BacterioFiles 366 - Globules Get Garbage Gone

By: Rang et al, 2018
mSphere 3:e00428-18

This episode: Bacteria rid themselves of burdensome waste by ejecting it inside little pieces of their own cell, called minicells!


Download Episode (10.8 MB, 11.9 minutes)

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

News item

Journal Papers:
Rang CU, Proenca A, Buetz C, Shi C, Chao L. 2018. Minicells as a Damage Disposal Mechanism in Escherichia coli. mSphere 3:e00428-18.

Other interesting stories:

• Gut microbe can help protect mice from colon cancer (paper)
• Microbes living in super-dry desert couldn't survive excess rains

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

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Episode outline:

BacterioFiles 365 - Saccharomycopsis Cells Slay Sickeners

Predator attacking prey with
penetration peg
By: Junker et al. 2018 Sci Rep 8
CC BY 4.0

This episode: Dr. Klara Junker joins me to discuss her work on the predatory yeast Saccharomycopsis schoenii that can kill the serious pathogenic yeast Candida auris!


Download Episode (11.0 MB, 12.0 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Lambdapapillomavirus 5

Movies of Saccharomycopsis attacking other yeasts

Journal Papers:
Junker K, Bravo Ruiz G, Lorenz A, Walker L, Gow NAR, Wendland J. 2018. The mycoparasitic yeast Saccharomycopsis schoenii predates and kills multi-drug resistant Candida auris. Sci Rep 8:14959.

Other interesting stories:

• Studying which microbes grow well on different gravestones
• Certain fiber-digesting bacteria in mouse gut correlate with less artery disease

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

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BacterioFiles 364 - Polyproteins Promote Producing Pabulum

Nitrogenase enzyme
By Jjsjjsjjs - Own work,
CC BY-SA 3.0

This episode: Engineering other organisms to fix nitrogen by combining the required enzyme components into giant proteins that then get cut into the regular-sized subunit components!


Download Episode (10.5 MB, 11.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Blastochloris sulfoviridis

Journal commentary (paywall)

Journal Papers:
Yang J, Xie X, Xiang N, Tian Z-X, Dixon R, Wang Y-P. 2018. Polyprotein strategy for stoichiometric assembly of nitrogen fixation components for synthetic biology. Proc Natl Acad Sci 115:E8509–E8517.

Other interesting stories:

• How the human microbiota recovers after antibiotic treatment

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

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BacterioFiles 363 - Tiny Treasure Tunnels

Tunnels in garnet
By: Ivarsson et al. 2018,
PLoS ONE 13(8):e0200351
CC BY 4.0

This episode: Intricate networks of tunnels in garnet gemstones seem to have come from tunneling microorganisms!

Thanks to Magnus Ivarsson for his contribution!

Download Episode (5.4 MB, 5.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces griseosporeus

News item

Journal Papers:
Ivarsson M, Skogby H, Phichaikamjornwut B, Bengtson S, Siljeström S, Ounchanum P, Boonsoong A, Kruachanta M, Marone F, Belivanova V, Holmström S. 2018. Intricate tunnels in garnets from soils and river sediments in Thailand – Possible endolithic microborings. PLOS ONE 13:e0200351.

Other interesting stories:

• Swimming algae can move through bloodstream to deliver drugs
• Mosquito microbes engineered to inhibit spread of malaria (paper)
• A probiotic inhibits a pathogen by interfering with its signaling between cells
• Healthy microbiota seems important for mice recovering from heart attack

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

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BacterioFiles 362 - Combining Chromosomes

Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast

This episode: Combining all 16 of yeast's chromosomes into one or two only impairs their growth slightly in the lab, but it prevents them from successful mating with wild yeasts!

Download Episode (12.4 MB, 13.6 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Vibrio succinogenes

News item 1/News item 2

Journal Papers:
Luo J, Sun X, Cormack BP, Boeke JD. 2018. Karyotype engineering by chromosome fusion leads to reproductive isolation in yeast. Nature 560:392–396.
Shao Y, Lu N, Wu Z, Cai C, Wang S, Zhang L-L, Zhou F, Xiao S, Liu L, Zeng X, Zheng H, Yang C, Zhao Z, Zhao G, Zhou J-Q, Xue X, Qin Z. 2018. Creating a functional single-chromosome yeast. Nature 560:331–335.

Other interesting stories:

• Treating Salmonella infection with phages plus gut microbiota works better together (paper)
• Bioreactor fermentation strategy allows efficient vitamin K production

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

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BacterioFiles 361 - Figuring Fungus's Forcing Fly Functions

Fruit fly infected with fungus
By Elya et al 2018;7:e34414

This episode: Bringing a fungus that makes zombie flies into the lab makes a good model for studying microbial mind-control!

Thanks to Dr. Carolyn Elya for her contribution!
Download Episode (12.1 MB, 13.25 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Dipteran brevidensovirus 2

News item

Videos of fly fungus infection progression

Journal Papers:
Elya C, Lok TC, Spencer QE, McCausland H, Martinez CC, Eisen M. 2018. Robust manipulation of the behavior of Drosophila melanogaster by a fungal pathogen in the laboratory. eLife 7:e34414.

Other interesting stories:

• Bacteria from coal mining areas could help pollution-cleaning plants grow in those areas (paper)
• Bacteria in photosynthetic family found living deep inside rocks

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

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BacterioFiles 360 - Fellow Phages Fight Fortifications

Bacteriophage
By Rolf Lood, Matthias Mörgelin,
Anna Holmberg, Magnus Rasmussen
and Mattias Collin
BMC Microbiology 2008,
8:139 doi:10.1186/1471-2180-8-139
CC BY 2.5

This episode: Bacteriophages with defenses against bacterial CRISPR defenses have to work together to succeed!

Thanks to Drs. Edze Westra and Stineke van Houte for their contributions, and to Calvin Cornell for suggesting this story!
Download Episode (9.6 MB, 10.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Lactobacillus casei subsp. alactosus

News item 1/News item 2

Journal Papers:
Borges AL, Zhang JY, Rollins MF, Osuna BA, Wiedenheft B, Bondy-Denomy J. 2018. Bacteriophage Cooperation Suppresses CRISPR-Cas3 and Cas9 Immunity. Cell 174:917-925.e10.

Landsberger M, Gandon S, Meaden S, Rollie C, Chevallereau A, Chabas H, Buckling A, Westra ER, Houte S van. 2018. Anti-CRISPR Phages Cooperate to Overcome CRISPR-Cas Immunity. Cell 174:908-916.e12.

Other interesting stories:

• Aphids can see fluorescence from pathogenic bacteria to avoid them on leaves
• Fecal transplants from yourself before antibiotics could restore gut community after antibiotics
• Engineering E. coli to convert CO₂ and methanol into useful products (paper)
• Used panel of bioluminescent bacteria to test artificial sweetener toxicity

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

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

Episode outline: