Volume 8 Issue 6, June 2023

Residual human DNA reads in sequenced faecal samples may allow some individuals to be identified.

Many microorganisms remain understudied due to the challenges and complexities of culturing. An integrated lab automation and machine learning platform called BacterAI could be the future.

Colistin-resistant bacteria require fatty acid synthesis to maintain cell envelope homeostasis; disrupting fatty acid biosynthesis leads to the remodelling of phospholipid composition and decreases the fluidity of the cell envelope. Inhibitors of fatty acid biosynthesis resensitize bacteria to colistin, allowing for the treatment of colistin-resistant bacterial infections in mice.

The authors argue that the virome of the last eukaryotic common ancestor is bacterial, rather than archaeal, providing support for a syntrophic model of eukaryogenesis with two endosymbiosis events.

An artificial intelligence system called BacterAI uses laboratory robots to learn the logic of microbial metabolism. BacterAI plans experiments autonomously and does not require any prior knowledge.

Inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis re-sensitizes colistin-resistant clinically relevant bacteria in vivo by inducing stress responses and altering membrane composition.

Analyses of metagenome-resolved genomes from humans and primate species reveal significant co-diversification of bacterial gut symbionts, which are becoming extinct from human populations.

A suite of human monoclonal antibodies block infection by all human ACE2 binding sarbecoviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants, at subnanomolar concentrations in cell culture and protect mice against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection.

Centenarians have a diverse population of gut bacteriophages, a subset of which encode sulfate metabolism genes and may promote healthy aging.

Personal information such as genetic sex, ancestry and clinically relevant genetic variants can be recovered from human reads present in faecal metagenomic sequencing data.

Comparing norovirus infection in neonate and adult mice suggests age-dependent differences in passive viral uptake, cellular tropism, interferon regulation and viral dissemination.

Characterization of the myotis bat morbillivirus shows that infection in human cells is restricted by innate immune responses in vitro and cross-neutralization by sera from measles, mumps and rubella vaccinees.

Metadegradome sequencing maps 5′P mRNA decay intermediates in complex samples and 96 isolated bacterial species, to identify codon- and gene-level ribosome stalling responses to stress and drug treatment.

Sampling beneath the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica coupled to global sequencing datasets reveals an important but overlooked contributor to deep ocean carbon and sulfur cycles.

The cryogenic electron microscopy structure of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell division complex and antibiotic drug target, FtsWIQBL, suggests a possible activation mechanism.

Genomic and phenotypic analyses of 272 infant-associated Clostridium perfringens isolates suggest that pfoA is an important toxin gene in C. perfringens linked with preterm infant intestinal diseases.

Systematic review and analysis of pre-pandemic coronavirus surveillance in bats identifies requirements for improvements to surveillance in the future.