Alarmone synthetases are intracellular enzymes that promote bacterial survival by responding to environmental stress. Although extracellular alarmone production has been reported in Streptomyces, the ...

Cellular proliferation relies on the successful coordination and completion of genome replication and segregation. To help achieve this, many bacteria utilize regulatory pathways that ensure DNA repli...

In this work, Urem et al. characterize the mode of action as well as mechanism of reduced susceptibility related to a class of antimicrobials that is in development for the treatment of infections wit...

Introducing novel antibiotics is essential to counter the spread of drug-resistant pathogens. Here, we report the discovery of 4′-thiothymidine (4′sT), a nucleoside antibiotic from the nematode symbiont Photorhabdus asymbiotica, identified through activation of a silent biosynthetic gene cluster. 4′sT features an unusual 4′-thiosugar moiety. We identified its biosynthetic gene cluster, including a radical SAM enzyme presumably involved in sulfur incorporation. 4′sT exhibits strain-selective activity that is governed by differences in thymidine metabolism rather than variations in the molecular target. These findings expand our knowledge of antibiotics with unusual selective activity.

Selenocysteine, incorporated into polypeptides at recoded termination codons, plays an essential role in redox biology. Using GPX1 and GPX4, selenoenzymes that mitigate oxidative stress, as reporters,...

Position Summary This position will be in the lab of Dr. Joseph E. Peters in the Department of Microbiology. Research in the Peters’ lab broadly involves deciphering mechanisms in genome stability and...

Cyclic dimeric-GMP (c-di-GMP) is a ubiquitous bacterial second messenger that regulates a variety of cellular processes, including motility, biofil...

A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

Understanding how bacteria survive extreme conditions is key to tackling challenges in health, food safety, and industry. This study reveals a previously unexplored layer of control in Bacillus subtil...

Although discovered more than 50 years ago, the cellular functions of Ap4A and related dinucleotides remain largely enigmatic. To address this knowledge gap, we organized a conference showcasing rece....