Browse our latest Microbiology and Infectious Disease articles

Combined antigenic and genetic analysis shows that different strains of the human influenza virus display dramatically different rates of antigenic drift, and that these differences have a significant impact on the number of new infections in each flu season.

A fungal effector secreted by the corn smut pathogen increases the virulence of the pathogen by elevating anthocyanin production and reducing lignification in maize.

Comparative electron tomography of growing flagellar tips reveals that axonemal growth differs between short and long flagella, and between species.

Biofilm formation by Bacillus subtilis relies on a sensing mechanism for the amino acid serine that does not depend on a dedicated protein or RNA.

Real time measurements of c-di-GMP in individual cells reveal an unexpected mechanism by which the chemotaxis machinery controls c-di-GMP heterogeneity, thereby regulating flagellar-based motility.

Cryo electron microscopy and structure-based mutagenesis reveal that the bacteriophage BPP-1 contains two of the three major recognized viral folds, one of which exhibits a new topology.

The major evolutionary routes to drug resistance in Salmonella Typhi are associated with fitness benefits, not fitness costs, implying that prudent antimicrobial use will have no effect as a public health intervention in controlling typhoid fever.

Inflammatory monocytes carry live Mycobacteria from the lung to draining lymph nodes and acquire many characteristics of dendritic cells but fail to stimulate proliferation of CD4 T cells.

Mechanisms that enable wild mice to survive infection with strains of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite virulent enough to kill laboratory mice offer an explanation for how these parasites have been able to persist in the mouse population.