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The need for a balance between pathogen elimination and protection from cellular damage means that the central nervous system (CNS) is a partially protected niche that some pathogens can exploit. Here, the authors discuss the immune regulation of acute and persistent CNS infection by coronaviruses, using mouse hepatitis virus as a model.
Many bacteria hijack the cellular actin machinery to move both within and between host cells. Recent studies have revealed differing mechanisms of bacterial actin-based motility, with some genera mimicking a cellular nucleation-promoting factor and others activating WASP proteins to induce actin polymerization. Stevenset al.review the latest developments in these different strategies.
Although traditional descriptions of the bacterial life cycle include just three phases, two additional phases, death phase and long-term stationary phase (LTSP), appear when batch cultures are incubated for longer periods of time. Here, Steve Finkel discusses the GASP phenotype, which confers a competitive ability to LTSP cells.
Recently solved tertiary structures of partition proteins provide important insights into segrosome organization and assembly. Hayes and Barillà review recent advances in our understanding of the bacterial segrosome and plasmid partitioning, including the organization of partition modules, segrosome assembly and plasmid trafficking.
It is estimated that 50% of the world's population is persistently colonized byHelicobacter pylori. In this Opinion article, Ben Appelmelk and colleagues argue that for most patients, controlled modulation of the host immune response by H. pylorifacilitates an asymptomatic, persistent infection.
Amy Gladfelter discusses our current knowledge of the functions and regulation of the septins and formins in filamentous fungi, and makes the case that a concerted research effort on these proteins in these organisms could yield significant insights into fundamental eukaryotic cellular processes.
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are extensively used in the food and chemical industries. Here, Bas Teusink and Eddy Smid discuss how global metabolic modelling approaches, encompassing metabolic engineering, functional genomics and mathematical analysis, can be applied to optimize the industrial applications of LAB.
The highly virulent paramyxoviruses Hendra and Nipah virus are recent additions to the gamut of emerging human pathogens. Bryan Eaton and colleagues provide an overview of these pathogens and discuss recent progress in the understanding of the molecular basis for henipavirus pathogenicity.
The prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms in the community is steadily increasing. Yoko Furuya and Franklin Lowy discuss the unique mixture of factors that contribute to the evolution of antibiotic resistance in the community setting. The complicated nature of antimicrobial resistance requires a multi-pronged combative approach.
Recently, several proteins involved in lipopolysaccharide and Gram-negative bacterial outer-membrane assembly have been identified. Natividad Ruiz, Daniel Kahne and Thomas Silhavy describe these assembly factors and outline the novel experimental approaches that led to their discovery.
To evade the immune system, the meningococcus generates genetic variants and balances this genome instability with genome repair. Tonje Davidsen and Tone Tønjum review the dynamics of the meningococcal genome and contrast its unique DNA-repair profile with that of the model organismEscherichia coli.
Despite markedly different structures, both class I and class II viral membrane-fusion proteins adopt a hairpin conformation, inducing fusion of viral and cellular membranes. This review focuses on the class II proteins, using Semliki Forest virus and tick-borne encephalitis virus fusion proteins as examples.
