Microreviews, Review
Proline cis-trans isomerization is influenced by local lysine acetylation-deacetylation
Françoise S. Howe and Jane Mellor
This article comments on work published by Howe et al. (Mol Cell, 2014), which shows that local lysine acetylation and deacetylation modulate proline cis-trans isomerization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
On the link between cell cycle and infection of the Alphaproteobacterium Brucella abortus
Michaël Deghelt, Jean-Jacques Letesson, Xavier De Bolle
This article comments on work published by Deghelt et al. (Nat Comm, 2014), which describe a cell cycle arrest and resume during the Brucella abortus trafficking in host cell, suggesting that like the model Alphaproteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus, these bacteria are able to block their cell cycle at the G1 phase when starvation is sensed.
Divide and conquer: processive transport enables multidrug transporters to tackle challenging drugs
Nir Fluman and Eitan Bibi
This article comments on work published by Fluman et al. (Nat Comm, 2014), which describes the ability of bacterial multidrug transporters to move long molecules through the membrane in a processive manner.
The dual role of cyclin C connects stress regulated gene expression to mitochondrial dynamics
Randy Strich and Katrina F. Cooper
This work summarizes the role cyclin C plays in regulating stress-responsive transcription in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including mitochondrial fission and regulated cell death.
Combinatorial stress responses: direct coupling of two major stress responses in Escherichia coli
Daniel R. Brown, Geraint Barton, Zhensheng Pan, Martin Buck and Sivaramesh Wigneshweraraj
This article comments on work published by Brown et al. (Nat Comm, 2014), which showed that the transcription of relA is activated by NtrC during nitrogen starvation, revealing that in E. coli and related bacteria, NtrC functions in combinatorial stress and serves to couple two major stress responses, the Ntr response and stringent response.
The replication timing program in the hands of two HDACs
Kazumasa Yoshida1,2, Armelle Lengronne1 and Philippe Pasero1
This article comments on work published by Yoshida et al. (Mol Cell, 2014), which performed a systematic analysis of the role of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in the regulation of origin activity in budding yeast, finding that the epigenetic regulation of repetitive sequences is a key determinant of the DNA replication program.
Increased Trypanosoma brucei cathepsin-L activity inhibits human serum-mediated trypanolysis
Sam Alsford
This article comments on work published by Alsford et al. (PLoS Pathogens, 2014), which identified a Trypanosoma brucei lysosomal cathepsin with an inhibitory effect on human serum’s trypanolytic action.
A novel role of centrin in flagellar motility: stabilizing an inner-arm dynein motor in the flagellar axoneme
Ziyin Li
This article comments on work published by Wei et al. (Nat Comm, 2014), which discovered that centrin maintains the stability of an inner-arm dynein in the flagellar axoneme in Trypanosoma brucei.
A non-proteolytic function of ubiquitin in transcription repression
Ada Ndoja and Tingting Yao
This article comments on work published by Ndoja et al. (Mol Cell, 2014), which demonstrates that monoubiquitination of some transcription activators can inhibit transcription by recruiting the AAA+ ATPase Cdc48 (also known in metazoans as p97 or VCP), which then extracts the ubiquitinated activator from DNA.
Breaking the bad: Bacillus blocks fungal virulence factors
October 30, 2017
This article comments on work published by Mayer & Kronstad (mBio, 2017), which identified the soil bacterium, Bacillus safensis as a potent inhibitor of virulence factor production by two major fungal pathogens of humans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Candida albicans.
The integrated stress response in budding yeast lifespan extension
October 24, 2017
This article summarizes how the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been instrumental in unraveling the molecular and cellular determinants of aging, and how the induction of cellular stress responses has been associated with experimental lifespan extension, thus underscoring the value of yeast as a model for developing potential aging therapies for humans.
Macrophages as drivers of an opportunistic infection
September 13, 2017
This article comments on work published by Mesureur et al. (PloS Pathog, 2017), which shows that macrophages are essential for proliferation of B. cenocepacia in the host. This suggests a new paradigm for Bcc infections and urges the development of novel anti-infectious therapies to efficiently disarm these intrinsically antibiotic resistant facultative intracellular pathogens.
Exacerbating and reversing lysosomal storage diseases: from yeast to humans
August 25, 2017
This article summarizes the use of yeast models in advancing our understanding of lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), where they have been instrumental in researching LSD mechanisms, screening for therapeutic compounds, and exploring genetic and gene-environment interactions relevant to diseases like Batten disease, cystinosis, and Niemann-Pick type C disease, as well as their connection to broader health issues such as viral infections and obesity.
Live fast, die fast principle in a single cell of fission yeast
August 13, 2017
This article comments on a recent study (Nakaoka and Wakamoto, PLoS Biol, 2017), which developed a microfluidics-based platform to track multiple single cell lineages until death.
Out with the old: Hsp90 finds amino acid residue more useful than co-chaperone protein
August 1, 2017
This article comments on work published by Zuehlke et al (Nat Commun, 2017), which demonstrates that the function of one co-chaperone in yeast is replaced by posttranslational modification (PTM) of a single amino acid within Hsp90 in higher eukaryotes.
Having your cake and eating it – Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants can evolve faster growth rate without losing their antibiotic resistance
August 1, 2017
This article comments on work published by Cao et al. (mBio, 2027), which shows that Staphylococcus aureus can produce small colony variants (SCVs) that are challenging to detect and lead to persistent infections due to mutations affecting respiration and ATP production, with recent findings indicating various evolutionary paths for SCVs to increase growth rate while maintaining antibiotic resistance, suggesting greater adaptability and clinical challenge.