Microbiology

An M protein coiled coil unfurls and exposes its hydrophobic core to capture LL-37

1. Piotr Kolesinski
2. Kuei-Chen Wang
3. Yujiro Hirose
4. Victor Nizet
5. Partho Ghosh

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This manuscript , which focuses on Streptococcus pyogenes M proteins and the antimicrobial peptide LL-37, will be of broad interest to individuals interested in host-pathogen interactions as well as protein-protein interactions.The manuscript provides both structural and functional insight in these areas, including new understanding of how coiled coil proteins can participate in protein-protein interactions and potentially inspiring protein designers and synthetic biologists to design mimetic systems that exploit the principles described here.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Variation in the ACE2 receptor has limited utility for SARS-CoV-2 host prediction

1. Nardus Mollentze
2. Deborah Keen
3. Uuriintuya Munkhbayar
4. Roman Biek
5. Daniel G Streicker

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This important study shows that methods currently used to predict which animals species might be at risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2, by looking at features of the host cell receptor the virus binds to, are fundamentally flawed, with exceptionally strong support for this conclusion. Much work on the potential host range of SARS-CoV-2 has focused on measuring the susceptibility of different species' ACE2 receptors to sarbecovirus entry and extending predictions to other unmeasured species based on ACE2 sequence features. Mollentze and colleagues show that ACE2 sequences are not more than a proxy for generic species relationships. In other words, species phylogeny alone can provide equivalent predictive power, allowing for predictions of mammalian susceptibility to sarbecovirus infection for the many species for which ACE2 sequences are not known yet.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

Differential Evasion of Delta and Omicron Immunity and Enhanced Fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 Subvariants

1. Panke Qu
2. Julia N. Faraone
3. John P. Evans
4. Xue Zou
5. Yi-Min Zheng
6. Claire Carlin
7. Joseph S. Bednash
8. Gerard Lozanski
9. Rama K. Mallampalli
10. Linda J. Saif
11. Eugene M. Oltz
12. Peter J. Mohler
13. Richard J. Gumina
14. Shan-Lu Liu

Reviewed by ScreenIT

The giant staphylococcal protein Embp facilitates colonization of surfaces through Velcro-like attachment to fibrillated fibronectin

1. Nasar Khan
2. Hüsnü Aslan
3. Henning Büttner
4. Holger Rohde
5. Thaddeus Wayne Golbek
6. Steven Joop Roeters
7. Sander Woutersen
8. Tobias Weidner
9. Rikke Louise Meyer

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Staphylococcus epidermidis is a commensal that colonizes corneocytes of humans and other mammals. Colonization is crucial for many aspects of health including the development of our immune system and protection against invading pathogens. Embp is a long protein encoded by S. epidermidis on the cell surface that coats implanted foreign devices and host fibronectin, but this study shows that Embp does not bind to fibronectin in its soluble form, instead requiring surface binding to expose other epitopes to bind host fibronectin. This study uses atomic force microscopy to demonstrate these specific molecular interactions and their likely relevance to host-microbe interactions with prospects for pharmaceutical interventions.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Isolation of bat sarbecoviruses of SARS-CoV-2 clade, Japan

1. Shin Murakami
2. Tomoya Kitamura
3. Hiromichi Matsugo
4. Haruhiko Kamiki
5. Ken Oyabu
6. Wataru Sekine
7. Akiko Takenaka-Uema
8. Yuko Sakai-Tagawa
9. Yoshihiro Kawaoka
10. Taisuke Horimoto

Reviewed by ScreenIT

A SCID Mouse Model To Evaluate the Efficacy of Antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 Infection

1. Rana Abdelnabi
2. Caroline S. Foo
3. Suzanne J. F. Kaptein
4. Robbert Boudewijns
5. Laura Vangeel
6. Steven De Jonghe
7. Dirk Jochmans
8. Birgit Weynand
9. Johan Neyts

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Nanoscale resolution of microbial fiber degradation in action

1. Meltem Tatli
2. Sarah Moraïs
3. Omar E Tovar-Herrera
4. Yannick J Bomble
5. Edward A Bayer
6. Ohad Medalia
7. Itzhak Mizrahi

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The premise behind this manuscript is timely and of interest to a broad scientific community working in the field of microbial recycling of cellulosic biomass. It provides a useful link between the occurrence and molecular aspects of the bacterial 'machinery' named cellulosome, and physiological traits of the same bacteria when grown on micro-crystalline cellulose. The key claims of the manuscript are well supported by the data, and the approaches used are thoughtful and rigorous.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Low immune response after 1.5 years of primary SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covishield vaccination lead to SARS-CoV-2 reinfection

1. Anita M. Shete
2. Deepak Y. Patil
3. Rima R. Sahay
4. Gajanan N. Sapkal
5. Gururaj R. Deshpande
6. Pragya D. Yadav

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Biochemical Characterization of Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Nsp15 Endoribonuclease Variants

1. Isha M. Wilson
2. Meredith N. Frazier
3. Jian-Liang Li
4. Thomas A. Randall
5. Robin E. Stanley

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

Biosynthetic proteins targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike as anti-virals

1. Stéphanie Thébault
2. Nathalie Lejal
3. Alexis Dogliani
4. Amélie Donchet
5. Agathe Urvoas
6. Marie Valerio-Lepiniec
7. Muriel Lavie
8. Cécile Baronti
9. Franck Touret
10. Bruno Da Costa
11. Clara Bourgon
12. Audrey Fraysse
13. Audrey Saint-Albin-Deliot
14. Jessica Morel
15. Bernard Klonjkowski
16. Xavier de Lamballerie
17. Jean Dubuisson
18. Alain Roussel
19. Philippe Minard
20. Sophie Le Poder
21. Nicolas Meunier
22. Bernard Delmas

Reviewed by ScreenIT