Microreviews – Page 8 – Microbial Cell

Microreviews, Review

Forty-five-year evolution of probiotic therapy

Scarlett Puebla-Barragan^1,2 and Gregor Reid^1,2

The field of probiotics has greatly expanded over the past 45 years, driven by the need for safer alternatives to drugs, interest in natural microbial products, and clinical proof of effectiveness, with scientific formulations increasingly defining the market and promising applications for various health areas expected in the future.

Role of pheromone recognition systems in creating new species of fission yeast

Taisuke Seike¹ and Chikashi Shimoda²

This article comments on work published by Seike at al. (PloS Biol., 2019), which demonstrated an “asymmetric” pheromone recognition system in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Adaptive bacterial response to low level chlorhexidine exposure and its implications for hand hygiene

Günter Kampf¹

This article shows that bacteria can adapt to low levels of Chlorhexidine digluconate (CHG), resulting in increased tolerance and cross-resistance to other antimicrobials, suggesting caution in the widespread use of CHG to minimize avoidable selection pressure for resistance.

Microevolution of the pathogenic yeasts Candida albicans and Candida glabrata during antifungal therapy and host infection

Pedro Pais^1,2,#, Mónica Galocha^1,2,#, Romeu Viana^1,2, Mafalda Cavalheiro^1,2, Diana Pereira^1,2, Miguel Cacho Teixeira^1,2

This review explores how Candida albicans and Candida glabrata, common fungal pathogens resistant to antifungal therapy, adapt and evolve within different environments, aiming to identify stable adaptive mechanisms as potential drug targets.

The extracellular matrix of mycobacterial biofilms: could we shorten the treatment of mycobacterial infections?

Poushali Chakraborty¹ and Ashwani Kumar^{1, 2}

The article discusses the challenges presented by biofilms formed by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) species, which can lead to persistent infections that are difficult to treat due to phenotypic drug tolerance. The role of various cell wall components in mycobacterial biofilm formation is outlined, with a particular focus on Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Guidelines for DNA recombination and repair studies: Cellular assays of DNA repair pathways

Hannah L. Klein¹, Giedrė Bačinskaja², Jun Che³, Anais Cheblal⁴, Rajula Elango⁵, Anastasiya Epshtein¹, Devon M. Fitzgerald^6-9, Belén Gómez-González¹⁰, Sharik R. Khan¹¹, Sandeep Kumar⁷, Bryan A. Leland¹², Léa Marie¹³, Qian Mei¹⁴, Judith Miné-Hattab^16,17, Alicja Piotrowska¹⁸, Erica J. Polleys¹⁹, Christopher D. Putnam^20,21, Elina A. Radchenko¹⁹, Anissia Ait Saada^22,23, Cynthia J. Sakofsky²⁴, Eun Yong Shim³, Mathew Stracy²⁵, Jun Xia^6-9, Zhenxin Yan⁷, Yi Yin²⁶, Andrés Aguilera¹⁰, Juan Lucas Argueso²⁷, Catherine H. Freudenreich^19,28, Susan M. Gasser⁴, Dmitry A. Gordenin²⁴, James E. Haber²⁹, Grzegorz Ira⁷, Sue Jinks-Robertson³⁰, Megan C. King¹², Richard D. Kolodner^{20, 31-33}, Andrei Kuzminov¹¹, Sarah AE Lambert^22,23, Sang Eun Lee³, Kyle M. Miller^6,15, Sergei M. Mirkin¹⁹, Thomas D. Petes²⁶, Susan M. Rosenberg^6-9,14, Rodney Rothstein³⁴, Lorraine S. Symington¹³, Pawel Zawadzki¹⁸, Nayun Kim³⁵, Michael Lisby² and Anna Malkova⁵

DNA recombination, repair and mutagenesis assays are powerful tools but each comes with its particular advantages and limitations. Here the most commonly used assays are reviewed, discussed, and presented as the guidelines for future studies.

Guidelines for DNA recombination and repair studies: Mechanistic assays of DNA repair processes

Hannah L Klein¹, Kenny K.H. Ang², Michelle R. Arkin², Emily C. Beckwitt^3,4, Yi-Hsuan Chang⁵, Jun Fan⁶, Youngho Kwon^7,8, Michael J. Morten¹, Sucheta Mukherjee⁹, Oliver J. Pambos⁶, Hafez el Sayyed⁶, Elizabeth S. Thrall¹⁰, João P. Vieira-da-Rocha⁹, Quan Wang¹¹, Shuang Wang^12,13, Hsin-Yi Yeh⁵, Julie S. Biteen¹⁴, Peter Chi^5,15, Wolf-Dietrich Heyer^9,16, Achillefs N. Kapanidis⁶, Joseph J. Loparo¹⁰, Terence R. Strick^12,13,17, Patrick Sung^7,8, Bennett Van Houten^3,18,19, Hengyao Niu¹¹ and Eli Rothenberg¹

Mechanistic assays of DNA repair processes are a powerful tools but each comes with its particular advantages and limitations. Here the most commonly used assays are reviewed, discussed, and presented as the guidelines for future studies.

Imbalance in gut microbes from babies born to obese mothers increases gut permeability and myeloid cell adaptations that provoke obesity and NAFLD

Taylor K. Soderborg¹ and Jacob E. Friedman^1,2,3

This article comments on work published by Soderborg et al. (Nat Commun, 2018), which demonstrates a causative role of early life microbiome dysbiosis in infants born to mothers with obesity in novel pathways that promote developmental programming of NAFLD.

Retroviral integration site selection: a running Gag?

Paul Lesbats^1,2,3 and Vincent Parissi^1,2,3

In this article, the authors comment on the study "Structural basis for spumavirus GAG tethering to chromatin" by Lesbats et al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci, 2018) that revealed that the Gag protein of the spumaretrovirus prototype foamy virus (PFV) directly interacts with the nucleosome acidic patch, acting as a chromatin tether, and its disruption leads to delocalization of viral particles and integration sites, shedding light on the importance of retroviral structural proteins in the selection of integration sites.

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Toxin-mediated gene regulatory mechanism in Staphylococcus aureus

December 29, 2016

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.

NprR, a moonlighting quorum sensor shifting from a phosphatase activity to a transcriptional activator

November 5, 2016

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.

The interaction between herpes simplex virus 1 genome and promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) as a hallmark of the entry in latency

November 4, 2016

This article comments on work published by Maroul et al. (PLoS Pathog, 2016), which demonstrates that the interaction of the viral genomes with the nuclear architecture and specifically the promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies is a major determinant for the entry of HSV-1 into latency.

Francisella IglG protein and the DUF4280 proteins: PAAR-like proteins in non-canonical Type VI secretion systems?

October 30, 2016

This article comments on work published by Rigard et al. (PLoS Pathog, 2013), which identified the function of IgIG, a protein of unknown function, encoded within the Francisella Pathogenicity Island.

B cell-helping functions of gut microbial metabolites

September 23, 2016

This article comments on work published by Kim et al. (Cell Host & Microbe, 2016), which showed that the microbial metabolites short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) regulate the metabolism and gene expression in B cells to promote antibody production.

Cryptococcus flips its lid – membrane phospholipid asymmetry modulates antifungal drug resistance and virulence

August 1, 2016

This article comments on work published by Huang et al. (MBio, 2016), which reported that in the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans loss of lipid flippase activity sensitized cryptococcal cells to multiple classes of antifungal drugs and abolished fungal virulence in murine models.