Microbiology

Lipid discovery enabled by sequence statistics and machine learning

1. Priya M. Christensen
2. Jonathan Martin
3. Aparna Uppuluri
4. Luke R. Joyce
5. Yahan Wei
6. Ziqiang Guan
7. Faruck Morcos
8. Kelli L. Palmer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports important findings on identifying sequence motifs that predict substrate specificity in a class of lipid synthesis enzymes. It sheds light on a mechanism used by bacteria to modify the lipids in their membrane to develop antibiotic resistance. The evidence is convincing, with a careful application of machine learning methods, validated by mass spectrometry-based lipid anlaysis experiments. This interdisciplinary study will be of interest to computational biologists and to the community working on lipids and on enzymes involved in lipid synthesis or modification.

Reviewed by eLife

RNase-mediated reprogramming of Yersinia virulence

1. Ines Meyer
2. Marcel Volk
3. Ileana Salto
4. Theresa Moesser
5. Anne-Sophie Herbrüggen
6. Manfred Rohde
7. Michael Beckstette
8. Ann Kathrin Heroven
9. Petra Dersch

Reviewed by PREreview

Secreted dengue virus NS1 from infection is predominantly dimeric and in complex with high-density lipoprotein

1. Bing Liang Alvin Chew
2. AN Qi Ngoh
3. Wint Wint Phoo
4. Kitti Wing Ki Chan
5. Zheng Ser
6. Nikhil K Tulsian
7. Shiao See Lim
8. Mei Jie Grace Weng
9. Satoru Watanabe
10. Milly M Choy
11. Jenny Low
12. Eng Eong Ooi
13. Christiane Ruedl
14. Radoslaw M Sobota
15. Subhash G Vasudevan
16. Dahai Luo

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This potentially useful study aims to advance our understanding of the structure of the native form of a viral toxin secreted from infected cells. While some of the findings confirm previous reports, the new claims in this study are unfortunately only inadequately supported by the methods and analyses used. More rigorous approaches are needed to justify the main conclusion that the structure of the viral toxin derived from infected cells in this study is distinct from previously reported structures of recombinantly expressed versions of the toxin.

Reviewed by eLife

Fast Evolution of SOS-Independent Multi-Drug Resistance in Bacteria

1. Le Zhang
2. Yunpeng Guan
3. Yuen Yee Cheng
4. Nural N. Cokcetin
5. Amy L. Bottomley
6. Andrew Robinson
7. Elizabeth J. Harry
8. Antoine van Oijen
9. Qian Peter Su
10. Dayong Jin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study examines how deletion of a major DNA repair gene in bacteria may facilitate the rise of mutations that confer resistance against a range of different antibiotics. Although the phenotypic evidence is intriguing, the interpretation of the phenotypic data presented and the proposed mechanism by which these mutations are generated are incomplete, relying on untested assumptions and suboptimal methodology. If substantially improved, this work could be of interest to microbiologists studying antibiotic resistance, genome integrity, and evolution, but as yet is of unclear significance.

Reviewed by eLife

Quantification of sporozoite expelling by Anopheles mosquitoes infected with laboratory and naturally circulating P. falciparum gametocytes

1. Chiara Andolina
2. Wouter Graumans
3. Moussa Guelbeogo
4. Geert-Jan van Gemert
5. Jordache Ramijth
6. Soré Harouna
7. Zongo Soumanaba
8. Rianne Stoter
9. Marga Vegte-Bolmer
10. Martina Pangos
11. Photini Sinnis
12. Katharine Collins
13. Sarah G Staedke
14. Alfred B Tiono
15. Chris Drakeley
16. Kjerstin Lanke
17. Teun Bousema

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study combines experimental infections with laboratory and field Plasmodium falciparum isolates to quantify the force of human malaria parasite transmission. By using compelling methodological approaches, the authors establish clear positive correlations between mosquito infection levels (as determined by oocyst numbers), sporozoite loads in salivary glands, and sporozoites expelled during feeding. The link between heterogenous infection levels in the mosquitoes and malaria transmission would be of interest to vector biologists, parasitologists, immunologists, and mathematical modellers.

Reviewed by eLife

Detecting, mapping, and suppressing the spread of a decade-long Pseudomonas aeruginosa nosocomial outbreak with genomics

1. William Stribling
2. Lindsey R. Hall
3. Aubrey Powell
4. Casey Harless
5. Melissa J. Martin
6. Brendan W. Corey
7. Erik Snesrud
8. Ana Ong
9. Rosslyn Maybank
10. Jason Stam
11. Katie Bartlett
12. Brendan T. Jones
13. Lan N. Preston
14. Katherine F. Lane
15. Bernadette Thompson
16. Lynn M. Young
17. Yoon I. Kwak
18. Alice E. Barsoumian
19. Ana-Elizabeth Markelz
20. John L. Kiley
21. Robert J. Cybulski
22. Jason W. Bennett
23. Patrick T. Mc Gann
24. Francois Lebreton

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work presents an example of how genomic data can be used to improve understanding of an ongoing, long-term bacterial outbreak in a hospital with an application to multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and will be of interest to researchers concerned with the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in hospital settings. The convincing genomic analyses highlight the value of routine surveillance of patients and environmental sampling and show how such data can help in dating the origin of the outbreak and in characterising the epidemic lineages. These findings highlight the importance of understanding environmental factors contributing to the transmission of P. aeruginosa for guiding and tailoring infection control efforts; however, epidemiological information was limited and the sampling methodology was inconsistent, complicating interpretation of inferences about exact transmission routes.

Reviewed by eLife

A treasure trove of 1,034 actinomycete genomes

1. Tue Sparholt Jørgensen
2. Omkar Mohite
3. Eva B Sterndorff
4. Maria Alvarez-Arevalo
5. Kai Blin
6. Thomas J Booth
7. Pep Charusanti
8. David Faurdal
9. Troels Ø Hansen
10. Matin Nuhamunada
11. Anna-Sophie Mourched
12. Bernhard Ø Palsson
13. Tilmann Weber

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Growing a cystic fibrosis-relevant polymicrobial biofilm to probe community phenotypes

1. Sarah Poirier
2. Fabrice Jean-Pierre

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Pinpointing the microbiota of tardigrades: what is really there?

1. Bartłomiej Surmacz
2. Daniel Stec
3. Monika Prus-Frankowska
4. Mateusz Buczek
5. Łukasz Michalczyk
6. Piotr Łukasik

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The Toxoplasma monocarboxylate transporters are involved in the metabolism within the apicoplast and are linked to parasite survival

1. Hui Dong
2. Jiong Yang
3. Kai He
4. Wen-Bin Zheng
5. De-Hua Lai
6. Jing Liu
7. Hui-Yong Ding
8. Rui-Bin Wu
9. Kevin M Brown
10. Geoff Hide
11. Zhao-Rong Lun
12. Xing-Quan Zhu
13. Shaojun Long

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study identifies two new transporters in the apicoplast, a non-photosynthetic organelle of apicomplexan parasites. While this is important work, it only partially reveals how essential these transporters are, as it does not address the metabolic function of the transporters for the parasite. Although the evidence is still incomplete, the results should be of interest to parasitologists and eukaryotic cell biologists.

Reviewed by eLife