Bacterial physiology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Bacterial chemoreceptors regulate the kinase CheA via ligand-induced conformational changes. Using long molecular dynamics simulations, Ortega et al.show that these changes are associated with flipping of the stacked aromatic rings of highly conserved phenylalanine residues within the kinase-activating domain.

    • Davi R. Ortega
    • , Chen Yang
    •  & Igor B. Zhulin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Helicobacter pylori survives in the acidic environment of the stomach by taking up urea and converting it to ammonia and carbon dioxide, which buffer the bacterial periplasm. Using molecular dynamics simulations, McNulty et al. provide insight into the mechanism of urea uptake through the H. pyloriurea transporter.

    • Reginald McNulty
    • , Jakob P. Ulmschneider
    •  & Martin B. Ulmschneider

  • Article |

    Methane is a promising renewable carbon source for chemical synthesis, yet methane bio-gas is currently underutilised as a feedstock. Here the authors examine the metabolic processes of methanotrophic bacteria to assess their use for conversion of methane to value-added chemical products.

    • M. G. Kalyuzhnaya
    • , S. Yang
    •  & M. E. Lidstrom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    RamR is an important multidrug-resistance factor, however, its structure and the molecules to which it responds are hitherto unknown. Here, the authors report the crystal structures of RamR complexed with multiple drugs, revealing significant flexibility in its substrate-recognition region.

    • Suguru Yamasaki
    • , Eiji Nikaido
    •  & Kunihiko Nishino

  • Article |

    A role of toxin–antitoxin systems in global regulation of bacterial gene expression has been proposed. Bukowski et al. now demonstrate that a novel toxin–antitoxin system from S. aureusencodes an endoribonuclease that regulates virulence gene expression by targeting translation.

    • Michal Bukowski
    • , Robert Lyzen
    •  & Benedykt Wladyka

  • Article |

    Erm methyltransferases confer antimicrobial drug resistance and their expression is induced by macrolides. Gupta et al.show that Erm-catalysed modification of rRNA affects synthesis of some proteins and reduces cell fitness, explaining why expression of Erm is deleterious in the absence of antibiotics.

    • Pulkit Gupta
    • , Shanmugapriya Sothiselvam
    •  & Alexander S. Mankin

  • Article |

    Light-driven proton-pumping rhodopsins are widely distributed in microorganisms and convert sunlight energy into proton gradients. Inoue et al. report the discovery of a light-driven sodium ion pump from marine bacteria.

    • Keiichi Inoue
    • , Hikaru Ono
    •  & Hideki Kandori

  • Article |

    The bacterial tetracycline resistance protein Tet(O) binds to the ribosome, preventing tetracycline from inhibiting translation. Using cryo-electron microscopic reconstruction, the authors present an atomic model of Tet(O) bound to the 70S ribosome, and reveal how Tet(O) promotes antibiotic resistance.

    • Wen Li
    • , Gemma C. Atkinson
    •  & Joachim Frank

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A bacterial export gate complex transports flagellar proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane, but the mechanism of this process is unclear. Here, the export gate complex is revealed as a proton–protein antiporter that uses separate components of the proton motive force for different steps of the export process.

    • Tohru Minamino
    • , Yusuke V. Morimoto
    •  & Keiichi Namba

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Up to 20% of bacterial genomes are made up of cryptic prophages, but their function is relatively unknown. In this study, the authors demonstrate that prophages influence the response of the host cell to stress and provide a competitive growth advantage in the presence of antibiotics.

    • Xiaoxue Wang
    • , Younghoon Kim
    •  & Thomas K. Wood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Candidate anti-tuberculosis drugs are often identified in whole-cell screens. Here, Petheet al. show that inappropriate carbon-source selection can lead to the identification of compounds devoid of efficacy in vivo, underlining the importance of developing predictive in vitroscreens.

    • Kevin Pethe
    • , Patricia C. Sequeira
    •  & Thomas Dick

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