Volume 19 Issue 7, July 2021

This study identified a functional restriction modification system in the mitochondrial genome of a marine protist that originated in bacteria.

A recent study found that high partial pressures of CO₂ such as those found in hydrothermal environments drive the tricarboxylic acid cycle backwards towards autotrophy in a thermophilic bacterium.

A recent study showed that the gut microbiota regulates innate immune signalling and protective immunity against cancer in mice.

This study analysed environmental growth rates of bacterial predators to study their role in microbial food webs.

A randomized controlled trial found that vaccine hesitancy for COVID-19 is most effectively addressed with information on personal benefits of vaccination.

Sequencing of lung samples revealed that tuberculosis is caused more often by polyclonal infection than previously thought.

This study presents a point-of-care test for the diagnosis of drug-resistant gonorrhoea.

This month’s Genome Watch highlights the search for unusually large (or small) tailed phages driven by metagenomics.

The evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been characterized by the emergence of mutations and so-called variants of concern that impact virus characteristics, including transmissibility and antigenicity. In this Review, members of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium and colleagues summarize mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, focusing on their impacts on antigenicity and contextualizing them in the protein structure, and discuss them in the context of observed mutation frequencies in global sequence datasets.

In this Review, Schultz-Cherry, Thomas and colleagues discuss the pathogenesis of influenza virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the human respiratory tract, the contribution of the host response to severe disease, epithelial repair mechanisms following infection, and current and potential future therapies for influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 infections.

In this Review, Brito discusses methods that are available to study how horizontal gene transfer shapes the function of natural microbial communities and explores questions to which some of these tools can be applied.

Cryptococcosis is a serious fungal infection for which treatment options are limited. In this Review, Cowen and colleagues discuss the current antifungal treatments available for cryptococcal infections, the challenges in developing new treatments, and ongoing efforts to identify novel therapies.

Toxoplasmosis caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii is a common opportunistic infection with high mortality in individuals who are immunocompromised, most commonly due to reactivation of infection in the central nervous system (CNS). In this Review, Sibley and colleagues explore the interaction between host immune defences and parasite virulence factors with emphasis on bradyzoite differentiation and survival of T. gondii within the CNS.