434 - Killer Carries Compact Cas

T4 bacteriophage
By Victoramuse
CC BY-SA 4.0

This episode: Large phage discovered that contains a compact version of the CRISPR/Cas defense/gene editing system!

Download Episode (5.9 MB, 8.6 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Stenotrophomonas virus IME13

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Takeaways

CRISPR/Cas systems have made a lot of things in gene editing much easier in certain organisms. It's almost as easy as just getting the cells to produce the Cas protein and putting in an RNA sequence to tell it where to go! But in some cases, these requirements are too much to work well.

In this study, a more compact version of CRISPR/Cas was discovered in large bacteriophages. These systems help the viruses compete with other viruses and defend against host defenses sometimes. The Cas protein is half the size of the standard Cas most used in gene editing, and it has fewer other requirements to function in new cells, so it could be better in versatility and potential in applications with strict space constraints.

Journal Paper:
Pausch P, Al-Shayeb B, Bisom-Rapp E, Tsuchida CA, Li Z, Cress BF, Knott GJ, Jacobsen SE, Banfield JF, Doudna JA. 2020. CRISPR-CasΦ from huge phages is a hypercompact genome editor. Science 369:333–337.

Other interesting stories:

• Example of how cooperation becomes more beneficial than independence
• Programming bacteria to detect and kill specific other microbes in a mixed community (paper)

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

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433 - Probiotic Promotes Pathogen Peacefulness

E. coli in lumen of organoid
From Pradhan and Weiss, 2020
mBio 11(4):e01470-20
CC BY 4.0

This episode: A probiotic can protect intestine-like cell growths from destruction by pathogens, but it can also be infected by a virus that makes it more harmful to intestinal cells!

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Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Euphorbia yellow mosaic virus

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Takeaways

There are many strains of Escherichia coli. Some are pathogenic, in the gut or the urinary tract, and a subset of those are very dangerous, such as the enterohemorrhagic O157:H7 strain. Many others are commensals, living peacefully as part of our gut community. And some strains can be beneficial to the host, protecting from and reducing the severity of disease. One such strain is called E. coli Nissle.

This study used an advanced model of human intestines called organoids, where stem cells are induced to develop into hollow spheres of intestinal epithelium in which all cell types of a normal intestinal wall are represented. E. coli pathogens typically destroy these organoids and escape from inside, but Nissle was able to prevent this destruction and enable coexistence between the pathogen and the host cells. Nissle suffered for this protection though; O157:H7 carries a toxin-encoding phage that can infect and kill susceptible E. coli strains. Those Nissle cells that survived this infection could resist the phage, but were not as beneficial to the organoids due to the toxin they now produced.

Journal Paper:
Pradhan S, Weiss AA. 2020. Probiotic Properties of Escherichia coli Nissle in Human Intestinal Organoids. mBio 11(4):e01470-20.

Other interesting stories:

• Certain gut microbes can help people resist cholera
• Photosynthetic microbes engineered to produce spider silk

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.

432 - Moses Microbes Maintain Moisture

Gypsum

This episode: Bacteria living in the driest place on earth have ways to extract water from the mineral structures of rocks!

Download Episode (3.7 MB, 5.4 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Irkut lyssavirus

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Takeaways

Microbes living in extremely dry conditions have it tough. Water is important both for the chemistry and structure of all cells. Desert microbes are very good at acquiring and holding on to the water they can find, but in places such as the Atacama Desert in Chile, there's almost none available.

However, microbes can be very resourceful. In this study, phototrophs were discovered that can actually extract water molecules bound up in the crystalline structure of the mineral gypsum, and this allows them to survive in hyperarid regions. They do this by secreting organic acid molecules to etch the rock and release the water, converting gypsum to anhydrite, which is a mineral with the same chemical structure except without the water.

Journal Paper:
Huang W, Ertekin E, Wang T, Cruz L, Dailey M, DiRuggiero J, Kisailus D. 2020. Mechanism of water extraction from gypsum rock by desert colonizing microorganisms. Proc Natl Acad Sci 117:10681–10687.

Other interesting stories:

• Cholesterol-lowering drugs associated with fewer gut microbiota problems
• Using bacterial hormones to get bacteria to produce more interesting molecules

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.