News & Comment

Whether there is overlap between the microbial communities in the gut and oral cavity has been debated. This study found that the salivary and stool microbiomes are highly distinct.

This study describes Mycobacterium leprae infection of western chimpanzees in Côte d’Ivoire and disease manifestation.

A newly identified phage defence system uses cyclic pyrimidines to induce abortive infection.

Two recent studies provide mechanistic evidence that members of the microbiota cooperate to confer colonization resistance against pathogens.

The authors of this study designed a novel therapeutic class of antimicrobials in which they optimized drug binding and permeation of the drug through bacterial membrane transporters simultaneously.

This study finds that a tick symbiont modulates serotonin levels in the host and thus promotes blood feeding.

A study in preterm piglets shows that transplantation of faecal filtrate can prevent necrotizing enterocolitis.

This study shows that a system related to Tad pili mediates contact-dependent killing in predatory bacteria.

This month’s Genome Watch highlights the need for improved phenotypic approaches to complement the power of genomics.

This month’s Under the Lens discusses how recent advances in understanding the spatial integration of transcription and splicing sites have shed light on the mechanism that ensures monogenic antigen expression in trypanosomes.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has seen a notable global reduction in influenza cases of both influenza A and B viruses. In particular, the B/Yamagata lineage has not been isolated from April 2020 to August 2021, suggesting that this influenza lineage may have become extinct, which may provide opportunities for improving availability and effectiveness of influenza vaccines.

This study shows that gut bacteria accumulate host-targeted drugs intracellularly, which affects the therapeutic effect of the drug as well as metabolite secretion of the accumulating bacteria without much having an impact on bacterial growth.

This study shows that bacteria can secrete a lipopolysaccharide receptor to capture outer membrane vesicles.

A monkey challenge study shows that infections with a low virus dose can lead to asymptomatic COVID-19.

An analysis of more than 30,000 genomes shows that global trade of breeding chickens contributed to the spread of Salmonella Enteritidis.

This study demonstrates that commensal bacteria and fungi have opposing roles in the responses of tumours to radiotherapy.

This month’s Genome Watch highlights how recent advances in computational identification of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), and in their experimental manipulation, are opening new avenues to access novel secondary metabolites.

A study in human airway epithelial cells shows that measles virus forms infectious centres, which detach and might promote transmission.

This trypansome study shows that slender parasites can infect and develop in flies, expanding our understanding of the trypansome life cycle.

A 1,000-day experiment explored bacterial longevity under nutrient starvation.