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This month's Genome Watch highlights the use of deep sequencing metagenomics to identify bacteriophages that carry sulphur-oxidizing genes in deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes.
Bacterial ADP-ribosyltransferase toxins (bARTTs) transfer ADP-ribose to a range of eukaryotic proteins to promote bacterial pathogenesis. In this Review, the authors discuss the structural and functional properties of the most recently identified novel bARTTs, which are produced by various human, insect and plant pathogens and were identified using bioinformatic analyses.
The mouse pathogenCitrobacter rodentium has long been used as a model for investigating the pathogenesis of the important enteric human pathogens, enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli(EPEC). In this Review, Frankel and colleagues discuss the infection cycle of this pathogen, the mucosal immune response that is elicited and the role of the gut microbiota in preventing colonization.
Pathogens block or subvert host cellular processes to promote successful infection. One host protein that is targeted by invading pathogens is the small GTPase RAB11, which functions in vesicular trafficking. Bier and colleagues discuss the various mechanisms that pathogens have evolved to disrupt or subvert RAB11-dependent pathways as part of their infection strategy.
The vast increase in the number of 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences that are now available has led to an urgent need to implement taxonomic boundaries and classification principles that can apply to both cultured and uncultured microorganisms. In this Analysis article, the authors use 16S rRNA gene sequence identities to propose rational taxonomic boundaries for high taxa of bacteria and archaea and suggest a rationale for the circumscription of uncultured taxa that is compatible with the taxonomy of cultured bacteria and archaea.
It has recently emerged that pervasive transcription is widespread in bacteria and is caused by transcription from non-canonical promoters and terminator readthrough. However, whether the resultant transcripts have any functional role is unclear. In this Opinion article, Wade and Grainger argue that pervasive transcripts are likely to be important for the regulation of gene expression and genome evolution.
