Immobility of isolated swarmer cells due to local liquid depletion.

Bacterial swarming is a complex phenomenon in which thousands of self-propelled rod-shaped cells move coherently on surfaces, providing an excellent example of active matter. However, bacterial swarming is different from most studied examples of active systems because single isolated cells do not move, while clusters do. The biophysical aspects underlying this behavior are unclear.

The role of programmed death-ligand 1 (PDL-1) in high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+) development and recurrence: A systematic review of literature about HPV-CIN2+-PDL-1 axis.

Background And Aims: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN)and persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV)infection are associated with impaired local cellular immunity; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes are not well understood. The involvement of the programmed death 1/programmed death 1 ligand (PD-1/PD-L1) pathway in the downregulation of T cell function has been demonstrated recently and it is believed to have a role in the onset and persistence of HPV infection and cervical cancer. Our aim is to analyze the role of PD-L1 in the CIN to identify a possible biomarker of HSIL (CIN2+) progression and persistence.

Extracellular proteolysis of tandemly duplicated pheromone propeptides affords additional complexity to bacterial quorum sensing.

Bacterial interactions are vital for adapting to changing environments, with quorum sensing (QS) systems playing a central role in coordinating behaviors through small signaling molecules. The RRNPPA family is the prevalent QS systems in Bacillota and mediating communication through secreted oligopeptides, which are processed into active pheromones by extracellular proteases. Notably, in several cases the propeptides show the presence of multiple putative pheromones within their sequences, which has been proposed as a mechanism to diversify peptide-receptor specificity and potentially facilitate new functions.

Arbitrium communication controls phage lysogeny through non-lethal modulation of a host toxin-antitoxin defence system.

Temperate Bacillus phages often utilize arbitrium communication to control lysis/lysogeny decisions, but the mechanisms by which this control is exerted remains largely unknown. Here we find that the arbitrium system of Bacillus subtilis phage ϕ3T modulates the host-encoded MazEF toxin-antitoxin system to this aim. Upon infection, the MazF ribonuclease is activated by three phage genes.

Characterization of a unique repression system present in arbitrium phages of the SPbeta family.

Arbitrium-coding phages use peptides to communicate and coordinate the decision between lysis and lysogeny. However, the mechanism by which these phages establish lysogeny remains unknown. Here, focusing on the SPbeta phage family's model phages phi3T and SPβ, we report that a six-gene operon called the "SPbeta phages repressor operon" (sro) expresses not one but two master repressors, SroE and SroF, the latter of which folds like a classical phage integrase.