Microbiology

Acute targeted induction of gut-microbial metabolism affects host clock genes and nocturnal feeding

1. Giorgia Greter
2. Claudia Moresi
3. Stefanie Oswald
4. Alice de Wouters d’Oplinter
5. Daria Künzli
6. Elisa Cappio Barazzone
7. Jiayi Lan
8. Emma Slack
9. Markus Arnoldini

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Feeding, the circadian rhythm, and the gut microbiota are all intimately linked, motivating new approaches to identify causal relationships while minimizing confounding factors. The authors employ an innovative combination of the stool softener lactulose and a defined 3-member gut microbiota to acutely induce gut bacterial metabolism in mice during the daytime, resulting in changes in the ileal expression of clock genes and altered feeding behavior. Together, this study utilizes solid methods to provide important new insights into the role of gut microbiota in the circadian rhythm, setting the stage for follow-on studies aimed at better understanding the mechanisms responsible.

Reviewed by eLife

Bam complex associated proteins in Escherichia coli are functionally linked to peptidoglycan biosynthesis, membrane fluidity and DNA replication

1. Jack A Bryant
2. Kara A Staunton
3. Hannah M Doherty
4. Micheal B Alao
5. Xuyu Ma
6. Joanna Morcinek-Orłowska
7. Emily CA Goodall
8. Jessica Gray
9. Mathew Milner
10. Jeffrey A Cole
11. Felicity de Cogan
12. Timothy J Knowles
13. Monika Glinkowska
14. Danesh Moradigaravand
15. Ian R Henderson
16. Manuel Banzhaf

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a useful study that generated a rich inventory of genetic interactions with the potential to produce new insight into the molecular function of Bam-associated proteins. The interactions with genes of unknown function are of special interest as they may suggest experiments to find the functions of these genes. The overall data provided to support their conclusions is solid, but there is a major concern with known polar effects on certain mutations, which should be addressed by complementation.

Reviewed by eLife

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

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 G. 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

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

Hosts manipulate lifestyle switch and pathogenicity heterogeneity of opportunistic pathogens in the single-cell resolution

1. Ziguang Wang
2. Shuai Li
3. Sheng Zhang
4. Tianyu Zhang
5. Yujie Wu
6. Anqi Liu
7. Kui Wang
8. Xiaowen Ji
9. Haiqun Cao
10. Yinglao Zhang
11. Eng King Tan
12. Yongcheng Wang
13. Yirong Wang
14. Wei Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The fundamental findings of this work substantially advance our understanding of the impact of the host on its gut microbes. The authors provided compelling evidence at single-cell resolution that the host can drive heterogeneity in the populations of gut microbes with significant consequences for the host physiology.

Reviewed by eLife