The life cycle of HIV-1 requires integration of a DNA copy into the genome of the host cell. Transcription of the viral genes generates RNAs that are exported to the cytoplasm with the contribution of viral and cellular factors to get translated or incorporated in the newly synthesized virions. It has been observed that highly effective antiretroviral therapy, which is able to reduce circulating virus to undetectable levels, cannot...

For the ubiquitous environmental pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, the morphological transition from yeast to filament confers resistance to natural predators like soil amoeba and is an integral differentiation event to produce infectious spores. Interestingly, filamentation is immuno-stimulatory and attenuates cryptococcal virulence in a mammalian host. Consistently...

Sap-feeding insects critically rely on one or more bacteria or fungi to provide essential nutrients that are not available at sufficient levels in their diets. These microbes are passed between insect generations when the mother places a small packet of microbes into each of her eggs before it is laid. We have previously described an unusual lineage fragmentation process in a nutritional endosymbiotic bacterium of cicadas called ...

We introduce two concepts to quantify the novelty of a microbiome. The first, the microbiome novelty score (MNS), allows identification of microbiomes that are especially different from what is already sequenced. The second, the microbiome attention score (MAS), allows identification of microbiomes that have many close neighbors, implying that considerable scientific attention is devoted to their study. By computing a microbiome focus...

Unique and essential aspects of parasite metabolism are excellent targets for development of new antimalarials. An improved understanding of parasite metabolism and drug resistance mechanisms is urgently needed. The antibiotic fosmidomycin targets the synthesis of essential isoprenoid compounds from glucose and is a candidate for antimalarial development. Our report identifies a novel mechanism of drug resistance and further describes a...

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a significant global health threat, as infection has been linked to serious neurological complications, including microcephaly. Using a human stem cell-derived neural progenitor model system, we find that a critical cellular quality control process called the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway is disrupted during ZIKV infection. Importantly, disruption of the NMD pathway is a known cause of microcephaly and...