Volume 5 Issue 7, July 2020

How viruses are related, and how they have evolved and spread over time, can be investigated using phylogenetics. Here, we set out how genomic analyses should be used during an epidemic and propose that phylogenetic insights from the early stages of an outbreak should heed all of the available epidemiological information.

A precision approach to probiotics could address the heterogeneity inherent to probiotic strains, the hosts and their microbiomes. Here, we discuss the steps required to develop precision probiotics: mechanistic studies, phenotypic and target-based discovery strategies, and person-centric trials.

Some cytosolic bacteria deform the plasma membrane to spread from cell to cell. Secretion of 25-hydroxy-cholesterol by macrophages has emerged as a protective response that depletes the cholesterol pool used by these bacteria to disseminate through epithelia.

Cooperative behaviour enables populations of yeast cells to survive high temperatures.

Monkeypox, a zoonotic disease that is marked in humans by a smallpox-like rash, may present as a rash-less respiratory disease in wild chimpanzees.

Recent advances in genome sequencing have started to reveal an increasing diversity and distribution of archaeal genomes across multiple ecosystems. In this Review, Baker and colleagues discuss how these genomes elucidate the metabolic capabilities of the Archaea and their ecological roles, while also expanding our view of the tree of life and of eukaryogenesis.

Here, using RNA sequencing and data from several cohorts, the authors find an association of the presence of inherited, chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 in the placenta with a clinical diagnosis of pre-eclampsia in the mother.

This paper shows that the parasite Trypanosoma brucei is able to establish infection in flies by penetrating the protective peritrophic matrix in the fly midgut at the place of matrix secretion in the proventriculus. Such early proventricular colonization is potentiated by factors that are present in trypanosome-infected blood ingested by the flies.

SspABCD–SspE is a widespread bacterial defence system against phage infection, in which SspABCD is responsible for introducing phosphorothioate modifications and SspE serves as a nickase that cleaves foreign DNA.

The oxysterol 25-hydroxycholesterol reduces the levels of plasma membrane accessible cholesterol via acyl-CoA cholesterol acyltransferase to inhibit infection and dissemination of intracellular bacterial pathogens, including Listeria monocytogenes.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells work collectively to survive and replicate at high temperatures by secreting glutathione, an antioxidant that mitigates heat-mediated damage to yeast cells.

Monkeypox is caused by an emerging zoonotic virus. This study describes a detailed investigation into monkeypox outbreaks in chimpanzees through non-invasive environmental sampling, virus genomics, pathology, behavioural ecology and dietary metabarcoding.

Structures of the flagellar MS-ring from Salmonella elucidate its mode of action, revealing how this complex serves as a structural adaptor that enables protein secretion and flagellar rotation.