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The development of a microscale human liver platform that recapitulates the entire liver stage of malaria and could be used to screen antimalarial drugs and vaccines.
Recent studies have provided mechanistic insight into the cell cycle of coccoid bacteria. In this Review, Pinho, Kjos and Veening discuss our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms orchestrating peptidoglycan synthesis, cell division and chromosome segregation inStaphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Achieving intestinal homeostasis is a balancing act of attacking pathogens while tolerating the gut microbiota, and repairing damaged tissue following infection. Here, Lemaitre and colleagues discuss insights obtained from the study of host–microorganism interactions in theDrosophila melanogastergut.
Bernander and Lindås provide an overview of recent studies that have enhanced our understanding of the archaeal cell cycle. They discuss the multiple-origin mode of DNA replication, the archaeal replisome, the identification of a genome segregation machinery, the first cytoskeletal structure and the discovery of a novel cell division system.
Although the gut microbiota has been linked to a wide range of diseases in humans, including type 2 diabetes and obesity, moving from correlation to causation is notoriously difficult. In this Opinion article, Liping Zhao discusses some of the correlations that have been made between the microbiota and obesity to date, and how to move towards causation using the conceptual framework of Koch's postulates.
In budding yeast, growth at the neck region connecting the mother and daughter cell is prevented by a septin ring inside the cell membrane and a chitin ring in the cell wall. Cabib and Arroyo describe recent work supporting the hypothesis that the attachment of the chitin ring to β-1,3-glucan is crucial for the control of morphogenesis at the neck.