Nathan Garcia
Sarahi L. Garcia
Melanie G. Gareau
Josep M. Gasol
Julia M. Gauglitz
David A. Gaul
Asimenia Gavriilidou
Ding Gc
Micahel Gebhardt
Benedikt Geier
Paul Bryn Llewellyn George
Volker Gerdts
Samira Ghaedmohammadi
Shokufeh Ghasemian Sorboni
Richard J. Giannone
Steven R. Gill
Osnat Gillor
Matthew Gilmour
Khyati Girdhar
Erin Gloag
Joao Vitor Godoy Takashe
Alejandro Gómez Mejia
Yanhai Gong
Victor Gonzalez
Antonio González
Ana Camila Gonzalez-Nayeck
Lawrence Goodridge
Isabel Gordo
Dennis Goss-Souza
Sarah M. Gray
Todd A. Gray
Shermalyn R. Greene
Jessica A. Grembi
Harald R. Gruber-Vodicka
Erwan Gueguen
Emily Laura Gulliver
Rudiyanto Gunawan
Kiran Gurung
Asiya Gusa
Elaine M. Haase
Muhammad Bilal Habib
Mehrad Hamidian
Trinity L. Hamilton
Tobin Hammer
Jarrad Hampton-Marcell
William Hanage
Pamela Hanson
Xavier Harrison
Roland Hatzenpichler
Anna Hayes
Yan He
Zhili He
Brian P. Hedlund
Julian Hegemann
Marco Hein
Jason E. Heindl
Almut Heinken
John D. Helmann
Chris Henry
Christopher Henry
Michael Henson
Marta Hernández-García
Joanna Hicks
Caitlin Hicks Pries
Megan S. Hill
Luke Hillary
Kelly Marie Hines
Adrian Ho
Christopher Hodgkins
James F. Holden
Erik Holmqvist
Elizabeth A. Holzhausen
Xiao-Yue Hong
Mingsheng Hong
Suzie Hoops
Alice Hotopp
Andrew J. Hryckowian
Anyi Hu
Yongfei Hu
Jinhu Huang
Li-Nan Huang
Dana E. Hunt
Ryan C. Hunter
Fatima Hussain
Josiah Hutton
Kevin Hybiske
Keiichi Inaoue
Ikbal Agah Ince
Jaime Iranzo
William R. Jacobs
Marie-Agnès Jacques
Natalia Jakus
Neema Jamshidi
Elisabeth M.-L. Janssen
Heather B. Jaspan
Benjamin Anderschou Holbech Jensen
Paul A. Jensen
Ederson da Conceicao Jesus
Mollie Winfield Jewett
Xu Jia
Hongchen Jiang
Linshu Jiang
Xiaofang Jiang
Yong Jiang
Shuo Jiao
Yuan Jin
Bradley D. Jones
Stuart Jones
Peter Jorth
Paula Jouhten
Igor B. Jouline
Tingting Ju
David Kaftan
Lindsay Kalan
Stephan Kamrad
Antti Karkman
Lisa Karstens
Shingo Kato
Kathryn Kauffman
Jason G. Kay
Leonard Kaysser
Simon Keely
Dr Ian Keesey
Scott T. Kelley
Eduard J. Kerkhoven
Mohammadali Khan Mirzaei
Devanshi Khokhani
Adam Kim
Manuel Kleiner
Karl E. Klose
Benjamin J. Koestler
Steffen Kolb
Weidong Kong
Yaxian Kong
Eugene V. Koonin
Tamas Korcsmaros
Tal Korem
Olivia Kosterlitz
Corey Krabbenhoft
Karin E. Kram
Jens Kreth
Yi-Qun Kuang
Anand Kumar
Deepak Kumaresan
Hang Fai Kwok
Simon Labarthe
Leo Lahti
Henry Lam
Margaret Lam
Richard J. Lamont
Lefu Lan
Christian Lauber
Aonghus Lavelle
Simon Lax
Sunil Laxman
Chih-Ying Lay
Sam Leareng
Quentin J. Leclerc
Jaejin Lee
Kyu-Ho Lee
Vincent T. Lee
Jenni Lehtimaki
Danielle G. Lemay
Katherine P. Lemon
Jay T. Lennon
Tiphaine Le Roy
Baptiste Leroy
Elisabeth Letellier
Janina P. Lewis
Joseph Lewis
Ruth E. Ley
Fu-Li Li
Jibing Li
Juan Li
Ruichao Li
Xiaoping Li
Xinxin Li
Yang Li
Yanpeng Li
Zhipeng Li
Yuting Liang
Zhikai Liang
Xiudong Liao
Julia Lienard
Chun Shen Lim
Xiangping Lin
Melody Lindsay
Fangqiong Ling
Changhong Liu
Dawei Liu
Hai-Peng Liu
Haoyu Liu
Jinxin Liu
Junhua Liu
Mao-Ke Liu
Shengen Liu
Shuting Liu
Xiao Liu
Xingyin Liu
Ya-Jun Liu
Zhaoguo Liu
Małgorzata Barbara Łobocka
Torey P. Looft
Zhiyong Lou
Tiffany M. Lowe-Power
Gabriel L Lozano
Catherine Lozupone
Danqi Lu
Huijie Lu
Junfeng Lu
Tillmann Lueders
Adela María Luján
Piotr Łukasik
Jessica K. Lukowski
Xiaoping Luo
Yuheng Luo
Mor Lurie-Weinberger
Joshua Mark Lyte
Jiaming Ma
Li-Jun Ma
Zhe Ma
Alejandro Eduardo Maass
Michael Christopher Macey
Daniel Machado
Tanmay Majumdar
Rex R. Malmstrom
Nilusha Malmuthuge
Christian Maltecca
Lauren Manck
Mike Manefield
Melissa Manus
Sylvie Manuse
Shengyong Mao
Julia A. Maresca
Simone Marini
Stephanie Markert
Jose Manuel Martí
Carlos Martin
Laura Martínez Alvarez
Manuel Martínez-García
Maria Elena Martino
Vincent G. Martinson
Rasmus Lykke Marvig
Shah Masaud
Joleen Masschelein
Ruth Massey
William Joseph Massey
Sébastien Matamoros
Timothy E. Mattes
Mauro Maver
Xavier Mayali
Luis Mayorga
Jessica R. McCann
Christopher McCrae
Daniel McDonald
Diane McDougald
Shelby E. McIlroy
James B. McKinlay
Jeffrey Scott McLean
Matthew B. McNeil
Marco Enrique Mechan-Llontop
Filiatrault Melanie
Silvia Melgar
Timothy C. Meredith
Lauren Messer
Michelle M. Meyer
Mario Meza Segura
Jennifer Middleton
Aram Mikaelyan
Laura A. Mike
Andrew D. Millard
Aaron W. Miller
Daniel P. Miller
Kiwamu Minamisawa
Douglas A. Mitchell
Sara Mitri
Samuel J. Modlin
Jose Arturo Molina-Mora
Denise M. Monack
Tushar More
Andrey Morgun
Jorge Moura De Sousa
Volker Mueller
Arunika Mukhopadhaya
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay
Anne Müller
Conrad W. Mullineaux
Rafael Muñoz-Tamayo
Mario E. Muscarella
D. Na
Girish Nair
Tanja Narancic
Takashi Narihiro
Muhammad Nawaz
Stephen Nayfach
Daniel R. Neill
William C. Nelson
Bao-Anh Thi Nguyen
Abigail Nieves Delgado
Yosuke Nishimura
Cecilia Noecker
Avery J. C. Noonan
Jeanette M. Norton
Ângela Novais
Juliano Novak
Eric Nybo
Howard Ochman
Erkison Ewomazino Odih
Joanne O'Donnel
Peter Oelschlaeger
Tamir Ofek
Pierre Offre
Thomas Vincent O'Halloran
Hugo Oliveira
Angela Oliverio
Alejandro Olmedo-Velarde
Jolien Onsea
Daniel Osorio
Jay Osvatic
Hong-Yu Ou
Zihao Ou
Zhiming Ouyang
Egon Anderson Ozer
Bernhard O. Palsson
Meichen Pan
Ivona Pandrea
Sivachandran Parimannan
John Parkinson
Anastacia Parks
Sally R. Partridge
Edoardo Pasolli
Alessandro Passera
Ranjana Pathania
Kathryn A. Patras
Shyamal Peddada
Dale A. Pelletier
José Penades
Rafael Pena-Miller
John Penders
Ariane L. Peralta
Ana Elena Pérez-Cobas
Veronika K. Pettersen
Bernadeta Pietrzak
Lars Plate
Magdalena Plotka
Mircea Podar
Claudia Pogoreutz
Katherine S. Pollard
Olga Ponomarova
Andrew W. Pountain
Julie D. Pourtois
Alexander J. Probst
Meng Pu
Sandra Pucciarelli
Emily Putnam
Qi Qu
Zhe-Xue Quan
Maria Soledad Ramirez
Christopher Rao
Noa Rappaport
Majeeda Rasheed
Jayamary Divya Ravichandar
Timothy D. Read
María Rebolleda Gómez
Tavis Reed
Linta Reji
Maria R. Esteban Torres
Charlie Rice
Luke Richards
Christian U. Riedel
Raúl Riesco Jarrín
Richard J. Roberts
Nash D. Rochman
Dmitry A. Rodionov
William Rodriguez
Josue A. Rodríguez-Ramos
Connie A. Rojas
Barry H. Rosen
Denis Roy
Martin Rumbo
Hossam E. Rushdi
Joseph Russel
David G. Russell
Feargal Ryan
Claudia P. Saavedra
Rajib Saha
Ali Salehzadeh-Yazdi
Hubert Salvail
Scott Samuels
Laura M. Sanchez
Shengmin Sang
Panagiotis Sapountzis
Antonia Sargona
Guillaume Sarrabayrouse
Jimmy H. Saw
Till F. Schäberle
Joseph Schacherer
Matthias Schewe
Jonathan E. Schmitz
Dirk Schneider
Frank Schreiber
Lynn Schriml
Alison J. Scott
Anna Maria Seekatz
Daniel Segre
Julie A. Segre
Adrian Serohijos
Shiraz A. Shah
Yunlong Shan
Yongqi Shao
Zongze Shao
B. Jesse Shapiro
Vineet K. Sharma
Virag Sharma
Cody Sheik
Giyoon Shin
Abhishek Shrivastava
Natalia Shulzhenko
Mark W. Silby
Anoop Singh
Mangal Singh
Ritam Sinha
Clayton M. Small
Younes Smani
Thomas J. Smith
Scott D. Soby
Bahrad Ali Sokhansanj
Evgeni Sokurenko
Ahmed M. Soliman
Kevin V. Solomon
Vincent Somerville
Yinglong Song
Matthew Sorbara
Patrick Sorensen
Lauren Speare
Apollo Stacy
Vanessa Stadlbauer
Maggie Ann Stanislawski
Christoph Stein-Thoeringer
Adi Stern
Blaire Steven
Ann M. Stevens
Michael Strong
Reed M. Stubbendieck
Fengjie Sun
Jian Sun
Xiang 孙(Sun)
Xin Sun
Hoon-Ki Sung
Jaeyun Sung
Dwi Susanti
Y. Suzuki
Jason B. Sylvan
Jyoti Prakash Tamang
Sabrina Tamburini
Hongzhi Tang
Zhonglin Tang
Julien Tap
Christoph C. Tebbe
Eva Teira
Herve Tettelin
Bas Teusink
Kevin R. Theis
Janne Gesine Thöming
Luke R. Thompson
Mitchell G. Thompson
J. Cameron Thrash
Kara A. Tinker
Anna D. Tischler
Alfredo G. Torres
Guy Edmund Townsend
Patricia Q. Tran
Tuan Minh Tran
Brian K. Trevelline
Cagla Tukel
Burkhard Tümmler
Hidetoshi Urakawa
Joseph J. Vallino
Daniel Valout
Angel Valverde
Jan Roelof van der Meer
James T. Van Leuven
Tommi Vatanen
Roberto Vázquez
Ben Vezina
Peter Vikesland
Alejandro J. Vila
Luis Vitetta
Max von Kleist
Maarten Jeroen Voordouw
Jay Vornhagen
Russ Vreeland
Steffen Waldherr
Kimberly A. Walker
Mark Chalfant Walker
Nia Walker
David A. Walsh
Yu Wan
Zheng Wang
David Wang
Gefei Wang
Jianjun Wang
Kan Wang
Leyao Wang
Lu Wang
Mingbang Wang
Shilei Wang
Xian-Wei Wang
Yi Wang
Yue Wang
Silvio Waschina
Kenneth Wasmund
Eric Webb
Tilmann Weber
Yunwei Wei
Alexandra J. Weisberg
Allana Welsh
Jeanette Whitaker
Thea Whitman
Ian Will
Claire E. Williams
Lashanda Williams
Michael R. Wilson
Steven S. Witkin
Patricia Wolf
Alan J. Wolfe
Richard Wolff
Charles Wolgemuth
Giselle Chloe Wong
Meike T. Wortel
Tanja Woyke
Erik Scott Wright
Bo Wu
Jian-Yong Wu
Peng Wu
Ruonan Wu
Tong Wu
Wei-Kai Wu
Wei-Li Wu
Han Xia
Juan Xicohtencatl-Cortes
Chao Xiong
Xiaofeng Xu
Xin Xu
Kai Xue
Aixin Yan
Fuhua Yan
Qingyun Yan
Qian Yang
Shihui Yang
Yuyi Yang
Min Yap
Yuzhen Ye
Aaron Yerke
Ozlem Yilmaz
Huaqun Yin
Sukhwan Yoon
Yunsong Yu
Shuofeng Yuan
Maksim Zakhartsev
Asier Zaragoza-Solas
Anton Zavialov
Merve S. Zeden
Karsten Zengler
Cheng-Cai Zhang
Guoliang Zhang
Hao Zhang
Kai Zhang
Quan-Guo Zhang
Wanjiang Zhang
Wenliang Zhang
Yongjun Zhang
Shijie Zhao
Siyan Zhao
Xilin Zhao
Yingming Zhao
Zhe Zhao
Beiwen Zheng
Chunfu Zheng
Hao Zheng
Xuhui Zheng
Zhang Zheqingzhang
Xiangyun Zhi
Yongjia Zhong
Bin Zhou
Dongsheng Zhou
Rongqing Zhou
Xi Zhou
Lifeng Zhu
Qiyun Zhu
Yan Zhu
Ryan M. Ziels
Erik R. Zinser
Erwin G. Zoetendal
Lingyun Zou
Cristal Zuniga