Microbiology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The protein cGAS responds to the presence of cytosolic DNA by producing the second messenger cGAMP, which triggers antiviral interferon responses. Here, Seo et al. show that ubiquitination by the E3 ligase TRIM56 enhances cGAS activity and is important for the immune response against DNA viruses.

    • Gil Ju Seo
    • , Charlotte Kim
    •  & Jae U. Jung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Naturally acquired antibodies may inhibit Plasmodium survival in mosquitoes, alter malaria transmission dynamics, and form the basis for transmission-blocking vaccines. Here, using sera from malaria-exposed individuals, Stone et al. reveal novel antibody correlates of transmission-reducing activity.

    • Will J. R. Stone
    • , Joseph J. Campo
    •  & Matthijs M. Jore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacteria use two-component systems (TCSs) to sense and respond to environmental changes. Here, the authors show that Staphylococcus aureus can survive in the absence of all its 16 TCSs under growth arrest conditions, and each TCS seems to be sufficient to sense and respond to specific environmental clues.

    • Maite Villanueva
    • , Begoña García
    •  & Iñigo Lasa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Legionella pneumophila employs the Type 4B secretion system (T4BSS) to translocate more than 300 effector proteins into the host cell during infection. Here the authors present the crystal structure of the DotM soluble domain and give mechanistic insights into the recruitment of Glu-rich motif-containing effectors to the T4BSS.

    • Amit Meir
    • , David Chetrit
    •  & Gabriel Waksman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sequence composition is thought to be a major factor governing the functionality of horizontally transferred genes. In contrast, Porse et al. show that phylogenetic origin, and the type of resistance mechanism, are major factors affecting the functionality of horizontally transferred antibiotic resistance genes.

    • Andreas Porse
    • , Thea S. Schou
    •  & Morten O. A. Sommer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Influenza A virus packaging depends on interactions between nucleoprotein (NP) and viral RNA (vRNA), but the pattern of NP binding is unclear. Using PAR-CLIP, Williams et al. here show that NP binds vRNA non-uniformly and that RNA structures in low-NP binding regions are important for packaging.

    • Graham D. Williams
    • , Dana Townsend
    •  & Adrianus C. M. Boon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) causes thousands of cases of meningitis and encephalitis annually. Here, the authors describe a cryo-EM structure of the TBEV virion bound by Fab fragments of the neutralizing antibody 19/1786, revealing a mechanism whereby this antibody prevents virus membrane fusion.

    • Tibor Füzik
    • , Petra Formanová
    •  & Pavel Plevka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    UPF1 is a central protein in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), but contribution of its RNA processivity to NMD is unclear. Here, the authors show how the retroviral Tax protein interacts with and inhibits UPF1, and demonstrate that UPF1’s translocase activity contributes to NMD.

    • Francesca Fiorini
    • , Jean-Philippe Robin
    •  & Vincent Mocquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    No structural data for the bacterial type IX secretion system (T9SS) are available so far. Here, the authors present the crystal structures of the periplasmic domains from two major T9SS components PorM and GldM, which span most of the periplasmic space, and propose a putative model of the T9SS core membrane complex.

    • Philippe Leone
    • , Jennifer Roche
    •  & Alain Roussel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metallo-β-lactamases (MBL) are zinc containing enzymes that cause resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. Here the authors show that the anti-Helicobacter pylori drug colloidal bismuth subcitrate inhibits MBLs by displacing the zinc ions with Bi(III), which is of great interest for the development of antibiotics.

    • Runming Wang
    • , Tsz-Pui Lai
    •  & Hongzhe Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How pathogens maintain phenotypic robustness during infection is poorly understood. Here the authors couple the virulence regulatory network (VRN) of the pathogen R. solanacearum to a model of its metabolic network, and find that the VRN activates functionally redundant primary metabolism genes to promote phenotypic robustness during infection.

    • Rémi Peyraud
    • , Ludovic Cottret
    •  & Stéphane Genin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many pathogenic bacteria have evolved to subvert host immune responses triggered by lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Here the authors show that a long terminal polysaccharide chain, known as the O-antigen, present in LPS from the plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa can delay recognition by grapevine hosts.

    • Jeannette N. Rapicavoli
    • , Barbara Blanco-Ulate
    •  & M. Caroline Roper

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marine microbial eukaryotes and zooplankton display enormous diversity and largely unexplored physiologies. Here, the authors use metatranscriptomics to analyze four organismal size fractions from open-ocean stations, providing the largest reference collection of eukaryotic transcripts from any single biome.

    • Quentin Carradec
    • , Eric Pelletier
    •  & Patrick Wincker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    LpxB is a membrane-associated glycosyltransferase required for bacterial lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis. Here, Bohl et al. solve the crystal structure of a soluble LpxB variant, showing an intertwined C-terminally swapped dimer, and residues likely mediating association with lipidic substrates or the membrane.

    • Heather O. Bohl
    • , Ke Shi
    •  & Hideki Aihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Leprosy is caused by the yet-uncultured pathogen Mycobacterium leprae. Here, Benjak et al. obtain M. leprae genome sequences from DNA extracted from patients' skin biopsies and, by analysing 154 genomes from 25 countries, provide insight into the pathogen’s evolution and antimicrobial resistance.

    • Andrej Benjak
    • , Charlotte Avanzi
    •  & Stewart T. Cole

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Viral fusion proteins undergo extensive conformational changes during entry but intermediate conformations often remain unknown. Here, the authors show how Gn of Rift Valley fever virus fusion protein shields hydrophobic fusion loops of Gc and how these loops embed in the target membrane at acidic conditions.

    • Steinar Halldorsson
    • , Sai Li
    •  & Juha T. Huiskonen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zika virus infection during pregnancy can result in birth defects, but underlying pathogenesis at the maternal-fetal interface is unclear. Here, the authors use non-invasive in vivo imaging of Zika-infected rhesus macaques and show that infection results in abnormal oxygen transport across the placenta.

    • Alec J. Hirsch
    • , Victoria H. J. Roberts
    •  & Daniel N. Streblow

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chitin degrading bacteria are important for marine ecosystems. Here the authors structurally and functionally characterize the Vibrio harveyi outer membrane diffusion channel chitoporin and give mechanistic insights into chito-oligosaccharide uptake.

    • Anuwat Aunkham
    • , Michael Zahn
    •  & Bert van den Berg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colonization of commensal bacteria is thought to impact immune development, especially in the earliest years of life. Here, the authors show, by analyzing the development of the gut microbiome of 690 children, that microbial composition at the age of 1 year is associated with asthma diagnosed in the first 5 years of life.

    • Jakob Stokholm
    • , Martin J. Blaser
    •  & Hans Bisgaard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    New antibiotics with reduced potential for resistance are urgently needed. Here, the authors use a multidisciplinary approach to characterize substrate discrimination in macrolide resistance kinases and present a strategy for the prediction of mutations that expand the substrate range of antibiotic-inactivating enzymes.

    • Andrew C. Pawlowski
    • , Peter J. Stogios
    •  & Gerard D. Wright

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The NLRP3 inflammasome plays an important role in antiviral host responses. Here, the authors reveal that the polymerase of Zika virus binds NLRP3 to facilitate inflammasome complex assembly and induce production of IL-1β in human macrophages, human PBMCs and mice, resulting in pathogenesis in mice.

    • Wenbiao Wang
    • , Geng Li
    •  & Jianguo Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacillus subtilis withstands starvation by forming dormant spores that revive when nutrients become available. Here, Mutlu et al. show that sporulation timing controls spore revival through a phenotypic ‘memory’ that arises from the carry-over of a metabolic enzyme from the vegetative cell into the spore.

    • Alper Mutlu
    • , Stephanie Trauth
    •  & Ilka B. Bischofs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genomic loops and their temporal dynamics play an important role in gene expression of DNA viruses, but are incompletely understood. Here, the authors use capture Hi-C analyses and identify genomic architectural dynamics of KSHV that are regulated by the viral transactivator K-Rta.

    • Mel Campbell
    • , Tadashi Watanabe
    •  & Yoshihiro Izumiya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    M1 and M2 cells are representative of proinflammatory versus resolving macrophages, respectively. Here the authors characterize the lipid mediator response to bacterial infection by these cells and show that differing panels of leukotrienes and specialized pro-resolving mediators contribute to control of the dichotomy.

    • Oliver Werz
    • , Jana Gerstmeier
    •  & Charles N. Serhan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    African sleeping sickness is well known for the alterations of sleeping patterns, but it is not known how circadian biology is altered by the causative pathogen Trypanosoma brucei. Here the authors show T. brucei causes a disorder of the cellular circadian clock that is unrelated to the immune response to the parasite.

    • Filipa Rijo-Ferreira
    • , Tânia Carvalho
    •  & Joseph S. Takahashi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The vegetative forms of chlamydiae (RBs) replicate within infected cells and then convert into infectious forms (EBs). Here, the authors use quantitative 3D electron microscopy and computer modeling to show that RB size decreases with replication, and conversion into EBs correlates with an RB size threshold.

    • Jennifer K. Lee
    • , Germán A. Enciso
    •  & Ming Tan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The bacterial protease GtgE is involved in the establishment of Salmonellosis. Here the authors provide a structural and biochemical analysis of GtgE that sheds light on the molecular mechanisms of reprogramming infected host cells via site-specific proteolytic cleavage of the vesicular trafficking regulator Rab32.

    • Rudolf Wachtel
    • , Bastian Bräuning
    •  & Aymelt Itzen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interactions between bacteria and fungi are common and contribute to ecosystem processes. Here, Jung et al. show that the interaction between two plant pathogens (a seed-borne bacterium and an air-borne fungus) promotes their own survival and dispersal, as well as disease progression on rice plants.

    • Boknam Jung
    • , Jungwook Park
    •  & Jungkwan Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metagenomic sequencing provides a window into microbial community structure and metabolic potential. Here, Swenson et al. integrate metabolomics and shotgun sequencing to functionally link microbial community structure with environmental chemistry in biological soil crust (biocrust).

    • Tami L. Swenson
    • , Ulas Karaoz
    •  & Trent R. Northen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The antibiotic vancomycin inhibits bacterial cell wall synthesis by binding to a membrane-associated precursor. Here, Blaskovich et al. synthesize vancomycin derivatives containing lipophilic peptide moieties that enhance membrane affinity and in vivo activities against glycopeptide-resistant strains.

    • Mark A. T. Blaskovich
    • , Karl A. Hansford
    •  & Matthew A. Cooper

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbiota is often a complex mixture of multiple coexisting species and strains with high level of phenotypic and genomic variability. Here, Albanese and Donati develop StrainEst for estimating the number and identity of coexisting strains and their relative abundances in mixed metagenomic samples.

    • Davide Albanese
    •  & Claudio Donati

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mycobacterium tuberculosis WhiB1 is a DNA-binding protein with a NO sensitive [4Fe-4S] cluster. Here the authors present the NMR structure of WhiB1 and suggest how loss of the iron-sulfur cluster through nitrosylation affects WhiB1 DNA binding and leads to transcriptional reprogramming.

    • Bassam K. Kudhair
    • , Andrea M. Hounslow
    •  & Jeffrey Green

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii possess a tubulin-rich structure called the conoid. Here, Long et al. identify a conoid protein that interacts with motor and structural proteins and is required for structural integrity of the conoid, parasite motility, and host cell invasion.

    • Shaojun Long
    • , Bryan Anthony
    •  & L. David Sibley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mucus layer is an important physical niche within the gut which harbours a distinct microbial community. Here the authors show that specific carbohydrate-binding modules associated with bacterial carbohydrate-active enzymes are mucus adhesins that target regions of the distal colon rich in sialomucins.

    • C. David Owen
    • , Louise E. Tailford
    •  & Nathalie Juge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has a limited host range and current animal models can only recapitulate certain aspects of HBV replication. Here, the authors show that expression of the HBV receptor NTCP in macaques supports HBV replication in vivo, suggesting this as animal model for future HBV studies.

    • Benjamin J. Burwitz
    • , Jochen M. Wettengel
    •  & Jonah B. Sacha

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Microbiology across other nature.com journals