Microbial genetics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adaptation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the host environment is principally mediated through its transcription factors. Here, the authors report the DNA binding and transcriptional profile of ~80% of all predicted M. tuberculosistranscription factors, and find wide-spread dormant DNA binding.

    • Kyle J. Minch
    • , Tige R. Rustad
    •  & David R. Sherman

  • Article |

    Understanding influenza evolution is challenging. Here, the authors determine the timing and order of critical amino acid changes that contributed to a world-wide predominance of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1 influenza viruses and show the role of epistasis in the emergence of novel influenza phenotypes.

    • Susu Duan
    • , Elena A. Govorkova
    •  & Richard J. Webby

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genetic variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosiscomplex (MTBC) bacteria is responsible for differences in factors such as virulence and transmissibility. Here, the authors analyse the genomes of 1,601 MTBC isolates from diverse geographic locations and identify 62 SNPs that may be used to resolve lineages and sublineages of these strains.

    • Francesc Coll
    • , Ruth McNerney
    •  & Taane G. Clark

  • Article |

    The bacterial ‘adaptive’ immune system known as CRISPR-Cas destroys foreign DNA molecules, such as viral genomes, to which the cells have previously been exposed. Here, Hynes et al.show that this gain of immunity is favoured by exposure to defective viruses, a result reminiscent of vaccination.

    • Alexander P. Hynes
    • , Manuela Villion
    •  & Sylvain Moineau

  • Article |

    The Gag precursor protein recognizes the HIV-1 genomic RNA among hundreds of other viral and cellular RNAs during assembly of viral particles. Here, the authors identify the primary binding site of Gag on the HIV-1 RNA, and show that other RNA regions enhance or inhibit Gag binding.

    • Ekram W. Abd El-Wahab
    • , Redmond P. Smyth
    •  & Roland Marquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Horizontal gene transfers are known to play an important role in prokaryote evolution but their impact and prevalence in eukaryotes is less clear. Here, the authors sequence the genomes of cheese making fungi P. roqueforti and P. camemberti, and provide evidence for recent horizontal transfers of a large genomic region.

    • Kevin Cheeseman
    • , Jeanne Ropars
    •  & Yves Brygoo

  • Article |

    Cre recombinase is widely used to precisely manipulate genes and chromosomes, but it often displays off-target activity. Here, the authors improve the accuracy of Cre-mediated recombination by introducing specific mutations in the enzyme’s dimerization surface.

    • Nikolai Eroshenko
    •  & George M. Church

  • Article |

    The potential evolutionary advantage associated with genome segmentation in multipartite viruses is not well established. Here Sicard et al. demonstrate that genome segmentation can allow a differential regulation of the copy number of each gene in a multipartite plant nanovirus during host infection.

    • Anne Sicard
    • , Michel Yvon
    •  & Stéphane Blanc

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA double-strand breaks commonly occur in all replicating cells. Wimberly and colleagues show that in non-replicating cells, aborted transcription/translation forms RNA/DNA hybrid R-loops that prime origin-independent replication, leading to DNA breakage, point mutations and chromosomal rearrangements.

    • Hallie Wimberly
    • , Chandan Shee
    •  & P. J. Hastings

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Expansion of polyglutamines correlates with neuronal death in Huntington’s disease. Here the authors show that, in haploid yeast cells, the toxic effect of polyglutamine expression is associated with the disruption of the septin ring and cells may escape from toxicity by hyperploidization.

    • Christoph J.O. Kaiser
    • , Stefan W. Grötzinger
    •  & Klaus Richter

  • Article |

    RNA viruses are known to rapidly evolve new features through errors in replication and reshuffling of genomic segments. These authors report another strategy used by the measles virus to improve infectivity; the cooperation between wild-type and mutant fusion proteins in the same viral particle.

    • Yuta Shirogane
    • , Shumpei Watanabe
    •  & Yusuke Yanagi

  • Article |

    Lamivudine treatment of hepatitis B is associated with drug-resistance mutations in the virus’ DNA polymerase. In this study, 11 patients with drug resistance are investigated and the primary mutation in the DNA polymerase shown to be essential but not sufficient for establishing drug resistance.

    • Hong Thai
    • , David S. Campo
    •  & Yury Khudyakov

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