Research Highlights in 2010

The identification of a herbicide-responsive riboswitch that can be used to control motility, allowing bacteria to migrate in the presence of the herbicide atrazine.

Mucin 2 protects the integrity of the intestinal epithelium during infection with intestinal pathogens.

Two long-term monitoring studies describe the spread and persistence of the fungal pathogenBatrachochytrium dendrobatidisin Californian frog populations.

Listeria monocytogenesinterferes with host defence pathways by inhibiting host protein sumoylation.

Substances that modify macromolecule stability can expand the physiochemical growth window, allowing growth of certain fungal species at temperature and pressure extremes.

New research shows that increased stimulation of neuroendocrine signalling by exposure to nicotine or stress might suppress the innate immune response to infection by reducing the activity of antimicrobial peptides.

Two new articles show how a Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus protein reduces tetherin levels, and a third investigates tetherin structure.

Bacteria present in the gut of Japanese individuals have acquired a carbohydrate-degrading enzyme from marine bacteria that allows them to degrade a polysaccharide only found in seaweed.

A negative regulator that controls the activation threshold for quorum sensing inPseudomonas aeruginosahas been identified.

Three articles describe the regulation of type III secretion by pH and oxygen in three different organisms.

The subtilin-like serine protease MycP1 has a dual role in ESX1-mediated secretion.

The expression of heterologous pattern recognition receptors in plants can confer broad-spectrum antibacterial resistance.

The exchange of chromomes between plant-pathogenic fungi can alter the host range of the pathogens.

Immature multipotent haematopoietic progenitor cells are identified as another reservoir for latent HIV-1 infection.

Sublethal concentrations of bactericidal antibiotics can generate multidrug resistance through an increase in the mutation rate that is driven by the formation of reactive oxygen species.

Two recent papers have revealed further details of how RNA viruses engage the host innate immune system.

Extracellular signals trigger the release of apical organelles fromPlasmodium falciparummerozoites during erythrocyte invasion.

Marine-sediment bacteria use electrical currents to couple spatially separated biogeochemical processes.

Cj0256-mediated phosphoethanolamine modification of lipo-oligosaccharide and the flagellar rod protein FlgG couples membrane biogenesis and motility inCampylobacter jejuni.

Following the kinetics of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) activity on a bacterial cell surface using high speed atomic force microscopy.