News & Comment

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

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.

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

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

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

A specific nuclear PML isoform functions in the host response to infection by sequestering the viral polymerase of an RNA virus for which replication takes place in the cytoplasm.

A new paper inMolecular Cell provides direct structural evidence for the importance of the parS sites in Caulobactergenome organization.

Ustilago maydisCmu1 is a virulence factor that can move through plant cells, redirecting plant metabolic pathways to favour fungal infection.

Fifty years ago, Cricket al. revealed, using elegant microbiological techniques, that the codon consists of three nucleotides.

MazF can specifically upregulate the expression of a subset of cellular proteins against a background of protein synthesis shutdown.

The gut microbiota can facilitate viral infection and transmission.

A new paper reveals that HCMV can escape a neutralizing antibody by incorporating it into assembling virions.

A recent paper identifies a new protein family involved in bacterial cell wall assembly.

Targetting virulence mechanisms rather than growth does not prevent resistance in bacterial pathogens.

Two research groups have now identified NAIP proteins as substrate-specific receptors for the NLRC4 inflammasome.

Binding of α-haemolysin to ADAM10 leads to epithelial barrier disruption duringS. aureusinfection.

The genome sequence and subsequent transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the fungusArthrobotrys oligosporaprovide insight into the carnivorous lifestyle of such nematophagous fungi.

The formation of bacterial communities appears to be driven by the protein functions that are present, not the nature of the bacteria themselves.