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The advent of Web 2.0 applications, which enable information sharing and virtual networking, could revolutionize science. But are microbiologists taking advantage?
Thirteen years after the first bacterial genome was sequenced, Rino Rappuoli, Stanley Falkow and colleagues review what has changed in microbiology research as a consequence of genomics and address the implications of the genomic era for the future of microbiology.
This Review summarizes contemporary approaches for defining species in Bacteria and Archaea and contrasts these approaches with various reports on microbial population genetic patterns. The authors conclude that contemporary method-based approaches lack a theoretical definition and new approaches are needed that should be guided by a method-free species concept that is based on cohesive evolutionary forces.
Sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are anaerobic microorganisms that can use sulphate as a terminal electron acceptor. These organisms are ubiquitous in anoxic habitats, where they have an important role in both the sulphur and carbon cycles. Muyzer and Stams provide an overview of the diversity, physiology and distribution of SRB and their applications to environmental biotechnology.
The flagellum is a beautiful structure and a fascinating model system for understanding how genes are regulated to ensure the correct assembly of a complex structure. Chevance and Hughes discuss the regulation of flagellar gene transcription and how it is intimately coupled to the assembly of this exquisite bacterial nanomachine.
Bacteria and archaea have found many solutions to the problem of how to move in liquids and on solid surfaces. Although the use of a rotary flagellum in bacteria is the best-studied mode of bacterial movement, spirochaetes constrain their flagella in the periplasm, some bacteria move using type IV pili, cyanobacteria use surface spicules and others glide on surfaces without using appendages.
The dynamics of infectious diseases are complex, so developing models that can capture key features of the spread of infection is important. Grassly and Fraser provide an introduction to the mathematical analysis and modelling of disease transmission, which, in addition to informing public health disease control measures, is also important for understanding pathogen evolution and ecology.
The discovery of proteorhodopsin genes during metagenomic analyses of marine bacteria and archaea challenged the notion that all solar energy is captured by microbial chlorophyll molecules in these environments. But have subsequent studies confirmed the energy-transducing roles of microbial proteorhodopsins? Here, the authors suggest that energy transduction might be one of many roles for these fascinating proteins.
