Volume 6 Issue 8, August 2021

Oomycete hyphae slice plant surfaces with a knife-like cutting action to invade underlying host cells.

Experimental evolution of persistence during Mycobacterium canettii infections of mice sheds light on the origins of virulence in ancestral Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Quiescent fungal conidia are heterogeneous and prepare for the future through transcriptional programmes that depend on the environment in which the conidia develop.

Single-molecule live-cell imaging of LexA in Escherichia coli shows continuous self-cleavage of this SOS repressor across the bacterial population, even during unperturbed growth. This results in substantial differences in LexA abundance across individuals, leading to spontaneous SOS induction in some cells and enhancing bacterial survival in anticipation of stress.

CD98 heavy chain (CD98) is identified as a reticulocyte-specific receptor for the Plasmodium vivax PvRBP2a ligand.

Surface-deformation imaging, molecular-fracture sensors and modelling reveal that plant-pathogenic Phytophthora slice through the plant surface during host invasion. The underlying mechanism resembles cutting with a sharp knife and is termed naifu invasion.

Several Fusobacterium species, such as Fusobacterium nucleatum, have been associated with cancer. Here, using differential RNA-sequencing, the authors provide high-resolution global RNA maps for five clinically relevant fusobacterial strains, elucidating basic aspects of fusobacterial gene expression and identifying multiple non-coding RNAs, including an oxygen-induced small RNA, FoxI, which represses the major outer membrane porin FomA.

A population genomic analysis of 1,854 Listeria soil isolates collected across the contiguous United States identifies geographically prevalent phylogroups with increased pangenome openness and recombination, as a result of adaptation to variable environments.

Dual functions of MX2 in innate immunity against HIV-1 and nuclear import of cellular proteins are regulated by phosphorylation.

Direct gut sampling shows that probiotics reduce the number of antibiotic resistance genes in the gut of colonization-permissive and antibiotic-naïve individuals. However, when given after antibiotic treatment, probiotics can expand the gut resistome via a bloom of indigenous strains carrying vancomycin resistance genes, rather than antibiotic resistance genes carried by the probiotics themselves.

Surface proteins are shown to be routed to the outer Gram-positive cell-wall surface by entropy.

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing and RNA sequencing analyses reveal that the transcriptional activity of fungal conidia (spores) before dormancy contributes to conidia maturation and impacts fitness, drug resistance and virulence following germination.

In vivo experimental evolution of Mycobacterium canettii populations reveals enhanced persistence of evolved mutants due to resistance to host-derived stresses, providing insight into the emergence of persistent Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The SARS-CoV-2 variant A.23.1 became predominant in Uganda and shows amino acid changes within the S protein and non-spike proteins similar to known variants of concern.