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Abstract Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to outpace development of new therapeutics. Many interventions focus on treating infection after it occurs, but resistant pathogens often emerge, persist, and spread within reservoirs, such as built environments. Microbial biocontrol offers a complementary, upstream strategy by reshaping ecological interactions to suppress the colonization, persistence, and transmission of AMR pathogens. Currently, biocontrol design relies upon the presumed functionality of probiotic genera across diverse environments despite limited experimental validation, alongside heuristic model predictions that prioritize efficiency over sensitivity. These approaches yield inconsistent outcomes, reflecting the context-dependent nature of microbial behavior. We review how advances in metabolic modeling and artificial intelligence (AI), in conjunction with experimental data, enable adaptable, context-aware biocontrol design with iterative design-test-learn cycles for optimization. We outline the ecological principles underlying microbial competition, highlighting Bacillus as a robust biocontrol chassis due to its biosynthetic capacity, stress tolerance, and genetic tractability. We then discuss how genome-scale, pan-genome-scale, and metabolism-and-expression models provide mechanistic insight into competitive fitness, metabolic trade-offs, and persistence. AI advances these approaches by extracting patterns from multi-omic datasets to build specific, yet versatile, foundation models that guide strain and/or consortium selection for specific built environments. Moreover, these tools facilitate safe biocontrol deployment by enabling risk assessment of persistence, ecological displacement, and horizontal gene transfer, particularly for engineered living materials and bioactive building surfaces. Ultimately, AI-guided modeling and systems-level design provide scalable frameworks for developing durable, preventive strategies against AMR, shifting the focus from reactive treatment toward proactive control of pathogen ecology. 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents an escalating global health crisis, demanding alternative strategies to reduce resistant pathogen burden across environments. Microbe-based biocontrol is promising, yet effectively deploying it in practical settings remains challenging. In this study, we present a 3D bioprinted core-shell construct featuring a polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) shell with tunable nanoscale porosity, encapsulating germinable spores of the biocontrol agent Bacillus subtilis TH035. This configuration supports long-term spore viability while providing protection from common environmental stressors. The nanoporous PEGDA shell facilitates sufficient metabolite exchange for B. subtilis germination and growth, as well as inhibition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) growth. This approach demonstrates the feasibility of embedding B. subtilis spores within engineered scaffolds for extended competitive functionality. The versatility and scalability of digital light processing (DLP) based bioprinting offers significant potential for tailored designs and high-throughput manufacturing, with potential applications in areas such as biomedical packaging, environmental sanitation, construction materials, and surface coatings. 

Oysters play an important role in coastal ecology and are a globally popular seafood source. However, their filter-feeding lifestyle enables coastal pathogens, toxins, and pollutants to accumulate in their tissues, potentially endangering human health. While pathogen concentrations in coastal waters are often linked to environmental conditions and runoff events, these do not always correlate with pathogen concentrations in oysters. Additional factors related to the microbial ecology of pathogenic bacteria and their relationship with oyster hosts likely play a role in accumulation but are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated whether microbial communities in water and oysters were linked to accumulation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus, or fecal indicator bacteria. Site-specific environmental conditions significantly influenced microbial communities and potential pathogen concentrations in water. Oyster microbial communities, however, exhibited less variability in microbial community diversity and accumulation of target bacteria overall and were less impacted by environmental differences between sites. Instead, changes in specific microbial taxa in oyster and water samples, particularly in oyster digestive glands, were linked to elevated levels of potential pathogens. For example, increased levels of V. parahaemolyticus were associated with higher relative abundances of cyanobacteria, which could represent an environmental vector for Vibrio spp. transport, and with decreased relative abundance of Mycoplasma and other key members of the oyster digestive gland microbiota. These findings suggest that host and microbial factors, in addition to environmental variables, may influence pathogen accumulation in oysters. 

Oysters are an integral part of many marine ecosystems. They provide food for several species of snails and crabs and act as natural water filters, preventing algal blooms and nutrient-induced oxygen depletion in aquatic ecosystems (eutrophication). Additionally, oyster reefs provide a habitat for several small fish and crustacean species. Lastly, they promote underwater vegetation growth, providing greater coastal resistance to erosion and protection against storms. In recognition of the significance of oysters in promoting marine biodiversity, countries such as the United States and Australia have invested millions of dollars in the restoration of oyster reefs along the Pacific, Atlantic, and In¬dian ocean coasts. A meta-analysis was conducted by combining data from multiple studies as by doing so it is often possible to identify more reliable trends than by comparing the results of individual analyses. We utilized the open-source microbial analysis platform Qiita to gain new insight into Pacific Oyster microbiomes and to generate a tool for the scientific community, enabling future studies of new testable hypotheses. After reading papers utilized in the meta-analysis, we hypothesize that bacteria belonging to the Mycoplasmataceae and Spirochaetes family will be common dominant taxa across all geographic regions. Several papers have attributed oyster microbiome fluctuations to environmental changes. These studies found that some tissue types are more affected than others, particularly finding that gut taxonomic evenness and abundance varied the most by tissue type. Therefore, we also hypothesize that the core microbiome, particularly that of the gut, would be very small. A small core microbiome suggests a significant level of variation in taxonomic abundance and diversity for a given tissue type between samples. 

ABSTRACT The Olympia oyster ( Ostrea lurida ) of the Puget Sound suffered a dramatic population crash, but restoration efforts hope to revive this native species. One overlooked variable in the process of assessing ecosystem health is association of bacteria with marine organisms and the environments they occupy. Oyster microbiomes are known to differ significantly between species, tissue type, and the habitat in which they are found. The goals of this study were to determine the impact of field site and habitat on the oyster microbiome and to identify core oyster-associated bacteria in the Puget Sound. Olympia oysters from one parental family were deployed at four sites in the Puget Sound both inside and outside of eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) beds. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the oyster gut, shell, and surrounding seawater and sediment, we demonstrate that gut-associated bacteria are distinct from the surrounding environment and vary by field site. Furthermore, regional differences in the gut microbiota are associated with the survival rates of oysters at each site after 2 months of field exposure. However, habitat type had no influence on microbiome diversity. Further work is needed to identify the specific bacterial dynamics that are associated with oyster physiology and survival rates. IMPORTANCE This is the first exploration of the microbial colonizers of the Olympia oyster, a native oyster species to the West Coast, which is a focus of restoration efforts. The patterns of differential microbial colonization by location reveal microscale characteristics of potential restoration sites which are not typically considered. These microbial dynamics can provide a more holistic perspective on the factors that may influence oyster performance. 

Relatives have more similar gut microbiomes than nonrelatives, but the degree to which this similarity results from shared genotypes versus shared environments has been controversial. Here, we leveraged 16,234 gut microbiome profiles, collected over 14 years from 585 wild baboons, to reveal that host genetic effects on the gut microbiome are nearly universal. Controlling for diet, age, and socioecological variation, 97% of microbiome phenotypes were significantly heritable, including several reported as heritable in humans. Heritability was typically low (mean = 0.068) but was systematically greater in the dry season, with low diet diversity, and in older hosts. We show that longitudinal profiles and large sample sizes are crucial to quantifying microbiome heritability, and indicate scope for selection on microbiome characteristics as a host phenotype. 

ABSTRACT The European common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis , is used extensively in biological and biomedical research, yet its microbiome remains poorly characterized. We analyzed the microbiota of the digestive tract, gills, and skin in mariculture-raised S. officinalis using a combination of 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, quantitative PCR (qPCR), and fluorescence spectral imaging. Sequencing revealed a highly simplified microbiota consisting largely of two single bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of Vibrionaceae and Piscirickettsiaceae . The esophagus was dominated by a single ASV of the genus Vibrio . Imaging revealed bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae distributed in a discrete layer that lines the esophagus. This Vibrio was also the primary ASV found in the microbiota of the stomach, cecum, and intestine, but occurred at lower abundance, as determined by qPCR, and was found only scattered in the lumen rather than in a discrete layer via imaging analysis. Treatment of animals with the commonly used antibiotic enrofloxacin led to a nearly 80% reduction of the dominant Vibrio ASV in the esophagus but did not significantly alter the relative abundance of bacteria overall between treated versus control animals. Data from the gills were dominated by a single ASV in the family Piscirickettsiaceae , which imaging visualized as small clusters of cells. We conclude that bacteria belonging to the Gammaproteobacteria are the major symbionts of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis cultured from eggs in captivity and that the esophagus and gills are major colonization sites. IMPORTANCE Microbes can play critical roles in the physiology of their animal hosts, as evidenced in cephalopods by the role of Vibrio ( Aliivibrio ) fischeri in the light organ of the bobtail squid and the role of Alpha - and Gammaproteobacteria in the reproductive system and egg defense in a variety of cephalopods. We sampled the cuttlefish microbiome throughout the digestive tract, gills, and skin and found dense colonization of an unexpected site, the esophagus, by a microbe of the genus Vibrio , as well as colonization of gills by Piscirickettsiaceae . This finding expands the range of organisms and body sites known to be associated with Vibrio and is of potential significance for understanding host-symbiont associations, as well as for understanding and maintaining the health of cephalopods in mariculture.