Microbiology

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

Cryptic proteins translated from deletion-containing viral genomes dramatically expand the influenza virus proteome

1. Jordan N Ranum
2. Mitchell P Ledwith
3. Fadi G Alnaji
4. Meghan Diefenbacher
5. Richard Orton
6. Elizabeth Sloan
7. Melissa Güereca
8. Elizabeth M Feltman
9. Katherine Smollett
10. Ana da Silva Filipe
11. Michaela Conley
12. Alistair B Russell
13. Christopher B Brooke
14. Edward Hutchinson
15. Andrew Mehle

Reviewed by PREreview

Human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells for hepatitis D virus studies

1. Huanting Chi
2. Bingqian Qu
3. Angga Prawira
4. Lars Maurer
5. Jungen Hu
6. Rebecca M. Fu
7. Florian A. Lempp
8. Zhenfeng Zhang
9. Dirk Grimm
10. Xianfang Wu
11. Stephan Urban
12. Viet Loan Dao Thi

Reviewed by Review Commons

An assessment of Nano-RECall: Interpretation of Oxford Nanopore sequence data for HIV-1 drug resistance testing

1. Kayla Eileen Delaney
2. Trevor Ngobeni
3. Conan K. Woods
4. Carli Gordijn
5. Mathilda Claassen
6. Urvi Parikh
7. P. Richard Harrigan
8. Gert Uves van Zyl

Reviewed by PREreview

A dynamic bactofilin cytoskeleton cooperates with an M23 endopeptidase to control bacterial morphogenesis

1. Sebastian Pöhl
2. Manuel Osorio-Valeriano
3. Emöke Cserti
4. Jannik Harberding
5. Rogelio Hernandez-Tamayo
6. Jacob Biboy
7. Patrick Sobetzko
8. Waldemar Vollmer
9. Peter L Graumann
10. Martin Thanbichler

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The manuscript explores the interplay between cytoskeletal bactofilins and cell wall hydrolases in bacterial morphogenesis, utilizing a range of methodologies from bacteriological to biochemical. The study provides important insights into bactofilin polymers' control over peptidoglycan synthesis and the identification of LdmC, supported by a comprehensive array of genetic, bioinformatic, biochemical, and biophysical tools. These convincing findings propose a conserved module governing bacterial morphogenesis, emphasizing the direct association of cell wall remodeling enzymes with a dynamic cytoskeleton, akin to mechanisms observed in other cellular processes such as cell growth and division.

Reviewed by eLife

Stumpy forms are the predominant transmissible forms of Trypanosoma brucei

1. Jean Marc Tsagmo Ngoune
2. Parul Sharma
3. Aline Crouzols
4. Brice Rotureau

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  For decades it has been accepted that only the growth-arrested "stumpy" form of Trypanosoma brucei can infect the arthropod vector, the Tsetse fly, but this was recently challenged by a demonstration that - under artificial conditions that are known to enhance infectivity - the proliferative "slender" form can also establish Tsetse infections. The infectiousness of the two forms is a fundamental question in trypanosome biology and epidemiology, concerning both infection dynamics and parasite differentiation. The authors of the current study provide compelling evidence that without artificial enhancement, the "stumpy" form is indeed much more infective for Tsetse than the slender form; they suggest that this is probably also true in the wild. Since the authors of this paper did not themselves test the effect of enhancing conditions, the precise reason for the discrepancy in results between the two laboratories has not been demonstrated conclusively.

Reviewed by eLife

Ebola virus sequesters IRF3 in viral inclusion bodies to evade host antiviral immunity

1. Lin Zhu
2. Jing Jin
3. Tingting Wang
4. Yong Hu
5. Hainan Liu
6. Ting Gao
7. Qincai Dong
8. Yanwen Jin
9. Ping Li
10. Zijing Liu
11. Yi Huang
12. Xuan Liu
13. Cheng Cao

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study explores how Ebola virus evades human immune responses. The study reports a potential new mechanism wherein Ebola virus traps human IRF3, a key transcription factor involved in immune signaling, into virus-produced "inclusion bodies". The topic is important, the paper has many merits, and the biochemical assays are solid. However, the current data do not clearly explain the relationship between the VP35 protein and IRF3.

Reviewed by eLife

The acetylase activity of Cdu1 regulates bacterial exit from infected cells by protecting Chlamydia effectors from degradation

1. Robert J Bastidas
2. Mateusz Kędzior
3. Robert K Davidson
4. Stephen C Walsh
5. Lee Dolat
6. Barbara S Sixt
7. Jonathan N Pruneda
8. Jörn Coers
9. Raphael H Valdivia

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study combines state-of-the art proteomics and genetic manipulation of Chlamydia trachomatis to study the function of a chlamydial effector, Cdu1, with deubiquitination and acetylation activities. Solid evidence is provided to show that Cdu1 is able to protect itself and three other chlamydial effectors, which are involved in the control of chlamydial egress from host cells, from ubiquitin-mediated degradation, and that this depends on the acetylation activity of Cdu1, but not on its deubiquitination activity. This work will be of interest to microbiologists and cell biologists studying host cell-pathogen interactions.

Reviewed by eLife

Multistability driven by cooperative growth in microbial communities

1. William Lopes
2. Daniel R. Amor
3. Jeff Gore

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Beyond blast: enabling microbiologists to better extract literature, taxonomic distributions and gene neighbourhood information for protein families

1. Colbie J. Reed
2. Rémi Denise
3. Jacob Hourihan
4. Jill Babor
5. Marshall Jaroch
6. Maria Martinelli
7. Geoffrey Hutinet
8. Valérie de Crécy-Lagard

Reviewed by Arcadia Science