Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Galacturonic acid produced by Bacteroides thetaiotamicron is shown to be sensed by enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Citrobacter rodentium to initiate an infection program that includes its use as a carbon source and regulation of the type III secretion system, leading to colitis and inflammation.
High-throughput chromosomal conformation capture identified changes in the gut microbiome over 10 years, including substantial exchange of accessory elements and adaptive evolution in core genomes.
The lipopolysaccharide of the intracellular pathogen Shigella, in particular its O antigen, interacts with caspases and blocks their activation to prevent apoptosis.
Shotgun metagenomic sequencing (using the MinION platform) of mock microbial communities and faecal samples from healthy and ill preterm infants can be used to identify pathogens and their antimicrobial resistance gene profiles in real time, indicating the potential for translation into clinical settings.
Herpesviruses are shown to specifically block innate antiviral responses by inducing the aggregation of key signalling molecules nuclear factor κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) essential modulator (NEMO) and receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) and their degradation by selective autophagy, thereby blocking the activation of NF-κB and the induction of necroptosis, respectively.
The comparison of the ability of native and engineered gene clusters transferred into bacteria that live on or inside cereal roots to regulate nitrogenase activity reveals different strategies to control nitrogen fixation in rhizobia and paves the way to engineer a bacterium able to deliver high nitrogen fluxes to crops.
The structure of the FlaG–FlaF complexes from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, combined with mutational and biochemical studies, suggests that these proteins form a heterotetrameric complex in which FlaF regulates the filamentation of FlaG and anchoring of the archaellum to the S-layer, thereby modulating motility.
The hierarchical consumption of carbon substrates by Escherichia coli is regulated by carbon-uptake flux rather than by the identity of the substrates, in a process controlled by cAMP–Crp signalling and fructose 1,6-bisphosphate.
This study reports a microscopy-based screen to find microRNAs (miRNAs) that control infection by Salmonella and Shigella, showing they have different requirements. Two miRNAs decrease Shigella actin motility through N-WASP and one miRNA inhibits Salmonella by targeting TGS2, a regulator of phagolysosomal trafficking.
In this work, Fang et al. analyse the epigenetic landscape of Clostridioides difficile and identify a DNA methyltransferase present across C. difficile strains that is required for optimal sporulation and in vivo colonization and disease.
The combined use of genome sequencing, cultivation and phenotypic characterization of 79 globally distributed strains from the bacterial phylum Planctomycetes sheds light on their varied cell shapes, modes of cell division and extensive signalling and metabolic potential.
Members of the Enterobacteriaceae, including adherent invasive Escherichia coli, reprogram their metabolism to preferentially consume dietary serine during periods of inflammation in the gut to promote their growth and outcompete other microbiome members.
Viral infection from the basolateral side of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) is shown to elicit a stronger intrinsic immune response than apical infection, an effect driven by the polarized sorting of Toll-like receptor 3. Experiments in mice and human cells suggest that the cellular polarity program is integral to the ability of IECs to tolerate gut commensals while remaining responsive to invasive pathogens.
Small colony variants of Staphylococcus aureus induce glycolysis and necroptosis in host cells, which impairs trained immunity and host protection from subsequent S. aureus infection.
Depletion of SAMHD1 has been shown to generate DNA damage and trigger cGAS–STING-mediated immunity. How HIV-2 and SIV bypass this activation, given Vpx-mediated depletion of SAMHD1, is unknown. Vpx is now shown to efficiently inhibit cGAS–STING-induced innate immunity through association with a new STING domain.
Ruminococcus gnavus is a mucus-associated gut commensal that can release the sialic acid, 2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac. Here, the authors identify the pathway for its transportation and metabolism in R. gnavus, and show that this pathway is essential for its spatial localization in vivo.
Flavivirus infection leads to a rearrangement of host cell ER membranes that creates an environment permissive to viral replication. The morphology of these membrane rearrangements is known, but the mechanisms involved are unclear. Here, atlastins—ER-resident membrane-bound GTPases of the dynamin family—are shown to be targeted by flaviviruses to establish their replication organelle and for virion maturation and secretion.
Using metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, up to 16 strains of intracellular, sulfur-oxidizing symbiotic bacteria were identified in individual mussels with different functions, indicating that high strain diversity is present in symbioses.
Chassis-independent recombinase-assisted genome engineering (CRAGE) enables the integration of plasmids encoding biosynthetic gene clusters into the chromosomes of diverse bacteria to optimize production of natural products in non-native strains.