465 - Partners Produce Predator Prevention

Fungus cells with 
bacterial symbionts
By Büttner et al. 2021
PNAS 118:e2110669118
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This episode: Bacteria living inside soil fungus produce toxins that can protect their host from tiny predators!

Download Episode (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Mycobacterium virus DLane

Takeaways

Soils have many different organisms cooperating and competing for resources. Some little worms called nematodes prey on fungi in the soil, while fungi may effectively defend themselves or strike back with toxins or traps that catch and kill the worms. On top of these interactions are other organisms that interact in various ways. In this study, bacteria living inside a kind of soil fungus produce toxins that defend the fungus against predatory nematodes.

Journal Paper:
Büttner H, Niehs SP, Vandelannoote K, Cseresnyés Z, Dose B, Richter I, Gerst R, Figge MT, Stinear TP, Pidot SJ, Hertweck C. 2021. Bacterial endosymbionts protect beneficial soil fungus from nematode attack. Proc Natl Acad Sci 118:e2110669118.

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• Sequencing stomach bacteria to find out how prehistoric populations migrated

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

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464 - Prodding Pollen's Popping Process

Pollen
(fromWikipedia)

This episode: Certain nectar-dwelling bacteria can induce pollen to germinate to access their tasty proteins!

Download Episode (6.0 MB, 8.8 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Clostridium oceanicum

News item

Takeaways

Nectar in flowers seems like it would be a great place for microbes to live, since it has so much sugar, but it's actually somewhat difficult to thrive solely in and on nectar. The carbon in sugar is only one essential element for life, and there's enough of it that it can be overwhelming to the osmotic balance of many microbes. Pollen could provide more nutrients in the form of protein and the nitrogen that comes with it, but it is difficult to penetrate its hard shell.

In this study, certain kinds of bacteria that live in nectar were able to access more pollen protein than other microbes by inducing pollen to germinate, growing out of its shell, or burst and release the protein directly. These microbes only benefited from pollen that were still alive and able to germinate, and not from those that had been disabled.

Journal Paper:
Christensen SM, Munkres I, Vannette RL. 2021. Nectar bacteria stimulate pollen germination and bursting to enhance microbial fitness. Curr Biol 31:4373-4380.e6.

Other interesting stories:

• Bacteria recycling plastic into vanilla flavor

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, or RSS. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.