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Two new studies identify the basis of cytoplasmic incompatibility, a process by which obligate intracellularWolbachiabacteria favour their inheritance in their female insect hosts.
This month's Genome Watch highlights how culture-independent selective enrichment approaches are now being coupled to whole-genome sequencing to enable the analysis of unculturable microorganisms.
In this Progress article, Buchanan and colleagues discuss recent studies that have advanced our understanding of the structure of the fully assembled β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) complex and the interactions between the individual components. They also detail the mechanistic insights that have been gained and explore two emerging models for BAM-mediated outer membrane protein biogenesis in bacteria.
Coral reefs are complex ecosystems that are populated by diverse microorganisms. In this Review, Vega Thurberet al. summarize the diversity of reef viruses that infect corals and their associated microbiota, and highlight their roles in coral disease and reef decline.
Trypanosomatid parasites can cause life-threatening diseases, such as human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. In this Review, Gilbert and colleagues discuss the drug discovery landscape and describe some of the challenges that are involved in the development of new drugs to treat these diseases.
Circadian rhythms enable cells to anticipate cyclic changes in their environment. In this Review, Johnsonet al. explore timekeeping systems that range from prototypical circadian clocks to hourglass timers and their role in different bacteria, including cyanobacteria and members of the microbiota.
The discovery of the giant amoebal virus mimivirus, in 2003, opened up a new area of virology. Extended studies, including those of mimiviruses, have since revealed that these viruses have genetic, proteomic and structural features that are more complex than those of conventional viruses.
