Microbiology

Mutation Y453F in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 enhances interaction with the mink ACE2 receptor for host adaption

1. Wenlin Ren
2. Jun Lan
3. Xiaohui Ju
4. Mingli Gong
5. Quanxin Long
6. Zihui Zhu
7. Yanying Yu
8. Jianping Wu
9. Jin Zhong
10. Rong Zhang
11. Shilong Fan
12. Guocai Zhong
13. Ailong Huang
14. Xinquan Wang
15. Qiang Ding

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Presence and stability of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental currency and money cards in Utah reveals a lack of live virus

1. Colleen R. Newey
2. Abigail T. Olausson
3. Alyssa Applegate
4. Ann-Aubrey Reid
5. Richard A. Robison
6. Julianne H. Grose

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Intra-Host SARS-CoV-2 Evolution in the Gut of Mucosally-Infected Chlorocebus aethiops (African Green Monkeys)

1. Lori A. Rowe
2. Brandon J. Beddingfield
3. Kelly Goff
4. Stephanie Z. Killeen
5. Nicole R. Chirichella
6. Alexandra Melton
7. Chad J. Roy
8. Nicholas J. Maness

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Pathogen clonal expansion underlies multiorgan dissemination and organ-specific outcomes during murine systemic infection

1. Karthik Hullahalli
2. Matthew K Waldor

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Monitoring changes in pathogenic bacterial populations after bloodstream infection are poorly understood and in this work the authors develop new genetic analytic tools to dissect bacterial population dynamics at sites of infection. By harvesting bacteria from different sites and times of infection and performing deep sequencing to define the distribution of specific tagged-strains the authors provide a highly detailed snapshot of populations, with discriminatory power superior to prior studies. The work paves the way to future such studies in other organisms that cause persistent infection in humans.

  (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

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines

1. Yafei Liu
2. Noriko Arase
3. Jun-ichi Kishikawa
4. Mika Hirose
5. Songling Li
6. Asa Tada
7. Sumiko Matsuoka
8. Akemi Arakawa
9. Kanako Akamatsu
10. Chikako Ono
11. Hui Jin
12. Kazuki Kishida
13. Wataru Nakai
14. Masako Kohyama
15. Atsushi Nakagawa
16. Yoshiaki Yamagishi
17. Hironori Nakagami
18. Atsushi Kumanogoh
19. Yoshiharu Matsuura
20. Daron M. Standley
21. Takayuki Kato
22. Masato Okada
23. Manabu Fujimoto
24. Hisashi Arase

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Effects of face masks and ventilation on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 respiratory transmission in public toilets: a quantitative microbial risk assessment

1. Thammanitchpol Denpetkul
2. Monchai Pumkaew
3. Oranoot Sittipunsakda
4. Pornsawan Leaungwutiwong
5. Skorn Mongkolsuk
6. Kwanrawee Sirikanchana

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Single-cell growth inference of Corynebacterium glutamicum reveals asymptotically linear growth

1. Joris JB Messelink
2. Fabian Meyer
3. Marc Bramkamp
4. Chase P Broedersz

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The paper presents a method for inferring the growth dynamics of bacteria from noisy single-cell data and applies this to C. glutamicum. Applying the method to experiments three phases of growth during the cell cycle are identified, including a dominant period of linear growth, which is interpreted in terms of a growth mode that is limited by polar cell wall synthesis.

  (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

Physiological function of Flo11p domains and the particular role of amyloid core sequences of this adhesin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

1. Clara Bouyx
2. Marion Schiavone
3. Marie-Ange Teste
4. Etienne Dague
5. Nathalie Sieczkowski
6. Anne Julien
7. Jean Marie Francois

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This work serves as an independent confirmation and expansion of previous work, suggesting that certain domains in fungal adhesins can form amyloid-like structures that are essential for cell-cell aggregation, but less so for cell-surface adhesion or invasive growth. Specifically, the expression of different adhesin constructs offers insight into the functional role of the different adhesin domains. Together, the results provide further insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying fungal adhesion, which does only further our understanding of basic fungal physiology, but also offers insight into fungal pathogenesis.

  (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

An essential, kinetoplastid-specific GDP-Fuc: β-D-Gal α-1,2-fucosyltransferase is located in the mitochondrion of Trypanosoma brucei

1. Giulia Bandini
2. Sebastian Damerow
3. Maria Lucia Sempaio Guther
4. Hongjie Guo
5. Angela Mehlert
6. Jose Carlos Paredes Franco
7. Stephen Beverley
8. Michael AJ Ferguson

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study demonstrates for the first time that the single annotated fucosyltransferase (TbFUT1) in the parasitic protist, Trypanosoma brucei is specifically targeted to the mitochondrion, rather than in the secretory pathway or cytoplasm, as in other eukaryotes. TbFUT1 utilizes glycan substrates in vitro and conditional down-regulation of TbFUT1 expression causes a severe growth defect in the two major developmental stages of these pathogens, indicating that it is essential for pathogenesis and a potential drug target.

  (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Protein-based RBD-C-tag COVID-19 Vaccination Candidate Elicits Protection Activity against SARS-COV-2 Variant Infection

1. Jaganathan Subramani
2. Namir Shaabani
3. Dhwani Shetty
4. Haiwa Wu
5. Sunkuk Kwon
6. Wenzhao Li
7. Chanyu Yue
8. Christoph Lahtz
9. Adela Ramirez-Torres
10. Heyue Zhou
11. Yanliang Zhang
12. Robert Allen
13. Bill Farley
14. Mark Emalfarb
15. Ronen Tchelet
16. Soloheimo Markku
17. Vitikainen Marika
18. Marilyn Wiebe
19. Anne Huuskonen
20. Hannah Ben-artzi
21. Avi Avigdor
22. Henry Ji
23. Andreas Herrmann

Reviewed by ScreenIT