Volume 8 Issue 8, August 2010

Recent controversies have decreased the uptake of vaccines, which has led to preventable suffering and deaths. The current scepticism towards vaccines should be countered with a clear and open education campaign.

In bacteria, translation is restricted to specific locations that are dictated by the limited diffusion of mature transcripts from the location of transcription, which is in turn specified by the position of the chromosomal locus.

Bacteroides fragilisPSA induces IL-10-producing T_Regcells in a TLR2-dependent manner.

Characterization of a bacterial endocytosis-like system, the first to be reported outside of the eukaryotic domain.

A genotoxin produced by strains ofEscherichia coliinduces double-strand breaks in host DNA and promotes chromosome instability and mutations.

Trypanosoma bruceialters the protein composition and antihaemostatic activity of tsetse fly saliva, leading to changes in fly feeding behaviour.

A paper inCurrent Biologyreports that interspecies competition at mucosal surfaces can select for the evolution of invasive traits.

Recent studies on marine microorganisms and their ability to degrade oil components make for particularly poignant reading in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster. Several groups have looked at oil-degrading bacterial communities derived from marine samples, identifying and isolating key strains, analysing transcription and investigating specific degradative enzymes.

Our monthly round up of infectious diseases news, which this month includes filoviruses in mammalian genomes, interactions between gut bacteria and intestinal parasites, gene therapy to treat HIV, and the debate about the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Phage-related chromosomal islands, which include theStaphylococcus aureuspathogenicity islands, often encode virulence factors and co-opt a helper phage to spread to other cells. Richard Novick and colleagues describe the life cycle of these genetic elements, the regulation of their mobility and their effects on helper phages.

Integrative and conjugative elements are self-transmissible genetic elements that encode a core set of genes for their propagation and transfer and can also carry various other genes, including drug resistance markers. Here, Wozniak and Waldor describe the transmission of these elements and how this is regulated.

In this article the authors review what mouse models of intestinal inflammation using gene-targeted mice and defined bacteria have contributed to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), focusing on the specific contribution of bacteria and bacterial components.

Demand for renewable alternatives to petrochemical-based products is increasing. In this Review, Bernd Rehm describes how a better understanding ofin vivobacterial biopolymer biosynthesis is enabling the production of tailor-made renewable biopolymers with a diverse range of material properties.

Recalcitrant dissolved organic matter is now known to be a key element in the global carbon cycle. Here, Nianzhi Jiao and colleagues set out the role of ocean-dwelling microorganisms in the generation of this pool of long-lived carbon, using a new concept they call the microbial carbon pump.

The identity of the forces that drive chromosome segregation in bacteria has long been unknown. Here, Jun and Wright describe their model in which entropy is the central driving force of chromosome segregation and discuss the role of previously identified DNA segregation proteins in the context of this model.