Trends in Microbiology最新文献

This commentary outlines ways in which health researchers can advance health equity. We focus on often-overlooked areas, including identifying context-specific drivers of inequity, carefully selecting research questions and priorities, engaging stakeholders, including those whose voices are seldom heard, improving diversity and inclusiveness among study participants, and using equity-oriented study designs.

Cells must maintain an equilibrium between external and internal sources of oxidation while also employing endogenously generated reactive species to support intracellular signaling and proliferation. This balancing act is crucial for fungal pathogens, as their survival depends on the skillful coordination of attack and defense mechanisms to overcome stressors encountered in the hostile host environment. In this review, we examine recent findings on the contributions of small-molecule and protein thiols to fungal pathogenesis, and place this information in the context of the thiol-based redox systems that support the response to oxidative stress in fungal pathogens of humans. The emerging view is that small molecules and thiol-active proteins/enzymes maintain a redox balance during infection thereby avoiding irreversible oxidative damage and ultimately supporting fungal growth and pathogenesis.

Fungal infections are a major contributor to human infectious diseases. To address this in Latin America, international groups formed the Fungal Disease Interest Group (FDIG). At the Brazil conference of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycoses (ISHAM), FDIG hosted a forum highlighting key challenges and priorities to advance fungal disease research, education, and public health across the region.

Soils are highly heterogeneous ecosystems hosting multiple organisms engaged in trophic interactions. We introduce the economic spectrum of soil food webs - a trait-based framework spanning a fast-to-slow continuum - that offers a more integrative understanding than previous classifications. This framework highlights the complexity of multiple organismal traits shaping soil food web structure, dynamics, and soil functionality.

The genus Bacteroides comprises canonical commensals of the gastrointestinal microbiota that maintain intestinal homeostasis and contribute to host health. Yet, emergent evidence has revealed that these same bacteria can also increase host susceptibility to infectious and noninfectious diseases, as well as directly drive intestinal inflammatory pathology. In this review we reconcile this duality with the paradigm that Bacteroides' pathogenic potential scales with the degree to which it remodels its intestinal niches. Understanding the molecular and ecological mechanisms underlying this niche remodeling is essential to defining when Bacteroides acts as friend or foe. This review highlights recent advances that illuminate these context-dependent behaviors and their implications for gut health and disease.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains an epidemiological concern due to heterogeneous outcomes in tuberculosis (TB) pathology and the lack of mechanistic understanding of early immune events. Type I interferons (IFNs) in TB are generally described as pathological. However, evidence also suggests a protective role in vaccination and adjunctive to chemotherapy. Understanding Type I IFN signaling in Mtb-host interactions is therefore critical as it is among the earliest signatures of progressive infection. Crosstalk between Type I and II IFN signaling during TB may also be key to disease outcome. This review explores our current understanding of the role of Type I IFNs in Mtb infection and vaccination and offers the IFN type switching model, among others, to explain the duality of IFNs' function in TB.

Type IV pili (T4P) are dynamic surface fibers that mediate diverse bacterial activities, including adhesion, twitching motility, horizontal gene transfer, biofilm formation, and virulence. The PilY family of T4P-associated proteins are found across a wide range of bacterial species and are critical for key T4P functions. PilY proteins are characterized by a shared domain architecture which consists of a variable N-terminal region that mediates adhesion and a conserved C-terminal beta-propeller domain that facilitates pilus biogenesis. Given their surface exposure and roles in virulence, PilY family proteins represent an attractive target for novel therapeutic interventions, including small-molecule antivirulence therapies against pathogenic bacteria and potential as vaccine antigens. This review synthesizes our current understanding of PilY structure, localization, function, and evolutionary relationships across T4P systems.

Soils are critical reservoirs of antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), serving as interfaces among human, animal, plant, and environmental microbiomes. While many studies have profiled soil ARGs, most rely on DNA-based methods that cannot distinguish total from metabolically active ARB, limiting risk assessment and mitigation. This review outlines soil ARG sources, their mobility, and potential transmission to plants and the food chain. We highlight advances in community- and single-cell-level approaches for characterizing active ARB and explore emerging mitigation strategies such as advanced waste treatment and bioremediation. This review aims to bridge the gap between ARG pollution and its risk mitigation, contributing to a comprehensive framework for tackling active ARB in soils.