Regulation of extracellular vesicles for protein secretion in Aspergillus nidulans
This study reveals that Aspergillus nidulans boosts extracellular vesicle production when ER-trafficked enzymes are induced, uncovering how fungi remodel their secretome through vesicle-mediated secretion to adapt to changing environments and biofilm formation.
Transcriptomic response to different heme sources in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes
This study uncovers how the Chagas disease parasite adapts to changes in heme, an essential molecule for its survival, providing transcriptional clues to heme metabolism and identifying a previously unreported heme-binding protein in T. cruzi.
Luminal acetylation of microtubules is not essential for Plasmodium berghei and Toxoplasma gondii survival
Acetylation of α-tubulin at lysine 40 is not essential for cytoskeletal stability in Plasmodium berghei or Toxoplasma gondii, suggesting redundancy and plasticity in microtubule regulation in these parasites.
The dual-site agonist for human M2 muscarinic receptors Iper-8-naphtalimide induces mitochondrial dysfunction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
S. cerevisiae is a model to study human GPCRs. N-8-Iper, active against glioblastoma via M2 receptor, causes mitochondrial damage in yeast by binding Ste2, highlighting evolutionary conservation of GPCRs.
Integrative Omics reveals changes in the cellular landscape of peroxisome-deficient pex3 yeast cells
To uncover the consequences of peroxisome deficiency, we compared Saccharomyces cerevisiae wild-type with pex3 cells, which lack peroxisomes, employing quantitative proteomics and transcriptomics technologies.
Regulation of extracellular vesicles for protein secretion in Aspergillus nidulans
Rebekkah E. Pope1, Patrick Ballmann2, Lisa Whitworth3 and Rolf A. Prade1,*
This study reveals that Aspergillus nidulans boosts extracellular vesicle production when ER-trafficked enzymes are induced, uncovering how fungi remodel their secretome through vesicle-mediated secretion to adapt to changing environments and biofilm formation.
Transcriptomic response to different heme sources in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes
Evelyn Tevere1,a, María G. Mediavilla1,a, Cecilia B. Di Capua1, Marcelo L. Merli1, Carlos Robello2,3, Luisa Berná2,4 and Julia A. Cricco
This study uncovers how the Chagas disease parasite adapts to changes in heme, an essential molecule for its survival, providing transcriptional clues to heme metabolism and identifying a previously unreported heme-binding protein in T. cruzi.
Sir2 regulates selective autophagy in stationary-phase yeast cells
Ji-In Ryua, Juhye Junga, and Jeong-Yoon Kim
This study establishes Sir2 as a previously unrecognized regulator of selective autophagy during the stationary phase and highlight how cells dynamically control organelle degradation.
Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins are related to lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase enzymes
Matthew J Hayes1, Vineet Choudhary2, Namrata Ojha2, John JH Shin3, Gil-Soo Han4, George M. Carman4, Christopher JR Loewen3, William A Prinz2 and Timothy P Levine1
Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins have been implicated in the partitioning of triacylglycerol to lipid droplets and the budding of lipid droplets from the ER. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two FITM homologues and the presented results suggest that Scs3p and Yft2p as well as FITMs in general are lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase (LPT) enzymes involved in an as yet unknown critical step in phospholipid metabolism.
Yeast quiescence exit swiftness is influenced by cell volume and chronological age
Damien Laporte1, Laure Jimenez1, Laëtitia Gouleme1, Isabelle Sagot1
Quiescence exit swiftness is crucial not only for micro-organisms in competition for an environmental niche, such as yeast, but also for the maintenance of tissue homeostasis in multicellular species. Here, Laporte et al. explore the effect of replicative and chronological age on Saccharomyces cerevisiae quiescence exit efficiency. Overall, their data illustrate that the quiescent state is a continuum evolving with time, early and deep quiescence being distinguishable by the cell’s proficiency to re-enter the proliferation cycle.
A versatile plasmid system for reconstitution and analysis of mammalian ubiquitination cascades in yeast
Rossella Avagliano Trezza1,#, Janny van den Burg1, Nico van den Oever1 and Ben Distel1,2
In this article Avagliano Trezza et al. describe a versatile vector system that allows the reconstitution of specific ubiquitination cascades in the model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisae (baker’s yeast) that provides a versatile tool to study complex post-translational modifications in a cellular setting.
Alcohols enhance the rate of acetic acid diffusion in S. cerevisiae : biophysical mechanisms and implications for acetic acid tolerance
Lina Lindahl1, Samuel Genheden2, Fábio Faria-Oliveira1, Stefan Allard3, Leif A. Eriksson2, Lisbeth Olsson1, Maurizio Bettiga1,4
Microbial cell factories with the ability to maintain high productivity in the presence of weak organic acids, such as acetic acid, are required in many industrial processes. This study demonstrates that the rate of acetic acid diffusion can be strongly affected by compounds that partition into the cell membrane, and highlights the need for considering interaction effects between compounds in the design of microbial processes.
A genome-wide screen for FTY720-sensitive mutants reveals genes required for ROS homeostasis
Kanako Hagihara1, Kanako Kinoshita1, Kouki Ishida1, Shihomi Hojo1, Yoshinori Kameoka1, Ryosuke Satoh1, Teruaki Takasaki1 and Reiko Sugiura1
Fingolimod hydrochloride (FTY720) is an immune modulator for multiple sclerosis that also induces cancer cell apoptosis through reactive oxygen species generation, with a new study using fission yeast uncovering a gene network related to ROS homeostasis as a possible mechanism of FTY720’s toxicity.
The cytosolic glyoxalases of Plasmodium falciparum are dispensable during asexual blood-stage development
Cletus A. Wezena1, Romy Alisch1, Alexandra Golzmann2, Linda Liedgens1, Verena Staudacher1,3, Gabriele Pradel2 and Marcel Deponte1,3
In this study the authors demonstrate that, PfGlo1 and PfcGlo2 are dispensable during asexual blood-stage development while the loss of PfcGlo2 may induce the formation of transmissible gametocytes. These combined data show that PfGlo1 and PfcGlo2 are most likely not suited as targets for selective drug development against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Aminoglycoside resistance profile and structural architecture of the aminoglycoside acetyltransferase AAC(6’)-Im
Clyde A. Smith1, Monolekha Bhattacharya2, Marta Toth2, Nichole K. Stewart2 and Sergei B. Vakulenko2
AAC(6′)-Im, a monofunctional acetyltransferase, imparts increased resistance to certain aminoglycosides compared to its bifunctional homolog AAC(6′)-Ie, with structural studies revealing differences in substrate binding that explain the discrepancies in their enzymatic activity and resistance profiles.
New insights into the function of a versatile class of membrane molecular motors from studies of Myxococcus xanthus surface (gliding) motility
Tâm Mignot1 and Marcelo Nöllmann2
This article comments on work published by Faure et al. (Nature, 2016), which deciphers force transmission at focal adhesion complexes that are involved in gliding motility in bacteria.
Advancing host-directed therapy for tuberculosis: new therapeutic insights from the Toxoplasma gondii
Chul-Su Yang
This article comments on work published by Koh et al. (PLoS Pathog, 2017), which uncovered that infection-induced signaling pathways suggest possibilities for the development of novel therapeutic modalities for TB that target the intracellular signaling pathways permitting the replication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB).
Breaking the bilayer: OMV formation during environmental transitions
Katherine E. Bonnington, Meta J. Kuehn
This article comments on work published by Bonnington & Kuehn (MBio, 2016), which shows how gram-negative bacteria maintain the barrier properties of the outer membrane (OM) in a wide array of physiological conditions despite their inability to degrade lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and protein material present in the outer leaflet of the OM.
The tug-of-war over MTOR in Legionella infections
Stanimir S. Ivanov
This article comments on work published by Abshire et al (PLoS Pathog, 2016), which uncovered that the host metabolic checkpoint kinase Mechanistic target of rapamycin (MTOR) is a central regulator of the pathogen niche expansion program.
A new role for Holliday junction resolvase Yen1 in processing DNA replication intermediates exposes Dna2 as an accessory replicative helicase
Benoît Falquet1,2 and Ulrich Rass
This article comments on work published by Ölmezer et al. (Nat Commun, 2016), which revealed a new function of Yen1, distinct from its previously known role as a Holliday junction resolvase, mediating the removal of branched HR intermediates.
Toxin-mediated gene regulatory mechanism in Staphylococcus aureus
Hwang-Soo Joo and Michael Otto
This article comments on work published by Joo et al. (MBio, 2016), which describes the first molecular regulatory mechanism exerted by an S. aureus toxin, setting a paradigmatic example of how S. aureus toxins may influence cell functions to adjust them to times of toxin production.
Autophagy: machinery and regulation
Zhangyuan Yin, Clarence Pascual and Daniel J. Klionsky
Macroautophagy/autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cellular degradation process that targets cytoplasmic materials including cytosol, macromolecules and unwanted organelles. The discovery and analysis of autophagy-related (Atg) proteins have unveiled much of the machinery of autophagosome formation. In this review, we briefly summarize the physiological roles, molecular mechanism, regulatory network, and pathophysiological roles of autophagy.
NprR, a moonlighting quorum sensor shifting from a phosphatase activity to a transcriptional activator
Stéphane Perchat1, Antoine Talagas2, Samira Zouhir2, Sandrine Poncet1, Laurent Bouillaut1,¶, Sylvie Nessler2 and Didier Lereclus1
This article comments on work published by Perchat et al. (PLoS Pathog, 2016), which demonstrates that, in the absence of the signaling peptide NprX, the sensor NprR is a dimer, which negatively controls sporulation in Bacillus thuringiensis, independently of its transcription factor activity.
Threading Granules in Freiburg: 2nd International Symposium on “One Mitochondrion, Many Diseases – Biological and Molecular Perspectives”, a FRIAS Junior Researcher Conference, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, March 9th/10th, 2016
Ralf J. Braun1, Ralf M. Zerbes2, Florian Steinberg3, Denis Gris4, and Verónica I. Dumit5
INTRODUCTION Mitochondria (greek: μίτος & χονδρίον, mitos & chondrion, i.e., thread & granule) are the power houses of eukaryotic cells, and are pivotally involved in essential metabolic processes, including iron/sulfur cluster and heme biosynthesis. Mitochondria
Means of intracellular communication: touching, kissing, fusing
Anne Spang1
This work highlights different aspects of communication between organelles, including the importance of organellar contact sites.
Neuropathogenesis caused by Trypanosoma brucei, still an enigma to be unveiled
Katherine Figarella1
This Editorial addresses the meningo-encephalitic stage of Trypanosoma brucei infection and the resultig neuropathogenesis as well as the impact that the application of tools developed in the last years in the field of neuroscience will have on the study of neglected tropical diseases.
Lichens – growing greenhouses en miniature
Martin Grube1
This commentary article provides an overview on different aspects of lichen biology and the remarkable symbiotic association between fungi and algae.
Regulation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and its effects on aging
Damiano Pellegrino-Coppola1
Aging is linked to mitochondrial function, with the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) playing a key role. Yeast is a useful model for studying how mPTP affects cell survival, aging, and related diseases.
Fungal infections in humans: the silent crisis
Katharina Kainz1, Maria A. Bauer1, Frank Madeo1-3 and Didac Carmona-Gutierrez1
This article highlights the growing global threat of fungal infections – exacerbated by rising drug resistance and medical practices – and emphasizes the urgent need for intensified research to develop more effective antifungal strategies.
Digesting the crisis: autophagy and coronaviruses
Didac Carmona-Gutierrez1, Maria A. Bauer1, Andreas Zimmermann1,2, Katharina Kainz1,
Sebastian J. Hofer1, Guido Kroemer3-7 and Frank Madeo1,2,8
This article reviews the multifaceted role of autophagy in antiviral defense and highlights how coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, interact with this pathway, raising the possibility that targeting autophagy could offer novel therapeutic strategies against COVID-19.
Microbial Cell
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Peer-reviewed, open-access research using unicellular organisms (and multicellular microorganisms) to understand cellular responses and human disease.
The journal (founded in 2014) is led by its Editors-in-Chief Frank Madeo, Didac Carmona-Gutierrez, and Guido Kroemer
Microbial Cell has been publishing original scientific literature since 2014, and from the very beginning has been managed by active scientists through an independent Publishing House (Shared science Publishers). The journal was conceived as a platform to acknowledge the importance of unicellular organisms, both as model systems as well as in the biological context of human health and disease.
Ever since, Microbial Cell has very positively developed and strongly grown into a respected journal in the unicellular research community and even beyond. This scientific impact is reflected in the yearly number of citations obtained by articles published in Microbial Cell, as recorded by the Web of Science (Clarivate, formerly Thomson/Reuters):
The scientific impact of Microbial Cell is also mirrored in a series of milestones:
2015: Microbial Cell is included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), a selection of developing journals drafted by Clarivate Analytics based on the candidate’s publishing standards, quality, editorial content, and citation data. Note: As an ESCI-selected journal, Microbial Cell is currently being evaluated in a rigorous and long process to determine an inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), which allows the official calculation of Clarivate Analytics’ impact factor.
2016: Microbial Cell is awarded the so-called DOAJ Seal by the selective Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ Seal is an exclusive mark of certification for open access journals granted by DOAJ to journals that adhere to outstanding best practice and achieve an extra high and clear commitment to open access and high publishing standards.
2017: Microbial Cell is included in Pubmed Central (PMC), allowing the archiving of all the journal’s articles in PMC and PubMed.
2019: Microbial Cell is indexed in the prestigious abstract and citation database Scopus after a thorough selection process. This also means that Microbial Cell obtains, for the first time, an official Scopus CiteScore as well as an official journal ranking in the Scimago Journal and Country Ranking.
2022: Microbial Cell’s CiteScore reaches a value of 7.2 for the year 2021, positioning Microbial Cell among the top microbiology journals (previously available CiteScores: 2019: 5.4; 2020: 5.1).
2022: Microbial Cell is indexed in the highly selective Science Citation Index Expanded™, which covers approx. 9,500 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. In their journal selection and curation process, Clarivate´s editors apply 24 ‘quality’ criteria and four ‘impact’ criteria to select the most influential journals in their respective fields. This selection is also a pre-requisite for inclusion in the JCR, which features the impact factor.
2022: Microbial Cell is listed in the Journal Citation Reports™ (JCR), and obtains its first official Journal Impact Factor™ (JIF) for the year 2021: 5.316.Check Article Types and Manuscript Preparation guidelines. Submit online via Scholastica.
The long and winding road of reverse genetics in Trypanosoma cruzi
Miguel A. Chiurillo1 and Noelia Lander1
This Editorial provides a brief historic overview that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the molecular strategies that have been developed to genetically modify Trypanosoma cruzi, emphasizing the future directions of the field.