Molecular Biology and Physiology
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyGenome Editing of Babesia bovis Using the CRISPR/Cas9 SystemBabesia bovis is the most virulent cause of bovine babesiosis worldwide. The disease consequences are death, abortion, and economical loss due to reduced milk and meat production. Available vaccines are not effective, treatment options are limited, and emergence of drug and acaricide resistance has been reported from different regions. There is an urgent need to...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyThe AGC Kinase SsAgc1 Regulates Sporisorium scitamineum Mating/Filamentation and PathogenicityThe AGC signaling pathway represents a conserved distinct signaling pathway in regulation of fungal differentiation and virulence, while it has not been identified or characterized in the sugarcane smut fungus Sporisorium scitamineum. In this study, we identified a PAS domain-containing AGC kinase, SsAgc1, in S. scitamineum. Functional analysis revealed that SsAgc1 plays a regulatory role on the fungal dimorphic switch...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyTitrating Gene Function in the Human Fungal Pathogen Candida albicans through Poly-Adenosine Tract InsertionInvestigating a protein’s functional importance at the whole-organism level usually involves altering its expression level or its specific activity and observing the consequences with respect to physiology or phenotype. Several approaches designed to partially or completely abolish the function of a gene, including its deletion from the genome and the use of systems that facilitate conditional expression, have been widely applied....
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyRobust Transcriptional Response to Heat Shock Impacting Diverse Cellular Processes despite Lack of Heat Shock Factor in MicrosporidiaWe do not fully understand why some fungal species are able to grow at temperatures approaching mammalian body temperature. Nosema ceranae, a microsporidium, is a type of fungal parasite that infects honey bees and grows optimally at the colony temperature of 35°C despite possessing cellular machinery for responding to heat stress that is notably simpler than that of...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyGenomewide Profiling of the Enterococcus faecalis Transcriptional Response to Teixobactin Reveals CroRS as an Essential Regulator of Antimicrobial ToleranceTeixobactin is a new antimicrobial with no known mechanisms of resistance. Understanding how resistance could develop will be crucial to the success and longevity of teixobactin as a new potent antimicrobial. Antimicrobial tolerance has been shown to facilitate the development of resistance, and we show that E. faecalis is intrinsically tolerant to teixobactin at high...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyFunctional Analyses of Cytokinesis Regulators in Bloodstream Stage Trypanosoma brucei Parasites Identify Functions and Regulations Specific to the Life Cycle StageThe early divergent protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei is the causative agent of sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle in sub-Saharan Africa. This parasite has a complex life cycle by alternating between the insect vector and the mammalian hosts and proliferates by binary cell fission. The control of cell division in trypanosomes appears to be distinct...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyPhotocatalytic Protein Damage by Silver Nanoparticles Circumvents Bacterial Stress Response and Multidrug ResistanceAlthough silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are well known for their antibacterial properties, the mechanism by which they kill bacterial cells remains a topic of debate. In this study, we uncovered the bactericidal mechanism of AgNPs, which is induced by light. We tested the efficacy of AgNPs against a panel of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens as well as Escherichia coli...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyA Tripartite, Hierarchical Sigma Factor Cascade Promotes Hormogonium Development in the Filamentous Cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiformeCyanobacteria are integral to global carbon and nitrogen cycles, and their metabolic capacity coupled with their ease of genetic manipulation make them attractive platforms for applications such as biomaterial and biofertilizer production. Achieving these goals will likely require a detailed understanding and precise rewiring of these organisms’ GRNs. The complex phenotypic plasticity of filamentous cyanobacteria has also made them...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyRoles of the Transcription Factors Sfl2 and Efg1 in White-Opaque Switching in a/α Strains of Candida albicansMore than 95% of Candida albicans strains isolated from humans are MTLa/α, and approximately a third of these can undergo the white-to-opaque transition. Therefore, besides being a requirement for MTL-homozygous strains to mate, the opaque phenotype very likely plays a role in the commensalism and pathogenesis of nonmating, a...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyComprehensive Identification of Fim-Mediated Inversions in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli with Structural Variation Detection Using Relative EntropyUTI is a common ailment that affects more than half of all women during their lifetime. The leading cause of UTIs is UPEC, which relies on type 1 pili to colonize and persist within the bladder during infection. The regulation of type 1 pili is remarkable for an epigenetic mechanism in which a section of DNA containing a promoter is inverted. The inversion mechanism relies on what are thought to be dedicated recombinase genes; however,...