News & Comment

A new study investigates the role of the human gut microbiota inVibrio cholerae infection and shows that Ruminococcus obeum decreases the expression of V. choleraevirulence factors to limit colonization.

A new study shows that a unique tetrameric form of c-di-GMP controls development inStreptomyces venezuelaeby mediating dimerization of a transcription factor.

A new study analyses the distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters in the human microbiome and finds a novel bacterial thiopeptide with antibacterial properties.

Andrew Camilli and colleagues provide the first evidence that phage predation drives genomic diversification ofV. cholerae in vivo.

Two studies identify two chromatin-associated proteins that regulate antigenic variation and sexual differentiation inPlasmodium falciparum.

This month's Genome Watch explores the interactions of bee bacterial symbionts with each other and with their apian hosts.

Salmonella entericasubsp.entericaserovar Typhi escapes host defences by inhibiting complement activation and neutrophil chemotaxis.

A fungal pathogen evolves transient resistance to an antimicrobial drug using a novel RNAi-mediated pathway that generates reversible epimutations.

In this Essay in our Microbiology Pioneers series, Hilary Lappin-Scott, Sara Burton and Paul Stoodley pay tribute to Bill Costerton, who was the founding father of biofilm research, and trace his development of the biofilm concept.

A new study identifies inflammatory caspases as the cytoplasmic LPS receptors that trigger non-canonical inflammasome activation.

A new study shows that the HIV viral reservoir is seeded rapidly, even before the establishment of viraemia.

This month's Genome Watch highlights the use of deep sequencing metagenomics to identify bacteriophages that carry sulphur-oxidizing genes in deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes.

Two recentNature papers provide functional evidence for a role for PTEX in the export of Plasmodiumproteins into red blood cells.