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Despite low levels of uptake and active engagement, social media and other online tools can be of great benefit to microbiology researchers, and their use is to be encouraged.
Long-term experimental evolution ofEscherichia colireveals that a promoter capture event and subsequent amplification underlie the emergence of a novel function.
The first report of geranylated RNA nucleotides, which were discovered in the anticodon loops of bacterial tRNAs, and affect codon bias and frameshifting during translation.
This month's Genome Watch describes how sequencing technology is providing insight into the geographical relationships and global travel of bacterial pathogens.
A bidirectional neurohumoral communication system known as the gut–brain axis integrates the activities of the intestine and the brain. In this Progress article, Collins, Surette and Bercik describe recent evidence suggesting that the intestinal microbiota is intimately connected with the gut–brain axis and can influence animal behaviour, development and health.
Proteus mirabilisis one of the leading causes of catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Here, Armbruster and Mobley review the many recent advances in our understanding ofP. mirabilispathogenicity, including the elucidation of the intricate connections between metabolism, swarming motility and urease activity.
RepABC family plasmids are found exclusively in alphaproteobacteria. The replication and partitioning proteins of these plasmids are encoded by a single operon, therepABCcassette. Here, Pinto, Pappas and Winans review the regulation of RepABC plasmid replication and partitioning, including the mechanisms that allow plasmid copynumber to be increased in response to external cues.
The intracellular parasiteToxoplasma gondiican infect a range of hosts and occasionally causes serious disease in humans. In this Review, Hunter and Sibley summarize recent studies that implicate rhoptry kinases and a dense-granule protein as mediators of acute virulence in the mouse model. They also describe the complex interplay between these parasite effector proteins and the innate immune system.
Most protein export in bacteria occurs through the Sec pathway and relies on the essential ATPase SecA to push substrates through the SecYEG translocon. Here, Braunstein and Feltcher describe how mycobacteria and some Gram-positive bacteria secrete certain substrates using additional versions of SecA and other Sec components.
Predicting the virulence of a particular bacterial strain is a complex task that currently cannot be achieved from genome sequence data alone. In this Opinion article, Massey and colleagues present a framework for the construction of a systems biology-based tool that they think could be used to predict virulence phenotypes fromStaphylococcus aureusgenomic sequences using existing technologies.
