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Microbiology is the study of microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, archaea, fungi and protozoa. This discipline includes fundamental research on the biochemistry, physiology, cell biology, ecology, evolution and clinical aspects of microorganisms, including the host response to these agents.
We characterize the activity of fluorofolin, a potent inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase, against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. By exploiting a divergence in thymidine metabolism, fluorofolin becomes selective for P. aeruginosa in the presence of thymine, demonstrating that it can be a narrow-spectrum antibiotic for this bacterial pathogen.
Age is the single greatest risk factor driving mortality after encounter with SARS-CoV-2. A new study shows that the composition of nasal epithelial cells varies across ages, facilitating SARS-CoV-2 growth and spread in older people.
Borderlands Science is a casual mini-game released within a mass-market video game that crowdsources the alignment of one million RNA sequences from the human microbiome. In 3 years, 4 million participants generated over 135 million puzzle solutions that were used to build a reference alignment and improve microbial phylogeny.
Host factors required for parechovirus entry are not well understood. Here, the authors identify MYADM as an essential host entry factor that directly binds human parechovirus 1 and that is required for PeV-A infection in cell lines and human gastrointestinal epithelial organoids.
The chemokine receptors CCR2 and CCR7 synergistically regulate recruitment of inflammatory monocytes from the bone marrow to the brain of mice infected with La Crosse and Herpes Simplex virus.
This is the first report on a virus infecting the amoeboflagellate Naegleria, including the lethal human pathogen N. fowleri. The new virus isolate, Catovirus naegleriensis (Naegleriavirus, NiV), shows hallmarks of giant viruses (Nucleocytoviricota) and unique adaptations to its protist host.
Here the authors report that a thermophilic archaeal TnpB enables efficient gene editing in the natural host: they see that the TnpB has different TAM requirements for eliciting cell death and for facilitating gene editing. They show that TnpB can be harnessed for flexible single-nucleotide editing with templated repair.
In this Journal Club, Ricardo Soto-Rifo discusses a study on intron-containing HIV-1 RNA, revealing its role as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern in myeloid cells, which has implications for immune activation, inflammation and clinical outcomes.
This study shows that a single-stranded RNA phage binds to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa type IV pilus, leading to phage entry into the cell and the detachment of the pilus, which impairs bacterial motility.
We characterize the activity of fluorofolin, a potent inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase, against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. By exploiting a divergence in thymidine metabolism, fluorofolin becomes selective for P. aeruginosa in the presence of thymine, demonstrating that it can be a narrow-spectrum antibiotic for this bacterial pathogen.