Volume 7 Issue 3, March 2022

Francine Ntoumi is a Congolese parasitologist, founder, chair and executive director of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research, Republic of Congo, and research group leader at the University of Tübingen, Germany. She established the first research centre on infectious diseases in the Republic of Congo.

Elizabeth Anne Bukusi is a research professor in obstetrics and gynaecology and global health at the University of Washington and a senior principal clinical research scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). Her research focuses on sexually transmitted infections, reproductive health and HIV prevention, care and treatment.

Margaret McFall-Ngai is the inaugural director of a new division in biosphere sciences at the Carnegie Institution for Science. She has explored the impact of evolving in a microbial world on the biology of animals and plants through a set of adventures that began with a lecture by Carl Woese early in her graduate career.

Esperanza Martínez-Romero is a professor of ecological genomics and was coordinator of the undergraduate programme on genomics at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her work on plant symbioses, and outreach with local farmers has encouraged uptake of sustainable practices and the use of biofertilizers.

Many women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) need to make decisions about marital name change, and have to consider how this might affect their publication record and future career. Mentorship that considers race, ethnicity, culture, religion and parenting, as well as a centralized system to dynamically and retroactively streamline name change, will promote agency and choice for women navigating STEM careers, writes Bala Chaudhary.

The sciences will never be a truly equitable workplace as long as patriarchy, racism and oppressive social norms persist, writes Kelly Ramirez.

Understanding the interplay between the microbiome and menopause holds promise for new interventions to alleviate menopausal symptoms and improve quality of life for women.

Despite evidence of sex-specific pathogenesis, few studies of infectious diseases report or analyse sex or gender, unless it is the primary focus. Using HIV as an example, it is argued here that this leaves potentially informative data unexplored and that integrating sex and gender in analyses may accelerate research in microbial pathogenesis.

Here the implications of gender inequity in the face of infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola and SARS-CoV-2 in Africa are discussed, with a proposal as to how we can address the unequal burden of outbreaks on women.

Contractile injection systems are nanomachines used by bacteria to puncture target cell membranes, thereby mediating bacterial competition and infection of eukaryotic cells. Two studies shed light on the structural diversity of these molecular spearguns using advanced multiscale imaging techniques.

A potential new therapeutic approach that targets the unique nutrient requirements of Lactobacillus iners to improve bacterial vaginosis treatment outcomes is described.

This Review summarizes current knowledge on the vaginal microbiota and discusses how research can progress from association to mechanism to provide deeper insights into its role in health and disease.

Analysis of the effectiveness of three vaccines to protect against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe outcomes caused by Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants in Ontario, Canada, suggests that a single dose provides considerable protection, two doses provide even higher protection, and effectiveness against hospitalization or death is similar to or higher than against symptomatic infection.

The characterization of a contractile injection system anchored in the thylakoid membrane of Anabaena reveals structural features linked to the unique localization and function of this cyanobacterial nanomachine.

The characterization of an extracellular contractile injection system (eCIS) from the marine bacterium Algoriphagus machipongonensis (AlgoCIS) reveals structural features linked to the assembly and function of this nanomachine.

A comprehensive analysis of the distribution and evolution of the main outer membrane tethering systems across bacteria, coupled with experimental deletion of one of these systems in Veillonella parvula, provide insights into the transition from diderm to monoderm bacteria

A longitudinal analysis of the neutralizing antibody response dynamics in 214 COVID-19 convalescents up to 16 months after infection shows that despite substantial declines in antibody levels over time, they could still provide protection against circulating variants even after one year of infection in most individuals, although neutralizing activities were reduced, particularly against Beta, Delta and Mu SARS-CoV-2 variants.

l-cysteine is required for the growth of Lactobacillus iners, a vaginal microbiome species typically associated with adverse outcomes that lacks cysteine biosynthesis pathways and key uptake mechanisms present in other lactobacilli. Cystine uptake inhibitors can be used to suppress L. iners abundance in vitro in favour of L. crispatus, a species associated with favourable outcomes.

Targeted-directed genome mining identified a widespread family of bacterial ClpP-associated clusters whose active products previously eluded detection. One of these clusters from Streptomyces cattleya produces clipibicyclene that selectively inactivates ClpP and may play a role in bacterial competition.