Volume 8 Issue 8, August 2023

As a budding scientist in a resource-limited setting, collaboration has been invaluable to my progress so far, writes Bridgious Walusimbi.

An integrated science–policy–society interface that explicitly considers soil microbiomes is needed to achieve One Health goals.

Liliane Mukaremera describes her scientific journey studying Cryptococcus neoformans, a major human fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening infections.

A mouse model identifies FcγRIIIa engagement on splenic macrophages as a driver of disease severity during dengue infection.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa drives heterogeneity of cyclic di-GMP signalling in biofilms as a division-of-labour strategy to maximize colonization and dispersal using the protein HecE.

Tracking the journey of inulin, a soluble dietary fibre, reveals its fate and transformation by the gut microbiota to alleviate liver disease in mice.

Mutational analysis of Akkermansia muciniphila identified genes important for growth in mucin and gut colonization. Mucin-degrading capabilities are essential for the bacterium to compete with other members of the microbiota, and mucin metabolism by A. muciniphila resulted in reduced transcription of genes involved with cholesterol biosynthesis in the host gut.

We characterized the cell-free DNA of bacteria and bacteriophages circulating in blood plasma of two cohorts of individuals with sepsis and uninfected controls. We found that the circulating phageome enables the identification of the bacterial pathogen with species-level resolution.

d-amino acids are known to have a variety of functions. An investigation into the roles of d-arginine and d-lysine shed light on the stress-dependent mechanism employed by Vibrio cholerae to escape from unfavourable niches and to shape complex ecological systems.

The beneficial rhizobacterium Bacillus velezensis SQR9 secretes YukE by the type VII secretion system; YukE inserts into the plant root cell membrane to cause iron leakage, which benefits SQR9 and thus promotes its rhizosphere colonization.

Walker and Hoyles highlight selected myths and misconceptions in the human microbiota literature.

An overview of methods that can be used in high and maximum containment to study virus–host interactions in the infection microenvironment.

Antigenic variation is used by pathogens to evade the host immune system. This Review describes the impact of nuclear organization on antigenic variation in protozoan parasites.

The microbiota associated with the rice plant panicle can protect against fungal disease via modulating host leucine production and induction of apoptosis-like cell death in the pathogen.

The plant commensal Bacillus velezensis SQR9 uses its type VII secretion system to deliver effector protein YukE to plant roots, which causes iron leakage and promotes its colonization on roots.

Transposon mutagenesis identifies Akkermansia muciniphila genes required for growth on mucin and colonization of the intestinal tract.

Antibodies against dengue virus are linked to increased risk for severe dengue. This study identified the mechanisms by which these antibodies mediate pathogenic activities, guiding the development of novel approaches to control dengue disease.

Isotopic labelling and multi-omics experiments conducted in Biosphere 2 show how dry conditions reprogramme microbial metabolism.

Bacteriophage diversity in cell-free DNA within human plasma can help to specify pathogenic Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus during sepsis.

Magnaporthe oryzae uses pressurized infection cells called appressoria to physically break the host plant cuticle. A membrane-targeting molecular mechanoprobe is used to quantify changes in membrane tension in appressoria under extreme pressure.

HecRE is identified as a molecular switch regulating cyclic di-GMP levels and promoting binary cell states during Pseudomonas aeruginosa surface colonization and biofilm development.

The gut commensal Parabacteroides distasonis uses inulin to produce the odd-chain fatty acid pentadecanoic acid, which alleviates non-alcoholic steatohepatitis via improved barrier function in mice.

d-arginine and d-lysine are chemorepellent molecules sensed by a novel chemotaxis receptor in Vibrio cholerae that trigger a run-away response under adverse conditions.

The plant pathogen Phytophthora sojae produces an effector that targets soybean trehalose-6-phosphate synthase, which leads to enhanced trehalose synthesis. This host-derived trehalose is then used by P. sojae as a carbon source during infection.

Multi-omics on a long-term, continuous bioreactor experiment identifies microbes able to respire nitric oxide, a toxic, ozone-depleting, greenhouse gas precursor.

A panel of seven conditional Ly6e knockout mice are used to show that Ly6e expression protects the respiratory tract from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and mouse hepatitis virus infection.