422 - Frigid Phototrophs Fuel Fords

Algae growing in 20-liter bioreactor

Kim et. al, 2020. CC BY 4.0

This episode: Producing both biodiesel and bioethanol fuels from cold-loving Arctic algae!


Download Episode (8.7 MB, 12.6 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Royal Farm virus

Takeaways

Renewable fuels such as biofuels can allow existing infrastructure and vehicles to continue to operate in a more sustainable manner, which could reduce the cost and impact of switching to new/different systems of transportation like electricity. Economically competitive methods of producing biofuels are still being explored and developed.

In this study, Arctic algae are grown in cold temperatures using only light, carbon dioxide, and a few minerals, and then broken down to produce biodiesel and bioethanol, which can be used as fuel in many different internal combustion engines. The amounts produced are comparable to other algae-based systems being researched, and use of the cold-loving organisms could reduce the cost of production in colder latitudes and seasons.

Journal Paper:
Kim EJ, Kim S, Choi H-G, Han SJ. 2020. Co-production of biodiesel and bioethanol using psychrophilic microalga Chlamydomonas sp. KNM0029C isolated from Arctic sea ice. Biotechnol Biofuel 13:20.

Other interesting stories:

• Certain foods could activate or inhibit bacteriophages and modulate the gut microbiota
• Some antibiotic-producing bacterial colonies have specialized members that do all the antibiotic production

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

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BacterioFiles 414 - Producing Proton Power Perpetually

Microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

This episode: Microalgae can produce hydrogen, but other metabolic pathways take priority, except when special engineered hydrogenase enzymes can overcome this limitation!

Download Episode (8.4 MB, 12.2 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Alphapapillomavirus 11

Takeaways
There are many options being explored as ways to replace fossil fuels. Electricity and batteries are good, but they have their limitations, especially for long-distance high-energy travel such as airplanes. Hydrogen is one good option: high energy density, clean-burning, simple to produce. Microbes can produce hydrogen through various metabolic pathways, including fermentation, nitrogen fixation byproduct, and photosynthesis. However, competing metabolic pathways make microbial hydrogen production less efficient.

In this study, scientists engineer a hydrogenase enzyme for hydrogen production in microalgae that can compete better with carbon fixation as a destination for the electrons and protons that hydrogen production requires. This engineered enzyme allowed the algae to produce hydrogen continuously, even during photosynthesis.

Journal Paper:
Ben-Zvi O, Dafni E, Feldman Y, Yacoby I. 2019. Re-routing photosynthetic energy for continuous hydrogen production in vivo. Biotechnol Biofuels 12:266.

Other interesting stories:

• Plants use arsenic-dumping genes from bacteria to get essential nutrients
• Another study engineering better viruses for phage therapy

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BacterioFiles 376 - Pressurized Pollutant Pulls Products

Bacillus megaterium
By Osmoregulator, CCBY-SA 3.0

This episode: Supercritical carbon dioxide and bacteria that can grow in it make a great combination for biofuel production!

Download Episode (9.4 MB, 10.2 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Flexibacter aggregans

Takeaways
Biofuels are an important part of humanity's move away from non-renewable resources. They have a higher energy density than batteries are yet able to achieve, giving them significant advantages for transportation purposes in which tapping into an electric grid isn't possible. Depending on the biofuel, they also have the advantage of existing infrastructure: we don't need to build a whole new system of charging or refueling stations, but can use the systems already in place.

However, biofuels as a collection of technologies still need some refinements. Yields for the more potentially sustainable approaches are low, and the lower the concentration of a soluble fuel, the more difficult it is to separate it from the non-fuel components of a fermentation. Microbial products also face the risk of contamination of a fermentation by unwanted organisms that use up the substrate without producing desirable products.

In this study, supercritical carbon dioxide is considered as a fix for both of these problems. The gas is pressurized to a point at which it is indistinguishable from liquid. A strain of Bacillus megaterium is specially selected as capable of growing and fermenting in this environment, while contaminants are inhibited. The solvent potential of supercritical carbon dioxide also serves as a way to extract the biofuel product—in this case, isobutanol—from the aqueous part of the culture medium. While it needs some development, this approach yields promising results.

Journal Paper:
Boock JT, Freedman AJE, Tompsett GA, Muse SK, Allen AJ, Jackson LA, Castro-Dominguez B, Timko MT, Prather KLJ, Thompson JR. 2019. Engineered microbial biofuel production and recovery under supercritical carbon dioxide. Nat Commun 10:587.

Other interesting stories:

• Yeast adopted useful iron-capturing bacterial protein

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BacterioFiles 369 - Powering Purple Prokaryote Protonation

This episode: Purple phototrophic bacteria could use certain kinds of wastewater, along with electric current, to produce valuable products like hydrogen without much waste!

Thanks to Dr. Ioanna Vasiliadou for her contribution!

Download Episode (12.7 MB, 13.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces tendae

News item

Takeaways
Purple phototrophic bacteria can take light energy and use it to help power their metabolism. They're not dependent on it like plants, but can use light or other energy sources for their versatile metabolism.

This versatility makes them very interesting candidates for industrial biotechnology applications. These bacteria can take in various combinations of nutrients and produce a number of different valuable products, including protein-rich feed, bioplastics, and biofuels such as hydrogen gas.

Today's study shows they can also take up electrons directly to help make their biofuel production process even more environmentally sustainable.

Journal Paper:
Vasiliadou IA, Berná A, Manchon C, Melero JA, Martinez F, Esteve-Nuñez A, Puyol D. 2018. Biological and Bioelectrochemical Systems for Hydrogen Production and Carbon Fixation Using Purple Phototrophic Bacteria. Front Energy Res 6:107.

Other interesting stories:

• Looking at which microbes degrade classic paintings, and how
• Neurotransmitter-consuming gut microbes correlated with fewer signs of depression (paper)
• Phages don't always transfer the same way in fecal microbe transplants (paper)

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BacterioFiles 357 - Colossal Contagion Codes Catabolism

Tetraselmis alga
By: David Patterson and
Bob Andersen, CC BY-NC 3.0

This episode: A new giant virus infecting marine algae brings its own genes related to fermentation, generating energy in the absence of oxygen!

Thanks to Drs. Chris Schvarcz and Grieg Steward for their contributions!

Download Episode (14 MB, 15.25 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Borrelia anserina

News item

Journal Paper:
Schvarcz CR, Steward GF. 2018. A giant virus infecting green algae encodes key fermentation genes. Virology 518:423–433.

Other interesting stories:

• Plant virus influences aphid nutrition and population growth
• Hosts can benefit from E. coli iron-gathering proteins
• Fog can sustain and transport microbes long distances
• Using bacteriophages to form useful nanostructures out of gold

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

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Episode outline:

BacterioFiles 355 - Photon Factors Favor Fancy Fuels

Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast

This episode: Engineering yeast to control their metabolism using light and dark for the production of advanced biofuels and chemicals!

Download Episode (16.1 MB, 17.7 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Equine arteritis virus

News item

Journal Paper:
Zhao EM, Zhang Y, Mehl J, Park H, Lalwani MA, Toettcher JE, Avalos JL. 2018. Optogenetic regulation of engineered cellular metabolism for microbial chemical production. Nature 555:683–687.

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Episode outline:

BacterioFiles 350 - Microbes Mysteriously Make Methane

Nitrogenase protein structure
By Jjsjjsjjs - Own work
CC BY-SA 3.0

This episode: A version of the microbial enzyme that fixes nitrogen can also convert carbon dioxide to methane!

Download Episode (11.8 MB, 12.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Human mastadenovirus D

Journal Paper:
Zheng Y, Harris DF, Yu Z, Fu Y, Poudel S, Ledbetter RN, Fixen KR, Yang Z-Y, Boyd ES, Lidstrom ME, Seefeldt LC, Harwood CS. 2018. A pathway for biological methane production using bacterial iron-only nitrogenase. Nat Microbiol 3:281–286.

Other interesting stories:

• Gut bacterial metabolite helps protect mice against gut pathogen

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

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Episode outline:

BacterioFiles 323 - Clostridium Capturing Carbon with Walter Sandoval

Walter Sandoval in lab

This episode: I talk with Dr. Walter Sandoval-Espinola, a researcher from Paraguay, now a postdoc at Harvard, about his discovery that biofuel-producing bacteria Clostridium beijerinckii can also transform CO₂ and carbon monoxide into biofuels!

Download Episode (37 MB, 40.4 minutes)

Show notes:
News item en español

Find Walter on Twitter or LinkedIn

Journal Paper:
Sandoval-Espinola WJ, Chinn MS, Thon MR, Bruno-Bárcena JM. 2017. Evidence of mixotrophic carbon-capture by n-butanol-producer Clostridium beijerinckii. Sci Rep 7:12759.

Other interesting stories:

Even microbes can help mix up lake water

Using drones to sample whale microbiome

Prebiotics could affect gut even without microbe involvement (paper)

Bacteria do better in changing environments when they cooperate

Newly discovered bacterial defense against phages (paper)

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

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BacterioFiles 266 - Solar Cyborg Cells Capture Carbon

Cells of Moorella thermoacetica
forming spores in culture

This episode: Adding exotic elements to convert spore-forming bacteria into light-capturing cyborgs that convert carbon dioxide into useful chemicals!
Download Episode (9.7 MB, 10.5 minutes)

Show notes:
News item 1/News item 2

Journal Paper:
Sakimoto KK, Wong AB, Yang P. 2016. Self-photosensitization of nonphotosynthetic bacteria for solar-to-chemical production. Science 351:74–77.

Other interesting stories:

Unusual archaeal virus sorta looks like Ebola (paper)

Understanding how probiotics could prevent cancer in mice (paper)

Giant viruses have immune system against virophages

Using evolution to help yeast produce more ethanol from biomass (paper)

Remnants of viruses in our DNA helps us fight off infections

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

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BacterioFiles 262 - Pathogen Polyketide Protects and Punishes

This episode: Clostridium bacteria that infect potatoes can both kill competitors and tolerate oxygen, thanks to the pink compounds they produce!
Download Episode (12.4 MB, 13.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Shabuer G, Ishida K, Pidot SJ, Roth M, Dahse H-M, Hertweck C. 2015. Plant pathogenic anaerobic bacteria use aromatic polyketides to access aerobic territory. Science 350:670–674.

Other interesting stories:

Soil bacteria protect themselves from amoeba with chemical defense (paper)

Understanding how probiotics could help fight rotavirus infection (paper)

Bacteria help defend ants from fungi (paper)

Modifying useful biofuel yeast with CRISPRs

Fungi could make useful adhesives (paper)

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

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BacterioFiles 254 - Clostridium Consolidates Combustibles Conversion

This episode: Engineering bacteria to convert cellulose directly into useful biofuels and chemicals can be tricky!
Download Episode (13.9 MB, 15.2 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Lin PP, Mi L, Morioka AH, Yoshino KM, Konishi S, Xu SC, Papanek BA, Riley LA, Guss AM, Liao JC. 2015. Consolidated bioprocessing of cellulose to isobutanol using Clostridium thermocellum. Metab Eng 31:44–52.

Other interesting stories:

Cute photosynthetic protist could do interesting metabolic processes

Using advanced technique to link antibiotic production to specific beewolf microbes

Termite gut protist has bacterial symbiont that fixes carbon and nitrogen (paper)

Geography and household members influence fungi and bacteria of home dust

Probiotic ineffective at preventing colonization by drug-resistant pathogens

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

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BacterioFiles 240 - Water Worms Make (carbon) Monoxide Meals

This episode: Marine worms and their microbial symbionts can live on the toxic gas carbon monoxide!

Reminder: this is the last episode for at least a few weeks while I am wrapping up my PhD. See you again when I'm done!


Download Episode (11.1 MB, 12.1 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Salt-loving extremophiles eat carbon monoxide at Mars-level concentrations (paper)

Better biotech processes by microbial cooperation (paper)

Different ways to engineer microbes to produce propane

Not all organisms share exactly the same genetic code

Queen bees have different microbes than other bees (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 222 - Cells Store Solar Sparks

The setup. Torella et al. 2015

This episode: Bacteria engineered to produce liquid fuel can eat carbon dioxide and hydrogen from solar-powered water-splitting!

Download Episode (11.2 MB, 12.25 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Some bugs need their vitamin-producing microbes, but kill them to harvest the vitamins

How specific gut microbes influence immune system (paper)

Bacteria used to produce various food ingredients

Bacteria could produce polyester beads that bind specific proteins (paper)

Rainforest bacteria could help plants grow better in poorer soil (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 221 - Co-culture Close Contact, Cats, and Cockerels

More related than some bacteria

This episode: More distantly related bacteria can help each other grow (and produce lots of hydrogen) by temporarily fusing with each other!

Download Episode (12.7 MB, 13.9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Bacterial close contact

Note: I said C. acetobutylicum was used in WWII to make acetone for bombs, but it was actually World War I, used to make cordite, a replacement for gunpowder.

Other interesting stories:

Gut microbes can affect brain's defensive barrier in mice

Getting E. coli to produce higher amounts of nice-smelling biofuel compounds

Using fungi to control avocado-damaging pests

Bacterial proteins used to modify human cells' immune signaling (paper)

Worm gut bacteria could help degrade plastic waste

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 219 - Fungi Facilitate Photosynthetic Fuels

Fungal mycelium
Image credit: Roslyn Noar

This episode: Fungi can act like sticky nets to help harvest algae for biofuels!

Download Episode (8.3 MB, 9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Bacteria produce substance that could control harmful algal blooms (paper)

Bacterial proteins in gut can protect mice from rotavirus

Beware of contamination in microbial sequence survey studies

Passionate kissing can transfer a lot of bacteria (not always a bad thing)

Mouse virus can act like gut bacteria in maintaining gut health

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles Special - ASM2015

Here's my summary of ASM2015, an exciting weekend full of science.

Download Episode (11.5 MB, 12.5 minutes)

The convention center in NOLA

Bird in a bayou

Not solid ground

Your host

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

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BacterioFiles 206 - Mollusc Maneuvers Microbe Machines to Macerate Maples

Shipworm, in or out of wood.
O'Connor et al, 2014.

This episode: When digesting wood, shipworms outsource their microbial symbionts from gut to gills!

Download Episode (9.7 MB, 10.6 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Swimming alga Euglena could help treat iron overdose (paper)

Bacteria in bees could produce useful antimicrobials

Tough bacteria could help make nuclear waste storage safer

Learning about ancient cultures from their fossilized feces (paper)

Using phages to make wastewater treatment better

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 200 - Converted Clostridium Consumes Carbon monoxide

This episode: Carbon monoxide-eating bacteria get modified to produce more useful products!

Download Episode (16 MB, 17.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Other mosquito microbes compete with and inhibit Wolbachia

Helicobacter extract seems to help prevent asthma (paper)

Lots of microbes living in water drops suspended in tar

Spores could be good for vaccines delivered to mucosal surfaces (review)

Various archaea are floating around in the air (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 191 - Coats Compose Current Conduits

Nanowires forming (Pirbadian, Fig 5)

This episode: Bacterial nanowires are made of the cells' outer membranes!

Download Episode (9.75 MB, 10.6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Algae in low light can switch quantum light harvesting on or off

Fecal transplants continue to seem like a great treatment for gut community imbalance

Good gut microbe community seems important for survival after stem cell transplant

Microbes on ocean plastic could have good and bad effects

Bacteria could help inhibit pathogens of bees and bats

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 176 - Bacteria Bust Biodiesel Builders

This episode: Algae-killing bacteria could help improve biofuel recovery processes!

Download Episode (11 MB, 12 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Soil microbes could be useful for weed control

About how bacteria are beautiful

Making biofuel bacteria more resistant to harsh process chemicals

New ways of producing high-energy biofuels

Understanding how fungus-like bacteria help plants grow (paper)

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

Subscribe at iTunes, check out the show at Twitter, MicrobeWorld, or Facebook

This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.