Begoña Carrasco, Rubén Torres, María Moreno-Del Álamo, Cristina Ramos, Silvia Ayora, Juan C Alonso
{"title":"Processing of stalled replication forks in Bacillus subtilis.","authors":"Begoña Carrasco, Rubén Torres, María Moreno-Del Álamo, Cristina Ramos, Silvia Ayora, Juan C Alonso","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad065","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuad065","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate DNA replication and transcription elongation are crucial for preventing the accumulation of unreplicated DNA and genomic instability. Cells have evolved multiple mechanisms to deal with impaired replication fork progression, challenged by both intrinsic and extrinsic impediments. The bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which adopts multiple forms of differentiation and development, serves as an excellent model system for studying the pathways required to cope with replication stress to preserve genomic stability. This review focuses on the genetics, single molecule choreography, and biochemical properties of the proteins that act to circumvent the replicative arrest allowing the resumption of DNA synthesis. The RecA recombinase, its mediators (RecO, RecR, and RadA/Sms) and modulators (RecF, RecX, RarA, RecU, RecD2, and PcrA), repair licensing (DisA), fork remodelers (RuvAB, RecG, RecD2, RadA/Sms, and PriA), Holliday junction resolvase (RecU), nucleases (RnhC and DinG), and translesion synthesis DNA polymerases (PolY1 and PolY2) are key functions required to overcome a replication stress, provided that the fork does not collapse.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10804225/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138487032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Merve Atasoy, Avelino Álvarez Ordóñez, Adam Cenian, Aleksandra Djukić-Vuković, Peter A Lund, Fatih Ozogul, Janja Trček, Carmit Ziv, Daniela De Biase
{"title":"Exploitation of microbial activities at low pH to enhance planetary health.","authors":"Merve Atasoy, Avelino Álvarez Ordóñez, Adam Cenian, Aleksandra Djukić-Vuković, Peter A Lund, Fatih Ozogul, Janja Trček, Carmit Ziv, Daniela De Biase","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad062","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuad062","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Awareness is growing that human health cannot be considered in isolation but is inextricably woven with the health of the environment in which we live. It is, however, under-recognized that the sustainability of human activities strongly relies on preserving the equilibrium of the microbial communities living in/on/around us. Microbial metabolic activities are instrumental for production, functionalization, processing, and preservation of food. For circular economy, microbial metabolism would be exploited to produce building blocks for the chemical industry, to achieve effective crop protection, agri-food waste revalorization, or biofuel production, as well as in bioremediation and bioaugmentation of contaminated areas. Low pH is undoubtedly a key physical-chemical parameter that needs to be considered for exploiting the powerful microbial metabolic arsenal. Deviation from optimal pH conditions has profound effects on shaping the microbial communities responsible for carrying out essential processes. Furthermore, novel strategies to combat contaminations and infections by pathogens rely on microbial-derived acidic molecules that suppress/inhibit their growth. Herein, we present the state-of-the-art of the knowledge on the impact of acidic pH in many applied areas and how this knowledge can guide us to use the immense arsenal of microbial metabolic activities for their more impactful exploitation in a Planetary Health perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10963064/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138176007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anne L Timmerman, Antonia L M Schönert, Lia van der Hoek
{"title":"Anelloviruses versus human immunity: how do we control these viruses?","authors":"Anne L Timmerman, Antonia L M Schönert, Lia van der Hoek","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuae005","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuae005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>One continuous companion and one of the major players in the human blood virome are members of the Anelloviridae family. Anelloviruses are probably found in all humans, infection occurs early in life and the composition (anellome) is thought to remain stable and personal during adulthood. The stable anellome implies a great balance between the host immune system and the virus. However, the lack of a robust culturing system hampers direct investigation of interactions between virus and host cells. Other techniques, however, including next generation sequencing, AnelloScan-antibody tests, evolution selection pressure analysis, and virus protein structures, do provide new insights into the interactions between anelloviruses and the host immune system. This review aims at providing an overview of the current knowledge on the immune mechanisms acting on anelloviruses and the countering viral mechanisms allowing immune evasion.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10883694/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139711861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Root colonization by beneficial rhizobacteria","authors":"Yunpeng Liu, Zhihui Xu, Lin Chen, Weibing Xun, Xia Shu, Yu Chen, Xinli Sun, Zhengqi Wang, Yi Ren, Qirong Shen, Ruifu Zhang","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/femsre/fuad066","url":null,"abstract":"Rhizosphere microbes play critical roles for plant's growth and health. Among them, the beneficial rhizobacteria have the potential to be developed as the biofertilizer or bioinoculants for sustaining the agricultural development. The efficient rhizosphere colonization of these rhizobacteria is a prerequisite for exerting their plant beneficial functions, but the colonizing process and underlying mechanisms have not been thoroughly reviewed, especially for the non-symbiotic beneficial rhizobacteria. This review systematically analyzed the root colonizing process of the non-symbiotic rhizobacteria and compared it with that of the symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria. This review also highlighted the approaches to improve the root colonization efficiency and proposed to study the rhizobacterial colonization from a holistic perspective of the rhizosphere microbiome under more natural conditions.","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138685184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andreea A Gheorghita, Daniel J Wozniak, Matthew R Parsek, P Lynne Howell
{"title":"Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm exopolysaccharides: assembly, function, and degradation.","authors":"Andreea A Gheorghita, Daniel J Wozniak, Matthew R Parsek, P Lynne Howell","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad060","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuad060","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The biofilm matrix is a fortress; sheltering bacteria in a protective and nourishing barrier that allows for growth and adaptation to various surroundings. A variety of different components are found within the matrix including water, lipids, proteins, extracellular DNA, RNA, membrane vesicles, phages, and exopolysaccharides. As part of its biofilm matrix, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is genetically capable of producing three chemically distinct exopolysaccharides - alginate, Pel, and Psl - each of which has a distinct role in biofilm formation and immune evasion during infection. The polymers are produced by highly conserved mechanisms of secretion, involving many proteins that span both the inner and outer bacterial membranes. Experimentally determined structures, predictive modelling of proteins whose structures are yet to be solved, and structural homology comparisons give us insight into the molecular mechanisms of these secretion systems, from polymer synthesis to modification and export. Here, we review recent advances that enhance our understanding of P. aeruginosa multiprotein exopolysaccharide biosynthetic complexes, and how the glycoside hydrolases/lyases within these systems have been commandeered for antimicrobial applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10644985/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54228413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Illuminating the oral microbiome and its host interactions: tools and approaches for molecular microbiology studies.","authors":"Justin Merritt, Jens Kreth","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuac050","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuac050","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Advancements in DNA sequencing technologies within the last decade have stimulated an unprecedented interest in the human microbiome, largely due the broad diversity of human diseases found to correlate with microbiome dysbiosis. As a direct consequence of these studies, a vast number of understudied and uncharacterized microbes have been identified as potential drivers of mucosal health and disease. The looming challenge in the field is to transition these observations into defined molecular mechanistic studies of symbiosis and dysbiosis. In order to meet this challenge, many of these newly identified microbes will need to be adapted for use in experimental models. Consequently, this review presents a comprehensive overview of the molecular microbiology tools and techniques that have played crucial roles in genetic studies of the bacteria found within the human oral microbiota. Here, we will use specific examples from the oral microbiome literature to illustrate the biology supporting these techniques, why they are needed in the field, and how such technologies have been implemented. It is hoped that this information can serve as a useful reference guide to help catalyze molecular microbiology studies of the many new understudied and uncharacterized species identified at different mucosal sites in the body.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10719069/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9346271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mechanisms of Alternaria pathogenesis in animals and plants.","authors":"Chantal Fernandes, Arturo Casadevall, Teresa Gonçalves","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad061","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuad061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Alternaria species are cosmopolitan fungi darkly pigmented by melanin that infect numerous plant species causing economically important agricultural spoilage of various food crops. Alternaria spp. also infect animals, being described as entomopathogenic fungi but also infecting warm-blooded animals, including humans. Their clinical importance in human health, as infection agents, lay in the growing number of immunocompromised patients. Moreover, Alternaria spp. are considered some of the most abundant and potent sources of airborne sensitizer allergens causing allergic respiratory diseases, as severe asthma. Among the numerous strategies deployed by Alternaria spp. to attack their hosts, the production of toxins, carrying critical concerns to public health as food contaminant, and the production of hydrolytic enzymes such as proteases, can be highlighted. Alternaria proteases also trigger allergic symptoms in individuals with fungal sensitization, acting as allergens and facilitating antigen access to the host subepithelium. Here, we review the current knowledge about the mechanisms of Alternaria pathogenesis in plants and animals, the strategies used by Alternaria to cope with the host defenses, and the involvement Alternaria allergens and mechanisms of sensitization.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54228412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Leonie Jane Kiely, Kizkitza Busca, Jonathan A Lane, Douwe van Sinderen, Rita M Hickey
{"title":"Molecular strategies for the utilisation of human milk oligosaccharides by infant gut-associated bacteria.","authors":"Leonie Jane Kiely, Kizkitza Busca, Jonathan A Lane, Douwe van Sinderen, Rita M Hickey","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad056","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuad056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A number of bacterial species are found in high abundance in the faeces of healthy breast-fed infants, an occurrence that is understood to be, at least in part, due to the ability of these bacteria to metabolize human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). HMOs are the third most abundant component of human milk after lactose and lipids, and represent complex sugars which possess unique structural diversity and are resistant to infant gastrointestinal digestion. Thus, these sugars reach the infant distal intestine intact, thereby serving as a fermentable substrate for specific intestinal microbes, including Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and especially infant-associated Bifidobacterium spp. which help to shape the infant gut microbiome. Bacteria utilising HMOs are equipped with genes associated with their degradation and a number of carbohydrate-active enzymes known as glycoside hydrolase enzymes have been identified in the infant gut, which supports this hypothesis. The resulting degraded HMOs can also be used as growth substrates for other infant gut bacteria present in a microbe-microbe interaction known as 'cross-feeding'. This review describes the current knowledge on HMO metabolism by particular infant gut-associated bacteria, many of which are currently used as commercial probiotics, including the distinct strategies employed by individual species for HMO utilisation.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10629584/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41146763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Small proteins in Gram-positive bacteria.","authors":"Sabine Brantl, Inam Ul Haq","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuad064","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuad064","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Small proteins comprising less than 100 amino acids have been often ignored in bacterial genome annotations. About 10 years ago, focused efforts started to investigate whole peptidomes, which resulted in the discovery of a multitude of small proteins, but only a number of them have been characterized in detail. Generally, small proteins can be either membrane or cytosolic proteins. The latter interact with larger proteins, RNA or even metal ions. Here, we summarize our current knowledge on small proteins from Gram-positive bacteria with a special emphasis on the model organism Bacillus subtilis. Our examples include membrane-bound toxins of type I toxin-antitoxin systems, proteins that block the assembly of higher order structures, regulate sporulation or modulate the RNA degradosome. We do not consider antimicrobial peptides. Furthermore, we present methods for the identification and investigation of small proteins.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10730256/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138487033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Petra Sudzinová, Hana Šanderová, Tomáš Koval', Tereza Skálová, Nabajyoti Borah, Jarmila Hnilicová, Tomáš Kouba, Jan Dohnálek, Libor Krásný
{"title":"What the Hel: recent advances in understanding rifampicin resistance in bacteria.","authors":"Petra Sudzinová, Hana Šanderová, Tomáš Koval', Tereza Skálová, Nabajyoti Borah, Jarmila Hnilicová, Tomáš Kouba, Jan Dohnálek, Libor Krásný","doi":"10.1093/femsre/fuac051","DOIUrl":"10.1093/femsre/fuac051","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rifampicin is a clinically important antibiotic that binds to, and blocks the DNA/RNA channel of bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP). Stalled, nonfunctional RNAPs can be removed from DNA by HelD proteins; this is important for maintenance of genome integrity. Recently, it was reported that HelD proteins from high G+C Actinobacteria, called HelR, are able to dissociate rifampicin-stalled RNAPs from DNA and provide rifampicin resistance. This is achieved by the ability of HelR proteins to dissociate rifampicin from RNAP. The HelR-mediated mechanism of rifampicin resistance is discussed here, and the roles of HelD/HelR in the transcriptional cycle are outlined. Moreover, the possibility that the structurally similar HelD proteins from low G+C Firmicutes may be also involved in rifampicin resistance is explored. Finally, the discovery of the involvement of HelR in rifampicin resistance provides a blueprint for analogous studies to reveal novel mechanisms of bacterial antibiotic resistance.</p>","PeriodicalId":12201,"journal":{"name":"FEMS microbiology reviews","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.3,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10719064/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10419419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}