Table of contents
February 2008 Vol 6 No 2
In this issue
p89 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1851
Editorial: Surviving and thriving in a big pond
p90 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1850
Research Highlights
Bacterial pathogenesis: The enemy within... | PDF (181 KB)
p91 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1846
In brief
Biofilms | Computational biology | Structural biology | PDF (97 KB)
p92 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1837
Bacterial toxins: A new way to hijack the cell | PDF (600 KB)
p92 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1841
Environmental microbiology: Caulobacter cleans up | PDF (182 KB)
p93 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1843
Bacterial pathogenesis: Chain of transmission | PDF (231 KB)
p93 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1844
Malaria: Malaria eats out | PDF (154 KB)
p94 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1842
Microbial physiology: Five ways to cycle carbon | PDF (165 KB)
p94 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1847
Malaria: Picking Plasmodium falciparum apart | PDF (513 KB)
p95 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1848
News and Analysis
Disease watch
In the News | PDF (600 KB)
p96 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1849
Reviews
Exit strategies of intracellular pathogens
Kevin Hybiske & Richard S. Stephens
p99 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1821
The exit of intracellular bacteria from host cells is a crucial stage in microbial pathogenesis that is driven by an evolutionary requirement for efficient dissemination to neighbouring cells and transmission to new hosts. In this comprehensive Review, the authors discuss the diverse repertoire of strategies that is used by intracellular pathogens to escape their host cells.
Inter-kingdom signalling: communication between bacteria and their hosts
David T. Hughes & Vanessa Sperandio
p111 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1836
Mutually beneficial relationships between prokaryotes and eukaryotes are possible because of the ability of microorganisms and their hosts to communicate with each other. In this Review, David Hughes and Vanessa Sperandio discuss how inter-kingdom communication can be 'hijacked' by bacterial pathogens, and how hosts can fight back.
Polysaccharide utilization by gut bacteria: potential for new insights from genomic analysis
Harry J. Flint, Edward A. Bayer, Marco T. Rincon, Raphael Lamed & Bryan A. White
p121 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1817
Dietary plant polysaccharides are a major energy source for the anaerobic microbiota that inhabit the mammalian large intestine and rumen. Flint and colleagues discuss polysaccharide utilization by gut anaerobes, focusing on two examples, the use of insoluble structural polysaccharides by Ruminococcus flavefaciens and the use of starch by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
Complement evasion by human pathogens
John D. Lambris, Daniel Ricklin & Brian V. Geisbrecht
p132 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1824
The complement system is an essential and efficient component of the immune system's antimicrobial machinery, but many pathogens have developed parallel routes of escape. Understanding complement processes and interactions on a molecular level is essential for the development of novel therapies, and this Review provides a comprehensive overview and update of recent developments in this field.
The challenges of eliciting neutralizing antibodies to HIV-1 and to influenza virus
Gunilla B. Karlsson Hedestam, Ron A.M. Fouchier, Sanjay Phogat, Dennis R. Burton, Joseph Sodroski & Richard T. Wyatt
p143 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1819
Most viral vaccines protect against disease by generating neutralizing antibodies. This Review examines the problem of eliciting broad HIV-1 neutralization through vaccination by drawing parallels with the successful subunit influenza virus vaccine and with efforts to develop a pandemic influenza vaccine.
Perspectives
Innovation
New surveyor tools for charting microbial metabolic maps
Rainer Breitling, Dennis Vitkup & Michael P. Barrett
p156 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1797
For the full potential of microbial genomics to be realized, a complete understanding of the metabolic capacities of microbial life is required. In this Innovation, the authors discuss new system-biology technologies that enable the identification of novel metabolites and their biochemical connections within metabolic networks.
Opinion
Morphological plasticity as a bacterial survival strategy
Sheryl S. Justice, David A. Hunstad, Lynette Cegelski & Scott J. Hultgren
p162 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1820
Filamentation has been implicated in bacterial survival of exposure to environmental stresses, but in this Opinion, Sheryl S. Justice and colleagues propose that the morphological plasticity of pathogenic bacteria is a direct and adaptive response to the sensing of environmental changes.
