Latest Articles
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyVaginal Biomarkers That Predict Cervical Length and Dominant Bacteria in the Vaginal Microbiomes of Pregnant WomenPremature birth and its complications are the largest contributors to infant death in the United States and globally. A short cervical length and the depletion of Lactobacillus species are known risk factors for preterm birth. However, in many resource-poor areas of the world, the technology to test for their occurrence is unavailable, and pregnant women with these risk factors are neither identified nor treated. In this study...
Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionOseltamivir Is Effective against 1918 Influenza Virus Infection of Macaques but Vulnerable to EscapeOseltamivir phosphate is used as a first line of defense in the event of an influenza pandemic prior to vaccine administration. Treatment failure through selection and replication of drug-resistant viruses is a known complication in the field and was also demonstrated in our study with spread of resistant 1918 influenza virus in multiple respiratory tissues. This emphasizes the importance of early treatment and the possibility that...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologySequential Translocation of Polypeptides across the Bacterial Outer Membrane through the Trimeric Autotransporter PathwayTrimeric autotransporter adhesins (TAAs) are specialized bacterial outer membrane proteins consisting of three identical subunits. TAAs contain large extracellular domains that trimerize and promote virulence, but the mechanism by which they are secreted is poorly understood. We found that the extracellular domains of a native TAA were secreted rapidly but that disordered and artificially folded polypeptides fused to native passenger...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyClustering as a Means To Control Nitrate Respiration Efficiency and Toxicity in Escherichia coliMost bacteria rely on the redox activity of respiratory complexes embedded in the cytoplasmic membrane to gain energy in the form of ATP and of an electrochemical gradient established across the membrane. Nevertheless, production of harmful and toxic nitric oxide by actively growing bacteria as either an intermediate or side-product of nitrate respiration challenges how homeostasis control is exerted. Here, we show that components of...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceThe Ancestral N-Terminal Domain of Big Defensins Drives Bacterially Triggered Assembly into Antimicrobial Nanonetsβ-Defensins are host defense peptides controlling infections in species ranging from humans to invertebrates. However, the antimicrobial activity of most human β-defensins is impaired at physiological salt concentrations. We explored the properties of big defensins, the β-defensin ancestors, which have been conserved in a number of marine organisms, mainly mollusks. By focusing on a big defensin from oyster (Cg-BigDef1), we...
Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionFcγ Receptors Contribute to the Antiviral Properties of Influenza Virus Neuraminidase-Specific AntibodiesThere is a pressing need for next-generation influenza vaccine strategies that are better able to manage antigenic drift and the cocirculation of multiple drift variants and that consistently improve vaccine effectiveness. Influenza virus NA is a key target antigen as a component of a next-generation vaccine in the influenza field, with evidence for a role in protective immunity in humans. However, mechanisms of protection provided by...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyStaphylococcus aureus Infects Osteoclasts and Replicates IntracellularlyThe inflammation of bone tissue is called osteomyelitis, and most cases are caused by an infection with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. To date, the bone-building cells, osteoblasts, have been implicated in the progression of these infections, but not much is known about how the bone-resorbing cells, osteoclasts, participate. In this study, we show that...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceRapid Phenotypic and Metabolomic Domestication of Wild Penicillium Molds on CheeseIndustrial cultures of filamentous fungi are used to add unique aesthetics and flavors to cheeses and other microbial foods. How these microbes adapted to live in food environments is generally unknown as most microbial domestication is unintentional. Our work demonstrates that wild molds closely related to the starter culture Penicillium camemberti can readily lose...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologySystem-Wide Characterization of MoArf GTPase Family Proteins and Adaptor Protein MoGga1 Involved in the Development and Pathogenicity of Magnaporthe oryzaeMagnaporthe oryzae is the causal agent of rice blast, representing the most devastating diseases of rice worldwide, which results in losses of amounts of rice that could feed more than 60 million people each year. Arf (ADP ribosylation factor) small GTPase family proteins are involved in vesicle trafficking and organelle maintenance in eukaryotic cells. To investigate...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyCombination of Proteogenomics with Peptide De Novo Sequencing Identifies New Genes and Hidden Posttranscriptional ModificationsNext-generation sequencing techniques have considerably increased the number of completely sequenced eukaryotic genomes. These genomes are mostly automatically annotated, and ab initio gene prediction is commonly combined with homology-based search approaches and often supported by transcriptomic data. The latter in particular improve the prediction of intron splice sites and untranslated regions. However, correct prediction of...