January 2021: Infectious Disease
January 4, 2021
What’s new in infectious disease as we kick off 2021? We’ve rounded up information on new functions for malaria parasites, adaptive genome evolution, and COVID-19’s effect on human airway organoids.
January 4, 2021 / eLife
Malaria parasites use the RhopH complex for erythrocyte invasion and channel-mediated nutrient uptake. As the member proteins are unique to Plasmodium spp., how they interact and traffic through sub-cellular sites to serve these essential functions is unknown.
January 4, 2021 / eLife
Assessment of DNA methylation, histone modifications, and DNA accessibility revealed that physical DNA characteristics are associated with adaptive genome evolution in the broad host range plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae.
January 4, 2021 / eLife
Coronavirus entry is mediated by the spike protein which binds the receptor and mediates fusion after cleavage by host proteases. The proteases that mediate entry differ between cell lines and it is currently unclear which proteases are relevant in vivo. A remarkable feature of the SARS-CoV-2 spike is the presence of a multibasic cleavage site, which is absent in the SARS-CoV spike. It is reported that the SARS-CoV-2 spike MBCS increases infectivity on human airway organoids.
