Antibiotics in early life alter the murine colonic microbiome and adiposity

Cho, I. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature11400 (22 August).

Low-dose antibiotics have been used to promote animal growth in the agricultural industry for many decades. Exploring the underlying mechanisms of such treatment in mice, the authors show that subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics changed the composition of the gut microbiome, increased the concentrations of metabolic hormones and increased adiposity in young mice.

The malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax exhibits greater genetic diversity than Plasmodium falciparum

Neafsey, D.E. et al. Nat. Genet. doi:10.1038/ng.2373 (5 August).

Plasmodium cynomolgi genome sequences provide insight into Plasmodium vivax and the monkey malaria clade

Tachibana, S.-I. et al. Nat. Genet. doi:10.1038/ng.2375 (5 August).

Two studies report the sequencing of new genomes of the malaria parasites Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium cynomolgi, providing new insights into genetic variation in these species.

TGF-β is responsible for NK cell immaturity during ontogeny and increased susceptibility to infection during mouse infancy

Marcoe, J.P. et al. Nat. Immunol. doi:10.1038/ni.2388 (5 August).

The authors show that, similar to human infants, young mice are more susceptible to viral infection due to a lack of mature natural killer (NK) cells. Mechanistically, in mice this effect seems to be mediated by transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), which limits immature NK proliferation and maturation.

HDAC2 regulates atypical antipsychotic responses through the modulation of mGlu2 promoter activity

Kurita, M et al. Nat. Neurosci. doi:10.1038/nn.3181 (5 August).

Atypical antipsychotic administration led to decreased histone acetylation and downregulated transcription at the metabrotropic glutamate 2 receptor (mGlu2) promoter. This was associated with increased binding of histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) to the mGlu2 promoter; these effects could be rescued by HDAC inhibitors. These results may provide clues into why combining HDAC inhibitors with antipsychotics can improve treatment efficacy in schizophrenia.