Volume 3 Issue 7, July 2018

Rare species tend to degrade complex substrates while common species contribute most to biomass and respiration, moving us towards a solution for structure–function mapping in microbial communities.

Antibiotic resistance against β-lactams is of paramount therapeutic importance. Although such resistance is known to involve degradation by hydrolysis, the molecular details of what happens next remain unclear. A new study reveals how soil microbes perform β-lactam catabolism and how this process can support bacterial growth.

This Review Article discusses the role of bacteriophages in the marine environment, including interactions with their bacterial hosts and their impact on biogeochemical cycling, and a hypothesis to explain successional host–phage dynamics in marine systems.

Using natural tree-hole microbial communities, the authors show that bacterial abundance is related to their functional roles, with abundant phylotypes driving broad functional measures and rarer phylotypes implicated in more specialized measures.

Live-cell imaging reveals that type IV competence pili from naturally competent Vibrio cholerae are dynamic structures that bind to exogenous DNA via their tips. Pilus retraction pulls DNA to the cell surface and across the outer membrane to initiate DNA uptake.

Here the authors use photo-bioreactors to analyse the response of Micromonas to phosphate limitation and find that an ancient light-harvesting protein is induced together with other uncharacterized proteins to limit light stress and sustain growth.

A calcium–calmodulin signalling pathway is identified as a master regulator of light chain 3 (LC3)-associated phagocytosis. Aspergillus melanin sequesters Ca2⁺ inside the phagosome, inhibiting this pathway, which is important in human aspergillosis.

Recovery of population genomes from surface ocean samples identified non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs that were widespread and abundant, including Proteobacteria and Planctomycetes, indicating their importance for nitrogen fixation in this environment.

The parasite Cryptosporidium can infect human organoids, where it replicates and completes its complex lifecycle. This new in vitro system enables the study of parasite development within the host and associated immune responses.

Chlamydia trachomatis-secreted protease CPAF cleaves FPR2 to subvert neutrophil activation and escape immune control.

Here the authors present a tool that enables a flexible set of existing binning algorithms to be combined, resulting in improved binning accuracy and the recovery of more near-complete genomes from metagenomes compared to standalone methods.