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Open Access
Featured
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Transcription–replication interactions reveal bacterial genome regulation
Single-cell expression data from bacteria are used to classify gene regulatory architectures in relation to gene expression dynamics and the cell cycle, revealing distinct categories of gene regulatory mechanisms.
- Andrew W. Pountain
- , Peien Jiang
- & Itai Yanai
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News |
How does chronic stress harm the gut? New clues emerge
A bacterium in the intestines of stressed mice interferes with cells that protect against pathogens.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Long-COVID signatures identified in huge analysis of blood proteins
Proteins involved in immunity, clotting and inflammation could help to unravel the complexity of long COVID.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Potent new pill provides COVID relief for the masses
The drug simnotrelvir shortens symptoms for those with mild infections and is sold at a lower price in China than its main rival.
- Saima Sidik
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News |
Largest genetic database of marine microbes could aid drug discovery
A trove of more than 300 million gene groups from ocean bacteria, fungi and viruses has been made freely available online.
- Carissa Wong
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Article
| Open Access
The CRISPR effector Cam1 mediates membrane depolarization for phage defence
The prokaryotic non-enzymatic effector protein Cam1 mediates CRISPR immunity by binding tetra-adenylate second messengers and forming a pore in the membrane that induces membrane depolarization and growth arrest.
- Christian F. Baca
- , You Yu
- & Luciano A. Marraffini
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Comment |
Boosting microbiome science worldwide could save millions of children’s lives
Studies of the microbes living on and in our bodies are conducted mainly in a few rich countries, squandering opportunities to improve the health of people globally.
- Hilary P. Browne
- , Najeeha Talat Iqbal
- & Samuel Kariuki
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News Feature |
Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat — is climate change making it worse?
Researchers are studying how extreme weather and rising temperatures can encourage the spread of drug-resistant infections.
- Carissa Wong
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News & Views |
A new type of antibiotic targets a drug-resistant bacterium
Infections caused by drug-resistant strains of the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii have been hard to treat in the clinic. A new class of antibiotics has been identified with the potential to tackle these microbes.
- Morgan K. Gugger
- & Paul J. Hergenrother
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Editorial |
A new class of antibiotics is cause for cautious celebration — but the economics must be fixed
The threat of antimicrobial resistance means that new antibiotics need to be used sparingly. Governments must support their development with a long-term funding plan.
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News Feature |
Long COVID is a double curse in low-income nations — here’s why
Not only is the prevalence of the condition poorly understood, but it’s also often ignored by physicians and the wider public.
- Heidi Ledford
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Article
| Open Access
Host genetic regulation of human gut microbial structural variation
A meta-analysis of associations between human genetic variation and gut microbial structural variations shows that ABO genotype differentially affects the presence of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii strains containing GalNAc utilization pathway in the gut.
- Daria V. Zhernakova
- , Daoming Wang
- & Jingyuan Fu
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Article
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A new antibiotic traps lipopolysaccharide in its intermembrane transporter
A mechanism of lipid transport inhibition has been identified for a class of peptide antibiotics effective against resistant Acinetobacter strains, which may have applications in the inhibition of other Gram-negative pathogens.
- Karanbir S. Pahil
- , Morgan S. A. Gilman
- & Daniel Kahne
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Article
| Open Access
A novel antibiotic class targeting the lipopolysaccharide transporter
A tethered macrocyclic peptide antibiotic class described here—which shows potent antibacterial activity against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii—blocks the transport of bacterial lipopolysaccharide from the inner membrane to its destination on the outer membrane through inhibition of the LptB2FGC complex.
- Claudia Zampaloni
- , Patrizio Mattei
- & Kenneth A. Bradley
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News & Views |
From the archive: waltzing mice, and Louis Pasteur’s beer battle
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
Contact-tracing app predicts risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
The risk of catching COVID-19 as calculated by a smartphone app scales with the probability of subsequently testing positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, showing that digital contact tracing is a useful tool for fighting future pandemics.
- Justus Benzler
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Research Briefing |
‘Explainable’ AI identifies a new class of antibiotics
An artificial-intelligence graph neural network was trained on experimental data and used to identify chemical substructures that underlie selective antibiotic activity in more than 12 million compounds. This led to the discovery of a class of antibiotics with in vitro and in vivo activity against Gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus.
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News |
Vaccines reduce the risk of long COVID in children
A study shows that US children who received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have some protection against developing long-lasting symptoms of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
- Shannon Hall
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Article |
Discovery of a structural class of antibiotics with explainable deep learning
An explainable deep learning model using a chemical substructure-based approach for the exploration of chemical compound libraries identified structural classes of compounds with antibiotic activity and low toxicity.
- Felix Wong
- , Erica J. Zheng
- & James J. Collins
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Article
| Open Access
Structures of the promoter-bound respiratory syncytial virus polymerase
A study reports cryogenic electron microscopy structures of the respiratory syncytial virus polymerase bound to its genomic and antigenomic viral RNA promoters.
- Dongdong Cao
- , Yunrong Gao
- & Bo Liang
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Article
| Open Access
The PfRCR complex bridges malaria parasite and erythrocyte during invasion
Structural studies show how the PfRCR complex of Plasmodium falciparum forms a bridge between erythrocyte and parasite membranes, and how PfCyRPA-binding antibodies neutralize invasion through a steric mechanism, opening the way to new approaches in rational vaccine design.
- Brendan Farrell
- , Nawsad Alam
- & Matthew K. Higgins
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News & Views |
Viruses wrap up bacterial defence systems
Bacteria use diverse defences against viral predators called bacteriophages. A method to identify antibacterial counter-defences in viral genomes has revealed striking modes of defence inhibition.
- Tim R. Blower
- & Stineke van Houte
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Article
| Open Access
Functional and evolutionary significance of unknown genes from uncultivated taxa
We analysed 149,842 environmental genomes from multiple habitats and compiled a curated catalogue of 404,085 functionally and evolutionarily significant novel gene families exclusive to uncultivated prokaryotic taxa spanning multiple species.
- Álvaro Rodríguez del Río
- , Joaquín Giner-Lamia
- & Jaime Huerta-Cepas
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Article
| Open Access
Mucosal boosting enhances vaccine protection against SARS-CoV-2 in macaques
Intratracheal boosting with a bivalent Ad26-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine results in substantial induction of mucosal humoral and cellular immunity and near-complete protection against SARS-CoV-2 BQ.1.1 in rhesus macaques.
- Katherine McMahan
- , Frank Wegmann
- & Dan H. Barouch
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News |
This group of bizarre gut microbes is unexpectedly complex
Protists’ food preferences shape their interactions with bacteria and affect host immunity.
- McKenzie Prillaman
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Spotlight |
The fight against antimicrobial resistance
India is developing local solutions to a global problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Career Feature |
If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools
Three researchers who went out on a limb to bridge a gap in their field talk to Nature about how and why they went about designing their own, unique devices — and the challenges involved.
- Rachael Pells
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News & Views |
A next-generation inhalable dry powder COVID vaccine
Current injectable COVID-19 vaccines are unable to induce robust immunity in the mucosal tissues lining the airways. A protein-based vaccine delivered to the lungs in the form of an inhaled dry powder shows promise as a way forward.
- Zhou Xing
- & Mangalakumari Jeyanathan
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Research Briefing |
What makes people with diabetes more susceptible to serious lung infections?
Diabetes is a strong risk factor for viral respiratory infections, including influenza and COVID-19, which can be particularly dangerous for people with the condition. The discovery that the metabolism of lung dendritic cells, key sentinels of the immune system, is disrupted by high blood-sugar levels could provide a route to reversing this susceptibility.
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Nature Podcast |
Cat parasite Toxoplasma tricked to grow in a dish
Cat-only life-cycle stage cultured in vitro, and the mysterious giant proteins that might turn bacteria into killers.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article
| Open Access
Bioactive glycans in a microbiome-directed food for children with malnutrition
Two Prevotella copri metagenome-assembled genomes that are positively associated with ponderal growth are the principal contributors to MDCF-2-induced expression of metabolic pathways involved in utilizing the component glycans of MDCF-2—a microbiome-directed complementary food.
- Matthew C. Hibberd
- , Daniel M. Webber
- & Jeffrey I. Gordon
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Article
| Open Access
In vitro production of cat-restricted Toxoplasma pre-sexual stages
A study describes the molecular basis of sexual development of Toxoplasma gondii entirely in vitro, demonstrating the role and interaction of AP2XII-1 and AP2XI-2 in the developmental program of this protozoan parasite.
- Ana Vera Antunes
- , Martina Shahinas
- & Mohamed-Ali Hakimi
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Article |
SlyB encapsulates outer membrane proteins in stress-induced lipid nanodomains
SlyB, a lipoprotein in the PhoPQ stress regulon in Gram-negative bacteria, forms stable stress-induced complexes with the outer membrane proteome.
- Arne Janssens
- , Van Son Nguyen
- & Han Remaut
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News |
The world’s largest proteins? These mega-molecules turn bacteria into predators
A candidate for the largest known protein might help killer aquatic bacteria to devour other microbes — but it’s not easy to study the behemoths, or prove they’re even real.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
Self-copying RNA vaccine wins first full approval: what’s next?
Researchers look ahead to the potential uses and benefits of a technology that has been more than 20 years in the making.
- Elie Dolgin
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Article
| Open Access
Reverse metabolomics for the discovery of chemical structures from humans
A new discovery strategy, ‘reverse metabolomics’, facilitates high-throughput matching of mass spectrometry spectra in public untargeted metabolomics datasets, and a proof-of-concept experiment identified an association between microbial bile amidates and inflammatory bowel disease.
- Emily C. Gentry
- , Stephanie L. Collins
- & Pieter C. Dorrestein
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News |
Microbiologists at COP28 push for a seat at the climate-policy table
At this week’s big climate summit and beyond, scientists are campaigning for microbes to be included in climate models and solutions.
- Katherine Bourzac
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News Explainer |
Why has swine flu emerged in a person in the UK — and what’s next?
Scientists are closely monitoring a virus that has been detected for the first time in a UK individual.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Comment |
This is how the world finally ends the HIV/AIDS pandemic
Putting the specific needs of individuals and communities at the heart of HIV/AIDS care, by harnessing behavioural science, is key to building on the progress already been made.
- John Nkengasong
- , Mike Reid
- & Ingrid T. Katz
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News Feature |
These volunteers want to be infected with disease to aid research — will their altruism help?
An advocacy group is pushing for more ‘human challenge’ trials to spur vaccine discovery. Following COVID-19 and Zika studies, hepatitis C could be next.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Explainer |
What’s behind China’s mysterious wave of childhood pneumonia?
Scientists expected a surge in respiratory disease, but what is happening in China is unusual.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
‘Treasure trove’ of new CRISPR systems holds promise for genome editing
An algorithm that can analyse hundreds of millions of genetic sequences has identified DNA-cutting genes and enzymes that are extremely rare in nature.
- Sara Reardon
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News |
‘Politicians don’t understand science’: advisers give evidence at UK COVID inquiry
Patrick Vallance, Chris Witty and others reflect on advising the UK government during the ongoing investigation into the country’s pandemic response.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Research Highlight |
That itchy, scratchy feeling strikes when Staph bacteria get to work
An enzyme wielded by a common skin bacterium acts on nerve receptors that trigger intense itching.
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Article |
Phages overcome bacterial immunity via diverse anti-defence proteins
A study reports the discovery and characterization of four distinct families of phage-encoded anti-defence proteins that inhibit a variety of bacterial defence systems.
- Erez Yirmiya
- , Azita Leavitt
- & Rotem Sorek
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Article |
Porin-independent accumulation in Pseudomonas enables antibiotic discovery
We use a whole-cell accumulation assay to assess the ability of non-antibiotic, structurally diverse small molecules to accumulate in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with potential application in developing drugs to target this pathogen.
- Emily J. Geddes
- , Morgan K. Gugger
- & Paul J. Hergenrother
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Article
| Open Access
HIV-1 Env trimers asymmetrically engage CD4 receptors in membranes
HIV-1 Env trimers bound to one, two and three CD4 molecules are observed at membrane–membrane interfaces between HIV-1 and CD4-decorated virus-like particles.
- Wenwei Li
- , Zhuan Qin
- & Walther Mothes
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Article
| Open Access
Structural basis of Gabija anti-phage defence and viral immune evasion
X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and biochemical analysis provide insight into the assembly of the bacterial Gabija complex, an anti-phage system, and reveal how viruses can evade this defence mechanism.
- Sadie P. Antine
- , Alex G. Johnson
- & Philip J. Kranzusch
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Article
| Open Access
Intermediate conformations of CD4-bound HIV-1 Env heterotrimers
Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy structures of HIV-1 envelope (Env) trimers bound to one or two CD4 receptors identify intermediate Env conformations that precede host–virus fusion and inform the design of therapeutics to prevent HIV-1 infection.
- Kim-Marie A. Dam
- , Chengcheng Fan
- & Pamela J. Bjorkman
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