The University of Michigan researchers found some bacteria ship cellular cargo by “surfing” along proteins called ParA/MinD ATPases
Tag: BACTERIOLOGY
Do a Mom’s Medications Affect Her Breast Milk and Baby? New Center Investigates
UC San Diego School of Medicine receives $6.1M to launch a new research center studying the effects of maternal antibiotic use on breast milk and infant health. The center is funded by National Institutes of Health, as part of their new Maternal and Pediatric Precision in Therapeutics (MPRINT) Hub.
Bacteria navigate on surfaces using a ‘sense of touch’
Many disease-causing bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa crawl on surfaces through a walk-like motility known as “twitching”. Nanometers-wide filaments called type IV pili are known to power twitching, but scientists ignore which sensory signals coordinate the microbes’ movements. Now, EPFL…
Antibiotics may help to treat melanoma
Some antibiotics appear to be effective against a form of skin cancer known as melanoma. Researchers at KU Leuven, Belgium, examined the effect of these antibiotics on patient-derived tumours in mice. Their findings were published in the Journal of Experimental…
Cell-analysis technique could combat tuberculosis
ITHACA, N.Y. – A new method that analyzes how individual immune cells react to the bacteria that cause tuberculosis could pave the way for new vaccine strategies against this deadly disease, and provide insights into fighting other infectious diseases around…
A rock with many perspectives
The Alum Shale of Northern Europe not only has an eventful history of formation, connected with the microcontinent Baltica, it also holds great potential as an object of investigation for future research questions. Geologists use the rock to reconstruct processes…
How does the structure of cytolysins influence their activity?
Although Enterococcus faecalis is usually an innocuous member of the bacterial community in the human gut, it can also cause several infections, including liver disorders. The bacteria produce cytolysins, which are molecules that destroy cells. In a new study, researchers…
Traditional Japanese food may hold building blocks of COVID-19 treatments
Natto, a fermented soybean dish often served for breakfast in Japan, originated at the turn of the last millennium but may hold an answer to a modern problem: COVID-19, according to a new study based on cell cultures. Long thought…
Mycoplasma mobile moves into overdrive: Twin motor modified from ATP synthase discovered
Scientists discover gliding machinery for Mycoplasma mobile to be a new structure that could share ancestry with ATP synthase
A simple compound to control complex gut microbes
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) have discovered that acetate, a major metabolite produced by some intestinal bacteria, is involved in regulating other intestinal bacteria. Specifically, experiments showed that acetate could trigger an immune response against…
Ocean microbes team up brilliantly to gather food when it’s scarce
WOODS HOLE, Mass. – What’s a hungry marine microbe to do when the pickings are slim? It must capture nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus, or iron – to survive, yet in vast expanses of the ocean, nutrients are extremely scarce. And…
UBCO researchers light the way to cleaner water
Fluorescence lighting helps detect impurities in water
A new avenue for fighting drug-resistant bacteria
Targeting an RNA sequence in pathogenic bacteria could make them more sensitive to antibiotics
A new sensitive tool for the efficient quantification of plant disease susceptibility
While several biology techniques have undergone significant technical advances that have allowed their high-throughput implementation, assessing the resistance levels of plant varieties to microbial pathogens remains an arduous and time-consuming task. In response to this, Pujara and collaborators took advantage…
Mathematical model predicts the movement of microplastics in the ocean
A new model tracking the vertical movement of algae-covered microplastic particles offers hope in the fight against plastic waste in our oceans
Bacteria are key to vaginal health, UArizona health sciences researchers say
Bacterial vaginosis is the most common and recurrent gynecological condition affecting nearly 30% of women between the ages of 15 and 44, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A University of Arizona Health Sciences-led study recently…
Scientists blueprint bacterial enzyme believed to “stealthily” suppress immune response
Scientists have produced the first fine-detail molecular blueprints of a bacterial enzyme known as Lit, which is suspected to play a “stealthy” role in the progression of infection by reducing the immune response. Blueprints such as these allow drug designers…
Role of host genetics on gut microbiome is near-universal, but environmentally-dependent
Taken together, the bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes that live in our intestines form the gut microbiome, which plays a key role in the health of people and animals. In new research from the University of Minnesota, University of…
Computer-assisted biology: Decoding noisy data to predict cell growth
Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science have designed a machine learning algorithm to predict the size of an individual cell as it grows and divides. By using an artificial neural network that does…
Scientists explore seamounts in Phoenix Islands Archipelago, gain insights into deep water diversity
Marine scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor have identified likely new marine species and deep sea organisms on nine seamounts that were explored for the first time in the remote Phoenix Islands Archipelago. In a 34-day expedition that…
Neonatal meningitis: the immaturity of microbiota and epithelial barriers implicated
Meningitis is associated with high mortality and frequently causes severe sequelae. Newborn infants are particularly susceptible to this type of infection; they develop meningitis 30 times more often than the general population. Group B streptococcus (GBS) bacteria are the most…
More ancestral enzyme
Molecular evolution of enzyme beyond recruit hypothesis
Creating a lab mangrove helps to identify new bacteria
A pioneering cultivation strategy that recreates a mangrove environment in the lab has enabled identification of novel bacteria residing in Red Sea mangroves and will help improve understanding of mangrove ecosystem stability, resilience and sustainability. Mangroves are highly productive, dominant…
Packaged water consumption linked to cholera outbreak in DRC capital
Cholera is a diarrheal disease caused by ingestion of the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. In November 2017, a cholera epidemic occurred in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where no outbreak had been recorded for nearly a decade. A study…
Biomaterial vaccines ward off broad range of bacterial infections and septic shock
A new vaccine technology combining capture of bacterial pathogens with effective immune-reprogramming biomaterials could be applied to a broad spectrum of infectious diseases
New insights into Salmonella’s survival strategies
EMBL scientists shed light on how Salmonella hijacks the machinery of its host cell to promote its own growth and reproduction
Fecal transplant plus fibre improves insulin sensitivity in severely obese
Research provides further evidence the microbiome can benefit patients’ health, says researcher Karen Madsen.
Secret to weathering climate change lies at our feet
New research on the microbiome of grass shows that the future lies with healthy bacteria
Microbes in cow stomachs can break down plastic
Bacteria found in the rumen, one of the compartments that make up the cow stomach, can break down plastics, representing an eco-friendly way to reduce litter
How ethane-consuming archaea pick up their favorite dish
Scientists of Bremen sucessfully decoded the structure of the enzyme responsible for ethane fixation
A globally important microbial process hidden on marine particles
How on Earth? It has puzzled scientists for years whether and how bacteria, that live from dissolved organic matter in marine waters, can carry out N2 fixation. It was assumed that the high levels of oxygen combined with the low…
Unlocking the power of the microbiome
Hundreds of different bacterial species live in and on leaves and roots of plants. A research team led by Julia Vorholt from the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zurich, together with colleagues in Germany, first inventoried and categorised these bacteria…
Plastic drapes reduce hypothermia in premature babies
Study: Plastic better than cloth for low birth-weight newborns
Kiwi disease study finds closely related bacterial strains display different behaviors
Over the last decade, severe outbreaks of bacterial canker have caused huge economic losses for kiwi growers, especially in Italy, New Zealand, and China, which are among the largest producers. Bacterial canker is caused by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae…
New technique allows for identification of potential drugs to fight resistant bacteria
Washington, DC – June 20, 2021 – Researchers from the Miami University in Ohio have optimized a new technique that will allow scientists to evaluate how potential inhibitors work on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This technique, called native state mass spectrometry, provides…
Researchers explore microbial ecosystem in search of drugs to fight SARS-CoV-2
Washington, DC – June 20, 2021 – Researchers from Yonsei University in South Korea have found that certain commensal bacteria that reside in the human intestine produce compounds that inhibit SARS-CoV-2. The research will be presented on June 20 at…
Mutant genes can promote genetic transfer across taxonomic kingdoms
Bacteria do not sexually reproduce, but that does not stop them from exchanging genetic information as it evolves and adapts. During conjugal transfer, a bacterium can connect to another bacterium to pass along DNA and proteins. Escherichia coli bacteria, commonly…
Keeping strawberries fresh using bioactive packaging
Films made of shellfish shells, essential oils, and nanoparticles to protect fruit from microbes
Bacteria used to clean diesel-polluted soil in Greenland
Diesel-polluted soil from now defunct military outposts in Greenland can be remediated using naturally occurring soil bacteria according to an extensive five-year experiment in Mestersvig, East Greenland
GW4 takes a One Health approach to tackling the antimicrobial resistance pandemic
The World Health Organisation cites antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the most significant risks facing the world. AMR threatens global health and development as it impacts on human, animal and plant health and also our environment, water safety and…
New health benefits of red seaweeds unveiled
Red seaweeds have been prevalent in the diets of Asian communities for thousands of years. In a new study, published in Marine Drugs , researchers have shown how these algae confer health benefits. “In the past, people have wondered why…
Persistence pays off in the human gut microbiome
The human gut microbiome is a complex community of trillions of microbes that are constantly interacting with each other and our bodies. It supports our wellbeing, immune system and mental health – but how is it sustained? Researchers in the…
Early migrations of Siberians to America tracked using bacterial population structures
Early migrations of humans to the Americas from Siberia around 12,000 years ago have been traced using the bacteria they carried by an international team including scientists at the University of Warwick
The Inner Workings of the Root Microbiome
: The soil surrounding and including the roots of plants is a hotspot for bacteria that help plants resist infections, survive drought, and take up nutrients. However, scientists did not fully understand how bacteria assist plants. A new study provides new insights into the spots on roots where bacteria attach. This could help scientists understand and control how plants and bacteria interact.
Hydrogen sulfide critical to innate ability of bacteria to survive antibiotics
Prototype drugs found to strengthen antibiotics by blocking bacterial H2S biogenesis
A new bacteria, made in Belgium (and UCLouvain)
It all started, when Patrice Cani, FNRS researcher at University of Louvain (UCLouvain), and his team repeatedly observed that a bacterium (called Subdoligranulum) is almost absent in obese and diabetic people, while it is systematically present in healthy people. So,…
Soil microbes metabolize the same polyphenols found in chocolate, wine
New insights into the role of polyphenols in the soil microbiome
New defence against superbugs
Taking fish oil may reduce antibiotic resistance
A new culprit in antibacterial resistance: cysteine persulfide
A joint research project based in Kumamoto University , Japan has developed a new, highly sensitive analytical method that can detect degraded β-lactam antibacterial agents used in the treatment of bacterial infections. With this method, researchers found that reactive sulfur…
New insight into biosynthesis and architecture of photosynthetic membranes in bacteria
A new study conducted by the researchers at the University of Liverpool reveals how the ancient photosynthetic organisms – cyanobacteria – evolve their photosynthetic machinery and organise their photosynthetic membrane architecture for the efficient capture of solar light and energy…