Latest Articles
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologySulfur Assimilation Alters Flagellar Function and Modulates the Gene Expression Landscape of Serratia marcescensSerratia marcescens is a versatile bacterial species that inhabits diverse environmental niches and is capable of pathogenic interactions with host organisms ranging from insects to humans. This report demonstrates for the first time the extensive impacts that environmental sulfate availability and cysteine biosynthesis have on the transcriptome of...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyIdentification of Primary Antimicrobial Resistance Drivers in Agricultural Nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica Serovars by Using Machine LearningAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents an existential threat to the function of modern medicine. Genomics and machine learning methods are being increasingly used to analyze and predict AMR. This type of surveillance is very important to try to reduce the impact of AMR. Machine learning models are typically trained using genomic data, but the aspects of the genomes that they use to make predictions are rarely analyzed. In this work,...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceMechanistic Model for the Coexistence of Nitrogen Fixation and Photosynthesis in Marine TrichodesmiumTrichodesmium is a major nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium and exerts a significant influence on the oceanic nitrogen cycle. It is also a widely used model organism in laboratory studies. Since the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase is extremely sensitive to oxygen, how these surface-dwelling plankton manage the two conflicting processes of nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis has been a long-standing question. In this study, we...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceElucidating Syntrophic Butyrate-Degrading Populations in Anaerobic Digesters Using Stable-Isotope-Informed Genome-Resolved MetagenomicsPredicting the metabolic potential and ecophysiology of mixed microbial communities remains a major challenge, especially for slow-growing anaerobes that are difficult to isolate. Unraveling the in situ metabolic activities of uncultured species may enable a more descriptive framework to model substrate transformations by microbiomes, which has broad implications for advancing the fields of biotechnology, global biogeochemistry...
Perspective | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceExperimental Microbiomes: Models Not to ScaleLow-cost, high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing ushered the field of microbial ecology into a new era in which the microbial composition of nearly every conceivable environment on the planet is under examination. However, static “screenshots” derived from sequence-only approaches belie the underlying complexity of the microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions occurring within these systems.
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceGenomic Evidence for Simultaneous Optimization of Transcription and Translation through Codon Variants in the pmoCAB Operon of Type Ia MethanotrophsMicrobial methane oxidation plays a fundamental role in the biogeochemical cycle of Earth’s system. Recent reports have provided evidence for the acquisition of methane monooxygenases by horizontal gene transfer in methane-oxidizing bacteria from different environments, but how evolution has shaped the coding sequences to execute methanotrophy efficiently remains unexplored. In this work, we provide genomic evidence that among the...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyHfq Globally Binds and Destabilizes sRNAs and mRNAs in Yersinia pestisDiscovered in 1968 as an Escherichia coli host factor that was essential for replication of the bacteriophage Qβ, the Hfq protein is a ubiquitous and highly abundant RNA-binding protein in many bacteria. With the assistance of Hfq, small RNAs in bacteria play important roles in regulating the stability and translation of mRNAs by base pairing. In this study, we want...
Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesSpecies Deletions from Microbiome Consortia Reveal Key Metabolic Interactions between Gut MicrobesGut microbes associate, compete for, and specialize in specific metabolic tasks. These interactions are dictated by the cross-feeding of degradation or fermentation products. However, the individual contribution of microbes to the function of the gut microbiome is difficult to evaluate. It is essential to understand the complexity of microbial interactions and how the presence or absence of specific microorganisms affects the stability...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyA Cross-Sectional Study of Compositional and Functional Profiles of Gut Microbiota in Sardinian CentenariansThe gut microbiota has been proposed as a promising determinant for human health. Centenarians as a model for extreme aging may help us understand the correlation of gut microbiota with healthy aging and longevity. Here we confirmed that centenarians had microbiota elements usually associated with benefits to health. Our finding of a high capacity of glycolysis and related SCFA production represented a healthy microbiome and environment...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyBrlA and AbaA Govern Virulence-Required Dimorphic Switch, Conidiation, and Pathogenicity in a Fungal Insect PathogenDimorphic insect mycopathogens infect the host by hyphal penetration through the host cuticle and switch from the penetrating hyphae to unicellular blastospores after entry into the host hemocoel, where blastospore propagation by yeast-like budding accelerates host mummification to death. The fungal virulence-required dimorphic switch is confirmed as a process of asexual development directly regulated by BrlA and AbaA, two key...