Prokaryotic Communications, Volume II: From Macromolecular Interdomain to Intercellular Talks (Recognition) and Beyond

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Background

Given the success of Volume I of this Research Topic, and how rapid the subject area is evolving, we are pleased to announce the launch of Volume II: Prokaryotic Communications.

Volume I of Prokaryotic Communications was launched in 2019 and at that time, we envisaged it as a sequel of sorts to our earlier Research Topic (2016 – 2017) for Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences entitled “Modulating Prokaryotic Lifestyle by DNA-Binding Proteins”. That topic had attracted manuscripts that dealt with various aspects of prokaryotic gene regulation and the mechanisms of DNA replication and DNA transfer, plasmid segregation, transcriptional and post-transcriptional control of gene expression along with the global regulatory networks in prokaryotes. We decided to revisit the topic but shifted the focus somewhat to prokaryotic communication to see how the field has advanced and what new prospects that can be encountered.

What was stated in our editorial to the “DNA-binding Proteins” Research Topic (see Venkova et al., 2017) remains relevant now in 2021. We are still playing catch-up (and getting no further) with analyzing the massive amounts of sequencing data generated and deposited in public repositories. The regulatory networks of model prokaryotes are still being continuously updated with more of their players and their biological functions being discovered and determined. Antimicrobial resistance is still a major healthcare problem even though there has been progress in our understanding on how some of these acquired resistance genes are spread by horizontal gene transfer. Central to these issues are the molecular recognitions that enable the functionality of prokaryotic DNA-binding proteins and their diverse roles in mediating fundamental cellular processes such as DNA replication and segregation, gene expression, and DNA transfer. Volume I attracted manuscripts that covered these aspects and more.

We therefore invite contributions to Volume II of this Research Topic on “Prokaryotic Communications” and welcome papers that will further enhance our current understanding of how prokaryotes communicate starting from intra- and inter-molecular communications, to macromolecular cross-talks and moving from cell-to-cell towards cell-to-host communications.

Keywords: Intracellular communication, cell-cell communication, cell-host communication, DNA-binding proteins, prokaryotic gene regulation, macromolecular cross-talk

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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