mLife Journal

They also created a second variant, AcrIIA5‑LOV9, combining a light‑dependent degron with AcrIIA5 for precise optical regulation of Cas9. This offers a roadmap for improved and versatile optogenetic gene editing tools.

The system uses the AsLOV2 blue light sensor within AcrIIA5: (1) In the dark, AcrIIA5 inhibits Cas9; (2) Upon blue light, structural change disrupts inhibition, restoring Cas9 activity — giving tight spatiotemporal control.

Traditional optogenetic CRISPR switches were limited to specific Cas9 proteins. CASANOVA‑A5 overcomes this by inserting a blue light sensor into AcrIIA5, enabling light‑controlled editing for SpCas9, SaCas9, NmeCas9, and St1Cas9.

New in #mLife!
Scientists engineered CASANOVA‑A5, a blue‑light controllable anti‑CRISPR tool based on AcrIIA5, to switch CRISPR‑Cas9 editing on/off in a light‑dependent manner — and it works across multiple Cas9 orthologs!
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

New #mLife study reveals how salinization alters the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationship: low salinity has little effect, but high salinity weakens BEF relationships, with sharp drops in yield at low richness under hypersaline stress.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Community‐level wastewater surveillance with machine learning methods to assess underreporting of COVID‐19 case counts Click on the article title to read more.

New in #mLife
Using wastewater RNA and machine learning, this work developed a predictive model that showed significant underreporting of COVID-19 cases in a university community after testing mandates were lifted — highlighting the power of wastewater-based epidemiology.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

New in #mLife! Xanthomonas campestris produces the plant hormone IAA. IAA modulates branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) synthesis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, thereby shaping pathogen viability and virulence in cabbage. 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Mechanistically, selection effects dominate at high salt (contributing ~63–72% of net biodiversity effects), while complementarity weakens. This stresses the key role of biodiversity in buffering ecosystems against salinization.

Under hypersaline conditions, communities shift toward halophiles (e.g., Halomonas dominates at 20% salinity) and metabolic functions like glycosyl hydrolase activity are inhibited—highlighting how extreme salt reshapes both composition and function.

Using artificial microbial communities across 0.9–20% salinity, the authors show that low (0.9–7%) salt doesn’t change BEF much, but high salinity (15–20%) amplifies biodiversity loss effects—ecosystem yield drops sharply when richness is low.

New #mLife study reveals how salinization alters the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationship: low salinity has little effect, but high salinity weakens BEF relationships, with sharp drops in yield at low richness under hypersaline stress.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Deleting ilvC increases CFUs and decreases ROS; adding BCAAs restores both. This indicates an IAA → BCAAs → ROS → viability cascade contributing to pathogen success — critical for understanding plant–Xcc interactions and microbial virulence regulation.

IAA reduces ROS levels in Xcc, lowering oxidative stress and boosting bacterial colony formation. Transcriptomics show IAA also represses the ilvCGM leuA BCAA biosynthesis cluster, linking amino acid metabolism to stress responses.

Xcc strain XC1 synthesizes IAA via an L tryptophan dependent route, involving indole 3 ethanol and aromatic aminotransferases. IAA enhances CFUs, EPS production, protease activity, and disease severity — revealing microbial IAA’s physiological role.

New in #mLife! Xanthomonas campestris produces the plant hormone IAA. IAA modulates branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) synthesis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, thereby shaping pathogen viability and virulence in cabbage. 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

The work clarifies a long-standing question: how Z ring organization is orchestrated by accessory proteins. Understanding ZapA’s mechanistic role could inform antibacterial strategies targeting cell division.

ZapA prefers FtsZ polymers (not monomers), and mutations at these interaction sites weaken ZapA binding in vitro & in vivo. This explains how ZapA leverages FtsZ polymerization dynamics to promote robust Z-ring assembly.

ZapA binds two sites on FtsZ filaments: the N terminal tail and the junction between adjacent FtsZ subunits. This dual engagement lets ZapA straighten and crosslink FtsZ filaments into a coherent Z ring scaffold.

Explore the Cover Story in #mLife Vol. 4, Issue 6!
The conserved protein ZapA uses a two-pronged mechanism to organize FtsZ filaments into the bacterial Z ring, offering novel mechanistic insights with structural and genetic support of bacterial cell division.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Phage therapy of perinephric abscess in kidney transplantation recipients caused by drug‐resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Click on the article title to read more.

Phage therapy of perinephric abscess in kidney transplantation recipients caused by drug‐resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa - Liu - 2025 - mLife - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New Issue Alert — mLife Vol. 4, Issue 6 is out!
The issue features 10 open-access papers spanning host–pathogen interactions, bacterial cell division, RNA editing, phage therapy, CRISPR optogenetics, and more.
Table of contents here 👉
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Highlights below ⬇️

Phage therapy of perinephric abscess in kidney transplantation recipients caused by drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

-In @mlifejournal.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Community‐level wastewater surveillance with machine learning methods to assess underreporting of COVID‐19 case counts Click on the article title to read more.

🔟 Correspondence – Wastewater & COVID-19 Surveillance
Szeto et al. demonstrate how machine learning applied to wastewater data helps detect underreported COVID-19 cases.
Public health meets environmental microbiology.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Phage therapy of perinephric abscess in kidney transplantation recipients caused by drug‐resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Click on the article title to read more.

9️⃣ Case Report – Phage Therapy in Kidney Transplantation
Liu et al. report a successful use of phage therapy to treat P. aeruginosa-caused perinephric abscess in immunocompromised patients.
🧪 A compelling clinical advance.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Salinization influences the biodiversity‐ecosystem functioning relationship more strongly at high salinity Salinization threatens ecosystem stability by altering microbial diversity and function, yet how salinity influences biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships remains unclear. In this st...

8️⃣ Original Research – Salinity & Ecosystem Function
Huang et al. report that salinization intensifies biodiversity–function relationships at higher salt concentrations. Important for ecological resilience studies.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Oral pretreatment with Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 enhances the host's defense against influenza A virus infection Influenza A viruses (IAVs) pose a significant threat to global health, causing annual epidemics and occasional pandemics with substantial morbidity and mortality. Despite the availability of vaccines...

7️⃣ Original Research – Probiotic & Immunity
Pretreatment with E. coli Nissle 1917 boosts resistance against influenza A in mice.
Wang et al. highlight gut-lung axis crosstalk with therapeutic implications.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

CcpA promotes Staphylococcus aureus virulence by directly controlling staphyloxanthin production Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious opportunistic pathogen with remarkable adaptability, enabling it to infect virtually every human tissue. Staphyloxanthin (STX), a critical virulence factor, contr...

6️⃣ Original Research – S. aureus Pigmentation
Chen et al. identify that CcpA directly upregulates staphyloxanthin, linking metabolic control to virulence factor expression in S. aureus.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Dual glycosylation of wall teichoic acid modulates the O‐antigen pattern and virulence in serovar 4b Listeria monocytogenes Among the 14 serovars of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), serovar 4b strains are the most predominant isolates linked to human listeriosis outbreaks-a phenotype associated with their unique wall teichoic...

5️⃣ Original Research – Listeria Virulence
Yao et al. report that dual glycosylation of wall teichoic acid impacts O-antigen patterns in L. monocytogenes, modulating virulence in serovar 4b.
🧫 Teichoic tweaks, major consequences.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

Cis‐2‐decenoic acid modulates Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence through a noncanonical transcriptional regulator Diffusible signal factor (DSF)-family quorum sensing (QS) signals are widely utilized by many pathogenic bacteria to modulate various biological functions and virulence. Previous studies showed that ...

4️⃣ Original Research – Quorum Signals & Virulence
Song et al. show that cis-2-decenoic acid attenuates P. aeruginosa virulence via a noncanonical regulator.
🧬 Highlights metabolic regulation beyond classical QS circuits.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...

RNA editing system: Balancing altruistic antiviral defense and fitness trade‐offs in fungi Click on the article title to read more.

3️⃣ News & Views
Du et al. explore how an RNA editing system in fungi mediates antiviral defense—highlighting the evolutionary balance between immunity and fitness cost.
🔄 A fascinating window into fungal self-regulation.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...