Highlights Translation measurements reveal how microbes allocate resources in communities Functional profiles predict microbial competition and niche allocation Predictions enable rational design of prebiotic and probiotic interventions Interventions enable targeted modulation of complex microbiomes  in vitro  and  in vivo Summary Microbiome science has greatly expanded our understanding of microbial life and its roles in the environment and human health. Yet microbiome scien

Highlights Bacterial CD-NTase synthesizes 2'3'-cGAMP with mammalian cGAS-like enzymatic properties 2'3'-cGAMP drives stepwise monomer-to-filament assembly of 3TM-SAVED family effectors Filament assembly reconfigures TM helices and amphipathic hairpins to shear membranes Vertical membrane shearing defines a distinct mode of membrane disruption Summary Cyclic-oligonucleotide-based anti-phage signaling system (CBASS), a central prokaryotic antiviral strategy and evolutionary anc

Highlights Borrelia spirochetes have a unique mechanism to evade host immune system. Borrelia persica has one chromosome, 12 linear and one circular plasmids. Telomeric hairpin motifs were detected in the chromosome and linear plasmids. Plasmid profiles remained stable after one year of continuous in vitro culture. A Vlp common variable region kept the same external position across structures. Abstract Antigenic variation enables immune evasion of pathogens, yet the mechanism

Highlights Neurospora crassa  has lower sugar metabolic gene redundancy than  Aspergillus niger The mating type of  N. crassa  affects growth of sugar metabolic deletion strains We present a strongly improved sugar metabolic model for  N. crassa Abstract The filamentous fungus  Neurospora crassa  has been a model organism for understanding many fundamental aspects of eukaryotic biology. Here, we constructed a genome-scale model of its sugar metabolism based on the sugar metab