I was honoured when asked to curate this collection, but accepted with some trepidation; I apologize upfront for the many outstanding contributions that I could not mention due to space limitations.
I was honoured when asked to curate this collection, but accepted with some trepidation. As the tagline states, Microbiology (Journal of General Microbiology prior to 1994) has been ‘publishing high-quality research since 1947’: capturing the breadth and depth of the journal’s contribution to microbiology in this short opinion piece is nigh impossible. I chose to steer a personal course through the journal archive and highlight some personal favourites here. Such an approach is by its nature highly selective and a function of my own predilections; I apologize upfront for the many outstanding contributions that I could not mention due to space limitations. I hope, however, to remind readers of the seminal work published in Microbiology over the years and perhaps to shine a light on some forgotten gems.