A new method for assessing the microbiome of the human gut

The gut microbiome—the population and variety of bacteria within the intestine—is thought to influence a number of behavioral and disease traits in humans. Most obviously, it affects intestinal health. Cancer, inflammatory ...

Parasite helps itself to sugar

Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, is transmitted to mammals by the tsetse fly, and must adapt to the divergent metabolisms of its hosts. A new study shows how it copes with the frugal diet offered ...

Understanding how microbiota thrive in their human hosts

A research team lead by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, Germany, has now made substantial progress in understanding how gut bacteria succeed in their human hosts on a molecular level. They ...

A host protein phosphatase restricts innate immune signaling

The adaptor proteins STING and MAVS are components of critical pathogen-sensing pathways that induce innate immunity. Phosphorylation of either adaptor results in activation of the type I interferon pathway and excessive ...