News & Views in 2016

A host's own cell-death circuitry can be unleashed to combat infections by exploiting a tactic used by many pathogens.

Parasite access to the central nervous system is a severe complication of infection. Toxoplasma gondii can achieve this by directly infecting, replicating in and lysing blood–brain barrier endothelial cells.

A systems biology approach to analyse yeast auxotrophs shows that, even when supplemented, they have profoundly altered transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolic profiles.

A transmembrane protein receptor that is critical for adeno-associated virus infection has been identified through an unbiased, genome-wide screen. Its role in viral entry could potentially be harnessed to develop enhanced gene therapy vectors and better animal models of human disease.

Recombination of genes responsible for synthesis of major surface lipooligosaccharides, and consequent loss of these compounds in a Mycobacterium canettii-like progenitor, increased virulence and drove evolution from an environmental, relatively non-pathogenic status to virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of the present-day TB epidemic.

By using the power of Drosophila genetics, a recent study has revealed how gut bacteria limit viral infection of insects.

Natural volcanic CO₂ seeps (mofettes) provided a natural experiment to use omic and biogeochemical approaches to explore how flooding a system with CO₂ impacts algal photosynthesis and methanogenesis.

Surface topography and fluid flow combine to modify quorum sensing communication in bacterial biofilms, changing the way we think about the interaction of biofilms with external physical forces and the implications for persistence in chronic infections and industrial fouling.

A recent analysis of microbial community dynamics shows that, contrary to current assumption, too much cooperation among species can destabilize their communities. This is a first step towards understanding what makes a stable microbiome and, thus, transforming microbiome research into a more predictive science.

High-throughput population genomics reveals how the evolution of chromosome arrangement and sequence divergence followed by secondary contact upon glacier retreat initiates homoploid hybrid speciation in natural populations of the budding yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus.