Review Articles

Pore-forming toxins (PFTs) are produced as virulence factors by many pathogenic bacteria. In this Review, Dal Peraro and van der Goot describe new mechanistic insights into the assembly of these toxins and their target specificity, and discuss recent therapeutic developments.

Several bacterial pathogens have evolved the ability to subvert host cell functions. In this Review, Buchrieser and colleagues discuss the mechanisms used by bacteria to target eukaryotic organelles such as the nucleus, mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus, highlighting how these strategies potentiate bacterial infection.

Stocker and colleagues review how combining dynamic imaging techniques with microfluidics has furthered our understanding of the hydrodynamic signature of individual microorganisms, the mechanics of their locomotion, and the effects of surfaces, fluid flow and crowded habitats on microbial motility.

Streptomycetes have a complex life cycle that involves several regulated developmental transitions. In this Review, Buttner and colleagues discuss the factors that have recently been shown to regulate these transitions, including a novel role for the second messenger c-di-GMP.

The gut microbiota has a strong impact on host physiology. In this Review, Mazmanian and colleagues describe the mechanisms that control the biogeography of bacteria in the gut and discuss the importance of the spatial localization of the gut microbiota during health and disease.

Antarctica has an essential role in regulating Earth's climate and ocean ecosystem function, and Antarctica's biosphere is dominated by microorganisms. In this Review, Cavicchioli discusses the factors that shape the biogeography of Antarctic microorganisms and explores how 'omic' studies have begun to elucidate the mechanisms determining the composition and function of microbial communities in Antarctic aquatic systems.

In this Review, Basler and colleagues describe the mechanisms of immune evasion used by filoviruses, with a focus on Ebola virus and Marburg virus, and discuss how these mechanisms are linked to pathogenesis and disease severity.

In this article, Söll and colleagues review the mechanisms of genetic code flexibility — biased codon usage, codon reassignment, ambiguous decoding and recoding — and discuss how this flexibility affects microbial physiology.

In this Review, Schwechheimer and Kuehn describe recent developments in elucidating the mechanisms of biogenesis and cargo selection of the outer-membrane vesicles (OMVs) produced by Gram-negative bacteria. They also discuss the functions of OMVs in bacterial physiology and during pathogenesis.

In this Review, Boetiuset al. summarize our current knowledge of the microbial ecology of Earth's frozen realms, including sea ice and glacial habitats. They describe the diversity of niches, the composition of microbial communities at these sites and their biogeochemical activities.

How extracellular vesicles traverse the thick cell walls of Gram-positive bacteria, mycobacteria and fungi has perplexed researchers. In this Review, Prados-Rosales and colleagues consider possible solutions to this conundrum and describe the diverse functions of the extracellular vesicles produced by these organisms.

In this Review, Roy and Cherfils discuss the structures and functions of Fic proteins, focusing on how Fic proteins from bacterial pathogens mediate post-translational modifications of host cell proteins.

During recurrent staphylococcal infections,Staphylococcus aureususes several strategies to evade detection by the host immune system. In this Review, Schneewind and colleagues describe the staphylococcal factors that manipulate innate and adaptive immune responses through inhibition, modification and phagocyte destruction.

For transmission from mammalian host to mosquito vector, blood-stage malaria parasites must convert from an asexual form to the sexual gametocyte through a process known as gametocytogenesis. In this Review, Josling and Llinás discuss recent studies that have begun to elucidate the molecular basis of this process, in particular the factors involved in commitment to gametocytogenesis.

In this Review, Lemon and colleagues describe the interactions of the RNA genome of hepatitis C virus with various host proteins and microRNAs. They discuss how these interactions affect viral RNA synthesis and decay, and how they influence the long-term persistence of the virus.

In this Review, Sourjik and Typas describe the principles of protein–protein interaction networks and the current experimental approaches used to probe these networks in bacteria. They consider how these techniques have led to an increased understanding of the chemotaxis and cell cycle networks inEscherichia coli, highlighting the applicability of such methods to understanding diverse bacterial processes.

In this Review, Campbell and Hope describe the interactions between the HIV-1 capsid core and several cellular factors that enable efficient HIV-1 genome replication, timely core disassembly, nuclear import and viral integration into the genome of the target cell.

Phenotypic heterogeneity is a ubiquitous feature of microbial communities, even within groups of genetically identical cells. In this Review, Martin Ackermann describes the molecular mechanisms that lead to phenotypic heterogeneity and discusses how heterogeneity can increase survival and productivity of microbial populations.

Microorganisms produce a wealth of structurally diverse specialized metabolites with great potential for use in medicine and agriculture. In this Review, Rutledge and Challis provide an overview of the approaches that are available to identify and activate cryptic microbial biosynthetic gene clusters, which represent an untapped reservoir of useful metabolites.

In this article, Eric Freed reviews recent progress in elucidating the steps involved in HIV-1 assembly, release and maturation, highlighting how these events are orchestrated by the viral Gag precursor protein and how this information is being used to develop novel anti-HIV-1 therapeutics.