Hot off the presses! Sep 01 Nat Rev Microbiol

The Sep 01 issue of the Nat Rev Microbiol is now up on Pubget (About Nat Rev Microbiol): if you're at a subscribing institution, just click the link in the latest link at the home page. (Note you'll only be able to get all the PDFs in the issue if your institution subscribes to Pubget.)

Latest Articles Include:

• In this issue
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):615 (2009)
  
• Editorial: Probiotics and obesity: a link?
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):616 (2009)
  
• Evolution: Partial penetrance keeps the options open
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):617 (2009)
  
• Viral immunity: Are men and women different?
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):618 (2009)
  
• Bacterial physiology: Another CarD in the pack
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):618 (2009)
  
• Bacterial physiology: Translation-independent mRNA silencing
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):618 (2009)
  
• In brief: Structural biology, Bacterial pathogenicity, Quorum sensing
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):619 (2009)
  
• Viral infection: Contact-polarized assembly
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):620 (2009)
  
• Bacterial genetics: A tiny alternative
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):620 (2009)
  
• From small reads do mighty genomes grow
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):621 (2009)
  
• In the News
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):622 (2009)
  
• Listeria monocytogenes — from saprophyte to intracellular pathogen
  Freitag NE Port GC Miner MD - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):623-628 (2009)
  Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that lives in the soil as a saprophyte but is capable of making the transition into a pathogen following its ingestion by susceptible humans or animals. Recent studies suggest that L. monocytogenes mediates its saprophyte-to-cytosolic-parasite transition through the careful modulation of the activity of a virulence regulatory protein known as PrfA, using a range of environmental cues that include available carbon sources. In this Progress article we describe the regulation of PrfA and its role in the L. monocytogenes transition from the saprophytic stage to the virulent intracellular stage.
• Waves of resistance: Staphylococcus aureus in the antibiotic era
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):629-641 (2009)
  Staphylococcus aureus is notorious for its ability to become resistant to antibiotics. Infections that are caused by antibiotic-resistant strains often occur in epidemic waves that are initiated by one or a few successful clones. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) features prominently in these epidemics. Historically associated with hospitals and other health care settings, MRSA has now emerged as a widespread cause of community infections. Community or community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) can spread rapidly among healthy individuals. Outbreaks of CA-MRSA infections have been reported worldwide, and CA-MRSA strains are now epidemic in the United States. Here, we review the molecular epidemiology of the epidemic waves of penicillin- and methicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus that have occurred since 1940, with a focus on the clinical and molecular epidemiology of CA-MRSA.
• Bacterial cell division: assembly, maintenance and disassembly of the Z ring
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):642-653 (2009)
  Bacterial cell division is orchestrated by a tubulin homologue, FtsZ, which polymerizes to form a ring-like structure that is both a scaffold for the assembly of the bacterial cytokinetic machinery and, at least in part, a source of the energy for constriction. FtsZ assembly is tightly regulated, and a diverse repertoire of accessory proteins contributes to the formation of a functional division machine that is responsive to cell cycle status and environmental stress. In this Review, we describe the interaction of these proteins with FtsZ and discuss recent advances in our understanding of Z ring assembly.
• The type III secretion system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: infection by injection
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):654-665 (2009)
  The Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses a complex type III secretion apparatus to inject effector proteins into host cells. The configuration of this secretion machinery, the activities of the proteins that are injected by it and the consequences of this process for infection are now being elucidated. This Review summarizes our current knowledge of P. aeruginosa type III secretion, including the secretion and translocation machinery, the regulation of this machinery, and the associated chaperones and effector proteins. The features of this interesting secretion system have important implications for the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa infections and for other type III secretion systems.
• Cryo-electron tomography of bacteria: progress, challenges and future prospects
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):666-675 (2009)
  Recent advances in three-dimensional electron microscopy provide remarkable tools to image the interior of bacterial cells. Glimpses of cells at resolutions that are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than those currently attained with light microscopy can now be obtained with cryo-electron tomography, especially when used in combination with new tools for image averaging. This Review highlights recent advances in this area and provides an assessment of the general applicability, current limitations and type of structural information that can be obtained about the organization of intact cells using tomography. Possible future directions for whole cell imaging are also discussed.
• Transport of lipopolysaccharide across the cell envelope: the long road of discovery
  Ruiz N Kahne D Silhavy TJ - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):677-683 (2009)
  Intracellular lipid transport is poorly understood. Genetic studies to identify lipid-transport factors are complicated by the essentiality of many lipids, whereas biochemical and cell biology approaches aiming to determine localization and mechanisms of lipid transport are often challenged by the lack of adequate technology. Here, we review the epic history of how different approaches, technological advances and ingenuity contributed to the recent discovery of a multi-protein pathway that transports lipopolysaccharide across the envelope of Gram-negative bacteria.
• Corrigendum: Correlates of protective immunity for Ebola vaccines: implications for regulatory approval by the animal rule
  - Nat Rev Microbiol 7(9):684 (2009)
  In the above article, the authors failed to acknowledge the technical assistance and data analysis of M. Bailey in the acknowledgements section. The authors apologize for this error.