Bacterial genes articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacterial histidine kinases (HKs) play key roles in the response to stimuli and are regulated by reversible phosphorylation. Here, the authors show that the activity of a HK in the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris is modulated by irreversible, proteolytic modification in response to osmostress.

    • Chao-Ying Deng
    • , Huan Zhang
    •  & Wei Qian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Head-on replication-transcription collisions occur within genes encoded on the lagging DNA strand. Here, the authors show that a large number of originally co-oriented (leading strand) genes have inverted to the head-on orientation, increasing both gene-specific mutation rates, and the overall evolvability of several bacterial pathogens.

    • Christopher N. Merrikh
    •  & Houra Merrikh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Infection of mice with Citrobacter rodentium is a common model of infection with attaching-and-effacing pathogens. Here, Connolly et al. analyse the transcriptome of C. rodentium during mouse infection, showing host-induced coordinated upregulation of virulence factors and 1,2-propanediol metabolism.

    • James P. R. Connolly
    • , Sabrina L. Slater
    •  & Andrew J. Roe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mutations in gene pmrB are found in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from cystic fibrosis patients. Here, Bricio-Moreno et al. show in a mouse model of respiratory infection that the mutations enhance bacterial adherence to epithelial cells and resistance to lysozyme, but also increase antibiotic susceptibility.

    • Laura Bricio-Moreno
    • , Victoria H. Sheridan
    •  & Daniel R. Neill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fragin is a diazeniumdiolate metabolite with antifungal activity, produced by some bacteria. Here, Jenul et al. show that metal chelation is the molecular basis of fragin’s antifungal activity, and that a gene cluster directing fragin biosynthesis is also involved in the synthesis of a signal molecule.

    • Christian Jenul
    • , Simon Sieber
    •  & Leo Eberl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zinc homeostasis in most bacteria is achieved by a set of regulators, each responding to a certain level of intracellular zinc. Here the authors show that, inStreptomyces coelicolor, the Zur regulator modulates the expression of genes for zinc import and export over a large range of zinc concentrations.

    • Seung-Hwan Choi
    • , Kang-Lok Lee
    •  & Jung-Hye Roe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Elizabethkingia anophelis is an emerging pathogen of high antimicrobial resistance. Perrin and colleagues sequenced isolates of a 2015/2016 E. anophelis outbreak in Wisconsin and found substantial genetic diversity, accelerated evolutionary rate and a disruptive mutation in the DNA repair gene mutY.

    • Amandine Perrin
    • , Elise Larsonneur
    •  & Sylvain Brisse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The clinical application of new sequencing techniques is expected to accelerate pathogen identification. Here, Bradley et al. present a clinician-friendly software package that uses sequencing data for quick and accurate prediction of antibiotic resistance profiles for S. aureus and M. tuberculosis.

    • Phelim Bradley
    • , N. Claire Gordon
    •  & Zamin Iqbal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One of the key aspects for controlling infectious diseases is understanding how pathogens cross host species. Here the authors conduct a genome-wide analysis of Salmonella and show a high degree of variation, enabling host-adapted colonization among Salmonellaintestinal and systemic serovars.

    • Min Yue
    • , Xiangan Han
    •  & Dieter M. Schifferli

  • Article |

    Toxin–antitoxin systems of the Vap class regulate the growth of several bacterial pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, the authors show that toxin VapC-mt4 arrests M. tuberculosis growth by specifically cleaving three tRNAs at a single site in their anticodon stem loop, leading to translation inhibition.

    • Jonathan W. Cruz
    • , Jared D. Sharp
    •  & Nancy A. Woychik

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