Biology Microbiology

Researchers from Hiroshima University now have a better understanding of the mechanism underlying how certain bacteria can transfer genetic material across taxonomic kingdoms, including to fungi and protists. Their work, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, could have applications in changing how bacteria perform certain functions or react to changes in their environment.

In collaboration with Kanazawa University, researchers from Osaka City University used high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) to visualize at the nanometer level the movement of individual particles within the parasitic bacterium Mycoplasma mobile. After confirming the outline on the surface of the cell structure in an immobilized state with previous data gathered from electron microscopy, the team succeeded in visualizing the real-time movements of the internal structure by scanning the outside of the cell with HS-AFM.

“By looking at substances in volcanos, lakes and hotsprings, you can start to see the ecosystems that existed billions of years ago,” says Mayuko Nakagawa, a microbiologist and specially-appointed assistant professor at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) based at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. She analyses components left by microorganisms with colleagues from various disciplines, while as a lab manager, she looks after cutting-edge equipment and visitors from different countries.

火山や湖、温泉の物質からは数十億年前に存在した微生物の生態系が見えてくると語るのは、東京工業大学・地球生命研究所（ELSI）の中川麻悠子特任助教。異分野の研究者たちと共に微生物の作り出した成分を解析する傍ら、ラボマネージャーとして国内外の訪問者サポートや最先端の機材の管理などを行っている。

Scientists in Japan have developed and tested a novel probiotic formulation to control severe diarrhea in calves, ensuring their health and reducing mortality, and in turn reducing economic loss.

In a study published in Gastroenterology – Researchers at Osaka City University and The Institute for Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, report the intestinal bacterial and viral metagenome information from the fecal samples of patients with recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). This comprehensive analysis reveals the bacteria and phages involved in pathogenesis in rCDI, and their remarkable pathways important for the recovery of intestinal flora function.

Cells replicate their genetic material and divide into two identical clones to perpetuate life. Some cells pause in the process with a single, undivided nucleus. When the cell resumes division after such a pause, the nucleus can become caught in the fissure, splitting violently, and killing both cells. But that is not always the case. Researchers from Hiroshima University in Japan are starting to understand how active nuclear displacement rescues cell death.

Researchers in Kanazawa University has recently reported their study in Nano Letters regarding a high-speed atomic force microscopy study on a biological event that happens during flu virus enters infects its host cell. The real-time visualization of influenza A hemagglutinin (HA) has enhanced the understanding of fusogenic transition of HA and its interactions with host endosomes.

Scientists demonstrate that the information about host bacteria–bacteriophage (phage) associations derived from world’s first metagenome analysis is useful for the development of phage therapies against intestinal pathobionts.

Researchers at Kanazawa University and Tsukuba University report in Nanoscale that the physical properties of extracellular bacterial membrane vesicles are significantly diverse. The properties for a single type of bacterium as well as for different types are found to be highly heterogeneous.

DGIST Professor Sanghoon Lee’s team developed a novel neuromodulation interface that converts friction energy into for electrical neurostimulation energy to treat underactive bladder. Expected to be widely applied for the treatment of neurological disorders.

Indigenous bacteria show promise for cleaning up pollution.

Understanding how bacteria help convert glacier bedrock into soil could help address desertification.

A team of scientists, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), has unveiled that the bacterium Chromobacterium piscinae produces cyanide, an inhibitory molecule, to defend themselves in the battle against Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100.

Genetic analyses of a desert bacterium show it could help to improve crop production in arid lands.

Skin squames are a source of food for the bacteria found in air-cooling units, which produce odours even in a dust-free air-conditioning system, a research by Hong Kong Baptist University scholars revealed.

Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University have recently found that bacteria that carry the colistin resistance gene mcr-1 commonly exist in human and various types of food and environmental samples collected from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

Treating wastewater with solar irradiation shows promise in reducing two E. coli strains but a resilient strain persists.

Promising electrochemical technologies for cleaning wastewater are boosted by discovery of extremophilic microbes in the Red Sea.

A physiological approach to restore the gut’s ecosystem in various diseases by using antimicrobial peptides has been developed by Hokkaido University scientists.

Symbiotic giant bacteria enable Red Sea surgeonfish to specialize their diets.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) discovered a newly emerged superbug, hyper-resistant and hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae, which may cause untreatable and fatal infections in relatively healthy individuals and will pose enormous threat to human health.

Scientists have discovered a unique biosynthetic pathway for D-Glutamate, an important cell wall component in pathogenic bacteria, which could lead to the development of medicines and agricultural chemicals.

Studying DNA fragments left by ancient viruses in their host’s genome has shown even non-autonomous viruses could prosper by helping each other.

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KAIST Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was elected as a foreign associate to the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on May 2.