488 - Social Slimes Synchronize Sorties

Fonticula alba
By Toret et al. 2022
Curr Biol 32:1962
CC BY 4.0

This episode: Slime mold amoebas Fonticula alba have interesting and unique foraging and reproductive behaviors!
Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Cajanus cajan Panzee virus

News item

 

Takeaways

How did life develop from single-celled organisms acting independently into the complex, multicellular organisms we see and are today? Although it is difficult to look back through time to study how ancient organisms may have developed along this path, it is possible to investigate modern organisms that occupy a zone in between single-celled and multicellular, to see if we can get some hints to our own development, and also learn about some interesting microbes along the way!

This study into the social amoeba, or slime mold, Fonticula alba, finds that the individual amoebal cells in a population join together into collectives and break apart into individuals at different stages of their complex life cycle, depending on the status of the bacteria around them that they forage as prey. The investigators tease out the various pathways taken by these amoebas.

Journal Paper:

Toret C, Picco A, Boiero-Sanders M, Michelot A, Kaksonen M. 2022. The cellular slime mold Fonticula alba forms a dynamic, multicellular collective while feeding on bacteria. Curr Biol 32:1961-1973.e4.

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.

487 - Probiotic Pulverizes Pathogen Persisters

E. coli

This episode: A probiotic strain of E. coli can target and destroy pathogens that survive a treatment of antibiotics!
Download Episode (8.2 MB, 12 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces griseoruber

 

Takeaways

Antibiotic resistance is becoming more and more of a problem as bacterial pathogens develop resistance to more and more drugs. For some people who develop an infection that is resistant to everything, it's as if they were living back in the days before antibiotics were discovered, when all they could do was pray for survival. New antibiotics are needed, but even more needed are new ways of approaching treatment of infections, using innovative approaches and combinations of therapeutics.

In this study, a probiotic strain of Escherichia coli was used to target potentially pathogenic E. coli bacteria that can survive treatment with a particularly effective type of antibiotic, fluoroquinolones. This probiotic strain, called Nissle, delivers toxins directly to the survivors, preventing resistant pathogens from proliferating.

Journal Paper:
Hare PJ, Englander HE, Mok WWK. 2022. Probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 inhibits bacterial persisters that survive fluoroquinolone treatment. J Appl Microbiol 132:4020–4032.

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.

486 - Biohybrid Bacteria Build Biomass

Azotobacter vinelandii

This episode: Incorporating light-absorbing molecules into bacterial membranes can allow bacteria to use solar energy to transform nitrogen gas into fertilizer!
Download Episode (6.5 MB, 9.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Wheat dwarf virus

 

Takeaways

Turning nitrogen gas into biologically useful compounds, such as protein or ammonia for fertilizer, is an essential part of the global nitrogen cycle and therefore, for agriculture. Today much fertilizer is produced from nitrogen gas by a chemical process that requires large amounts of energy, contributing to global warming. But certain bacteria can perform the same process using special enzymes much more efficiently.

In this study, a light-absorbing molecule was inserted into the cell membrane of some of these bacteria, allowing them to use light energy directly to power the nitrogen converting enzymes. These "biohybrids" were able to produce convert significantly more nitrogen gas and produce additional bacterial biomass from it, showing promise for using such an approach for more sustainable microbial fertilizer production.

Journal Paper:
Chen Z, Quek G, Zhu J, Chan SJW, Cox‐Vázquez SJ, Lopez‐Garcia F, Bazan GC. 2023. A Broad Light‐Harvesting Conjugated Oligoelectrolyte Enables Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation in a Bacterial Biohybrid. Angew Chem Int Ed 62:e202307101.

Other interesting stories:

• Update on using mosquito bacteria to block mosquito-borne viruses

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.

485 - Small Cell Sculpts Sticky Snot Sphere

Mucosphere with captured prey
Larsson et al. 2022.
Nat Commun 13:1301
CC BY 4.0

This episode: A marine protist predator traps prey microbes in an attractive bubble of mucus, eats what it wants, and lets the rest sink, possibly sequestering significant amounts of carbon!
Download Episode (7.8 MB, 11.4 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Bat associated cyclovirus 1

News item

Takeaways

The oceans have a lot of unique, unexplored life in them. This is true on a macro level but even more on a microscopic level, with many different kinds of microbes of various groups with fascinating life strategies. And despite being microscopic, with enough of them around, they can affect the whole planet's climate in significant ways.

In this study, one protist species gets most of its nutrients from photosynthesis, but what it can't get from the sun, it takes from prey microbes by force. To catch its prey, it creates an intricate bubble of mucus called a mucosphere, and waits for other microbes to swim into it, thinking it is food, and get stuck. Then the predator chooses the prey cell it wants and abandons the rest, letting them sink to the ocean floor and locking away the carbon they contain in the process.

Journal Paper:
Larsson ME, Bramucci AR, Collins S, Hallegraeff G, Kahlke T, Raina J-B, Seymour JR, Doblin MA. 2022. Mucospheres produced by a mixotrophic protist impact ocean carbon cycling. Nat Commun 13:1301.

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.

484 - Bacteriophages Boost Brains

Lysogenic phage
By Rolf Lood et al.
BMC Microbiology
2008, 8:139
CC BY 2.5

This episode: Certain phages in the gut are linked with increases in performance on some cognitive tests!
Download Episode (7.5 MB, 10.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces bikiniensis

News item

Takeaways

Our gut microbiota includes a large number of viruses, mostly bacteriophages. These fall into two groups, the lytic kind that infects and reproduces itself immediately in a host, and the lysogenic kind that can integrate its genome into the host bacterial genome and remain dormant for long periods.

In this study, a higher proportion of lysogenic phages was correlated with increased performance on cognitive tests in multiple species. In humans, men showed a small increase in some tests and women in others. In mice and fruit flies, transplant or ingestion of phages was linked to increased memory performance.

Journal Paper:
Mayneris-Perxachs J, Castells-Nobau A, Arnoriaga-Rodríguez M, Garre-Olmo J, Puig J, Ramos R, Martínez-Hernández F, Burokas A, Coll C, Moreno-Navarrete JM, Zapata-Tona C, Pedraza S, Pérez-Brocal V, Ramió-Torrentà L, Ricart W, Moya A, Martínez-García M, Maldonado R, Fernández-Real J-M. 2022. Caudovirales bacteriophages are associated with improved executive function and memory in flies, mice, and humans. Cell Host Microbe 30:340-356.e8.


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.

483 - Recycling Resources Raises Robustness

E. coli

This episode: Adding tags to proteins to increase their degradation can help engineered bacteria grow and survive better under various conditions!
Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.4 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Lactococcus virus sk1

News item

Takeaways

Engineering bacteria with new genetic pathways allows us to use them in many new and promising applications. Some of these are industrial fermentations, growing large quantities of bacteria to use as catalysts for production of chemicals of interest, such as biofuels. But in other cases, engineered microbes can be most useful in less controlled environments, such as the soil. In these situations, the engineering can throw off their natural metabolic balance, making them less tolerant of the stresses of such environments.

In this study, a solution to this issue was tested using protein tags that signal the bacterial enzymes to degrade the engineered proteins. A variety of tags allowed for a variety of rates of degradation, allowing engineers to tune in the ideal rate. Bacteria with these engineered tags grew better in nutrient limited conditions than those without.

Journal Paper:
Szydlo K, Ignatova Z, Gorochowski TE. 2022. Improving the Robustness of Engineered Bacteria to Nutrient Stress Using Programmed Proteolysis. ACS Synth Biol 11:1049–1059.

Other interesting stories:

• Microbes found in tap water could influence composition of the gut microbiome (paper)

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.

482 - Colony Concentric Clock Construction

Bacillus subtilis
By Y tambe,
CC BY-SA 3.0

This episode: Single-celled bacteria can act independently to create patterns and structure in their biofilm communities!
Download Episode (9.6 MB, 14.0 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Dictyostelium discoideum Skipper virus

News item

Takeaways

Large multicellular organisms like us have interesting mechanisms for using one set of genetic instructions present in all cells to form a large, complex community of many different types of cells with different structures and functions, all working together. Single-celled microbes do not have the same requirements for genetic or structural complexity, but they do often display interesting communal patterns and behaviors.

In this study, bacteria growing in colonies on agar displayed a particular mechanism of pattern formation previously seen only in eukaryotes, called segmentation clock or clock and wavefront process. In this process, the cells in the colony are all acting individually without communication with each other, but nevertheless form a repeating ring structure in the colony as it grows, possibly allowing some measure of differentiation of cells that could help the community survive various challenges.

Journal Paper:
Chou K-T, Lee DD, Chiou J, Galera-Laporta L, Ly S, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Süel GM. 2022. A segmentation clock patterns cellular differentiation in a bacterial biofilm. Cell 185:145-157.e13.

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.