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This study provides structural insights into how the rotavirus spike protein VP4 undergoes a conformational change to initiate host membrane disruption during infection.
In this Review, Fodor and colleagues discuss recent structural insights into the RNA polymerases of negative-sense RNA viruses and their use to identify novel targets for the development of antiviral agents.
This study shows that a large proportion of bacterial species in soil communities possess the enzymes to use inorganic energy sources such as trace gases.
A recent study found that prior infections enhance colonization resistance through a process whereby the host, prompted by transient infection, deploys the sulfonic acid taurine as a nutrient to train the gut microbiota and provide resistance to subsequent infections.
Recent studies have revealed that the evolutionary impact of plasmids goes above and beyond their being mere gene delivery platforms. In this Review, Rodríguez-Beltrán, San Millán and colleagues discuss the advances that underscore the importance of plasmids in bacterial ecology and evolution beyond horizontal gene transfer.
The fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which causes white-nose syndrome in bats, has devastated bat populations in North America since its introduction from Eurasia in the 2000s. In this Review, Hoyt and colleagues describe the ecology of P. destructans in bats and its impacts on bats and the ecosystem.
This study provides evidence that an antisense RNA antitoxin is involved in persister cell formation by inhibiting transcription of a toxin and by inhibiting global translation.
Bacteria have much more diverse and versatile respiratory chains than eukaryotes, enabling adaption to different environmental conditions. In this Review, Kaila and Wikström discuss the architecture, function and bioenergetics of modular bacterial respiratory chains and supercomplexes.
The integrative environment-health sciences including One Health, Conservation Medicine, EcoHealth and Planetary Health embody the transdisciplinary synthesis needed to understand the multitude of factors that underpin emerging infections and their management. Future successes in confronting and resolving the complex causal basis of disease emergence to generate robust, systems-oriented risk reduction strategies that preserve both human health as well as promoting sustainable futures represent the ‘Moon Shot’ for the integrative environment-health sciences.
In this Review, Weaver and colleagues discuss the role of genetic drift following population bottlenecks and founder effects in mosquito-borne arboviral evolution and spread, and the emergence of human disease, focusing on chikungunya virus and Zika virus.
This month’s Genome Watch highlights the genomic traits underlying the ancestral association between endobacteria, which live inside arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which reside within plants.
