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Bacteria need to adjust as they move between different environments. In this Progress article, Freitag, Port and Miner describe howListeria monocytogenesregulates the transition from saprophyte to human pathogen.
Epidemics caused by antibiotic-resistant strains ofStaphylococcus aureus often occur in waves. Here, Henry Chambers and Frank DeLeo review the molecular epidemiology of the epidemic waves of penicillin- and methicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus that have occurred since 1940, with a focus on community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus.
Bacterial cell division is orchestrated by the assembly of FtsZ into the Z ring, which functions as a scaffold for the assembly of the division machinery. Here, David Adams and Jeff Errington review the diverse repertoire of accessory proteins that interact with FtsZ during its assembly to render it both functional for division and responsive to cellular stresses.
Pseudomonas aeruginosauses a type III secretion system to proliferate within the host. Here, Alan Hauser describes the regulation of the formation of this secretion system, the components that allow the transfer of effectors into the host and the activity of these effectors.
Cryo-electron tomography is beginning to open a window on the bacterial cell, enabling internal structural organization to be imaged at high resolutions. In this Review article, Milne and Subramaniam assess the applicability and limitations of cryo-electron tomography for bacterial cell imaging and highlight the recent advances made in this exciting field.
In this Timeline, Silhavy and colleagues trace the experiments that revealed the structure and composition of the membranes and cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria and describe our current knowledge of the synthesis and transport pathways of lipopolysaccharide.
