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Recommendations on the regulation of synthetic biology in the United States provide important lessons on how to foster a nascent field of research while promoting public awareness and support.
Contact-dependent growth inhibition systems are widespread among Gram-negative bacteria, display distinct mechanisms of action and have roles in intraspecies competition.
A new paper inPLoS Pathogens on Streptococcus pneumoniaepneumolysin provides the first example of the involvement of the NLRP3 inflammasome in protection against a Gram-positive bacterium.
Pathogens utilize the sugar that is transported by a newly identified family of sugar transporters and, in some cases, induce the expression of these transporters.
A new paper reports that the emergence of a more virulent strain of A/H1N1 pandemic influenza can occur by spontaneous mutations and re-assortment with seasonal viruses.
A mutualistic relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and a member of the most ancient clade of land plants promotes carbon uptake, growth and asexual reproduction in the plant.
Our monthly round up of infectious diseases news, which this month includes cholera in Haiti, exosomes for viral communication, the end of AIDS, statins as antibacterials, and a Q fever outbreak.
John Gunn and colleagues summarize recent progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of gall bladder infection bySalmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhi, in particular the mechanisms involved in S. Typhi biofilm formation on gallstones.
Non-coding DNA motifs play a central part in the bacterial cell cycle. El Karoui and colleagues review the roles of such motifs in replication, DNA segregation, DNA repair, cell division and DNA uptake, and explain how their distribution can be analysed quantitatively.
The composition of the human microbiota at various body sites can become altered following injury, infection and antibiotic treatment. In this Review, Gregor Reid and colleagues describe how a healthy microbiota can be restored, either naturally or aided by probiotic treatment, following such challenge.
In this Review, Mahadevan, Palsson and Lovley describe how genome-scale metabolic modelling ofGeobacterspp. has improved our understanding of the metabolism and physiology of these environmentally important bacteria and discuss the implications for applications such as bioremediation.
The Archaea evolved over 3 billion years ago but were only formally proposed as a domain 20 years ago. Today, many of the unique features and many of those that are shared with either the Bacteria or the Eukarya are well understood. Here, Ricardo Cavicchioli describes some of the important events in our appreciation of this fascinating group of organisms.
Infections involving slow-growing and persistent bacteria, includingMycobacterium tuberculosisand biofilms, are difficult to treat. Here, Hurdle and colleagues argue that developing antibiotics to target the bacterial membrane and membrane functions is a promising approach for the treatment for these difficult-to-treat infections.
