Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
What makes the human body a good growth medium for bacterial pathogens? In this Review, Brown, Palmer and Whiteley outline how the host growth environment affects disease and discuss the potential for targeting host metabolic pathways for therapeutic development.
The ability to sense contact with an appropriate surface contributes to the ability of fungal pathogens such asMagnaporthe grisea and Candida albicansto cause disease in their respective hosts. This Review discusses molecular mechanisms of mechanosensitivity, the proteins involved and their putative roles in fungal contact sensing.
The nanoscale analysis of microbial cells using atomic force microscopy (AFM) is emerging as an exciting, rapidly evolving research field. Specifically, AFM allows us to address fundamental microbiological questions by observing membrane proteins and live cells at high resolution.
Bacterial microcompartments consist of a protein shell that encapsulates enzymes to form an 'organelle'. Recent structural analyses have begun to provide insights into how one of these microcompartments, the carboxysome, which houses ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) and carbonic anhydrase, is built. This Review describes the structure and function of bacterial microcompartments by focusing on carboxysomes.
Metagenomics has enabled researchers to compile inventories of viruses, bacteria and archaea that inhabit specific niches. Here, the authors discuss the tools that are needed for us to progress to an integrated understanding of microbial ecosystems biology.
The authors discuss a new hypothesis, based on a body of evidence that has accumulated over the past 10 years, that non-structural proteins of RNA viruses, such as hepatitis C and dengue, have roles in virion maturation and assembly.
