Bacterial pathogens under high-tension: Staphylococcus aureus adhesion to von Willebrand factor is activated by force

June 11, 2019

This article comments on work published by Viela et al (mBio, 2019), which shows that the bacterial cell surface protein A to the large plasma glycoprotein von Willebrand factor interaction is tightly regulated by mechanical force.

Production of poly-β-1,6-N-acetylglucosamine by MatAB is required for hyphal aggregation and hydrophilic surface adhesion by Streptomyces

February 12, 2018

In this article van Dissel et al. describe new insights to allow better control of liquid-culture morphology of streptomycetes, which may be harnessed to improve growth and industrial exploitation of these highly versatile natural product and enzyme producers.

New insights into the function of a versatile class of membrane molecular motors from studies of Myxococcus xanthus surface (gliding) motility

March 2, 2017

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.