Microbiology

Functional membrane microdomains and the hydroxamate siderophore transporter ATPase FhuC govern Isd-dependent heme acquisition in Staphylococcus aureus

1. Lea Antje Adolf
2. Angelika Müller-Jochim
3. Lara Kricks
4. Jan-Samuel Puls
5. Daniel Lopez
6. Fabian Grein
7. Simon Heilbronner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment:

  In this fundamental manuscript, the authors provide compelling evidence that a housekeeping ATPase is required for heme utilization in the important pathogen Staphylococcus aureus through its interaction with the canonical heme transporter in this organism. The authors convincingly show that this complex associates with functional membrane microdomains and thus establishes a new paradigm for regional localization of the heme transport system in the staphylococci. The work will be of interest to microbiologists, particularly those studying transport for macromolecules.

Reviewed by eLife

The immediate early protein 1 of human herpesvirus 6B counteracts ATM activation in an NBS1-dependent manner

1. Vanessa Collin
2. Élise Biquand
3. Vincent Tremblay
4. Élise G. Lavoie
5. Julien Dessapt
6. Andréanne Blondeau
7. Annie Gravel
8. Louis Flamand
9. Amélie Fradet-Turcotte

Reviewed by Review Commons

The large GTPase Sey1/atlastin mediates lipid droplet- and FadL-dependent intracellular fatty acid metabolism of Legionella pneumophila

1. Dario Hüsler
2. Pia Stauffer
3. Bernhard Keller
4. Desirée Böck
5. Thomas Steiner
6. Anne Ostrzinski
7. Simone Vormittag
8. Bianca Striednig
9. A Leoni Swart
10. François Letourneur
11. Sandra Maaß
12. Dörte Becher
13. Wolfgang Eisenreich
14. Martin Pilhofer
15. Hubert Hilbi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment:

  This important study advances our understanding of host-derived lipid droplets' interaction with intracellular pathogens. The use of amoeba species Dictyostelium discoideum as a host for Legionella pneumophila infection is compelling and goes beyond the current state of the art, but the strength of evidence is incomplete, and the main claims are only partially supported by the data. With the experimental part strengthened, this paper would be of interest to cell biologists and microbiologists working on the interaction of microbes with host cells.

Reviewed by eLife

Selection of HIV-1 for resistance to fifth-generation protease inhibitors reveals two independent pathways to high-level resistance

1. Ean Spielvogel
2. Sook-Kyung Lee
3. Shuntai Zhou
4. Gordon J Lockbaum
5. Mina Henes
6. Amy Sondgeroth
7. Klajdi Kosovrasti
8. Ellen A Nalivaika
9. Akbar Ali
10. Nese Kurt Yilmaz
11. Celia A Schiffer
12. Ronald Swanstrom

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript significantly advances our understanding of the development of drug resistance in the HIV-1 protease. The paper addresses the fundamental relationship between resistance mutations and inhibitor structure and will be useful in the design and development of the next generation of inhibitors.

Reviewed by eLife

The class XIV myosin of Toxoplasma gondii , TgMyoA, is druggable in an animal model of infection

1. Anne Kelsen
2. Robyn S Kent
3. Anne K Snyder
4. Eddie Wehri
5. Stephen J Bishop
6. Rachel V Stadler
7. Cameron Powell
8. Bruno Martorelli di Genova
9. Pramod K Rompikuntal
10. Martin J Boulanger
11. David M Warshaw
12. Nicholas J Westwood
13. Julia Schaletzky
14. Gary E Ward

Reviewed by Review Commons

Roles for mycobacterial DinB2 in frameshift and substitution mutagenesis

1. Pierre Dupuy
2. Shreya Ghosh
3. Allison Fay
4. Oyindamola Adefisayo
5. Richa Gupta
6. Stewart Shuman
7. Michael S Glickman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study uses a combination of compelling biochemical and genetic approaches to identify a highly mutagenic DNA polymerase, which drives a wide spectrum of mutations when overexpressed. The important findings advance the understanding of mutagenesis in mycobacteria. The work will be of interest to bacteriologists interested in mutagenesis and the emergence of drug resistance.

Reviewed by eLife

Intravital imaging-based genetic screen reveals the transcriptional network governing Candida albicans filamentation during mammalian infection

1. Rohan S Wakade
2. Laura C Ristow
3. Melanie Wellington
4. Damian J Krysan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Candida morphogenesis is important for virulence. This study provides important new information as to how C. albicans regulates the switch from budding to hyphal morphology. Their results identify transcription factors involved in the process of hyphal morphogenesis in the host. The results are convincing and will be interesting to scientists in the fields of medical mycology and cell biology.

Reviewed by eLife

An optimal regulation of fluxes dictates microbial growth in and out of steady state

1. Griffin Chure
2. Jonas Cremer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study provides a synthesis of sector models for cellular resource partitioning in microbes, and shows how a simple flux balance model can quantitatively explain growth phenomena from numerous published experimental datasets. The study is overall convincing, although there are a few incomplete points regarding parameter values (justification and discussion of robustness). This work should be of interest to the microbial physiology community.

Reviewed by eLife

Plasmodium falciparum adapts its investment into replication versus transmission according to the host environment

1. Abdirahman I Abdi
2. Fiona Achcar
3. Lauriane Sollelis
4. João Luiz Silva-Filho
5. Kioko Mwikali
6. Michelle Muthui
7. Shaban Mwangi
8. Hannah W Kimingi
9. Benedict Orindi
10. Cheryl Andisi Kivisi
11. Manon Alkema
12. Amrita Chandrasekar
13. Peter C Bull
14. Philip Bejon
15. Katarzyna Modrzynska
16. Teun Bousema
17. Matthias Marti

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable work provides insight into how Plasmodium falciparum optimises the balance between infection of the human host and investment in onward transmission to the mosquito. Based on the appropriate and validated methodology most of the results are convincing, nonetheless, some conclusions are incomplete and require further support.

Reviewed by eLife

Structural features stabilized by divalent cation coordination within hepatitis E virus ORF1 are critical for viral replication

1. Robert LeDesma
2. Brigitte Heller
3. Abhishek Biswas
4. Stephanie Maya
5. Stefania Gili
6. John Higgins
7. Alexander Ploss

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The paper aims to provide structural and functional information on the hepatitis E virus replication complex. The study will be of interest to a broad number of people studying at virus replication, since the replication complex are targets for therapeutic interventions.

Reviewed by eLife