Hot off the presses! Jul 01 Nat Rev Micro

The Jul 01 issue of the Nat Rev Micro is now up on Pubget (About Nat Rev Micro): 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 Micro 8(7):461 (2010)
  The microbiology of the oral cavity has been a topic of research for microbiologists ever since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first spotted 'animalcules' in scrapings from his teeth in the 1670s. From these humble beginnings, oral microbiology has grown into a multidisciplinary science, and over the past 50 years the oral microbiota has become one of the best characterized human microbial ecosystems.
• Editorial: Oil spills: microorganisms to the rescue?
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):462 (2010)
  Every year, 1,300,000 tonnes of oil enter the environment, for the most part through natural petroleum seeps. The fact that beaches are not perpetually covered with tar balls is due to the activity of microorganisms that can degrade the released petroleum.
• Innate immunity: Stuck to MUC2
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):463 (2010)
  A new report in PLoS Pathogens by Bergstrom and colleagues provides a detailed look at the role of mucin 2 (MUC2) in protection against enteric pathogens.Mucins are high-molecular-mass glycoproteins that are produced by epithelial cells in secreted and membrane-bound forms.
• Anti-infectives: New oral HCV drug shows promise
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):464 (2010)
  A new first-in-class compound for tackling hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, which targets the NS5A protein of HCV, has shown potent antiviral effects in a Phase I trial of patients chronically infected with HCV.Currently, a large proportion of patients fail to respond to the standard treatment regimen for HCV, which involves weekly injections of pegylated interferon-α together with ribavirin (given twice a day orally) for periods of 24–72 weeks.
• Parasitology: Signalling the great escape
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):464 (2010)
  The blood-stage asexual cycle of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum involves invasion of and egress from a host erythrocyte, a process thought to be regulated by a calcium-dependent signalling cascade. Dvorin et al.
• In brief: Antimicrobials, Clinical microbiology, HIV
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):464 (2010)
  Plectasin, a fungal defensin, targets the bacterial cell wall precursor lipid II Schneider, T.et al. Science 328, 1168–1172 (2010)Host defence peptides are normally thought to act by disrupting microbial cytoplasmic membranes.
• Bioremediation: Seek and destroy
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):465 (2010)
  The use of synthetic microorganisms to detect and degrade environmental pollutants has the potential to revolutionize the field of bioremediation. Sinha et al.
• Immune evasion: Hiding from the inflammasome
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):466 (2010)
  Pathogenic yersiniae express a type III secretion system (T3SS), which delivers effector proteins (termed Yop proteins) into the host cell to disrupt processes such as innate immunity. YopJ is known to trigger caspase 1-independent apoptosis in host cells, but the mechanism by which pathogenic yersiniae trigger caspase 1-dependent apoptosis through inflammasome activation was unclear.
• Fungal biology: Magnaporthe effectors on the move
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):466 (2010)
  A study in Plant Cell has begun to reveal the details of the secretion and cell-to-cell movement of Magnaporthe oryzae effector proteins.M. oryzae
• Epidemiology: It's not easy being green
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):467 (2010)
  Chytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, has been directly linked to the decline and extinction of hundreds of amphibian species worldwide. Now, two long-term monitoring studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA describe the dynamics of disease spread and persistence in Californian frog populations.
• It's alive!
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):468 (2010)
  This month's Genome Watch discusses the recent production of a bacterium under the control of a synthetic genome.
• In the news
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):469 (2010)
  Men have an increased risk of contracting HIV if their partner is pregnant, according to recent findings presented at the International Microbicides Conference in Pittsburgh, USA. The research was carried out over 2 years in several African countries, including Botswana and Kenya, and examined more than 3,000 couples in which only one partner was infected with HIV.
• Oral multispecies biofilm development and the key role of cell–cell distance
  Kolenbrander PE Palmer RJ Periasamy S Jakubovics NS - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):471 (2010)
  Growth of oral bacteria in situ requires adhesion to a surface because the constant flow of host secretions thwarts the ability of planktonic cells to grow before they are swallowed. Therefore, oral bacteria evolved to form biofilms on hard tooth surfaces and on soft epithelial tissues, which often contain multiple bacterial species. Because these biofilms are easy to study, they have become the paradigm of multispecies biofilms. In this Review we describe the factors involved in the formation of these biofilms, including the initial adherence to the oral tissues and teeth, cooperation between bacterial species in the biofilm, signalling between the bacteria and its role in pathogenesis, and the transfer of DNA between bacteria. In all these aspects distance between cells of different species is integral for oral biofilm growth.
• Periodontitis: a polymicrobial disruption of host homeostasis
  Darveau RP - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):481 (2010)
  Periodontitis, or gum disease, affects millions of people each year. Although it is associated with a defined microbial composition found on the surface of the tooth and tooth root, the contribution of bacteria to disease progression is poorly understood. Commensal bacteria probably induce a protective response that prevents the host from developing disease. However, several bacterial species found in plaque (the 'red-complex' bacteria: Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia and Treponema denticola) use various mechanisms to interfere with host defence mechanisms. Furthermore, disease may result from 'community-based' attack on the host. Here, I describe the interaction of the host immune system with the oral bacteria in healthy states and in diseased states.
• Biology and pathogenesis of chikungunya virus
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):491 (2010)
  Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne alphavirus responsible for a recent, unexpectedly severe epidemic in countries of the Indian Ocean region. Although many alphaviruses have been well studied, little was known about the biology and pathogenesis of CHIKV at the time of the 2005 outbreak. Over the past 5 years there has been a multidisciplinary effort aimed at deciphering the clinical, physiopathological, immunological and virological features of CHIKV infection. This Review highlights some of the most recent advances in our understanding of the biology of CHIKV and its interactions with the host.
• Structure-based discovery of antibacterial drugs
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):501 (2010)
  The modern era of antibacterial chemotherapy began in the 1930s, and the next four decades saw the discovery of almost all the major classes of antibacterial agents that are currently in use. However, bacterial resistance to many of these drugs is becoming an increasing problem. As such, the discovery of drugs with novel modes of action will be vital to meet the threats created by the emergence of resistance. Success in discovering inhibitors using high-throughput screening of chemical libraries is rare. In this Review we explore the exciting opportunities for antibacterial-drug discovery arising from structure-based drug design.
• Where microbiology meets microengineering: design and applications of reporter bacteria
  van der Meer JR Belkin S - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):511 (2010)
  Bacteria have long been the targets for genetic manipulation, but more recently they have been synthetically designed to carry out specific tasks. Among the simplest of these tasks is chemical compound and toxicity detection coupled to the production of a quantifiable reporter signal. In this Review, we describe the current design of bacterial bioreporters and their use in a range of assays to measure the presence of harmful chemicals in water, air, soil, food or biological specimens. New trends for integrating synthetic biology and microengineering into the design of bacterial bioreporter platforms are also highlighted.
• The ecological coherence of high bacterial taxonomic ranks
  Philippot L Andersson SG Battin TJ Prosser JI Schimel JP Whitman WB Hallin S - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):523 (2010)
  The species is a fundamental unit of biological organization, but its relevance for Bacteria and Archaea is still hotly debated. Even more controversial is whether the deeper branches of the ribosomal RNA-derived phylogenetic tree, such as the phyla, have ecological importance. Here, we discuss the ecological coherence of high bacterial taxa in the light of genome analyses and present examples of niche differentiation between deeply diverging groups in terrestrial and aquatic systems. The ecological relevance of high bacterial taxa has implications for bacterial taxonomy, evolution and ecology.
• Correspondence: Generic drugs for developing nations
  Maciag K Kishore SP - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):530 (2010)
  We applaud the recent editorial (A step in the right direction. Nature Rev. Microbiol.8, 244 (2010)
• Erratum: Artemisinin resistance: current status and scenarios for containment
  - Nat Rev Micro 8(7):530 (2010)
  , doi:10.1038/nrmicro2331 In the above article, the structure of artesunate shown in Fig 1c was incorrect. The correct structure is shown here. We apologize to the authors and to readers for this error.