For decades, biologist have exploited the near boundless advantages that molecular and genetic tools and analysis provide for our ability to understand biological systems. One of these genetic tools, suppressor analysis, has proven invaluable in furthering our understanding of biological processes and pathways and in discovering unknown interactions between genes and gene products.
Iron is an essential element for
Escherichia
,
Salmonella
, and
Shigella
species. The acquisition of sufficient amounts of iron is difficult in many environments, including the intestinal tract, where these bacteria usually reside.
Decades of research, much of it in
Escherichia coli
, have yielded a wealth of insight into bacterial cell division. Here, we provide an overview of the
E. coli
division machinery with an emphasis on recent findings.
Escherichia coli
and
Salmonella
isolates produce a range of different polysaccharide structures that play important roles in their biology.
E. coli
isolates often possess capsular polysaccharides (K antigens), which form a surface structural layer. These possess a wide range of repeat-unit structures.
Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
is an
Enterobacteriaceae
family member that is commonly transmitted by the fecal-oral route to cause infections. From the small intestine,
Y. pseudotuberculosis
can invade through Peyer’s patches and lymph vessels to infect the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs).
The DNA in bacterial viruses collectively contains a rich, yet relatively underexplored, chemical diversity of nucleobases beyond the canonical adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Herein, we review what is known about the genetic and biochemical basis for the biosynthesis of complex DNA modifications, also called DNA hypermodifications, in the DNA of tailed bacteriophages infecting
Escherichia coli
and
Salmonella enterica
.
Very few labs have had the good fortune to have been able to focus for more than 50 years on a relatively narrow research topic and to be in a field in which both basic knowledge and the research technology and methods have progressed as rapidly as they have in molecular biology. My research group, first at Brandeis University and then at Johns Hopkins University, has had this opportunity.
The
Escherichia
coli
whole-cell modeling project seeks to create the most detailed computational model of an
E. coli
cell in order to better understand and predict the behavior of this model organism. Details about the approach, framework, and current version of the model are discussed.
Over the last decade, the study of CRISPR-Cas systems has progressed from a newly discovered bacterial defense mechanism to a diverse suite of genetic tools that have been applied across all domains of life. While the initial applications of CRISPR-Cas technology fulfilled a need to more precisely edit eukaryotic genomes, creative “repurposing” of this adaptive immune system has led to new approaches for genetic analysis of microorganisms, including improved gene editing, conditional gene regulation, plasmid curing and manipulation, and other novel uses.
Copper is an essential micronutrient that also exerts toxic effects at high concentrations. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on copper handling and homeostasis systems in
Escherichia coli
and
Salmonella enterica
.
Copper Homeostatic Mechanisms and Their Role in the Virulence of Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica