Microbiology

Critical roles for ‘housekeeping’ nucleases in type III CRISPR-Cas immunity

1. Lucy Chou-Zheng
2. Asma Hatoum-Aslan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  CRISPR-Cas systems are essential components of an adaptive immune system that protects bacteria and archaea from infection by foreign genetic elements like phages and plasmids. The work presented here demonstrates that some CRISPR systems (i.e., type III-A) rely on host nucleases (i.e., RNase R and PNPase) for faithful processing of CRISPR RNAs. Collectively, this work expands the fundamental understanding of how nucleases involved in RNA metabolism contribute to the adaptive immune response in bacteria.

Reviewed by eLife

Magnesium Modulates Bacillus subtilis Cell Division Frequency

1. Tingfeng Guo
2. Jennifer K. Herman

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Phage resistance profiling identifies new genes required for biogenesis and modification of the corynebacterial cell envelope

1. Amelia C McKitterick
2. Thomas G Bernhardt

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment:

  The authors perform a Transposon-Sequencing screen to determine bacterial factors (including receptors) important for infection by two phages in the model bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum. Using their established high-density transposon library, they identify genes required for infection with the phages Cog and CL31. They also identified a spontaneous phage-resistant mutant that led to the discovery of a gene involved in mycolic acid synthesis. Overall, the work is of broad interest to scientists in the field of cell wall biogenesis, phage infection, and bacterial cell biology.

  (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. Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Evidence linking APOBEC3B genesis and evolution of innate immune antagonism by gamma-herpesvirus ribonucleotide reductases

1. Sofia N Moraes
2. Jordan T Becker
3. Seyed Arad Moghadasi
4. Nadine M Shaban
5. Ashley A Auerbach
6. Adam Z Cheng
7. Reuben S Harris

Reviewed by Review Commons

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis PE15/PPE20 complex transports calcium across the outer membrane

1. Vishant Boradia
2. Andrew Frando
3. Christoph Grundner

Reviewed by Review Commons

Antiviral function and viral antagonism of the rapidly evolving dynein activating adaptor NINL

1. Donté Alexander Stevens
2. Christopher Beierschmitt
3. Swetha Mahesula
4. Miles R Corley
5. John Salogiannis
6. Brian V Tsu
7. Bryant Cao
8. Andrew P Ryan
9. Hiroyuki Hakozawki
10. Samara L Reck-Peterson
11. Matthew D Daugherty

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This is an interesting discovery of a role for NINL in antiviral defense through modulation of interferon signaling. They found that there is diversifying selection of this factor as well as viral antagonism. This discovery paves the way to a better understanding of how viruses and hosts co-evolve.

  (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. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

eDNA-stimulated cell dispersion from Caulobacter crescentus biofilms upon oxygen limitation is dependent on a toxin–antitoxin system

1. Cecile Berne
2. Sébastien Zappa
3. Yves V Brun

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study will be of interest to a broad audience of microbiologists by providing one of the few examples of a clear phenotype for a toxin-antitoxin system. The conclusion that an oxygen-regulated toxin-antitoxin system is required for an important step in biofilm development in the model organism Caulobacter crescentus is well supported by the data and experiments are well designed and controlled. Some possible limitations in interpretations from incompletely controlled phenotype reporters should be resolved by simple experiments.

  (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

Unraveling the kinetochore nanostructure in Schizosaccharomyces pombe using multi-color SMLM imaging

1. David Virant
2. Ilijana Vojnovic
3. Jannik Winkelmeier
4. Marc Endesfelder
5. Bartosz Turkowyd
6. David Lando
7. Ulrike Endesfelder

Reviewed by Review Commons

Cyclic AMP is a critical mediator of intrinsic drug resistance and fatty acid metabolism in M. tuberculosis

1. Andrew I Wong
2. Tiago Beites
3. Kyle A Planck
4. Rachael A Fieweger
5. Kathryn A Eckartt
6. Shuqi Li
7. Nicholas C Poulton
8. Brian C VanderVen
9. Kyu Y Rhee
10. Dirk Schnappinger
11. Sabine Ehrt
12. Jeremy Rock

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Bacteria living in stressful and fluctuating environments need to respond to changing conditions. Many species, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, use cAMP as a secondary messenger to sense and respond to specific stimuli. What distinguishes M. tuberculosis, is that its genome encodes for at least 15 adenylate cyclases, enzymes that synthesize cAMP from ATP. The authors characterized one specific adenylate cyclase, Rv3645, and demonstrate that it is the most significant contributor to cAMP levels and mediates fatty acid metabolism and antibiotic resistance. This manuscript will be of broad interest to readers in the field of tuberculosis drug discovery and bacterial metabolism.

  (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. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Toxoplasma gondii virulence factor ROP1 reduces parasite susceptibility to murine and human innate immune restriction

1. Simon Butterworth
2. Francesca Torelli
3. Eloise J. Lockyer
4. Jeanette Wagener
5. Ok-Ryul Song
6. Malgorzata Broncel
7. Matt R. G. Russell
8. Aline Cristina A. Moreira-Souza
9. Joanna C. Young
10. Moritz Treeck

Reviewed by Review Commons