Review
Immunology
Jan Capek, Branislav Vecerek
Summary: The utilization of manganese in bacteria varies among species and is influenced by external conditions. The role of manganese in pathogens is linked to the accumulation of molecular oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere and its interference with iron, as well as the ability of manganese to replace iron in enzymes.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR AND INFECTION MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Biology
Lawrence A. Kapustka
Summary: This commentary explores the challenges in radiation safety that derive from the inherent complexity of social-ecological systems and emphasizes the importance and necessity of adopting a holistic approach. Meaningful engagement among diverse stakeholders is required to achieve consensus on assessment and management for radiation safety.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RADIATION BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Cell Biology
Pravita Balijepalli, Ciera C. Sitton, Kathryn E. Meier
Summary: Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a family of phospholipids that act as ligands for G protein-coupled receptors, playing a significant role in cancer by stimulating cell proliferation and migration through multiple LPARs. Understanding the mechanisms underlying LPA signaling and its interactions with other receptors is crucial for drug discovery targeting GPCRs in cancer therapy.
Review
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Sameer Mohammad, Rafia Aziz, Saeed Al Mahri, Shuja Shafi Malik, Esraa Haji, Altaf Husain Khan, Tanvir Saleem Khatlani, Abderrezak Bouchama
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has infected millions and caused over a million deaths, with age and underlying health conditions being major factors for severity and mortality. Obesity has emerged as a new risk factor for severe disease and death due to COVID-19.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yiqin Deng, Songlin Liu, Juan Feng, Yunchao Wu, Can Mao
Summary: Seagrass meadows, particularly Enhalus acoroides, can remove bacterial pathogens by trapping particles, while Thalassia hemprichii may inhibit bacterial pathogens by releasing antibacterial compounds. The mechanisms of bacterial pathogen removal by different seagrass species warrant further exploration in future studies.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Virology
Christoph Jung, Dorota Kmiec, Lennart Koepke, Fabian Zech, Timo Jacob, Konstantin M. J. Sparrer, Frank Kirchhoff
Summary: The recently identified Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is the fifth variant of concern and is characterized by significant changes in the viral Spike protein, possibly leading to increased transmission efficiency and evasion of neutralizing antibodies. Despite quickly outcompeting the Delta variant, Omicron appears to be overall less pathogenic than other variants.
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Dario Ottonello, Stefania D'Angelo, Fabrizio Oneto, Stefano Malavasi, Marco Alberto Luca Zuffi, Filippo Spadola
Summary: A study found that the introduction of alien fish species has a significant impact on freshwater turtle populations, affecting their abundance, growth, and reproductive output. These data can provide insights for guiding management strategies and conservation actions in small wetland areas.
ACTA HERPETOLOGICA
(2021)
Review
Biology
James P. J. Hall, Joao Botelho, Adrian Cazares, David A. Baltrus
Summary: This article provides an overview of the distribution, diversity, biology, and gene content of megaplasmids, emphasizing their widespread existence and often overlooked importance as mobile genetic elements.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Business
Samuel A. Mortimer
Summary: Prior scholarly approaches to meaningful work have mostly focused on how work contributes to a meaningful life or the antecedents and outcomes of workers experiencing their work as meaningful. However, these approaches fail to capture what people seek in meaningful work. In this paper, the author proposes a new commitment-based account of meaningful work that explores the reasons individuals have for choosing meaningful work. By drawing on philosopher Ruth Chang's concept of voluntarist reasons, the author argues that commitments create distinct reasons for pursuing certain work, which ultimately makes work meaningful.
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alex L. Pigot
Summary: The impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity vary across species, and a new study reveals that the intrinsic species properties underlying urban tolerance vary globally based on environmental context. This has significant implications for the conservation of biodiversity in our rapidly urbanising world.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Yuxin Fang, Xinggang Wang, Rui Wu, Wenyu Liu
Summary: Recent studies show that hierarchical Vision Transformer (ViT) with a macro architecture of interleaved non-overlapped window-based self-attention & shifted-window operation can outperform convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in various visual recognition tasks. Self-attention is not the only choice for hierarchical ViT to achieve strong performance.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PATTERN ANALYSIS AND MACHINE INTELLIGENCE
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Fleurdeliz Maglangit, Yi Yu, Hai Deng
Summary: Pathogenic bacteria pose threats but also provide potential for pharmaceuticals. Discovering new antibiotics and exploiting pathogenic bacteria could lead to a new era of antibiotic discovery.
NATURAL PRODUCT REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Cecilia Bartolucci, Viviana Scognamiglio, Amina Antonacci, Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto
Summary: This article describes a circular framework that allows for a quick assessment of green applications of nanotechnologies in agriculture. It is divided into segments addressing specific aspects of potentially green interventions.
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Ken Davidian
Summary: This paper discusses the evolution of the U.S. space industry from government-driven to commercial activities, analyzes the significance and framework of commercial space activities, provides two case examples to illustrate the development of commercial space activities, and provides some warnings regarding commercial market forecasts.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Qing-Yu Wang, William B. B. Frank, Rachel E. E. Abercrombie, Kazushige Obara, Aitaro Kato
Summary: Low-frequency earthquakes are distinct from regular earthquakes and occur in the subduction plate boundary where an aseismic rheology dominates. Their unique waveforms suggest an unusual rupture process or strong attenuation in the source zone. By analyzing seismicity in the Nankai Trough, we find that while the spectral signature of low-frequency earthquakes aligns with the classical earthquake model, their rupture duration and stress drop are significantly different. This suggests that their low-frequency nature is primarily due to an atypical seismic rupture process.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Joaquim Torra, Felipe Viela, Diego Megias, Begona Sot, Cristina Flors
Summary: CRANAD-2, a fluorogenic curcumin derivative, shows good performance in both stimulated emission depletion (STED) and single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) for near-infrared detection and imaging of amyloid aggregates with a resolution range of 45-55 nm. Its versatility and performance make it a powerful tool for near-infrared nanoscopic imaging of amyloids in vitro and in vivo.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Peter N. Lipke, Jason M. Rauceo, Albertus Viljoen
Summary: Mating and DNA transfer are crucial events for living organisms, and cell adhesion between gametes is essential for facilitating mating. Studies have provided insights into the structural information, specificities, and affinities of mating adhesins. Single-cell force spectroscopy has furthered our understanding of the design and evolution of these specialized adhesion proteins.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Estelle Deboever, Geraldine Van Aubel, Valeria Rondelli, Alexandros Koutsioubas, Marion Mathelie-Guinlet, Yves F. Dufrene, Marc Ongena, Laurence Lins, Pierre Van Cutsem, Marie-Laure Fauconnier, Magali Deleu
Summary: This study investigates the potential of fatty acid hydroperoxides (HPOs) as plant defense elicitors and their mechanism of action. The results show that HPOs enhance Arabidopsis thaliana's resistance to Botrytis cinerea and activate early immune-related defense responses. Biophysical analysis reveals that HPO insertion into plant plasma membranes impacts their structure.
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Shanice S. Webster, Marion Mathelie-Guinlet, Andreia F. Verissimo, Daniel Schultz, Albertus Viljoen, Calvin K. Lee, William C. Schmidt, Gerard C. L. Wong, Yves F. Dufrene, George A. O'Toole
Summary: Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses force-induced changes mediated by the PilY1 protein to sense surfaces and regulate biofilm formation. The study provides insights into the mechanosensing mechanism of type IV pili and its role in surface colonization strategies.
Article
Microbiology
Albertus Viljoen, Yves F. Dufrene, Jerome Nigou
Summary: Adhesion plays a crucial role in the infective lifestyles of bacterial pathogens, including biofilm formation, host cell adherence, and establishment of infection. Mycobacterial species causing human and animal diseases utilize different adhesion mechanisms, with some also forming biofilms during infection.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Albertus Viljoen, Yves F. Dufrene
Summary: In this study, Ritzmann et al. use single-molecule force spectroscopy to investigate the mechanical properties of a molecular component, BamA, and how it is affected by an antibiotic. The findings shed light on the impact of antibiotics on Gram-negative outer membrane proteins.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Thaina M. da Costa, Albertus Viljoen, Aisling M. Towell, Yves F. Dufrene, Joan A. Geoghegan
Summary: This study identifies a novel loricrin-binding protein, FnBPB, in Staphylococcus aureus and demonstrates through single-molecule force spectroscopy that FnBPB strengthens the adhesion of S. aureus to human corneocytes through its strong binding to loricrin.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Telmo O. Paiva, Albertus Viljoen, Yves F. Dufrene
Summary: Advancements in atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques and methodologies in microbiology have enhanced our understanding of microbial cell surfaces. Recent studies have shown that AFM imaging of cells and membranes at or near molecular resolution enables detailed visualization of membrane-drug interactions.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Albertus Viljoen, Alain Vercellone, Myriam Chimen, Gerald Gaibelet, Serge Mazeres, Jerome Nigou, Yves F. Dufrene
Summary: The pathogenic bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis evades the immune system by binding to the C-type lectin DC-SIGN on dendritic cells. Our multidisciplinary study combining atomic force microscopy, Forster resonance energy transfer, and bioassays unravels the molecular mechanism behind the selective recognition of this receptor. We found that the distribution of DC-SIGN ligands differs between MyMTBC species, with dense nanodomains observed on M. bovis BCG. Upon bacteria-host cell adhesion, ligand nanodomains induce the recruitment and clustering of DC-SIGN, highlighting the importance of ligand clustering in pathogen recognition.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Felipe Viela, Ingrid V. Ortega, Jaime J. Hernandez, Isabel Rodriguez, Sara Moreno-Da Silva, Alejandro Lopez-Moreno, Emilio M. Perez, Cristina Flors
Summary: Mechanobactericidal nanomaterials are promising antimicrobial strategies that rely on mechanical interactions with bacteria and overcome antibiotic resistance. However, the detailed mechanisms behind the killing effects are not well understood. This study investigates the real-time response of bacteria to weak mechanical interactions with nanostructured topographies and nanodarts, shedding light on the complex mechanisms of mechanically induced bacterial death.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Telmo O. Paiva, Albertus Viljoen, Thaina M. da Costa, Joan A. Geoghegan, Yves F. Dufrene
Summary: Attachment of Staphylococcus aureus to human skin corneocyte cells is mediated by bacterial cell-surface protein adhesins, including fibronectin-binding protein B (FnBPB). Using single-molecule experiments, it is demonstrated that FnBPB binds to corneodesmosin (CDSN) on atopic dermatitis patient corneocytes through a sophisticated two-site mechanism.
ACS NANOSCIENCE AU
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Can Wang, Constance Chantraine, Albertus Viljoen, Andrew B. Herr, Paul D. Fey, Alexander R. Horswill, Marion Mathelie-Guinlet, Yves F. Dufrene
Summary: The Aap protein from Staphylococcus epidermidis plays a crucial role in the formation of biofilms, enabling intercellular adhesion through interactions between different domains. The study reveals the high mechanical stability and diverse adhesive functions of Aap, providing a mechanism for cells to form highly adhesive and cohesive biofilms.
Article
Microbiology
Shanice S. Webster, Marion Mathelie-Guinlet, Andreia F. Verissimo, Daniel Schultz, Albertus Viljoen, Calvin K. Lee, William C. Schmidt, Gerard C. L. Wong, Yves F. Dufrene, George A. O'Toole
Summary: The study reveals that a single cysteine residue in the vWA domain of PilY1 plays a key role in force-induced changes necessary for surface sensing by TFP in biofilm formation. Mutation of this cysteine affects surface adhesion forces, sustained conformational changes, and c-di-GMP signaling, providing insights into the different surface colonization strategies observed in P. aeruginosa strains PA14 and PAO1.