Articles in 2011

Proof-of-principle for using phages as vehicles for delivering dominant-sensitive genes into bacteria to reverse resistance.

The peptidoglycan sacculus maintains bacterial cell shape and provides mechanical strength to resist osmotic challenge. In this Review, Vollmer and colleagues describe recent insights into the mechanisms of peptidoglycan synthesis in Gram-negative bacteria and how this process is regulated by cytoskeletal and outer-membrane components.

The replication of positive-sense RNA ((+)RNA) viruses involves numerous interactions between the RNA and proteins of the virus and proteins, membranes and lipids of the host. Host factors are thus key determinants of viral pathology as well as viral evolution. In this Review, Nagy and Pogany outline our current understanding of the host factors that facilitate the replication of (+)RNA viruses.

Proteasomes exist in all domains of life and serve to degrade proteins. In eukaryotes, proteins are primarily targeted for proteasomal degradation through the addition of ubiquitin. Similarly, archaea and bacteria modify proteins with Pup and Samps, respectively, and this may also serve as a signal for proteasomal degradation.

Sodalis glossinidiushas adapted the PhoPQ two-component system to establish and maintain symbiosis with its tsetse fly host.

A new study published inNature Geneticsreveals the parallel adaptive evolution of a bacterial pathogen during infection of humans and identifies new candidate pathogenicity genes.

P. gingivaliscan be viewed as a keystone pathogen owing to its disproportionately large impact on a microbial community relative to its abundance.

Our monthly round up of infectious diseases news, which this month includes the origin and spread of an amphibian assassin, turning the tide against HIV, and chicken pox-infected lollipops.

Two papers provide insight into the roles of the stringent response and H₂S in mediating antibiotic tolerance in genetically susceptible bacteria.

Candida albicanscan grow as unicellular budding yeast cells and as filamentous hyphae. Mihai Netea and colleagues discuss the molecular mechanisms that drive this dimorphism, the changes that lead to differential interaction with the host, and the immunological mechanisms that discriminate between tissue colonization and invasion.

Long-chainedS. pneumoniaeis more susceptible to complement-mediated killing.

This month's Genome Watch highlights new perspectives on polygenic adaptation and its consequences for fitness in microbial populations.

Capping the 5′ end of eukaryotic mRNAs with a 7-methylguanosine moiety enables efficient splicing, nuclear export and translation of mRNAs, and also limits their degradation by cellular exonucleases. Here, Canard and colleagues describe how viruses synthesize their own mRNA cap structures or steal them from host mRNAs, allowing efficient synthesis of viral proteins and avoidance of host innate immune responses.

The erythrocyte surface protein basigin is identified as the receptor for Rh5 using a large-scale screen, and probably mediates invasion of allPlasmodium falciparumstrains.