Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
“Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects” — a hypothesis formulated by Lourens Baas Becking in 1934 — is used to frame research that analyses the sharing of Escherichia coli strains across humans, livestock and wildlife animals.
Contractile injection systems are nanomachines used by bacteria to puncture target cell membranes, thereby mediating bacterial competition and infection of eukaryotic cells. Two studies shed light on the structural diversity of these molecular spearguns using advanced multiscale imaging techniques.
A potential new therapeutic approach that targets the unique nutrient requirements of Lactobacillus iners to improve bacterial vaginosis treatment outcomes is described.
Infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) induces remodelling of the host-cell transcriptome, which is mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Histone acetylation of KCNJ15 stimulates transcription and the activation of genes implicated in apoptosis to promote Mtb clearance.
Homeodomain protein 1 (HDP1), a DNA-binding protein unrelated to AP2 transcription factors, has been identified as a regulator of gametocyte maturation in Plasmodium falciparum.
A combination of highly accurate long-read sequencing and genome contact maps has been used to produce hundreds of lineage-resolved metagenome-assembled genomes from a complex microbial community isolated from a sheep fecal sample.
A statistical framework that integrates data from a fine-scale targeted testing scheme and regular randomized surveillance surveys provides unbiased and fine-grained estimates of key SARS-CoV-2 epidemiological parameters that are critical for real-time policy decision-making.
The development of the infant gut microbiota into an adult configuration is heavily influenced by lifestyle. A large study of children from The Gambia reveals how the microbiota assembles in children with a non-industrial lifestyle.
Construction of a global catalogue of human gut archaeal genomes and their viruses provides insights into the structure, composition and function of the human gut archaeome.
Immunologic recognition of bacterial products during skin infection triggers a cytokine and chemokine response that facilitates neutrophil recruitment to the site of infection. Staphylococcus aureus phenol-soluble modulins can function as early chemoattractants to directly recruit neutrophils and alert the host to infection.
Cooperative interaction between low-abundance gut bacteria is required to convert l-carnitine to TMAO via a multi-step pathway, which leads to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Shigella uses the OspC3 type III secretion system effector to catalyze ADP riboxanation of caspases-4 and 11, preventing lipopolysaccharide recognition and pyroptotic death of the infected cell.
Advances in CRISPR–Cas tools coupled with innovative screening and bioinformatic pipelines make it possible to conduct strain-specific and site-specific genome editing within a microbial community without the need for prior culturing or engineering.
Bacteriophages fight back with the double whammy of an anti-CRISPR protein and integration into the CRISPR array to protect themselves from the CRISPR–Cas9 immune system of Streptococcus pyogenes.
The mammalian immune system has evolved to tolerate commensal microbes that inhabit our mucosal surfaces. Two recent studies explore how intestinal immunity achieves this state of tolerance and show that IgA enforces commensalism of pathobiont Candida species.
Diverse CRISPR–Cas systems protect prokaryotes against invasive genetic elements like phages. A new study finds that evolution has fused a multi-subunit CRISPR complex into a single protein that cuts RNA and interacts with an ancillary caspase-like peptidase, which may trigger cell suicide.
