Antibacterial drug resistance articles from across Nature Portfolio

Inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis by β-lactam antibiotics results in a loss of cell wall integrity, but cells die via a combination of downstream events involving metabolic perturbations and oxidative damage. Here, Kawai et al. identify key enzymatic steps that stimulate the generation of reactive oxygen species and highlight the role of iron homeostasis in the lethal effects mediated by oxidative damage.

Deep mutational scanning can be used to investigate protein function and stability. Here, Dewachter et al. use deep mutational scanning on three essential bacterial proteins to study the mutations’ effects in their original genomic context, providing insight into the proteins’ function and their potential as targets for new antibiotic development.

In this Review, Aldridge and colleagues describe different types of mycobacterial heterogeneity and discuss how cell-to-cell heterogeneity and environmental heterogeneity are generated and regulated in response to environmental cues.

This study shows that although colistin resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae is associated with a fitness defect in gut colonization, it increases bacterial survival outside the host, thus enabling efficient host-to-host transmission.

The successful treatment of polymicrobial infections is difficult, in part owing to inter-species interactions, which can alter antibiotic susceptibility of the bacteria. This study, focusing on cystic fibrosis, shows that multi-drug resistant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia can provide protection against imipenem to sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

This study shows that N-linked glycans have a direct effect on efflux pump activity.

This study reports that the cleavage activity of endopeptidases is regulated by a conformational switch.

Collaboration between authors and journal staff can contribute to expand the reach of Primers, including to areas where they would be most useful.

This study developed an assay to screen for drugs that inhibit transfer of antimicrobial resistance plasmids between bacteria.