Microbiology

Molecular mechanism of complement inhibition by the trypanosome receptor ISG65

1. Alexander D Cook
2. Mark Carrington
3. Matthew K Higgins

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study significantly advances our understanding of how parasites evade the host complement immune system. The new cryo-EM structure of the trypanosome receptor ISG65 bound to complement component C3b is highly compelling and well-supported by biochemical experiments. This work will be of broad interest to parasitologists, immunologists, and structural biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Fungal–bacteria interactions provide shelter for bacteria in Caesarean section scar diverticulum

1. Peigen Chen
2. Haicheng Chen
3. Ziyu Liu
4. Xinyi Pan
5. Qianru Liu
6. Xing Yang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study reports the fungal composition and its interaction with bacteria in the Caesarean section scar diverticulum. The data are solid and supportive of the conclusion. This work will be of interest to researchers and clinicians who work on women's health.

Reviewed by eLife

Predicting microbial growth conditions from amino acid composition

1. Tyler P. Barnum
2. Alexander Crits-Christoph
3. Michael Molla
4. Paul Carini
5. Henry H. Lee
6. Nili Ostrov

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Multi-tiered actions of Legionella effectors to modulate host Rab10 dynamics

1. Tomoko Kubori
2. Kohei Arasaki
3. Hiromu Oide
4. Tomoe Kitao
5. Hiroki Nagai

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study explores the interplay between Legionella Dot/Icm effectors that modulate ubiquitination of the host GTPase Rab10, which undergoes phosphoribosyl-ubiquitination by the SidE family of effectors, which in turn are required for Rab10 recruitment to the Legionella containing vacuole (LCV). The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing. The study is not only relevant for the microbiology community, but will also be of interest to colleagues in the broader fields of membrane trafficking and general cell biology.

Reviewed by eLife

Staphylococcus aureus counters organic acid anion-mediated inhibition of peptidoglycan cross-linking through robust alanine racemase activity

1. Sasmita Panda
2. Yahani P. Jayasinghe
3. Dhananjay D. Shinde
4. Emilio Bueno
5. Amanda Stastny
6. Blake P. Bertrand
7. Sujata S. Chaudhari
8. Tammy Kielian
9. Felipe Cava
10. Donald R. Ronning
11. Vinai C. Thomas

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this valuable study, the authors use Staphylococcus aureus to understand how organic acids inhibit bacterial growth. They provide convincing evidence that acetic acid specifically inhibits the activity of the Ddl enzyme and that S. aureus maintains a high intracellular D-ala concentration to circumvent acetate-mediated growth inhibition. This work will be of interest to researchers studying bacteria and antimicrobials.

Reviewed by eLife, Arcadia Science

Widespread fungal-bacterial competition for magnesium enhances antibiotic resistance

1. Yu-Ying Phoebe Hsieh
2. Wanting Wendy Sun
3. Janet M. Young
4. Robin Cheung
5. Deborah A. Hogan
6. Ajai A. Dandekar
7. Harmit S. Malik

Reviewed by Review Commons

Warming and altered precipitation independently and interactively suppress alpine soil microbial growth in a decadal-long experiment

1. Yang Ruan
2. Ning Ling
3. Shengjing Jiang
4. Xin Jing
5. Jin-Sheng He
6. Qirong Shen
7. Zhibiao Nan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study addresses the long-term effect of warming and precipitation on microbial growth, as a proxy for understanding the impact of global warming. The evidence that warming and altered precipitation exhibit antagonistic effects on bacterial growth is compelling and advances our understanding of microbial dynamics affected by environmental factors. This study will interest microbial ecologists, microbiologists, and scientists generally concerned with climate change.

Reviewed by eLife

Giant genes are rare but implicated in cell wall degradation by predatory bacteria

1. Jacob West-Roberts
2. Luis Valentin-Alvarado
3. Susan Mullen
4. Rohan Sachdeva
5. Justin Smith
6. Laura A. Hug
7. Daniel S. Gregoire
8. Wentso Liu
9. Tzu-Yu Lin
10. Gabriel Husain
11. Yuki Amano
12. Lynn Ly
13. Jillian F. Banfield

Reviewed by PREreview

The relationship between gut and nasopharyngeal microbiome composition can predict the severity of COVID-19

1. Benita Martin-Castaño
2. Patricia Diez-Echave
3. Jorge García-García
4. Laura Hidalgo-García
5. Antonio Jesús Ruiz-Malagon
6. José Alberto Molina-Tijeras
7. Maria Jesús Rodríguez-Sojo
8. Anaïs Redruello
9. Margarita Martínez-Zaldívar
10. Emilio Mota
11. Fernando Cobo
12. Marta Alvarez-Estevez
13. Federico García
14. Concepción Morales-García
15. Silvia Merlos
16. Paula García-Flores
17. Manuel Colmenero-Ruiz
18. José Hernandez-Quero
19. María Nuñez
20. Maria Elena Rodríguez-Cabezas
21. Ángel Carazo
22. Javier Martín
23. Rocío Morón
24. Alba Rodríguez-Nogales
25. Julio Gálvez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This potentially useful work characterizes the changes in microbial composition of the nasal and fecal microbiomes of COVID-19 patients according to the severity of disease. However, the description of methods and statistics used for several figures is incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife

Quorum-sensing agr system of Staphylococcus aureus primes gene expression for protection from lethal oxidative stress

1. Magdalena Podkowik
2. Andrew I Perault
3. Gregory Putzel
4. Andrew Pountain
5. Jisun Kim
6. Ashley L DuMont
7. Erin E Zwack
8. Robert J Ulrich
9. Theodora K Karagounis
10. Chunyi Zhou
11. Andreas F Haag
12. Julia Shenderovich
13. Gregory A Wasserman
14. Junbeom Kwon
15. John Chen
16. Anthony R Richardson
17. Jeffrey N Weiser
18. Carla R Nowosad
19. Desmond S Lun
20. Dane Parker
21. Alejandro Pironti
22. Xilin Zhao
23. Karl Drlica
24. Itai Yanai
25. Victor J Torres
26. Bo Shopsin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study outlines how the agr quorum sensing system in Staphylococcus aureus confers long-lived protection against oxidative stress, thereby linking bacterial metabolism to virulence in this pathogen. While the findings, which are supported by solid data, seem at first glance to contradict earlier findings that show increased fitness of agr mutants under oxidative stress, the core conclusions of the study are well-substantiated. The topic of the paper holds broad relevance to microbiologists, especially those focusing on host-pathogen interactions and bacterial responses to ROS.

Reviewed by eLife