Microbiology

SARS-CoV-2 variant spike and accessory gene mutations alter pathogenesis

1. Marisa E. McGrath
2. Yong Xue
3. Carly Dillen
4. Lauren Oldfield
5. N. Assad-Garcia
6. Jayshree Zaveri
7. Natasha Singh
8. Lauren Baracco
9. Louis J. Taylor
10. Sanjay Vashee
11. Matthew B. Frieman

Reviewed by ScreenIT

The salivary and nasopharyngeal microbiomes are associated with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection and disease severity

1. Josh G. Kim
2. Ai Zhang
3. Adriana M. Rauseo
4. Charles W. Goss
5. Philip A. Mudd
6. Jane A. O'Halloran
7. Leyao Wang

Reviewed by ScreenIT

The SARS-CoV-2 accessory factor ORF7a downregulates MHC class I surface expression

1. Shuxuan Zheng
2. Hendrik de Buhr
3. Patrique Praest
4. Anouk Evers
5. Ingrid Brak-Boer
6. Mariëlle van Grinsven
7. Ylenia Longo
8. Liset de Vries
9. Wilco Nijenhuis
10. Lukas C. Kapitein
11. Jeffrey M. Beekman
12. Monique Nijhuis
13. Ingo Drexler
14. Emmanuel J. H. J. Wiertz
15. Robert Jan Lebbink

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Herd immunity on chip: recapitulating virus transmission in human society

1. Wanyoung Lim
2. Narina Jung
3. Jiande Zhang
4. Zhenzhong Chen
5. Byung Mook Weon
6. Sungsu Park

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Obligate sexual reproduction of a homothallic fungus closely related to the Cryptococcus pathogenic species complex

1. Andrew Ryan Passer
2. Shelly Applen Clancey
3. Terrance Shea
4. Márcia David-Palma
5. Anna Floyd Averette
6. Teun Boekhout
7. Betina M Porcel
8. Minou Nowrousian
9. Christina A Cuomo
10. Sheng Sun
11. Joseph Heitman
12. Marco A Coelho

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  There are various ways in which self-fertility has arisen in the fungal kingdom. This study describes a novel form of self-fertility that evolved in a species closely related to the Cryptococcus species causing serious human lung disease, in which sexual development is achieved by self signaling of a cognate pheromone and pheromone receptor pair. Through a combination of high-quality genomic analysis and experimental gene expression and manipulation work, the study adds to our understanding of the evolution and flexibility of fungal breeding systems. This work will be of interest to colleagues studying fungi as well as mating systems in any eukaryote.

  (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

Spatial modulation of individual behaviors enables an ordered structure of diverse phenotypes during bacterial group migration

1. Yang Bai
2. Caiyun He
3. Pan Chu
4. Junjiajia Long
5. Xuefei Li
6. Xiongfei Fu

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors present a study on the cohesion maintenance of E.coli during collective migration in a self-generated gradient. They performed experiments and complemented the study with a predictive model and simulation to understand how bacteria with different phenotype are able to move as a cohesive group and how the individual bacterium defines its own position within the group. Particularly interesting aspects of the study are the use of titration of behavior with chemoreceptor abundance and the use of potential wells to model the attraction of bacteria to the center of their cohesive group. This approach will be of interest to physicists and biologists interested in collective motility and migration.

  (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

Hydrogen sulfide blocks HIV rebound by maintaining mitochondrial bioenergetics and redox homeostasis

1. Virender Kumar Pal
2. Ragini Agrawal
3. Srabanti Rakshit
4. Pooja Shekar
5. Diwakar Tumkur Narasimha Murthy
6. Annapurna Vyakarnam
7. Amit Singh

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In the present study Pal and colleagues provide evidence that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) inhibits HIV replication and reactivation by a variety of mechanisms including inhibition of NF-kB and and recruitment of the epigenetic silencer, YY1, to the HIV promoter. They further report that H2S helps to maintaining mitochondrial bioenergetics and redox homeostasis and suggest that inclusion of an H2S donor in current ART regimens may help to achieve a functional HIV-1 cure.

  (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

Spike mutation resilient scFv76 antibody counteracts SARS-CoV-2 lung damage upon aerosol delivery

1. Ferdinando M. Milazzo
2. Antonio Chaves-Sanjuan
3. Olga Minenkova
4. Daniela Santapaola
5. Anna M. Anastasi
6. Gianfranco Battistuzzi
7. Caterina Chiapparino
8. Antonio Rosi
9. Emilio Merlo Pich
10. Claudio Albertoni
11. Emanuele Marra
12. Laura Luberto
13. Cécile Viollet
14. Luigi G. Spagnoli
15. Anna Riccio
16. Antonio Rossi
17. M. Gabriella Santoro
18. Federico Ballabio
19. Cristina Paissoni
20. Carlo Camilloni
21. Martino Bolognesi
22. Rita De Santis

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Inhibition of major histocompatibility complex-I antigen presentation by sarbecovirus ORF7a proteins

1. Fengwen Zhang
2. Trinity M. Zang
3. Eva M. Stevenson
4. Xiao Lei
5. Dennis C. Copertino
6. Talia M. Mota
7. Julie Boucau
8. Wilfredo F. Garcia-Beltran
9. R. Brad Jones
10. Paul D. Bieniasz

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Antibody evasion by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5

1. Qian Wang
2. Yicheng Guo
3. Sho Iketani
4. Manoj S. Nair
5. Zhiteng Li
6. Hiroshi Mohri
7. Maple Wang
8. Jian Yu
9. Anthony D. Bowen
10. Jennifer Y. Chang
11. Jayesh G. Shah
12. Nadia Nguyen
13. Zhiwei Chen
14. Kathrine Meyers
15. Michael T. Yin
16. Magdalena E. Sobieszczyk
17. Zizhang Sheng
18. Yaoxing Huang
19. Lihong Liu
20. David D. Ho

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT