Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 757 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2258

To survive in a host, a pathogen must avoid detection by the host immune system or stay one step ahead of it. One way that HIV avoids detection and clearance is by establishing a latent reservoir in resting memory CD4+ T cells. Several

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 758 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2246

Authors: David Emerson & Willie Wilson

Efforts to house environmental microbial culture collections, resources and data are lagging behind the speed of discovery in the scientific community. Emerson and Wilson explain the need to increase the investment in biological resource centres to meet this growing challenge.

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 759 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2250

Author: Sheilagh Molloy

A recent Science paper from the Waldor laboratory provides evidence that bacteria use D-amino acids to remodel the cell wall during the adaptation to stationary phase.Almost all naturally occurring proteinogenic amino acids are chiral and, as such, can exist as L-

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 760 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2247

Author: Andrew Jermy

Saccharomyces cerevisiae maintains cellular integrity in the presence of cell wall stress by upregulating cell wall-remodelling pathways. Such stresses are detected by a group of five transmembrane sensor proteins, Wsc1–Wsc3, Mid2 and Mtl2. In an article published online in Nature Chemical Biology, Dupres

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 760 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2252

Author: Rachel David

To disseminate between host cells, Listeria monocytogenes polymerizes host cell actin using ActA, a bacterial protein that mimics the action of Wiscott–Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) and recruits the actin-nucleating ARP2/3 complex to the bacterial surface. This results in the formation of actin tails, which

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 760 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2255

Author: Andrew Jermy

Many species of bloom-forming algae in the phytoplankton form beneficial or obligate associations with marine bacteria. Such partnerships are thought to enable the sharing of metabolites and nutrients, although a detailed understanding of most of these interactions is lacking. The acquisition of iron may be

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 761 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2256

Environmental microbiology

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 762 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2251

Author: Sheilagh Molloy

Gram-positive bacterial pathogens can evade the host innate immune response by using a cell surface protein to synthesize adenosine, a potent suppressor of inflammation, according to a new report in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.Gram-positive pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus use various

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 762 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2254

Author: Christiaan van Ooij

The generation of cell polarity is a fundamental feature of eukaryotic cells and the basis for many biological processes, such as cell division and differentiation. One mechanism for achieving cell polarity is through the localization of specific mRNAs. In yeast, RNA localization is best exemplified

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 763 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2253

Authors: Christiane Hertz-Fowler & Arnab Pain

This month's Genome Watch showcases the use of genomic comparisons at different depths to investigate pathogenicity within the Candida clade.

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 764 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2257

CEACAM6 and Crohn's DiseaseInvestigators have found that expression of human carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 6 (CEACAM6) makes mice susceptible to infection by adhesive and invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC), which has been linked to Crohn's disease in humans. Crohn's disease is thought to

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 765 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2220

Authors: Gabriel Waksman & Scott J. Hultgren

The chaperone–usher (CU) pathway of pilus biogenesis is the most widespread of the five pathways that assemble adhesive pili at the surface of Gram-negative bacteria. Recent progress in the study of the structural biology of the CU pathway has unravelled the molecular basis of chaperone

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 775 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2221

Authors: Mark C. Field & Mark Carrington

Trypanosomes are important disease agents and excellent models for the study of evolutionary cell biology. The trypanosome flagellar pocket is a small invagination of the plasma membrane where the flagellum exits the cytoplasm and participates in many cellular processes. It is the only site of

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 787 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2222

Authors: Nels C. Elde & Harmit S. Malik

Evolutionary conflicts involving mimicry are found throughout nature. Diverse pathogens produce a range of 'mimics' that resemble host components in both form and function. Such mimics subvert crucial cellular processes, including the cell cycle, apoptosis, cytoskeletal dynamics and immunity. Here, we review the mounting evidence

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 798 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2223

Authors: Mayte Coiras, María Rosa López-Huertas, Mayte Pérez-Olmeda & José Alcamí

HIV-1 can infect both activated and resting, non-dividing cells, following which the viral genome can be permanently integrated into a host cell chromosome. Latent HIV-1 reservoirs are established early during primary infection and constitute a major barrier to eradication, even in the presence of highly

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 813 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2219

Authors: Paul S. Keim & David M. Wagner

The development of human civilizations and global commerce has led to the emergence and worldwide circulation of many infectious diseases. Anthrax, plague and tularaemia are three zoonotic diseases that have been intensely studied through genome characterization of the causative species and phylogeographical analyses. A few

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 822 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2202

Authors: Jue D. Wang & Petra A. Levin

Adaptation to fluctuations in nutrient availability is a fact of life for single-celled organisms in the 'wild'. A decade ago our understanding of how bacteria adjust cell cycle parameters to accommodate changes in nutrient availability stemmed almost entirely from elegant physiological studies completed in the

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 828 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2235

Authors: Francisco Rodriguez-Valera, Ana-Belen Martin-Cuadrado, Beltran Rodriguez-Brito, Lejla Pašić, T. Frede Thingstad, Forest Rohwer & Alex Mira

The remarkable differences that have been detected by metagenomics in the genomes of strains of the same bacterial species are difficult to reconcile with the widely accepted paradigm that periodic selection within bacterial populations will regularly purge genomic diversity by clonal replacement. We have found

Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 836 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrmicro2244

Author: Lynette Cegelski, Garland R. Marshall, Gary R. Eldridge & Scott J. Hultgren

Nature Reviews Microbiology6, 17–27 (2008), doi: 10.1038/nrmicro1818In the above article, a mistake was introduced in figure 4. The correct figure is shown below. We wish to apologize to the authors, and to readers, for any confusion