Browse Articles

This study shows that the SakA stress-sensing pathway is required for phytochrome-dependent light signalling inAspergillus nidulans.

Biofilms dominate microbial life in streams and rivers. In this Review, Battin and colleagues describe the interactions between the microbiome of stream biofilms and ecosystem processes, and they consider the effects of global ecosystem change and climate change on these biofilms.

In this Review, Turnbaugh and colleagues discuss several mechanisms by which the human gut microbiome affects the metabolism of xenobiotics, including drugs and dietary compounds, and explore how this knowledge can be applied to improve the treatment of human disease.

MIMIVIRE, an antivirophage defence system that includes Cas-like proteins, provides an intriguing new example of the unusual biology of giant viruses.

Genomics studies are prompting a re-evaluation of the diversity ofEscherichia colipathovars and how this diversity corresponds to virulence.

The metabolism of pathogens and hosts are intertwined — they compete for resources, sense metabolites produced by each other and target metabolic processes to mediate virulence and immunity. In this Review, Olive and Sassetti discuss the emerging roles of metabolism in host–pathogen interactions.

Three new studies investigate the links between microbiome composition and growth in underweight infants and identify specific diet components and microbial taxa that can counteract the effects of poor nutrition.

Shigellaspp. harbour an arsenal of virulence factors that enable host invasion. Here, Baker and colleagues review how these bacteria have evolved fromEscherichia colion several occasions into highly specialized, human-restricted pathogens that have spread globally.

In this Review, Oikonomou and Jensen discuss how electron cryotomography has provided structural and mechanistic insights into the physiology of bacteria and archaea, from morphogenesis to subcellular compartmentalization and from metabolism to complex interspecies interactions.

Using data collected during theTaraOceans expedition, this study elucidates how trans-kingdom interactions in marine microbial communities influence the export of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean.

A role in targeting late-stage phage genes explains the presence of RNases in type III-A CRISPR–Cas systems.

This study identifies the first β-lactam receptor in Gram-negative bacteria, VbrK, a histidine kinase that belongs to a two-component system inVibrio parahaemolyticus.