Reviews & Analysis

Population genomics and functional validation show that a second parasite transporter, pfaat1, has a role in chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum.

Many microorganisms remain understudied due to the challenges and complexities of culturing. An integrated lab automation and machine learning platform called BacterAI could be the future.

Residual human DNA reads in sequenced faecal samples may allow some individuals to be identified.

A set of genes, including a lectin, two scavenger receptors and two actin regulators, were found to aid the early steps of coral–algal endosymbiosis, including algae recognition and uptake, in a Xenia soft coral species. The findings were made possible by using a combination of RNA interference-mediated gene knockdown, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), bioinformatics and cell biology approaches.

Almost twenty years after it was first linked to control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in macrophages, autophagy retakes centre stage, as shown in murine models and human cells.

Therapeutics for COVID-19 and their development during a pandemic are reviewed, including future prospects for anticoronavirals.

Colistin-resistant bacteria require fatty acid synthesis to maintain cell envelope homeostasis; disrupting fatty acid biosynthesis leads to the remodelling of phospholipid composition and decreases the fluidity of the cell envelope. Inhibitors of fatty acid biosynthesis resensitize bacteria to colistin, allowing for the treatment of colistin-resistant bacterial infections in mice.

The authors argue that the virome of the last eukaryotic common ancestor is bacterial, rather than archaeal, providing support for a syntrophic model of eukaryogenesis with two endosymbiosis events.

Bladder epithelial cells exposed to uropathogenic Escherichia coli infection have long-lasting epigenetic modifications linked with inflammation that influence host susceptibility to subsequent infections.

Dysbiosis of the gut microbiome confers alterations in appetitive and metabolic regulation of body weight in anorexia nervosa in humans and mice.

Breakthroughs in developing an effective human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine have been rare despite decades of effort. By combining vaccination with a topical microbicide that also potentiates vaccine-induced immunity, 16 out of 20 female macaques were protected against vaginal acquisition of the highly pathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).

Previous studies have suggested the presence of a ‘blood microbiome’. Here, we analysed sequencing data generated from the blood of 9,770 healthy individuals and found no evidence for a common blood microbiome in these individuals.

Colonoids derived from adult human stem cells support growth of human enterovirus. Instead of spreading through the epithelium or lysing infected cells, virus is released within intact infected cells. Infected cells are detected by force-sensing ion channels, a mechanism akin to that used for normal turnover of uninfected epithelia.

We present evidence that lignin, a recalcitrant and partially aromatic polymer found in plant cell walls, can be modified by anaerobic microorganisms. This finding overturns a long-standing paradigm that all biological processes of lignin degradation require oxygen and motivates further exploration of understudied biology to inform biotechnological innovation.

Phage-encoded endolysins released from neighbouring infected bacterial cells can confer a temporary resistance to phage infection by mediating the reversible loss of the cell wall.

Mycobacterium abscessus requires high levels of biotin biosynthesis during infection, because this vitamin enables key adaptations to the alkaline lung airway environment through fatty acid remodelling that increases fluidity of the cell envelope.

This review discusses the principles of phase separation and highlights how it impacts diverse processes in fungi.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has two modes of infection: productive and latent. Tracking HCMV infection with single-cell transcriptomics revealed that infection outcome (productive or latent) is based on viral gene expression levels at early stages of infection. Moreover, intrinsic levels of interferon-stimulated genes affect viral gene expression and the outcome of infection.

Rebound virus in the cerebrospinal fluid revealed viral lineages selected for growth in T cells that were clonally amplified and often distinct from the majority of rebound viral lineages in the blood.

Cytotoxic CD8⁺ T cells reduce the average lifespan of productively infected cells during acute simian immunodeficiency virus infection (a primate model of human immunodeficiency virus infection). However, they are ineffective at preventing the establishment of a persistent reservoir of latently infected cells under long-term antiretroviral therapy.