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Outer membrane utilisomes mediate glycan uptake in gut Bacteroidetes
A structural and functional analysis of the systems involved in oligosaccharide uptake in gut Bacteroidetes describes multicomponent complexes termed utilisomes that include pre-processing and transport subunits.
- Joshua B. R. White
- , Augustinas Silale
- & Neil A. Ranson
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Article
| Open Access
Structural basis for bacterial energy extraction from atmospheric hydrogen
Structural and biochemical studies of the Mycobacterium smegmatis hydrogenase Huc provides insights into how [NiFe] hydrogenases oxidize trace amounts of atmospheric hydrogen and transfer the electrons liberated via quinone transport.
- Rhys Grinter
- , Ashleigh Kropp
- & Chris Greening
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Article |
Two broadly conserved families of polyprenyl-phosphate transporters
A study identifies two broadly conserved families of flippases that catalyse the transport of undecaprenyl phosphate in bacteria and could function to recycle dolichol phosphate in eukaryotes and archaea.
- Ian J. Roney
- & David Z. Rudner
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Article
| Open Access
Undecaprenyl phosphate translocases confer conditional microbial fitness
Members of the DUF368-containing and DedA transmembrane protein families have conditional roles in undecaprenyl phosphate translocation in Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and may have a widely conserved function in the biogenesis of microbial cell surface glycopolymers.
- Brandon Sit
- , Veerasak Srisuknimit
- & Matthew K. Waldor
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Article
| Open Access
Direct activation of a bacterial innate immune system by a viral capsid protein
Genetic, biochemical and structural studies provide insights into the function of Escherichia coli CapRelSJ46 as a fused anti-phage toxin–antitoxin system that binds SECΦ27 Gp57 capsid protein.
- Tong Zhang
- , Hedvig Tamman
- & Michael T. Laub
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Article |
Bacterial retrons encode phage-defending tripartite toxin–antitoxin systems
Retron-Sen2 of Salmonella Typhimurium encodes a toxin and a reverse transcriptase, which, together with the Sen2 multi-copy single-stranded DNA synthesized by the reverse transcriptase make up a tripartite toxin–antitoxin system that functions in anti-phage defence.
- Jacob Bobonis
- , Karin Mitosch
- & Athanasios Typas
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Article
| Open Access
Cryo-EM structure of a type IV secretion system
Cryo-electron microscopy structures of a 2.8 megadalton bacterial type IV secretion system encoded by the plasmid R388 and comprising 92 polypeptides provide insights into the stepwise mechanism of pilus assembly.
- Kévin Macé
- , Abhinav K. Vadakkepat
- & Gabriel Waksman
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Article |
A single sulfatase is required to access colonic mucin by a gut bacterium
A single sulfatase produced by a bacterium found in the human colon is essential for degradation of sulfated O-glycans in secreted mucus.
- Ana S. Luis
- , Chunsheng Jin
- & Eric C. Martens
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Article |
Mechanism for Cas4-assisted directional spacer acquisition in CRISPR–Cas
Structures of the Cas4–Cas1–Cas2 complex from Geobacter sulfurreducens show that a 3′-overhang in the protospacer adjacent motif is required for complex assembly and spacer insertion into the CRISPR array.
- Chunyi Hu
- , Cristóbal Almendros
- & Ailong Ke
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Article |
Microbes exploit death-induced nutrient release by gut epithelial cells
Intestinal microorganisms exploit nutrients released by apoptotic gut epithelial cells for growth.
- Christopher J. Anderson
- , Christopher B. Medina
- & Kodi S. Ravichandran
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Article |
A bacterial cytidine deaminase toxin enables CRISPR-free mitochondrial base editing
An interbacterial toxin that catalyses the deamination of cytidines within double-stranded DNA forms part of a CRISPR-free, RNA-free base editing system that enables manipulation of human mitochondrial DNA.
- Beverly Y. Mok
- , Marcos H. de Moraes
- & David R. Liu
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Article |
The architecture of the Gram-positive bacterial cell wall
Using high-resolution atomic force microscopy of live cells, the authors present an updated view of the cell walls of both Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis.
- L. Pasquina-Lemonche
- , J. Burns
- & J. K. Hobbs
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Article |
An interbacterial toxin inhibits target cell growth by synthesizing (p)ppApp
The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa attacks competing bacteria using the toxin Tas1, which pyrophosphorylates adenosine nucleotides to generate (p)ppApp, thereby depleting ATP and disrupting multiple cellular functions.
- Shehryar Ahmad
- , Boyuan Wang
- & John C. Whitney
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Letter |
Cas13-induced cellular dormancy prevents the rise of CRISPR-resistant bacteriophage
The RNA-cleaving Cas13 degrades both host and bacteriophage transcripts, thereby rendering infected cells dormant and broadly resistant to phage-mediated lysis.
- Alexander J. Meeske
- , Sandra Nakandakari-Higa
- & Luciano A. Marraffini
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Letter |
The outer membrane is an essential load-bearing element in Gram-negative bacteria
The outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is shown to be at least as stiff as the cell wall, and this property enables it to protect cells from mechanical pertubations.
- Enrique R. Rojas
- , Gabriel Billings
- & Kerwyn Casey Huang
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Letter |
Structure of the peptidoglycan polymerase RodA resolved by evolutionary coupling analysis
Evolutionary coupling-enabled molecular replacement determination of the structure of Thermus thermophilus RodA reveals a highly conserved cavity in its transmembrane domain, and mutagenesis experiments in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli show that perturbation of this cavity abolishes RodA function.
- Megan Sjodt
- , Kelly Brock
- & Andrew C. Kruse
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Letter |
Peptidoglycan synthesis drives an FtsZ-treadmilling-independent step of cytokinesis
Single-cell fluorescence microscopy reveals that cytokinesis occurs in two stages in Staphylococcus aureus, an initial slow phase followed by a faster phase after MurJ protein recruitment to the midcell triggers peptidoglycan synthesis.
- João M. Monteiro
- , Ana R. Pereira
- & Mariana G. Pinho
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Letter |
Moving beyond microbiome-wide associations to causal microbe identification
Triangulation of microbe–phenotype relationships is an effective method for reducing the noise inherent in microbiota studies and enabling identification of causal microbes of disease, which may be applicable to human microbiome studies.
- Neeraj K. Surana
- & Dennis L. Kasper
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Letter |
A global resource allocation strategy governs growth transition kinetics of Escherichia coli
A new approach to modelling bacterial growth removes the need to know kinetic parameters for metabolic and regulatory processes and can be used to model adaptive processes such as antibiotic responses and ecological dynamics.
- David W. Erickson
- , Severin J. Schink
- & Terence Hwa
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Article |
Type III CRISPR–Cas systems produce cyclic oligoadenylate second messengers
CRISPR-associated protein Csm6 is activated by a cyclic oligoadenylate second messenger generated by Cas10 activity in the CRISPR type III interference complex, representing a novel mechanism of CRISPR interference.
- Ole Niewoehner
- , Carmela Garcia-Doval
- & Martin Jinek
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Letter |
Deletion of a mycobacterial divisome factor collapses single-cell phenotypic heterogeneity
The mycobacterial protein LamA functions as an inhibitor of cell wall synthesis at the nascent cell pole, contributing to asymmetry in polar growth, and could represent a much-needed target for the development of anti-tuberculosis therapies.
- E. Hesper Rego
- , Rebecca E. Audette
- & Eric J. Rubin
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Letter |
CRISPR–Cas systems exploit viral DNA injection to establish and maintain adaptive immunity
Analysis of spacer acquisition in Staphylococcus aureus reveals that type II CRISPR–Cas systems exploit viral DNA injection to ensure a successful CRISPR immune response.
- Joshua W. Modell
- , Wenyan Jiang
- & Luciano A. Marraffini
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Article |
SEDS proteins are a widespread family of bacterial cell wall polymerases
SEDS proteins are core peptidoglycan polymerases involved in bacterial cell wall elongation and division.
- Alexander J. Meeske
- , Eammon P. Riley
- & David Z. Rudner
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Article |
Glutathione activates virulence gene expression of an intracellular pathogen
This study shows that glutathione, a ubiquitous antioxidant, is also a critical signalling molecule that allosterically activates the master virulence regulator in the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes.
- Michelle L. Reniere
- , Aaron T. Whiteley
- & Daniel A. Portnoy
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Letter |
Conditional tolerance of temperate phages via transcription-dependent CRISPR-Cas targeting
The Staphylococcus epidermidis CRISPR-Cas system can prevent lytic infection but tolerate lysogenization by temperate phage through a transcription-dependent DNA targeting mechanism.
- Gregory W. Goldberg
- , Wenyan Jiang
- & Luciano A. Marraffini
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Letter |
Crystal structure of the RNA-guided immune surveillance Cascade complex in Escherichia coli
The CRISPR/Cas system is an RNA-guided bacterial protection system against foreign nucleic acids of bacterial and archaeal origin; here a high-resolution crystal structure of the CRIPSR RNA–Cas complex shows that the CRIPSR RNA plays an essential role not only in target recognition but also in complex assembly.
- Hongtu Zhao
- , Gang Sheng
- & Yanli Wang
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Outlook |
Bacteriology: A caring culture
William Coley found a way to prompt the immune system to fight cancer over a century ago. After years of neglect, scientists are now seeking to replicate his success.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Letter |
A new metabolic cell-wall labelling method reveals peptidoglycan in Chlamydia trachomatis
Peptidoglycan is an essential structural component of the cell wall in the majority of bacteria, but the obligate intracellular human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis was thought to be one of the few exceptions; here a click chemistry approach is used to label peptidoglycan in replicating C. trachomatis with novel d-amino acid dipeptide probes.
- G. W. Liechti
- , E. Kuru
- & A. T. Maurelli
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Article |
Coordination of bacterial proteome with metabolism by cyclic AMP signalling
Cyclic AMP, one of the earliest discovered and most intensely studied signalling molecules in molecular biology, is widely believed to signal the carbon status in mediating catabolite repression in bacteria; here a quantitative approach reveals a much broader physiological role for cAMP signalling, whereby it coordinates the allocation of proteomic resources with the global metabolic needs of the cell, including, for example, nitrogen or sulphur.
- Conghui You
- , Hiroyuki Okano
- & Terence Hwa
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Letter |
Diverse type VI secretion phospholipases are functionally plastic antibacterial effectors
A functionally diverse superfamily of bacterial phospholipase enzymes that mediate antagonisitc interactions as effectors of the type VI secretion system is uncovered; these enzymes degrade the bacterial membrane, representing a novel mechanism of bacterial competition.
- Alistair B. Russell
- , Michele LeRoux
- & Joseph D. Mougous
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Letter |
Bacteriophage genes that inactivate the CRISPR/Cas bacterial immune system
Five classes of phage genes are identified that protect phages from CRISPR-mediated bacterial immunity.
- Joe Bondy-Denomy
- , April Pawluk
- & Alan R. Davidson
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Article |
CCR5 is a receptor for Staphylococcus aureus leukotoxin ED
A Staphylococcus aureus leukotoxin targets cells expressing the chemokine receptor CCR5, a mechanism for the specificity of leukotoxins towards different immune cells.
- Francis Alonzo III
- , Lina Kozhaya
- & Victor J. Torres
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Research Highlights |
Bacteria engineered to kill
Synergy and oxygen adaptation for development of next-generation probiotics