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The spatial organization of microbial communities can affect their function, both in the environment and during infections. In this article, Whiteley and colleagues review the factors that govern biogeography during polymicrobial infections and how spatial positioning can influence bacterial virulence. They also discuss how targeting biogeography can be used as a therapeutic strategy.
Recent studies have elucidated multiple virulence mechanisms used byCryptococcus spp. to infect, disseminate within and ultimately kill their human host. In this Review, May et al. describe these recent developments in understanding host–fungal interactions, discuss how they affect disease severity and debate current and future therapeutic interventions against cryptococcosis.
Although there is currently no licensed vaccine against dengue virus (DENV), the chimeric yellow fever–DENV tetravalent dengue vaccine (CYD-TDV) has shown efficacy against DENV in two recent Phase III clinical trials. In this Opinion article, Guy and Jackson review the efficacy and safety data from these recent trials and discuss how interactions between the virus, pre-existing host immunity and vaccine-induced immune responses explain CYD-TDV-mediated protection.
AAA+ proteolytic machines unfold and degrade damaged and unneeded proteins in all domains of life. In this Review, Sauer and colleagues discuss the molecular mechanisms and structures of bacterial AAA+ machines, focusing on recent studies of ClpXP as a paradigm.
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.
Viral reservoirs pose a major challenge in the efforts towards curing HIV. Here, Churchill, Deeks, Margolis, Siliciano and Swanstrom discuss the cells and tissues that constitute the viral reservoir, how best to measure it and how to target this source of persistent infection.
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.
The first bacterial genome sequence was published 20 years ago. In this Timeline, Loman and Pallen review the first two decades of bacterial genome sequencing, discussing how advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have furthered our understanding of the biology, diversity and evolution of bacteria.
Phages were discovered 100 years ago, and since then phage research has transformed fundamental and translational biosciences. In this Timeline, Salmond and Fineran discuss a century of phage research, describing the roles of phages in ecosystems and in driving bacterial evolution and virulence, and highlight their impact as a source of novel reagents that revolutionized molecular biology and biotechnology.
It has recently been suggested that p53, which regulates the survival and metabolism of host cells, is commonly manipulated by intracellular bacterial pathogens. In this Progress article, Siegl and Rudel discuss mechanisms of p53 manipulation and consider the consequences for pathogenesis.
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 Opinion article, Herskovits and colleagues introduce an emerging class of bacteria–phage symbiotic interaction — which they term 'active lysogeny' — in which phages regulate the expression of bacterial genes by precise insertion and excision events.
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.
