Articles in 2017

Staphylococcus aureusis a facultative pathogen that colonizes the human nares. In this Review, Peschel and colleagues discuss the mechanisms that are used byS. aureusto prevail in the human nose and the counter-strategies that are used by other commensals to interfere with its colonization.

Antimicrobial resistance constitutes a global health burden and research efforts are aimed at combatting the emergence of resistant microorganisms. In this Viewpoint article, several experts in the field discuss the role that rapid diagnostic tests have in managing the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, the drawbacks of current diagnostic methods, novel diagnostic strategies, and how such rapid diagnostic tools can inform drug development and the surveillance of resistance evolution.

This study reveals a two-component response regulator system in enterotoxigenicBacteroides fragilis strains that regulates the expression of the colitis-inducing B. fragilistoxin.

This month's Genome Watch examines how coupling deep sequencing of the gut microbiome with metabolic profiles can advance the development of microbiota-focused personalized precision nutrition.

The ability ofCandida albicans to form biofilms is a major cause of disseminated bloodstream infections. Here, Nobile and colleagues review our current understanding of the processes involved in the formation of C. albicans biofilms, the core transcriptional network that regulates biofilm development, and polymicrobial biofilms that are formed by C. albicansand certain bacterial species.

In this Review, Stoodley and colleagues discuss current therapeutic strategies and those under development for the treatment of pathogenic biofilms. They explore novel technologies that promise to enhance the efficacy of current therapeutics or provide novel effects and argue that treating biofilm infections requires combination therapies.

A recent study by Silvesteret al. found that a conserved quorum sensing signalling pathway regulates interspecies crosstalk in trypanosome co-infections and provided novel insights into trypanosome virulence and transmission.

Aspergillus fumigatusis an environmental fungus that can cause life-threatening disease. In this Review, van de Veerdonk and colleagues describe howA. fumigatusadapts to environmental change, mechanisms of host defence and our current knowledge of the interplay between the host immune response and the fungus.

A recent study identified a host-derived ammonium transporter in the genome of an algal virus that increases the rate of nitrogen uptake by infected cells and changes how the host accesses diverse nitrogen sources during infection.

This study reports thatLegionella pneumophilaregulates mitochondrial dynamics to subvert mitochondrial bioenergetics of infected cells in a process that involves a bacterial T4SS effector and a host fission protein.

A recent study describes a new molecular mechanism used by the gut microbiota to maintain a state of homeostasis in the intestinal lumen, and highlights the importance of PPARγ signalling in this complex regulation.

Apicomplexa include important human pathogens and possess a unique cellular machinery that promotes gliding motility and is called the glideosome. In this Review, Soldati-Favre and colleagues discuss the principles that govern gliding motility, the characterization of the molecular machinery that comprises the glideosome, and its impact on parasite invasion and egress from infected cells.

A recent study investigated how the history of adaptation to a single antibiotic influences the trajectory of evolutionary dynamics during subsequent treatments with different antibiotics.

This month's Genome Watch discusses the release of 1,003 bacterial and archaeal genomes, and describes how they could increase our understanding of the diversity of microbial biological functions and contribute to improved metagenomic analyses.