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Diverse CRISPR–Cas systems protect prokaryotes against invasive genetic elements like phages. A new study finds that evolution has fused a multi-subunit CRISPR complex into a single protein that cuts RNA and interacts with an ancillary caspase-like peptidase, which may trigger cell suicide.
Mimicking microbial degradation of sinking marine particles in the laboratory reveals a complex relationship between settling and decomposition rates that informs our view on how the ocean’s biological carbon pump is controlled.
Using genome-resolved metagenomics for 41 Arctic seawater samples, this ecogenomic analysis of 530 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from the polar Arctic Ocean reveals uncultured Arctic bacterial and archaeal MAGs, their gene expression patterns, habitat preferences and metabolic potential.
Analysis of the fungal and bacterial components of the intestinal microbiota of patients undergoing allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation identifies an association between fungal dysbiosis, an expansion of Candida parapsilosis complex species and worse patient outcomes.
Comparative RNA-seq, ChIP–seq and quantitative phosphoproteomics reveal how the blast fungus uses the Pmk1 MAP kinase to regulate a network of transcription factors that orchestrate the complex transcriptome changes necessary for infecting rice plants.
Analysis of the archaeal gut microbiota of 110 vertebrate species spanning five taxonomic classes revealed that host phylogeny could explain archaeal diversity.
Ancestral avian influenza A viruses are used to identify adaptive changes in viral polymerase and nucleoproteins that enable efficient replication and transmission in pigs.
Cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography reveal conformational changes of the bluetongue virus capsid protein VP5 that lead to membrane perforation and virus release into the cytosol.
Systematic single-cell analyses of human cytomegalovirus infection reveal that host factors modulate the progression of infection, but the course of viral infection itself is determined by virus genes.
Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are increasingly prevalent and difficult to treat. A new study identifies the unique vulnerabilities of a class of antibiotic-resistant mutants at the genomic scale, giving new insights into drugs that can be used in combination with antibiotics to suppress resistance.
Roles for dimethylsulfoniopropionate-based infochemical signalling in ocean microbiome ecosystems are reported in a pair of Nature Microbiology papers.
A genome-wide Tn-seq analysis of the rpoB H526Y mutant, a rifampicin-resistant Escherichia coli strain, identifies non-essential genes that modulate the fitness cost of mutations in the bacterial RNA polymerase that confer antibiotic resistance.
Algal production of dimethyl sulfide plays a role in attracting predators and enhancing predation by zooplankton, thus mediating predator–prey relationships in the ocean.
The marine bacterium Puniceibacterium antarcticum SM1211 can produce acrylate from dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) cleavage by the DMSP lyase, DddL, which protects against grazing by a ciliate predator.