Table of contents
In this issue
p495 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1938
Editorial: Les 120 ans de l'institut Pasteur
p496 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1942
Research Highlights
Bacterial secretion: Structural snapshot | PDF (234 KB)
p497 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1943
Cellular microbiology: Collaring the pocket | PDF (159 KB)
p498 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1933
Antibiotics: Spot the difference | PDF (324 KB)
p498 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1937
In brief
Phage biology | Innate immunity | Techniques and applications | PDF (87 KB)
p498 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1944
Evolution: What's on the menu? | PDF (153 KB)
p499 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1940
HIV: Do the flip | PDF (196 KB)
p500 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1934
Biofilms: New hide-out for TB? | PDF (297 KB)
p500 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1945
Cellular microbiology: HO1 tips the balance | PDF (288 KB)
p501 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1936
News and Analysis
Genome watch
Vive la différence | PDF (266 KB)
p502 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1929
Disease watch
In the News | PDF (464 KB)
p504 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1946
Reviews
Advances in bacterial promoter recognition and its control by factors that do not bind DNA
Shanil P. Haugen, Wilma Ross & Richard L. Gourse
p507 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1912
Structures of RNA polymerase enzymes have advanced our understanding of transcription initiation in all kingdoms of life. This Review discusses bacterial promoter structure, recent advances in our understanding of the successive promoter–RNA polymerase complexes that contribute to the kinetics of transcription initiation and unconventional regulators that target RNA polymerase, but not DNA, for the control of transcription initiation in bacteria.
Article series: Systems Microbiology
Systems biology of persistent infection: tuberculosis as a case study
Douglas Young, Jaroslav Stark & Denise Kirschner
p520 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1919
In the first of a series of articles that focus on systems biology in microorganisms, Douglas Young and colleagues describe how systems biology provides a new and integrative tool that can be used to probe host–pathogen interactions during persistent infection, using Mycobacterium tuberculosis as an example.
Reprogrammed viruses as cancer therapeutics: targeted, armed and shielded
Roberto Cattaneo, Tanner Miest, Elena V. Shashkova & Michael A. Barry
p529 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1927
Oncolytic viruses can be reprogrammed into vectors for use in cancer therapy by combining three types of modification: targeting, arming and shielding. Roberto Cattaneo and colleagues discuss the principles of virus reprogramming using adenovirus, a DNA virus with a naked icosahedral capsid, and measles virus, an enveloped RNA virus with a helical capsid, as the main examples.
Viral infection and iron metabolism
Hal Drakesmith & Andrew Prentice
p541 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1930
In recent years, the interactions between viruses and cellular metabolism have become a topic of great interest. Viral infections that disrupt liver function can be accompanied by changes in iron homeostasis, and iron loading of the liver can exacerbate chronic viral disease. Here, Hal Drakesmith and Andrew Prentice consider some examples of how viruses such as HIV-1, hepatitis C virus and arenaviruses manipulate cellular iron metabolism.
Perspectives
Innovation
Ibis T5000: a universal biosensor approach for microbiology
David J. Ecker, Rangarajan Sampath, Christian Massire, Lawrence B. Blyn, Thomas A. Hall, Mark W. Eshoo & Steven A. Hofstadler
p553 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1918
The Ibis T5000 couples nucleic acid amplification to high-performance electrospray mass spectrometry and base-composition analysis and enables the identification and quantification of all known bacteria, all major groups of pathogenic fungi and the major families of viruses that cause disease in humans and animals. Here, Ecker and colleagues describe this new technology.
Opinion
Microbial endemism: does phosphorus limitation enhance speciation?
Valeria Souza, Luis E. Eguiarte, Janet Siefert & James J. Elser
p559 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1917
Using examples from the Cuatro Ciénegas basin in Mexico, Souza et al. argue that the occurrence of strong ecosystem nutrient limitation, especially by phosphorus, encourages local microbial endemism because it reduces horizontal gene transfer among locally adapting microbial lineages.
Correspondence
Correspondence: Networking for infectious-disease emergencies in Europe
Giuseppe Ippolito, Carla Nisii & Maria R. Capobianchi
p564 | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1896-c1
