A multitude of functions have evolved around cytosine within DNA, endowing the base with physiological significance beyond simple information storage. This versatility arises from enzymes that chemically modify cytosine to expand the potential of the genome. Some modifications alter coding sequences, such as deamination of cytosine by AID/APOBEC enzymes to generate immunologic or virologic diversity. Other modifications are critical to epigenetic control, altering gene expression or cellular identity. Of these, cytosine methylation is well understood, in contrast to recently discovered modifications, such as oxidation by TET enzymes to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Further complexity results from cytosine demethylation, an enigmatic process that impacts cellular pluripotency. Recent insights help us to propose an integrated DNA demethylation model, accounting for contributions from cytosine oxidation, deamination and base excision repair. Taken together, this rich medley of alterations renders cytosine a genomic “wild card”, whose context-dependent functions make the base far more than a static letter in the code of life.

Our antibiotic arsenal is becoming depleted, in part, because bacteria have the ability to rapidly adapt and acquire resistance to our best agents. The SOS pathway, a widely conserved DNA damage stress response in bacteria, is activated by many antibiotics and has been shown to play central role in promoting survival and the evolution of resistance under antibiotic stress. As a result, targeting the SOS response has been proposed as an adjuvant strategy to revitalize our current antibiotic arsenal. However, the optimal molecular targets and partner antibiotics for such an approach remain unclear. In this study, focusing on the two key regulators of the SOS response, LexA and RecA, we provide the first comprehensive assessment of how to target the SOS response in order to increase bacterial susceptibility and reduce mutagenesis under antibiotic treatment.

A case-control study to determine risk factors for clinical infection with Escherichia coli was conducted among nursing home residents colonized with fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli. Among 94 subjects, 11 (12%) developed infections with E. coli. Risk factors included the presence of a urinary catheter or tracheostomy, diabetes mellitus, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole exposure.

Both Sides Now "W orse than death, too, is to be on life support listening to my loved ones in a heated debate over whether to terminate me and hear my wife say, 'I think we can pull the plug, it's been 15 minutes and we'll be late for our dinner reservation'."---Woody Allen Born in 1919, my grandfather stands barely five feet tall, with a shiny head and round turtle-shell colored glasses in front of warm blue eyes. He is a lifelong news addict, with a love for bringing up controversial topics and, without fail, concluding that he can "see both sides." Some questions have no good answer, he reminds me; life is not a multiple-choice exam.Recently, he has begun writing down things he reads

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