npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - MeeY and YybP, two proteins regulated by manganese-sensing riboswitches, are required for Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation

Carbonic anhydrase (E.C. 4.2.1.1) is an enzyme that catalyzes the reversible hydration of CO2 to carbonic acid (H2CO3), which dissociates to bicarbonate (HCO3-) at intracellular pH. Copious amounts of...

Few journals in microbiology carry the history, continuity, and influence of the Journal of Bacteriology (JB). Since its founding in 1916, JB has published for more than a century and has served as a ...

Brogan and Rudner report the identification of a microbial autoproteolytic domain that is structurally homologous to the GAIN domain of eukaryotic adhesion GPCRs. Rather than participating in transmem...

Mounting global responses to dynamic environmental conditions is a crucial function that bacterial cells must perform. Global regulatory networks are most often studied in individual species, however,...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a ubiquitous and crucial mechanism to structure eukaryotic multicellular tissues. PCD-like processes have also been described in bacteria, but their contribution to mult...

Molecular oxygen (O2) is the preferred terminal electron acceptor of the electron transport chain due to its high redox potential and is therefore an essential driver of cellular metabolism in aerobic...

Copper is a critical micronutrient for bacteria; however, it is toxic in excess. This leads to the cell having tightly regulated import and export systems to prevent intoxication while having sufficient copper for cellular needs. Copper export has been well studied, but copper import and the effects of copper starvation are less defined. In this article, we characterize the Bacillus subtilis high-affinity copper importer YcnJ. We show that under copper limitation, the cell is deficient in copper-containing oxidases, which leads to respiratory defects. Copper imported by YcnJ is proposed to function in a pathway with other proteins implicated in the assembly of respiratory oxidases. More generally, this work contributes to the underexplored area of copper import and trafficking in bacteria.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

Improved fractionation strategies can identify antibiotics with previously unseen scaffolds and mechanisms, exemplified by manikomycin from Streptomyces rimosus, which acts by targeting the E-site of ...

El Mouali and Tawk et al. characterize the oxygen-tolerance response in the human gut-residing bacterium Segatella copri. They identified a subset of strains that acquired an additional oxygen regulat...

A common mechanism of inhibition of the essential lipid II flippase MurJ by three distinct phage-encoded single-gene lysis proteins provides insights into potential new targets for antimicrobial devel...

Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

Cell division in many Gram-positive bacteria involves the synthesis of a peptidoglycan septum that is then hydrolyzed to facilitate cell separation. Here the authors show that, after septum formation,...

Abstract. In prokaryotes, bidirectional promoters are pseudo-symmetrical DNA sequences that stimulate divergent transcription. Ubiquitous, and far more lik

Bacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...

The modern antibiotic era began in the early twentieth century, but humans have long used materials from the natural world to attempt to treat the symptoms of infection. In this primer, we will discus...

Open and frugal modular imaging platform for citizen oceanography

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

Peptidoglycan (PG) synthesis is essential to maintain cell integrity during bacterial growth and division. In Bacillus subtilis, PG synthesis involves class A PBPs that act independently and class B P...

In this issue of Structure, Yu et al. show that the Bacillus subtilis ytr operon encodes two distinct ABC transporters. The authors present the cryo-EM structures of YtrEF in the apo and ADP-vanadate-...

Coupling an optogenetic lipid-modifying enzyme with proximity labeling reveals protein networks and mechanisms regulating lipid homeostasis in the membranes of target organelles.

The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Stress Response will be held in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Apply today to reserve your spot.

The enzyme carbonic anhydrase mediates the taste sensation of carbonated drinks.

Enterococcus lactis, a recently established species that was previously classified as Enterococcus faecium clade B. Given its recent taxonomic classification, studies on this bacterium are scarce, an...

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Predicting drug inactivation by changes in bacterial growth dynamics

Here, the authors show that Mycobacterium tuberculosis manipulates lipid metabolism to overcome host restriction, by remodelling its lipidome and utilising host lipids as an alternative phosphate sour...

Under iron-limited conditions, FsrA base-pairs with the intergenic region between epeX and epeE, enhancing epeE translation and triggering EPE production. Toxin-mediated cell lysis releases nutrients....

The Bacillus subtilis ytrGABCDEF operon is a reliable and specific marker for the inhibition of cell wall biosynthesis by antibiotics. It has therefore advanced as a common reporter in transcriptomic,...

Bacterial flagella are elaborate machines that are inserted through the bacterial cell envelope. The regulation of flagellar gene expression is organized in hierarchical tiers that largely correlate w...

Many environments are contaminated by metals. These metals are toxic to the microorganisms that inhabit these environments and carry out important ecosystem services. While much is known about bacteri...

Bacteria utilize a variety of mechanisms to remodel the cell wall in response to environmental and antimicrobial stress. In the model organism Bacillu…