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The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to solve the most serious global economic, societal and environmental issues. The microbiology community is in a unique position to help tackle this ambitious agenda for sustainable development.
The threat of antimicrobial resistance causing drug-resistant infections and the escalating health, social and economic consequences are now becoming visible at a global level. Here, we discuss the economic and political considerations for creating a truly global and effective response to antimicrobial resistance.
Regulation of transcriptional termination in archaea has remained a mystery. Now, a high-throughput RNA sequencing approach identifies multiple archaeal genes that contain consecutive terminators, suggesting new ways by which these microorganisms regulate transcription.
Metagenomic analysis of Antarctic sea-ice and brine reveals the presence of hgcAB-like genes in the microaerophilic marine bacterium Nitrospina. These are similar to ones responsible for mercury methylation in anaerobic microorganisms and provide a plausible mechanism for mercury methylation in oxic marine environments.
A new, publicly available, collection of cultured bacterial species from the mouse gut, the Mouse Intestinal Bacterial Collection, opens up opportunities for deepening microbiome research. Cultured isolates allow the functions of specific species and controlled consortia to be determined through in vitro experimentation.
The spirochaete flagella, unlike those of other bacteria, are located entirely within the periplasm of the bacteria. New work highlights another unique spirochaete characteristic — an unusual covalent linkage that mediates flagellar hook self-polymerization and is required for motility.
Murine sepsis models and humans with established acute respiratory distress syndrome harbour a lung microbiome enriched in viable gut-associated bacteria and were correlated with inflammation intensity.
The mouse gut microbiota produce free d-amino acids and induce the production of d-amino acid oxidase by intestinal epithelial cells. Oxidative deamination of d-amino acids yields H2O2, which protects the mucosa from Vibrio cholerae.
Label-free, video-rate metabolite imaging of live Euglena gracilis shows spatiotemporal intracellular metabolite distributions under different culture conditions.
Measurements of mercury species and metagenomic analyses of Antarctic snow, brine, sea ice, and seawater suggest that mercury methylation may be conducted by the marine microaerophilic bacterium Nitrospina in Antarctic sea ice.
The Mouse Intestinal Bacterial Collection (miBC) is a public repository of bacterial strains and associated genomes from the mouse gut. A minimal consortium of 18 species covered 50–75% of the known functional potential.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection induces host microRNA miR-301b via a TLR4-dependent pathway in order to block c-Myb inflammatory cytokine signalling and neutrophil infiltration.
Vaccinia virus recruits host proteins to promote viral release from infected cells. This is achieved by the viral protein A36, which contains three NPF motifs that interact with the host proteins intersectin-1 and Eps15.
Treatment with lipid nanoparticles encapsulating siRNAs targeting the viral VP35 gene are able to rescue rhesus macaques infected with a lethal dose of Sudan ebolavirus.
Termination sequencing reveals that several archaeal genes contain multiple consecutive-terminators, which results in the generation of alternative 3′ UTR isoforms during transcription, similar to what is observed in eukaryotes.
Sub-surface microbial communities support methanogenesis via methylamine cycling and can persist by fermenting hydraulic fracture injection fluids. Microbial sulfide production contributes to reservoir souring and infrastructure corrosion.