Browse our latest Microbiology and Infectious Disease articles

Developing Monosiga brevicollis as a model to study choanoflagellate immune responses reveals that the innate immune protein STING mediates responses to cyclic dinucleotides in choanoflagellates, providing insight into the evolution of STING signaling on the animal stem lineage.

At most physiological concentrations, the short-chain fatty acids propionate and butyrate affect histone acetylation by modifying and activating the acetyltransferase p300/CBP, rather than by inhibiting histone deacetylases.

Structural and biophysical studies detail how Neisseria LbpB interacts with human lactoferrin for iron piracy and provides insight for how LbpB interacts with the antimicrobial peptide lactoferricin.

An investigation of spatiotemporal metabolic differentiation during colony biofilm growth of E. coli revealed that alanine is cross-fed between spatially segregated subpopulations within the colony, to support cellular growth in an otherwise nutrient-deprived region of the colony.

Bacterial population can coordinate individuals of different phenotypes by spatial modulation of their run-and-tumble behaviors, resulting in collective group migration with an ordered structure of phenotypes.

Chromosome replication and a different inter-division process both contribute to division control during unperturbed growth, but if division is delayed by increasing cell width the inter-division process becomes solely rate-limiting.

An endosymbiont transgene in Drosophila melanogaster exhibits remarkable phenotypic sensitivity, including to synonymous codon changes.

Malaria parasites have simplified and adapted their mitochondrial metabolism to lack fatty acid synthesis but retain an unusual acyl carrier protein required for stability of the core iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis complex.

Despite evidence of significant anti-cryptococcal activity in vitro and animal models, including synergy with other antifungal agents, high-dose tamoxifen has no impact on cerebrospinal fluid sterilization in cryptococcal meningitis.

Mutualistic viruses called virophages are common genome inhabitants of a marine protist, where they may protect host populations from giant viruses.