News & Comment

A new paper inMolecular Cell provides direct structural evidence for the importance of the parS sites in Caulobactergenome organization.

Ustilago maydisCmu1 is a virulence factor that can move through plant cells, redirecting plant metabolic pathways to favour fungal infection.

Fifty years ago, Cricket al. revealed, using elegant microbiological techniques, that the codon consists of three nucleotides.

Our monthly round up of infectious diseases news, which this month includes a vaccine against trachoma, a European filovirus and a potential infectious agent for colon cancer.

This month's Genome Watch reviews a series of recent papers describing horizontal gene transfer from microorganisms to nematodes.

Microbiological processes have important roles in nearly all stages of food production. Therefore, microbiologists will be key players in making the improvements to food production that are required to feed the growing world population.

MazF can specifically upregulate the expression of a subset of cellular proteins against a background of protein synthesis shutdown.

The gut microbiota can facilitate viral infection and transmission.

The increasing levels of antibiotic resistance observed in clinical isolates, coupled with a lack of new drugs coming through the development pipeline, make the problem of antibiotic resistance a global crisis. In this Essay, Davies and colleagues draw up a priority list of urgent steps and future research directions that are needed to tackle this growing problem.

A new paper reveals that HCMV can escape a neutralizing antibody by incorporating it into assembling virions.

A recent paper identifies a new protein family involved in bacterial cell wall assembly.

Targetting virulence mechanisms rather than growth does not prevent resistance in bacterial pathogens.

This month's Genome Watch discusses the genome of the free-living amoeboflagellate protistNaegleria gruberi.