Research – Page 9 – Microbial Cell

Research Articles

Broad-spectrum antifungal activities and mechanism of drimane sesquiterpenoids

Edruce Edouarzin¹, Connor Horn², Anuja Paudyal², Cunli Zhang¹, Jianyu Lu¹, Zongbo Tong¹, Guri Giaever³, Corey Nislow³, Raja Veerapandian², Duy H. Hua¹ and Govindsamy Vediyappan²

This study identifies (-)-drimenol as a potent broad-spectrum antifungal agent effective against multiple pathogenic fungi, including drug-resistant strains, and reveals its mechanism of action involves disruption of fungal membranes and targeting Crk1-related pathways, with potential for structural optimization to enhance efficacy.

Stable and destabilized GFP reporters to monitor calcineurin activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Jutta Diessl¹, Arpita Nandy¹, Christina Schug¹, Lukas Habernig¹ and Sabrina Büttner^1,2

This study introduces GFP-based transcriptional reporters driven by a calcineurin-dependent response element, enabling real-time monitoring of calcineurin activity in live yeast cells for studying stress responses, aging, and antifungal drug screening.

The euchromatic histone mark H3K36me3 preserves heterochromatin through sequestration of an acetyltransferase complex in fission yeast

Paula R. Georgescu¹, Matías Capella¹, Sabine Fischer-Burkart¹ and Sigurd Braun¹

This study reveals that the loss of heterochromatin silencing in Set2-deficient cells is due to unrestrained Mst2C activity, highlighting the need for spatially restricted chromatin-modifying enzymes to maintain distinct chromatin states.

Depletion of SNAP-23 and Syntaxin 4 alters lipid droplet homeostasis during Chlamydia infection

Tiago Monteiro-Brás^1,2,3, Jordan Wesolowski¹ and Fabienne Paumet¹

This study reveals that the plasma membrane SNARE proteins SNAP-23 and Syntaxin 4 are crucial for Chlamydia trachomatis development by regulating lipid droplet homeostasis and supporting the formation of infectious progeny within host cells.

Yeast can express and assemble bacterial secretins in the mitochondrial outer membrane

Janani Natarajan¹, Anasuya Moitra¹, Sussanne Zabel^1,§, Nidhi Singh², Samuel Wagner^2,3 and Doron Rapaport¹

Secretins, essential components of bacterial secretion systems, can be expressed in yeast and show differential dependencies on mitochondrial import and assembly factors for membrane integration, suggesting diverse pathways for their assembly into the bacterial outer membrane.

Metabolic reprogramming of Salmonella infected macrophages and its modulation by iron availability and the mTOR pathway

Julia Telser^1,2,#, Chiara Volani^1,3,#, Richard Hilbe^1,2, Markus Seifert^1,2, Natascha Brigo¹, Giuseppe Paglia⁴ and Günter Weiss^1,2

This article shows that iron plays a critical role in both the immune response and metabolic reprogramming of macrophages during infection, influencing the TCA cycle and mTOR pathway, with implications for the growth of intracellular bacteria like Salmonella.

Type II-Metacaspases are involved in cell stress but not in cell death in the unicellular green alga Dunaliella tertiolecta

M. Teresa Mata^1,&, Armando Palma¹, Candela García-Gómez^1,#, María López-Parages¹, Víctor Vázquez¹, Iván Cheng-Sánchez², Francisco Sarabia², Félix López-Figueroa¹, Carlos Jiménez¹ and María Segovia¹

This article shows that in the green alga Dunaliella tertiolecta, Type-II metacaspases are involved in the stress response to ultraviolet radiation but are not linked to cell death, suggesting their role in survival strategies under stressful environmental conditions.

Transcriptomic and chemogenomic analyses unveil the essential role of Com2-regulon in response and tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to stress induced by sulfur dioxide

Patrícia Lage^1,2, Belém Sampaio-Marques^3,4, Paula Ludovico^3,4, Nuno P. Mira⁵ and Ana Mendes-Ferreira^1,2

This article shows that in the presence of sulfur dioxide (SO2), the transcription factor Com2 plays a critical role in the tolerance and response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, affecting the expression of a majority of SO2-activated genes and contributing to the protection against stress induced by SO2 at an enologically relevant pH.

Network dynamics of the yeast methyltransferome

Guri Giaever¹, Elena Lissina¹and Corey Nislow¹

This article presents a systematic genetic analysis of methyltransferases (MTases) under normal and stress conditions, uncovering the complex and adaptive nature of the methyltransferome and discovering a potential connection between phospholipid methylation and histone methylation, suggesting interplay between lipid homeostasis and epigenetic regulation.

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Chromosome-condensed G1 phase yeast cells are tolerant to desiccation stress

November 26, 2021

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss for a long time. However, less is known about the mechanism of its desiccation tolerance. In this study, we revealed that in an exponential culture, all desiccation tolerant yeast cells were in G1 phase and had condensed chromosomes. (...)

Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its first variants in fourplex real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assays

November 25, 2021

The early diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is required to identify and isolate contagious patients to prevent further transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we present a multitarget real-time TaqMan reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) assay for the quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 and some of its circulating variants harboring mutations that give the virus a selective advantage. Seven different primer-probe sets that included probes containing locked nucleic acid (LNA) nucleotides were designed to amplify specific wild-type and mutant sequences in Orf1ab, Envelope (E), Spike (S), and Nucleocapsid (N) genes (...)

Forced association of SARS-CoV-2 proteins with the yeast proteome perturb vesicle trafficking

October 27, 2021

This work demonstrates that the yeast Synthetic Physical Interactions method is a rapid way to identify potential functions of ectopic viral proteins.

Airborne bacteria in show caves from Southern Spain

July 26, 2021

This study analyzes the factors conditioning the diversity of airborne bacteria recorded in three Andalusian show caves, subjected to different managements.

Landscapes and bacterial signatures of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in Chilean and Spanish patients with inflammatory bowel disease

June 18, 2021

This study investigates the landscapes and alterations of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, which cause chronic inflammation of the gut, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Genome, transcriptome and secretome analyses of the antagonistic, yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans to identify potential biocontrol genes

June 8, 2021

This study highlights the value of a sequential approach starting with genome mining and consecutive transcriptome and secretome analyses in order to identify a limited number of potential target genes for detailed, functional analyses in Aureobasidium pullulans.

Barcode sequencing and a high-throughput assay for chronological lifespan uncover ageing-associated genes in fission yeast

May 10, 2021

This work presents two approaches to study chronological lifespan (CLS) for medium- to high-throughput applications, a method for Bar-seq to identify mutants showing altered CLS and a novel medium-throughput colony-forming units assay that can be largely automated by robotics.