Latest Articles
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyEnvironmentally Endemic Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strains with Mutations in lasR Are Associated with Increased Disease Severity in Corneal UlcersThe LasR transcription factor is an important regulator of quorum sensing in P. aeruginosa and positively controls multiple virulence-associated pathways. The emergence of strains with lasR loss-of-function alleles in chronic disease is well described and is thought to represent a specific adaptation to the host environment. However, the prevalence and...
Observation | Host-Microbe BiologyExtreme Dysbiosis of the Microbiome in Critical IllnessCritical illness may be associated with the loss of normal, “health promoting” bacteria, allowing overgrowth of disease-promoting pathogenic bacteria (dysbiosis), which, in turn, makes patients susceptible to hospital-acquired infections, sepsis, and organ failure. This has significant world health implications, because sepsis is becoming a leading cause of death worldwide, and hospital-acquired infections contribute to significant...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyA High-Content, Phenotypic Screen Identifies Fluorouridine as an Inhibitor of Pyoverdine Biosynthesis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa VirulenceDespite intense research effort from scientists and the advent of the molecular age of biomedical research, many of the mechanisms that underlie pathogenesis are still understood poorly, if at all. The opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes a variety of soft tissue infections and is responsible for over 50,000 hospital-acquired infections per year...
Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionAntibiotic Bactericidal Activity Is Countered by Maintaining pH Homeostasis in Mycobacterium smegmatisSince the discovery of antibiotics, mortality due to bacterial infection has decreased dramatically. However, infections from difficult to treat bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant pathogens have been on the rise. An understanding of the cascade of events that leads to cell death downstream of specific drug-target interactions is not...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyPhosphorylation-Dependent Targeting of Tetrahymena HP1 to Condensed ChromatinCompacting the genome to various degrees influences processes that use DNA as a template, such as gene transcription and replication. This project was aimed at learning more about the cellular mechanisms that control genome compaction. Posttranslational modifications of proteins involved in genome condensation are emerging as potentially important points of regulation. To help elucidate protein modifications and how they affect the...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyComparative Pathogenicity of United Kingdom Isolates of the Emerging Pathogen Candida auris and Other Key Pathogenic Candida SpeciesThe incidence of invasive candidiasis, which includes candidemia and deep tissue infections, continues to rise and is associated with considerable mortality rates. Candida albicans remains the most common cause of invasive candidiasis, although the prevalence of non-albicans species has increased over recent years. Since its first description in 2009, ...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyMolecular Basis for Strain Variation in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Adhesin Flo11pAs a nonmotile organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae employs the cell surface flocculin Flo11/Muc1 as an important means of adapting to environmental change. However, there is a great deal of strain variation in the expression of Flo11-dependent phenotypes, including flocculation. In this study, we investigated the molecular basis of this strain-specific phenotypic...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyForce Sensitivity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae FlocculinsThe Saccharomyces cerevisiae flocculins mediate the formation of cellular aggregates and biofilm-like mats, useful in clearing yeast from fermentations. An important property of fungal adhesion proteins, including flocculins, is the ability to form catch bonds, i.e., bonds that strengthen under tension. This strengthening is based, at least in part, on increased...
Observation | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyA Phenotypically Silent vanB2 Operon Carried on a Tn1549-Like Element in Clostridium difficileIn an era when the development of new antimicrobial drugs is slow, vancomycin remains the preferred antimicrobial therapy for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), the most important health care-related infection in the world today. The emergence of resistance to vancomycin would have significant consequences in relation to treating patients with CDI. In this paper,...
Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionSystematically Altering Bacterial SOS Activity under Stress Reveals Therapeutic Strategies for Potentiating AntibioticsOur antibiotic arsenal is becoming depleted, in part, because bacteria have the ability to rapidly adapt and acquire resistance to our best agents. The SOS pathway, a widely conserved DNA damage stress response in bacteria, is activated by many antibiotics and has been shown to play central role in promoting survival and the evolution of resistance under antibiotic stress. As a result, targeting the SOS response has been proposed as an...