<i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i>: virulence factors and variation

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major pathogen of humans, causing diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis. The organism produces several virulence factors that are involved in the disease process. The molecular basis of the action of some of these virulence factors is being elucidated. The advent of whole genome sequencing combined with biological studies has demonstrated that genome variation is important in the ability of pneumococci to interact with the host. This review discusses the biological activity of several pneumococcal virulence factors, and describes how genome variation may impact on the ability of pneumococci to cause disease

Euclid. I. Overview of the Euclid mission

International audienceThe current standard model of cosmology successfully describes a variety of measurements, but the nature of its main ingredients, dark matter and dark energy, remains unknown. Euclid is a medium-class mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) that will provide high-resolution optical imaging, as well as near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, over about 14,000 deg^2 of extragalactic sky. In addition to accurate weak lensing and clustering measurements that probe structure formation over half of the age of the Universe, its primary probes for cosmology, these exquisite data will enable a wide range of science. This paper provides a high-level overview of the mission, summarising the survey characteristics, the various data-processing steps, and data products. We also highlight the main science objectives and expected performance