Microbiome: The microbiota maintains oxygen balance in the gut
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 574 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.112
Author: Irene Vacca
A recent study describes a new molecular mechanism used by the gut microbiota to maintain a state of homeostasis in the intestinal lumen, and highlights the importance of PPARγ signalling in this complex regulation. (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - September 4, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Illuminating microbial diversity
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 578 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.106
Author: Samuel C. Forster
This month's Genome Watch discusses the release of 1,003 bacterial and archaeal genomes, and describes how they could increase our understanding of the diversity of microbial biological functions and contribute to improved metagenomic analyses. (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 30, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Samuel C. Forster Tags: News and Analysis Source Type: research
Bacterial evolution: Historical influences on antibiotic resistance
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 576 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.111
Author: Ashley York
A recent study investigated how the history of adaptation to a single antibiotic influences the trajectory of evolutionary dynamics during subsequent treatments with different antibiotics. (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 30, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Ashley York Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Archaeal genetics: Structural insights into archaeal chromatin
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 575 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.110
Author: Irene Vacca
Most archaea have small basic proteins that are likely to share a common evolutionary ancestor with eukaryotic histones. A recent study by Mattiroli, Bhattacharyya et al. reported the 4 Å crystal structure of an archaeal histone–DNA complex. The authors reported that the DNA is (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 30, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Parasite development: RBP10 is key for parasite development in the blood
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 575 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.109
Author: Irene Vacca
During its life cycle, Trypanosoma brucei multiplies in the blood of infected individuals as the bloodstream form and in the midgut of Tsetse flies as the procyclic form. Changes in mRNA and protein levels accompany these developmental transitions. Mugo and Clayton now show that (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 30, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Bacterial ecology: Cheaters take advantage
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 575 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.108
Author: Irene Vacca
Microbial cooperation includes various behaviours, such as nutrient acquisition. However, little is known about the costs and benefits of cooperation in relation to microbial growth. A recent study by Sexton and Schuster investigated the effects of nutrient limitation on the production of the siderophore pyoverdine (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 30, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Embracing the unknown: disentangling the complexities of the soil microbiome
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 579 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.87
Author: Noah Fierer
Soil microorganisms are clearly a key component of both natural and managed ecosystems. Despite the challenges of surviving in soil, a gram of soil can contain thousands of individual microbial taxa, including viruses and members of all three domains of life. Recent advances in marker (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 21, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Noah Fierer Tags: Review Source Type: research
Bacterial secretion: Stress-free vesicle production
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 574 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.105
Author: Irene Vacca
A recent study by Florez et al. shows a direct correlation between the export of PQS and OMV biogenesis, which suggests that by modulating the export of PQS it is possible to regulate the production of OMVs. (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 21, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Sizing up the bacterial cell cycle
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 606 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.79
Authors: Lisa Willis & Kerwyn Casey Huang
It is remarkable how robustly a bacterial species can maintain its preferred size. This capacity is intimately related to control of the cell cycle: cell size and growth rate determine the duration of the cell cycle, which must accommodate the initiation and completion of DNA (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 14, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Lisa Willis Kerwyn Casey Huang Tags: Review Source Type: research
Bacterial pathogenesis: Vibrio enters 'sleep mode' to survive
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 515 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.102
Author: Irene Vacca
Vibrio cholerae is a water-borne pathogen that can cause cholera, an acute and severe gastrointestinal infection. A recent study by Silva-Valenzuela et al. investigated how this bacterium adapts to, and survives in, fresh water, which is an environment that is crucial for human (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 14, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Microbiota: Tell me who you are and I'll tell you what you eat
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 515 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.101
Author: Irene Vacca
The gut microbiota of Drosophila melanogaster mainly comprises Acetobacter spp. and Lactobacillus spp., and their relative abundance changes at the individual level and throughout development; however, how the microbiota is assembled is not well understood. Chun-Nin Wong et al. manipulated the (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 14, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Epidemiology: Anthrax threatens wildlife
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 515 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.100
Author: Irene Vacca
Anthrax is a bacterial disease that affects wild and domestic animals, as well as humans. Although outbreaks have mostly been reported in arid ecosystems of the African savannahs, lethal anthrax-like cases in wild chimpanzees were reported in a rainforest habitat, and the causative agent was (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 14, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Bacterial genetics: Splitting is never easy
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 514 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.98
Author: Irene Vacca
Two recent studies shed light on the mechanisms that coordinate cell division with chromosomal replication and segregation in two distinct bacterial species. (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 14, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Irene Vacca Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Evolution and genome architecture in fungal plant pathogens
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 756 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.76
Authors: Mareike Möller & Eva H. Stukenbrock
The fungal kingdom comprises some of the most devastating plant pathogens. Sequencing the genomes of fungal pathogens has shown a remarkable variability in genome size and architecture. Population genomic data enable us to understand the mechanisms and the history of changes in genome size and (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 7, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Mareike M รถ ller Eva H. Stukenbrock Tags: Review Source Type: research
Stronger together
Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, 516 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.95
Authors: John A. Lees, Gerry Tonkin-Hill & Stephen D. Bentley
This month's Genome Watch discusses how genome-wide epistasis analysis and genome-to-genome analyses are providing insights into the relevance of interactions between and within the genomes of pathogens and their hosts. (Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology)
Source: Nature Reviews Microbiology - August 7, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: John A. Lees Gerry Tonkin-Hill Stephen D. Bentley Tags: News and Analysis Source Type: research
