The role of lytic transglycosylases has been extensively studied in bacteria that rely on conventional D,D-transpeptidases (PBPs) for PG cross-linking. In contrast, little is known about the contribut...

XerC and XerD are ubiquitous bacterial recombinases dedicated to chromosome dimer resolution. They add a crossover at a specific chromosomal site, dif, when activated by the FtsK cell division protein...

SUMMARYBacteria are constantly exposed to changing environmental conditions, and to survive they need to adapt quickly, adjusting their gene expression and metabolism to make the most of the resources...

Bacterial genomes often include extrachromosomal replicons, ranging from small plasmids to chromosome-scale replicons. Here, Czarnecki et al. analyse more than 40,000 complete bacterial genomes and sh...

Author summary The environment in which bacteria live puts them under a great deal of stress, forcing them to adapt constantly, either temporarily or permanently. Streptococcus pneumoniae, a pathogeni...

Abstract. RNA modifications play a fundamental role in regulating essential cellular processes, including translation fidelity and stress adaptation. While

S protein interacts with and activates PBP1a during cell division, as part of a larger GpsB-associated multiprotein complex that coordinates peptidoglycan remodelling in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 11 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01719-xAlphaSync synchronizes AlphaFold Protein Structure Database predictions with UniProt sequences, providing up-to-date protein structures with residue-level annotations for humans, model organisms and pathogens through an accessible web interface and application programming interface.

Abstract. The stringent response represses translation and is activated when cells enter the stationary phase and intracellular amino acid levels drop. Bac

Abstract. Bacteria define their heritable cell shape using membrane integral glycosyltransferases (GTases) of the shape, elongation, division and sporulati

Nature Communications - This study investigates the effects of the carbapenem resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in clinical enterobacteria. Using CRISPRi screens, the authors revealed that the...

Structural and functional characterization of the β-barrel assembly machinery complex in Bacteroidota reveals a distinct, seven-component complex with a large extracellular domain that may enable β-barrel–surface lipoprotein complex assembly.

Peptidoglycan, the major constituent of bacterial cell walls, is a giant macromolecule made of glycan strands cross-linked by short peptides, which pr…

Bacteria often experience nutrient limitation and, in response, attenuate energetically costly metabolic processes like protein synthesis. At the same time, however, they stimulate the expression of a subset of proteins that facilitate survival under ...

Nature Communications - In Escherichia coli, lateral cell-wall expansion during growth occurs by crosslinking of new glycan chains to the existing peptidoglycan network. Here, Liang et al. show a...

The bacterial alarmone (p)ppGpp induces β-lactam resistance through modification of RNA polymerase and ribosome function rather than regulation of peptidoglycan metabolism in Escherichia coli.