Showing papers in "Trends in Microbiology in 2007"

TL;DR: Recently, the development of new technologies has revolutionized the screening of natural products and offers a unique opportunity to re-establish natural products as a major source for drug discovery.

TL;DR: This review focuses on recent findings on the importance of glycosylation to viral virulence and immune evasion for several prominent human pathogens.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors outline the challenges faced by systems biology and discuss limitations of the top-down and bottom-up approaches, which, despite these limitations, have already led to the discovery of mechanisms and principles that underlie cell function.

TL;DR: A review of recent insights regarding how acidophiles are able to survive and grow in these extreme conditions highlights the role of secondary transporters.

TL;DR: Pyoverdines are a group of structurally related siderophores produced by fluorescent Pseudomonas species and the extremely high sequence diversity of genes involved in pyoverdine synthesis and uptake indicate that py overdine production is subject to high evolutionary pressure.

TL;DR: Dormant spores of Bacillus, Clostridium and related species can survive for years, largely because spore DNA is well protected against damage by many different agents.

TL;DR: It is argued that in exploring new sources of bioactive natural products the marine environment warrants particular attention, in view of the remarkable diversity of microorganisms and metabolic products.

TL;DR: In this article, a genome analysis of the recently completed genome sequence of Methanosaeta thermophila confirms that the majority of core steps of the pathway are similar in both genera, but striking differences have been discovered in electron transfer and energy conservation.

TL;DR: A more complex role for flagella in Campylobacter pathogenesis is revealed that includes the ability to secrete non-flagellar proteins that modulate virulence and the co-regulation of secreted and non-secreted virulence factors with the flageella regulon.

TL;DR: An overview of the structural and phylogenetic diversity of integrons is given and evolutionary events that have contributed to the success of these genetic elements are described.

TL;DR: Results suggest that host and microbial oxylipins might interfere with the metabolism, perception or signalling processes of each other.

TL;DR: This review discusses several examples of virus-integrin interactions that highlight recent advances in this field and investigates the molecular basis of how integrins are recognized by such a wide range of microbial pathogens to invade host cells.

TL;DR: This review will discuss fundamental issues in the complex relation between well dimensions, culture volumes, orbital shaking conditions and surface tension, and oxygen-transfer rates and degrees of mixing and describe the current applications of microtiter plates in microbiology.

TL;DR: There is an urgent need to better understand the ecology of Ebola virus in nature with the increasing frequency of human filovirus outbreaks and the tremendous impact of infection on the already threatened great ape populations.

TL;DR: The observation of interactions between viruses and cellular DNA repair proteins has not only uncovered new complexities of the virus-host interaction but is also reinforcing the view that viruses can reveal key regulators of cellular pathways through the proteins they target.

TL;DR: Insight into the role of IL-10 in the establishment of chronic infection could lead to new therapeutic opportunities during human infections with pathogens such as HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV).

TL;DR: The genomic sequence data that are currently available are used to identify candidate GTA-producing species and an evolutionary scheme for RcGTA-like elements in the α-proteobacteria is proposed.

TL;DR: The study of these proteins, referred to as effectors, is providing valuable insight into the mechanism by which an intracellular pathogen can manipulate eukaryotic cellular processes to traffic and replicate in host cells.

TL;DR: Biofilm formation explains many of the observations seen in chronic otitis media and chronic bronchitis, however, NTHi biofilms seem to lack a biofilm-specific polysaccharide in the extracellular matrix, a source of controversy regarding their relevance.

TL;DR: In this paper, a model of contact-dependent, Type III secretion (T3S) mediated chlamydial growth and late differentiation is presented. But the model is not suitable for in vitro-persistent, stress-induced aberrantly enlarged forms and small molecule inhibitors of T3S.

TL;DR: A review of the genome sequencing of 20 lactic acid bacteria provides an expanded view of their genetic and metabolic capacities and enables researchers to perform functional and comparative genomic studies.

TL;DR: MAP kinases behave as a 'functional nervous system' that controls virulence and influences the progression of the disease.

TL;DR: This review provides an update on the recent findings on the diverse mechanisms by which N. meningitidis avoids complement-mediated killing, and how polymorphisms in genes encoding human complement proteins affect susceptibility to this important human pathogen.

TL;DR: Evidence is presented that suggests neutrophils are involved in pathogen shuttling into the lymphoid tissues, in antigen presentation, and in early T cell recruitment and initiation of granuloma organization and a clearer view on the antimicrobial molecules that can be acquired by macrophages to enhance their antimicrobial activity is emerging.

TL;DR: The global regulation of four distantly related model phytopathogens is dissected to evaluate large-scale events and mechanisms that determine successful pathogenesis.

TL;DR: Genetic and biochemical studies have revealed that Escherichia coli genes umuC+ and its homolog dinB+ encode novel DNA polymerases with the ability to catalyze synthesis past DNA lesions that otherwise stall replication--a process termed translesion synthesis (TLS).

TL;DR: It now appears that a putative translocation pathway running through the center of the transporter might be gated alternately, either at the inside or the outside of the cytoplasmic membrane, coupling substrate translocation to a cycle of ATP-dependent conformational changes.

TL;DR: The targeted deletion of genes encoding proteins of mannitol metabolism in several fungi, including phytopathogens, has proven that the metabolism ofMannitol does not exist as a cycle and that many of the postulated roles are unsupported.

TL;DR: Improvements in this area indicate that glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of natural products have substrate flexibility regarding the sugar donor but also, less frequently, with respect to the aglycon acceptor, thus enabling an increase in the structural diversity ofnatural products.

TL;DR: Recent structural studies of PGRPs are described that reveal the basis for PGN recognition and provide insights into the signal transduction and antibacterial activities of these innate immune proteins.