{"title":"A call for healing and unity.","authors":"Patrick D Schloss","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00063-25","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00063-25","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0006325"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948489/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143516120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicole Kordana, Angus Johnson, Katherine Quinn, Joshua J Obar, Robert A Cramer
{"title":"Recent developments in <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i> research: diversity, drugs, and disease.","authors":"Nicole Kordana, Angus Johnson, Katherine Quinn, Joshua J Obar, Robert A Cramer","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00011-23","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00011-23","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SUMMARYAdvances in modern medical therapies for many previously intractable human diseases have improved patient outcomes. However, successful disease treatment outcomes are often prevented due to invasive fungal infections caused by the environmental mold <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i>. As contemporary antifungal therapies have not experienced the same robust advances as other medical therapies, defining mechanisms of <i>A. fumigatus</i> disease initiation and progression remains a critical research priority. To this end, the World Health Organization recently identified <i>A. fumigatus</i> as a research priority human fungal pathogen and the Centers for Disease Control has highlighted the emergence of triazole-resistant <i>A. fumigatus</i> isolates. The expansion in the diversity of host populations susceptible to aspergillosis and the complex and dynamic <i>A. fumigatus</i> genotypic and phenotypic diversity call for a reinvigorated assessment of aspergillosis pathobiological and drug-susceptibility mechanisms. Here, we summarize recent advancements in the field and discuss challenges in our understanding of <i>A. fumigatus</i> heterogeneity and its pathogenesis in diverse host populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0001123"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948498/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143382870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Suyen Solange Espinoza Miranda, Gorkhmaz Abbaszade, Wolfgang R Hess, Knut Drescher, Antoine-Emmanuel Saliba, Vasily Zaburdaev, Liraz Chai, Klaus Dreisewerd, Alexander Grünberger, Christian Westendorf, Susann Müller, Thorsten Mascher
{"title":"Resolving spatiotemporal dynamics in bacterial multicellular populations: approaches and challenges.","authors":"Suyen Solange Espinoza Miranda, Gorkhmaz Abbaszade, Wolfgang R Hess, Knut Drescher, Antoine-Emmanuel Saliba, Vasily Zaburdaev, Liraz Chai, Klaus Dreisewerd, Alexander Grünberger, Christian Westendorf, Susann Müller, Thorsten Mascher","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00138-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00138-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SUMMARYThe development of multicellularity represents a key evolutionary transition that is crucial for the emergence of complex life forms. Although multicellularity has traditionally been studied in eukaryotes, it originates in prokaryotes. Coordinated aggregation of individual cells within the confines of a colony results in emerging, higher-level functions that benefit the population as a whole. During colony differentiation, an almost infinite number of ecological and physiological population-forming forces are at work, creating complex, intricate colony structures with divergent functions. Understanding the assembly and dynamics of such populations requires resolving individual cells or cell groups within such macroscopic structures. Addressing how each cell contributes to the collective action requires pushing the resolution boundaries of key technologies that will be presented in this review. In particular, single-cell techniques provide powerful tools for studying bacterial multicellularity with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. These advancements include novel microscopic techniques, mass spectrometry imaging, flow cytometry, spatial transcriptomics, single-bacteria RNA sequencing, and the integration of spatiotemporal transcriptomics with microscopy, alongside advanced microfluidic cultivation systems. This review encourages exploring the synergistic potential of the new technologies in the study of bacterial multicellularity, with a particular focus on individuals in differentiated bacterial biofilms (colonies). It highlights how resolving population structures at the single-cell level and understanding their respective functions can elucidate the overarching functions of bacterial multicellular populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0013824"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948493/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143033530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Variable surface antigen expression, virulence, and persistent infection by <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> malaria parasites.","authors":"Evi Hadjimichael, Kirk W Deitsch","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00114-23","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00114-23","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SUMMARYThe human malaria parasite <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> is known for its ability to maintain lengthy infections that can extend for over a year. This property is derived from the parasite's capacity to continuously alter the antigens expressed on the surface of the infected red blood cell, thereby avoiding antibody recognition and immune destruction. The primary target of the immune system is an antigen called PfEMP1 that serves as a cell surface receptor and enables infected cells to adhere to the vascular endothelium and thus avoid filtration by the spleen. The parasite's genome encodes approximately 60 antigenically distinct forms of PfEMP1, each encoded by individual members of the multicopy <i>var</i> gene family. This provides the parasite with a repertoire of antigenic types that it systematically cycles through over the course of an infection, thereby maintaining an infection until the repertoire is exhausted. While this model of antigenic variation based on <i>var</i> gene switching explains the dynamics of acute infections in individuals with limited anti-malarial immunity, it fails to explain reports of chronic, asymptomatic infections that can last over a decade. Recent field studies have led to a re-evaluation of previous conclusions regarding the prevalence of chronic infections, and the application of new technologies has provided insights into the molecular mechanisms that enable chronic infections and how these processes evolved.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0011423"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948492/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142979106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Insights into ecology, pathogenesis, and biofilm formation of <i>Enterococcus faecalis</i> from functional genomics.","authors":"Julia L E Willett, Gary M Dunny","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00081-23","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00081-23","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SUMMARY<i>Enterococcus faecalis</i> is a significant resident of the gastrointestinal tract of most animals, including humans. Although generally non-pathogenic in healthy hosts, this microbe is adept at the exploitation of compromises in host immune functions, resulting in life-threatening opportunistic infections whose treatments are complicated by a high degree of intrinsic and acquired resistance to antimicrobial chemotherapy. Historically, progress in enterococcal research was limited by a lack of experimental models that replicate natural infection pathways and the relevance of <i>in vitro</i> studies to the natural biology of the organism. In this review, we summarize the history of enterococcal research during the 20th and early 21st centuries and describe more recent genetic and genomic tools and screens developed to address challenges in the field. We also describe how the results of recent studies reveal the importance of previously uncharacterized enterococcal genes, and we provide examples of interesting determinants that have emerged as important contributors to enterococcal biology. These factors may also serve as targets for future vaccines and chemotherapeutic agents to combat life-threatening hospital infections.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0008123"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948497/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142877483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nikhila S Tanneti, Helen A Stillwell, Susan R Weiss
{"title":"Human coronaviruses: activation and antagonism of innate immune responses.","authors":"Nikhila S Tanneti, Helen A Stillwell, Susan R Weiss","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00016-23","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00016-23","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SUMMARYHuman coronaviruses cause a range of respiratory diseases, from the common cold (HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43, and SARS-CoV-2) to lethal pneumonia (SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV). Coronavirus interactions with host innate immune antiviral responses are an important determinant of disease outcome. This review compares the host's innate response to different human coronaviruses. Host antiviral defenses discussed in this review include frontline defenses against respiratory viruses in the nasal epithelium, early sensing of viral infection by innate immune effectors, double-stranded RNA and stress-induced antiviral pathways, and viral antagonism of innate immune responses conferred by conserved coronavirus nonstructural proteins and genus-specific accessory proteins. The common cold coronaviruses HCoV-229E and -NL63 induce robust interferon signaling and related innate immune pathways, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 induce intermediate levels of activation, and MERS-CoV shuts down these pathways almost completely.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0001623"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948496/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142854755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How human papillomavirus (HPV) targets DNA repair pathways for viral replication: from guardian to accomplice.","authors":"Arushi Vats, Laimonis Laimins","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00153-23","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00153-23","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>SUMMARYHuman papillomaviruses (HPVs) are small DNA viruses that are responsible for significant disease burdens worldwide, including cancers of the cervix, anogenital tract, and oropharynx. HPVs infect stratified epithelia at a variety of body locations and link their productive life cycles to the differentiation of the host cell. These viruses have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to exploit cellular pathways, such as DNA damage repair (DDR), to regulate their life cycles. HPVs activate key DDR pathways such as ATM, ATR, and FA, which are critical for maintaining genomic integrity but are often dysregulated in cancers. Importantly, these DDR pathways are essential for HPV replication in undifferentiated cells and amplification upon differentiation. The ability to modulate these DDR pathways not only enables HPV persistence but also contributes to cellular transformation. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in understanding the mechanisms by which HPV manipulates the host DDR pathways and how these depend upon enhanced topoisomerase activity and R-loop formation. Furthermore, the strategies to manipulate DDR pathways utilized by high-risk HPVs are compared with those used by other DNA viruses that exhibit similarities and distinct differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0015323"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948491/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143046934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vesicular mechanisms of drug resistance in apicomplexan parasites.","authors":"Kasturi Haldar, Souvik Bhattacharjee","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00010-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00010-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>SUMMARY</b>Vesicular mechanisms of drug resistance are known to exist across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Vesicles are sacs that form when a lipid bilayer 'bends' to engulf and isolate contents from the cytoplasm or extracellular environment. They have a wide range of functions, including vehicles of communication within and across cells, trafficking of protein intermediates to their rightful organellar destinations, and carriers of substrates destined for autophagy. This review will provide an in-depth understanding of vesicular mechanisms of apicomplexan parasites, Plasmodium and Toxoplasma (that respectively cause malaria and toxoplasmosis). It will integrate mechanistic and evolutionarily insights gained from these and other pathogenic eukaryotes to develop a new model for plasmodial resistance to artemisinins, a class of drugs that have been the backbone of modern campaigns to eliminate malaria worldwide. We also discuss extracellular vesicles that present major vesicular mechanisms of drug resistance in parasite protozoa (that apicomplexans are part of). Finally, we provide a broader context of clinical drug resistance mechanisms of Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, as well as Cryptosporidium and Babesia, that are prominent members of the phyla, causative agents of cryptosporidiosis and babesiosis and significant for human and animal health.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0001024"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948495/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143033546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cryptococcal nutrient acquisition and pathogenesis: dining on the host.","authors":"John R Perfect, James W Kronstad","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00015-23","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00015-23","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>SUMMARY</b>Pathogens must acquire essential nutrients to successfully colonize and proliferate in host tissue. Additionally, nutrients provide signals that condition pathogen deployment of factors that promote disease. A series of transcriptomics experiments over the last 20 years, primarily with <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i> and to a lesser extent with <i>Cryptococcus gattii</i>, provide insights into the nutritional requirements for proliferation in host tissues. Notably, the identified functions include a number of transporters for key nutrients including sugars, amino acids, metals, and phosphate. Here, we first summarize the <i>in vivo</i> gene expression studies and then discuss the follow-up analyses that specifically test the relevance of the identified transporters for the ability of the pathogens to cause disease. The conclusion is that predictions based on transcriptional profiling of cryptococcal cells in infected tissue are well supported by subsequent investigations using targeted mutations. Overall, the combination of transcriptomic and genetic approaches provides substantial insights into the nutritional requirements that underpin proliferation in the host.</p>","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0001523"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948494/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143382868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ira Blader, Felicia Goodrum, Michael J Imperiale, Arturo Casadevall, Cesar A Arias, Andreas Baumler, Carey-Ann D Burnham, Christina A Cuomo, Corrella S Detweiler, Graeme N Forrest, Jack A Gilbert, Susan Lovett, Stanley Maloy, Alexander McAdam, Irene Newton, Gemma Reguera, George A O'Toole, Patrick D Schloss, Ashley Shade, Marvin Whiteley
{"title":"A call for the United States to continue investing in science.","authors":"Ira Blader, Felicia Goodrum, Michael J Imperiale, Arturo Casadevall, Cesar A Arias, Andreas Baumler, Carey-Ann D Burnham, Christina A Cuomo, Corrella S Detweiler, Graeme N Forrest, Jack A Gilbert, Susan Lovett, Stanley Maloy, Alexander McAdam, Irene Newton, Gemma Reguera, George A O'Toole, Patrick D Schloss, Ashley Shade, Marvin Whiteley","doi":"10.1128/mmbr.00072-25","DOIUrl":"10.1128/mmbr.00072-25","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18520,"journal":{"name":"Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"e0007225"},"PeriodicalIF":8.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11948490/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143516121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}