Microbiology

Apoptotic caspases cleave DRP1 to promote mitochondrial fusion and anti-viral immune responses

1. Yujie Fang
2. Zihan Guan
3. Xiangtao Zhu
4. Zhenqiong Guan
5. Shufen Li
6. Ke Peng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript describes an unexpected role of cellular caspases in cleaving Drp1, a protein involved in mitochondrial fission, in virus-infected cells. Drp1 cleavage augments mitochondrial fission, reinforcing MAVS-dependent type-1 IFN response against multiple viruses. The findings presented in this manuscript are important and the strength of evidence is solid. Additional studies may allow for more robust mechanistic substantiation of the proposed model.

Reviewed by eLife

Zika virus remodels and hijacks IGF2BP2 ribonucleoprotein complex to promote viral replication organelle biogenesis

1. Clément Mazeaud
2. Stefan Pfister
3. Jonathan E Owen
4. Higor Sette Pereira
5. Flavie Charbonneau
6. Zachary E Robinson
7. Anaïs Anton
8. Cheyanne L Bemis
9. Aïssatou Aïcha Sow
10. Trushar R Patel
11. Christopher J Neufeldt
12. Pietro Scaturro
13. Laurent Chatel-Chaix

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study combines multidisciplinary approaches to examine the role of insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2) as a potential novel host dependency factor for Zika virus. The main claims are supported by the data but remain incomplete. The evidence would be strengthened by improving the western blot analyses and adjusting the toning of their claims in relation to the role of IGF2BP2 for viral replication. With the experimental evidence strengthened, this work will be of interest to virologists working on flaviviruses.

Reviewed by eLife

Drug-induced differential culturability in diverse strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

1. Valerie F. A. March
2. Nino Maghradze
3. Kakha Mchedlishvili
4. Teona Avaliani
5. Rusudan Aspindzelashvili
6. Zaza Avaliani
7. Maia Kipiani
8. Nestani Tukvadze
9. Levan Jugheli
10. Selim Bouaouina
11. Anna Doetsch
12. Galo A. Goig
13. Sebastien Gagneux
14. Sonia Borrell

Reviewed by PREreview

Evolution of Omicron lineage towards increased fitness in the upper respiratory tract in the absence of severe lung pathology

1. Arthur Wickenhagen
2. Meaghan Flagg
3. Julia Port
4. Claude Kwe Yinda
5. Kerry Goldin
6. Shane Gallogly
7. Jonathan E Schulz
8. Tessa Lutterman
9. Brandi Williamson
10. Franziska Kaiser
11. Reshma Mukesh
12. Sarah Van Tol
13. Brian Smith
14. Neeltje van Doremalen
15. Colin Russell
16. Emmie de Wit
17. Vincent Munster

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

Spatial integration of sensory input and motor output in Pseudomonas aeruginosa chemotaxis through colocalized distribution

1. Zhengyu Wu
2. Maojin Tian
3. Sanyuan Fu
4. Min Chen
5. Rongjing Zhang
6. Junhua Yuan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study by Wu et al presents data on bacterial cell organization, with the goal of demonstrating that the two structures that account for bacterial motility - the chemotaxis complex and the flagella - colocalize to the same pole in Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells and expose the regulation underlying their spatial organization and functioning. The subject is of importance and the manuscript is well written. However, the work is incomplete and the conclusions are too strong for the presented data. This manuscript will be of interest to cell biologists, mainly those studying bacteria, but not only, if the evidence is substantiated, the assumptions clarified, and the novelty is made clear during the revision process.

Reviewed by eLife

The bat Influenza A virus subtype H18N11 induces nanoscale MHCII clustering upon host cell attachment

1. Maria Kaukab Osman
2. Jonathan Robert
3. Lukas Broich
4. Dennis Frank
5. Robert Grosse
6. Martin Schwemmle
7. Antoni Wrobel
8. Kevin Ciminski
9. Christian Sieben
10. Peter Reuther

Reviewed by preLights

The RND efflux pump EefABC is highly conserved within lineages of E. coli commonly associated with infection

1. Hannah L. Pugh
2. Elizabeth M. Darby
3. Leah Burgess
4. Abigail L. Colclough
5. Asti-Rochelle Meosa John
6. Steven Dunn
7. Christopher Connor
8. Eoughin A. Perry
9. Alan McNally
10. Vassiliy N. Bavro
11. Jessica M. A. Blair

Reviewed by PREreview

The glycoprotein quality control factor Malectin promotes coronavirus replication and viral protein biogenesis

1. Jonathan P Davies
2. Lars Plate

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable study that utilizes proteomic and genetic approaches to identify the glycoprotein quality control factor malectin as a pro-viral host protein involved in the replication of coronavirus. The evidence supporting this conclusion is solid, although additional insight into the mechanistic basis of malectin-mediated viral replication would further strengthen this study. This work will be of interest to cell biologists studying the molecular mechanisms of glycoprotein quality control and virologists studying the host-pathogen interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

Architecture of genome-wide transcriptional regulatory network reveals dynamic functions and evolutionary trajectories in Pseudomonas syringae

1. Yue Sun
2. Jingwei Li
3. Jiadai Huang
4. Shumin Li
5. Youyue Li
6. Beifang Lu
7. Xin Deng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work advances our understanding of transcriptional regulation of virulence and metabolic pathways in plant pathogenic bacteria. Solid evidence for the claims is provided by computational analysis of newly generated data on the genome-wide binding of 170 transcription factors to their target genes, together with experimental validation of the biological functions of some of these transcription factors. The findings and resources from this study will be valuable to researchers in the fields of systems biology, bacteriology, and plant-microbe interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

Temporal transcriptional response of Candida glabrata during macrophage infection reveals a multifaceted transcriptional regulator CgXbp1 important for macrophage response and fluconazole resistance

1. Maruti Nandan Rai
2. Qing Lan
3. Chirag Parsania
4. Rikky Rai
5. Niranjan Shirgaonkar
6. Ruiwen Chen
7. Li Shen
8. Kaeling Tan
9. Koon Ho Wong

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The paper by Rai and colleagues examines the transcriptional response of Candida glabrata, a common human fungal pathogen, during interaction with macrophages. They use RNA PolII profiling to identify not just the total transcripts but instead focus on the actively transcribing genes. By examining the profile over time, they identify particular transcripts that are enriched at each time point, building a hierarchical model for how a transcription factor, CgXbp1, may regulate part of this response. While the authors have generated a large and potentially impactful dataset, along with several interesting observations, it is important to be cautious as the direct targets of CgXbp1 were characterized under one particular condition and the transcriptional analyses were obtained in another condition, one shown to be highly dynamic as during macrophage infection.

  (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