Articles in 2015

A new study characterizes three anti-CRISPR proteins to provide the first mechanistic insights into phage evasion of CRISPR–Cas immunity.

Deyet al. show that gut motility is affected by different combinations of microbiota and diet, and that turmeric affects intestinal transit, through a mechanism that involves bile acid secretion and Ret signalling.

Antarctica has an essential role in regulating Earth's climate and ocean ecosystem function, and Antarctica's biosphere is dominated by microorganisms. In this Review, Cavicchioli discusses the factors that shape the biogeography of Antarctic microorganisms and explores how 'omic' studies have begun to elucidate the mechanisms determining the composition and function of microbial communities in Antarctic aquatic systems.

This month's Genome Watch highlights how deep sequencing has provided insights into dengue virus evolution under different selection pressures.

In this Review, Basler and colleagues describe the mechanisms of immune evasion used by filoviruses, with a focus on Ebola virus and Marburg virus, and discuss how these mechanisms are linked to pathogenesis and disease severity.

CRISPR–Cas systems provide bacteria and archaea with adaptive immunity to invading foreign DNA. In an Analysis article, Koonin and colleagues update a previous classification of these systems to incorporate the large volume of genomic data generated in recent years.

In this article, Söll and colleagues review the mechanisms of genetic code flexibility — biased codon usage, codon reassignment, ambiguous decoding and recoding — and discuss how this flexibility affects microbial physiology.

A new study reports that the genetic diversification ofPseudomonas aeruginosawithin the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is driven by regional isolation.

This month's Genome Watch explores apicomplexan adaptation to parasitism.

In this Science and Society article, Carl Nathan reviews historical collaborations between industry and academic instiutions that developed antimicrobials, and discusses similar strategies that have recently emerged to tackle the crisis of antimicrobial resistance.

In this Review, Schwechheimer and Kuehn describe recent developments in elucidating the mechanisms of biogenesis and cargo selection of the outer-membrane vesicles (OMVs) produced by Gram-negative bacteria. They also discuss the functions of OMVs in bacterial physiology and during pathogenesis.