Microbiology

The Spx stress regulator confers high-level β-lactam resistance and decreases susceptibility to last-line antibiotics in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus

1. Tobias Krogh Nielsen
2. Ida Birkjær Petersen
3. Lijuan Xu
4. Maria Disen Barbuti
5. Viktor Mebus
6. Anni Justh
7. Abdulelah Ahmed Alqarzaee
8. Nicolas Jacques
9. Cécile Oury
10. Vinai Thomas
11. Morten Kjos
12. Camilla Henriksen
13. Dorte Frees

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

Real-time identification of epistatic interactions in SARS-CoV-2 from large genome collections

1. Gabriel Innocenti
2. Marco Galardini

Reviewed by Review Commons

The microbiome interacts with the circadian clock and dietary composition to regulate metabolite cycling in the gut

1. Yueliang Zhang
2. Yongjun Li
3. Sara B. Noya
4. Amita Sehgal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents useful findings about daily rhythm changes of the Drosophila melanogaster adult gut metabolome, which is shown to be dependent on the fly microbiota, diet, and genotype. The phenomena observed are supported by solid experimental evidence, however, there are limitations regarding the analysis and a deeper interpretation of results would improve the manuscript. An absence of mechanistic functional investigation limits the power of the proposed conclusions. The experiments are currently incomplete as the effect of food intake timing was not directly addressed by measuring the quantity and timing of food consumption. The authors should strongly consider including the model organism used in the study in the title of the manuscript to reflect the work. This study will be of interest to physiologists of circadian biology and nutrition.

Reviewed by eLife

The nanoscale organization of the Nipah virus fusion protein informs new membrane fusion mechanisms

1. Qian Wang
2. Jinxin Liu
3. Yuhang Luo
4. Vicky Kliemke
5. Giuliana Leonarda Matta
6. Jingjing Wang
7. Qian Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable paper that uses super-resolution microscopy to show the nanoclustering of the Nipah virus fusion protein on cell and viral membranes. Some of the conclusions regarding the clustering of viral fusion proteins is supported by solid biochemical and super-resolution imaging data while other conclusions such as significance for viral fusion mechanisms is not fully supported by the data provided.

Reviewed by eLife

Mycobacterium tuberculosis PhoP integrates stress response to intracellular survival by regulating cAMP level

1. Hina Khan
2. Partha Paul
3. Harsh Goar
4. Bhanwar Bamniya
5. Navin Baid
6. Dibyendu Sarkar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study describes how PhoP regulates cyclic-AMP production in the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The authors provide convincing evidence that PhoP acts as a repressor of the cyclic-AMP-specific phosphodiesterase, Rv0805, which can degrade cyclic-AMP. The revised manuscript has addressed all outstanding comments and the work will be of interest to bacteriologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Immunogenicity and safety of a live-attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate based on multiple attenuation mechanisms

1. Mie Suzuki-Okutani
2. Shinya Okamura
3. Tang Gis
4. Hitomi Sasaki
5. Suni Lee
6. Akiho Yoshida
7. Simon Goto
8. Tatsuya Nakagawa
9. Masahito Ikawa
10. Wataru Kamitani
11. Shiro Takekawa
12. Koichi Yamanishi
13. Hirotaka Ebina

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable study on the efficacy of a live attenuated vaccine that was tested in different animal models. The evidence is convincing, but it could be further strengthened by comparing the efficacy of their platform with an mRNA vaccine and further investigating mucosal protection.

Reviewed by eLife

Birnaviral Hijacking of Endosomal Membranes

1. Flavia A. Zanetti
2. Ignacio Fernández
3. Eduard Baquero
4. Pablo Guardado-Calvo
5. Sarah Dubois
6. Etienne Morel
7. Victoria Alfonso
8. Milton O. Aguilera
9. María E. Celayes
10. Luis M. Polo
11. Laila Suhaiman
12. Vanesa V. Galassi
13. María V. Chiarpotti
14. Carolina Allende
15. Javier M. Rodríguez
16. José R. Castón
17. Diego Lijavetzky
18. Oscar Taboga
19. María I. Colombo
20. Mario G. Del Pópolo
21. Félix A. Rey
22. Laura R. Delgui

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents valuable information on the mechanism of how birnavirus VP3 protein interacts with PI3P in early endosomes. Evidence supporting the proposed two-stage mechanism is incomplete and would benefit from additional supporting experiments, and additional experimentation would also address concerns about data consistency.

Reviewed by eLife

Multimodal HLA-I genotype regulation by human cytomegalovirus US10 and resulting surface patterning

1. Carolin Gerke
2. Liane Bauersfeld
3. Ivo Schirmeister
4. Chiara Noemi-Marie Mireisz
5. Valerie Oberhardt
6. Lea Mery
7. Di Wu
8. Christopher Sebastian Jürges
9. Robbert M Spaapen
10. Claudio Mussolino
11. Vu Thuy Khanh Le-Trilling
12. Mirko Trilling
13. Lars Dölken
14. Wolfgang Paster
15. Florian Erhard
16. Maike Hofmann
17. Andreas Schlosser
18. Hartmut Hengel
19. Frank Momburg
20. Anne Halenius

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a useful finding on a virally encoded immune-evasin which differentially inhibits antigen presentation by cellular protein complexes called Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I, thereby diminishing the activation of cytotoxic T cells. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, although the addition of more mechanistic insights would strengthen the study. The work will be of interest to virologists and immunologists working on the adaptive immune response to herpesviral infection. Some conclusions would require additional experimental support.

Reviewed by eLife

Transposon mutagenesis screen in Klebsiella pneumoniae identifies genetic determinants required for growth in human urine and serum

1. Jessica Gray
2. Von Vergel L Torres
3. Emily Goodall
4. Samantha A McKeand
5. Danielle Scales
6. Christy Collins
7. Laura Wetherall
8. Zheng Jie Lian
9. Jack A Bryant
10. Matthew T Milner
11. Karl A Dunne
12. Christopher Icke
13. Jessica L Rooke
14. Thamarai Schneiders
15. Peter A Lund
16. Adam F Cunningham
17. Jeff A Cole
18. Ian R Henderson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study is of relevance for those interested in the mechanism required for infections of humans by Klebsiella pneumoniae. The authors apply TraDIS (high-density TnSeq) to K. pneumoniae with the goal of identifying genes required for survival under various infection-relevant conditions and the gene sets identified, together with the raw sequence data, will be resources for the Klebsiella research community. The evidence to support the lists of essential and conditionally-essential genes is convincing. The study provides strong evidence that some genes are conditionally essential in urine because of iron limitation, but there is less mechanistic insight for genes that are conditionally essential in serum.

Reviewed by eLife

Secreted antigen A peptidoglycan hydrolase is essential for Enterococcus faecium cell separation and priming of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy

1. Steven Klupt
2. Kyong Tkhe Fam
3. Xing Zhang
4. Pavan Kumar Chodisetti
5. Abeera Mehmood
6. Tumara Boyd
7. Danielle Grotjahn
8. Donghyun Park
9. Howard C Hang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors build upon prior data implicating the secreted peptidoglycan hydrolase SagA produced by Enterococcus faecium in immunotherapy. Leveraging new strains with sagA deletion/complementation constructs, the investigators reveal that sagA is non-essential, with sagA deletion leading to a marked growth defect due to impaired cell division, and sagA being necessary for the immunogenic and anti-tumor effects of E. faecium. In aggregate, the study utilizes compelling methods to provide both fundamental new insights into E. faecium biology and host interactions and a proof-of-concept for identifying the bacterial effectors of immunotherapy response.

Reviewed by eLife