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Category Archives: Microbiology

Symbiotic bacteria program daily rhythms in squid using light and chemicals

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Public release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology

Glowing bacteria inside squids use light and chemical signals to control circadian-like rhythms in the animals, according to a study to be published on April 2 in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. The Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, houses a colony of Vibrio fischeri bacteria in its light organ, using the bacteria at night as an antipredatory camouflage while it ventures out to hunt. The results of the study show that, in addition to acting as a built-in lamp, the bacteria also control when the squid expresses a gene that entrains, or synchronizes, circadian rhythms in animals.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of bacteria entraining the daily rhythms of host tissues," says corresponding author Margaret McFall-Ngai of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. If bacteria can entrain daily rhythms in an animal, McFall-Ngai says, it's reasonable to think these influences will eventually be found in other animals. It's possible that microbial partners in the human gut, for instance, could similarly influence human daily rhythms through chemical signaling.

Like all animals, squids make proteins that set their inner clock to environmental light. E. scolopes produces two of these "light entrainment" proteins (cryptochromes, or CRYs), and one is regulated in the squid's head, just like every other animal. McFall-Ngai and her co-authors noticed that escry1, the gene that encodes the other protein, is most highly expressed in the light organ, where the squid houses its glowing bacterial symbionts. "The animal uses the luminescence in the evening, so the luminescence is greatest at night. The gene escry1 cycles with the bioluminescence of the animal and not with environmental light," says McFall-Ngai.

But is it the bacterial luminescence that synchronizes the cycling, or is it the bacteria themselves? It's both, says McFall-Ngai.

The bacteria are necessary for cycling, she says, since squid grown without their bacterial symbionts do not cycle their expression of escry1, and mimicking the bacterial light with a blue light did not induce the cycling.

And they showed that the light is also necessary, because squids grown with defective V. fischeri symbionts that lack the ability to luminesce didn't cycle their expression of escry1 either. With light-defective bacteria in their light organs, squids exposed to the blue light got back on track, cycling escry1 production as usual.

What is it about the bacteria that could be signaling to the squid? Long experience taught McFall-Ngai where to turn next: microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs), molecules that signal the presence of microbes to other creatures. "In this system we have found again and again that bacterial surface molecules are active at inducing all kinds of cellular behavior in the host," says McFall-Ngai.

Her hunch was right. MAMPs plus light turned cycling on. In squid grown without symbionts, light, combined with MAMPs (either the lipid A component of lipopolysaccharide or the peptidoglycan monomer), could induce some degree of cycling. The squid did not respond fully, though, maybe because the MAMPs were only injected into their seawater habitat, not presented directly to the light organ.

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Symbiotic bacteria program daily rhythms in squid using light and chemicals

Head-on collisions between DNA-code reading machineries accelerate gene evolution

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Public release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Leila Gray leilag@uw.edu 206-685-0381 University of Washington

Bacteria appear to speed up their evolution by positioning specific genes along the route of expected traffic jams in DNA encoding. Certain genes are in prime collision paths for the moving molecular machineries that read the DNA code, as University of Washington scientists explain in this week's edition of Nature.

The spatial-organization tactics their model organism, Bacillus subtilis, takes to evolve and adapt might be imitated in other related Gram-positive bacteria, including harmful, ever-changing germs like staph, strep, and listeria, to strengthen their virulence or cause persistent infections. The researchers think that these mechanisms for accelerating evolution may be found in other living creatures as well.

Replication the duplicating of the genetic code to create a new set of genes and transcription the copying of DNA code to produce a protein are not separated by time or space in bacteria. Therefore, clashes between these machineries are inevitable. Replication traveling rapidly along a DNA strand can be stalled by a head-on encounter or same-direction brush with slower-moving transcription.

The senior authors of the study, Houra Merrikh, UW assistant professor of microbiology, and Evgeni Sokurenko, UW professor of microbiology, and their research teams are collaborating to understand the evolutionary consequences of these conflicts. The major focus of Merrikh and her research team is on understanding mechanistic and physiological aspects of conflicts in living cells including why and how these collisions lead to mutations.

Impediments to replication, they noted, can cause instability within the genome, such as chromosome deletions or rearrangements, or incomplete separation of genetic material during cell division. When dangerous collisions take place, bacteria sometimes employ methods to repair, and then restart, the paused DNA replication, Merrikh discovered in her earlier work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To avoid unwanted encounters, bacteria orient most of their genes along what is called the leading strand of DNA, rather than the lagging. The terms refer to the direction the encoding activities travel on different forks of the unwinding DNA. Head-on collisions between replication and transcription happen on the lagging strand.

Despite the heightened risk of gene-altering clashes, the study bacteria B. subtilis still orients 25 percent of all its genes, and 6 percent of its essential genes, on the lagging strand.

The scientist observed that genes under the greatest natural selection pressure for amino-acid mutations, a sign of their adaptive significance, were on the lagging strand. Amino acids are the building blocks for proteins. Based on their analysis of mutations on the leading and the lagging strands, the researchers found that the rate of accumulation of mutations was faster in the genes oriented to be subject to head-on replication-transcription conflicts, in contrast to co-directional conflicts.

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Head-on collisions between DNA-code reading machineries accelerate gene evolution

Research and Markets: 2013 UK Hospital Microbiology Testing Market

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fzjwh6/2013_uk_hospital) has announced the addition of the "2013 UK Hospital Microbiology Testing Market" report to their offering.

This new report from Venture Planning Group contains 886 pages, 67 tables, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the UK hospital infectious disease testing market, including:

- Major issues pertaining to the UK hospital laboratory practice, as well as key economic, regulatory, demographic, social and technological trends with significant market impact during the next ten years.

- Current scientific views on definition, epidemiology, and etiology of major infectious diseases and microorganisms.

- Volume and sales forecasts for 80 infectious disease tests performed in UK hospital laboratories.

- Instrumentation technologies and feature comparison of leading analyzers.

- Sales and market shares of leading suppliers.

- Emerging diagnostic technologies and their potential market applications.

- Product development opportunities.

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Research and Markets: 2013 UK Hospital Microbiology Testing Market

Research and Markets: 2013 US Hospital Microbiology Testing Market Gives Volume and Sales Forecasts for 80 …

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/tkznzp/2013_us_hospital) has announced the addition of the "2013 US Hospital Microbiology Testing Market" report to their offering.

This new report from Venture Planning Group contains 997 pages, 87 tables, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the US hospital microbiology testing market, including:

Major issues pertaining to the US hospital laboratory practice, as well as key economic, regulatory, demographic, social and technological trends with significant market impact during the next ten years. Current scientific views on the definition, epidemiology, and etiology of major infectious diseases and microorganisms. Volume and sales forecasts for 80 microbiology tests performed in US hospital laboratories. Instrumentation technologies and feature comparison of leading analyzers. Sales and market shares of leading suppliers by test. Emerging diagnostic technologies and their potential market applications. Product development opportunities. Profiles of current and emerging suppliers, including their sales, market shares, product portfolios, marketing tactics, technological know-how, new products in R&D, collaborative arrangements and business strategies. Business opportunities and strategic recommendations for suppliers.

Companies Mentioned:

- Abbott

- Affymetrix

- Beckman Coulter/Danaher

- Becton Dickinson

- bioMerieux

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Research and Markets: 2013 US Hospital Microbiology Testing Market Gives Volume and Sales Forecasts for 80 ...

NAMSA Expands Laboratory in Irvine, California

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NORTHWOOD, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

NAMSA, the worlds leading medical research organization, continues its steady growth with the expansion of its microbiology laboratory in Irvine, California. The newly expanded and state-of-the-art laboratory space will utilize the latest technology for microbiology and sterility assurance testing and will open in spring 2013.

An increased demand for NAMSAs sterility assurance and analytical services has led the company to invest in additional laboratory space in its Irvine location. The project increases its usable capacity by nearly 50 percent. In addition, the building is being improved to meet the requirements of silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. LEED was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to set a benchmark for design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

At NAMSA, we believe that everything we do must be in our clients best interests. This expansion is one of several examples of that commitment, said Gina Skolmowski, Corporate Vice President of Operations for NAMSA. Through this effort we have optimized our processes to meet increased demand for efficient lot release testing.

The expansion will not impact the delivery of current services, but will provide a more streamlined flow for future testing. The newly expanded space will be used for in vitro toxicology, sterility and bioburden testing. The expansion of these functional areas will also allow for growth in adjacent areas for analytical services and packaging testing. NAMSA is planning an open house to showcase the new features of the facility.

The medical device research, regulatory approval and commercialization process is continuously taking longer and costing more, driving the need for efficiencies wherever possible, and we are very focused on helping our clients meet that need, said Skolmowski.

With recent acquisitions and expansions, NAMSA is well positioned as a fully integrated provider for both medical device manufacturers and human cellular and tissue products (HCT/P). NAMSA has breadth and depth in consulting, non-clinical and clinical services. By having expertise in cardiovascular, orthopedic, ocular, neurologic, gastroenterologic, urologic, combination product and related medical devices, NAMSA helps manufacturers accelerate the process of bringing their products to market.

About NAMSA

NAMSA (www.namsa.com) is a global medical device research organization providing a comprehensive range of services to prove efficacy, non-clinical and clinical safety of medical devices, IVDs, HCT/P and combination products. For more than 45 years, NAMSA clients have utilized its testing and consulting services to bring safe and effective therapies to market.

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NAMSA Expands Laboratory in Irvine, California

Salad more dangerous than burgers?

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Published: March. 24, 2013 at 6:12 PM

ABERDEEN, Scotland, March 24 (UPI) -- It is generally safer to eat a burger than a salad because of the bacteria found on the greens, a British expert on microbiology and food safety said.

Professor Hugh Pennington, an emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland -- who worked for the British, Scottish and Welsh governments as an expert on microbiology and food safety -- said demand for salad boomed because of healthily eating campaigns but salad is considered one of the products most likely to cause food-related illness.

That is largely because greens are grown directly in the soil, and some pathogens can only be killed by heat or strong detergents, not just water, Pennington said.

"Despite the recent horse meat and other scandals, the meat can be traced and through a rigorous process that checks for its quality etc.," Pennington told the Sunday Telegraph. "That does not exist to the same rigor for salad. You can only make vegetables safe by cooking and you can`t obviously do that with salad. You could irradiate it -- but that would be a 'no, no' with the public. You just can`t be absolutely sure that the bagged salad you are buying, which has been put through a chemical wash to kill the bugs, is actually free of them."

Food pathogens are very good at clinging on to salad and the risk from cryptosporidium, salmonella and listeria is very real, Pennington said.

"I would advise people to thoroughly wash salad even when it says it has been washed and is ready to eat," Pennington said.

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Salad more dangerous than burgers?

American Society for Microbiology to host 113th General Meeting in Denver

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Public release date: 19-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) will hold its 113th General Meeting, May 18-21, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. The meeting will feature approximately 3,000 individual scientific presentations spanning the breadth of microbiology and has an expected attendance of 8,000.

Microbiologists study living organisms and infectious agents, and their work is critical to human and animal health, agriculture, the environment and biotechnology. Many accomplishments in the microbiological sciences have significantly affected our lives, such as the development of treatments for infectious diseases, the prevention of food spoilage, the use of microorganisms to clean up pollutants and basic knowledge of the nature of all living things.

Among the topics to be presented are:

A continuing trend at this year's meeting is how new technologies are not only changing how scientists do microbiology, but also how researchers view the role of microbiology and how microorganisms are shaping our world in ways we never imagined possible a few years ago.

More detailed information, including program and abstracts, can be found online at http://bit.ly/asm2013news

Daily media events will be livestreamed on the internet via the ASM Newsroom and will be archived on YouTube.

Additional press materials can be found at this site as they become available. PLEASE NOTE: The housing deadline is April 15, 2013. While media will be allowed to register for the meeting after that date, they will be responsible for arranging hotel accommodations on their own.

Comprehensive media facilities will be available and meeting registration is complimentary for the media.

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American Society for Microbiology to host 113th General Meeting in Denver

Q&A: A career in microbiology

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My spouse completed her M.Sc in Microbiology in 2011. After a two-year gap, she wants to pursue Ph.D. in the same subject in reputed institutions or take up a job related to her field. Can you guide her?

Rama Chandra Raju

One can pursue Ph.D. at any point in time in the area of study. Inter-disciplinary studies are also available but one will have to ensure a qualitative understanding of the same before pursuing them.

The best place to do research would be the institution where she has pursued the Masters/postgraduation programme. If this is not feasible she will have to approach any university/institution directly, meet the faculty members, place her thoughts and make efforts to join the programme.

Most of the universities offer Ph.D. programmes on a regular basis, though some even offer it on a part-time basis for specific applicants.

Ensure that you qualify as per the statues of the University/Institution where you intend to pursue.

For corporate work in the area of Microbiology, one needs to focus on research; hence, a Ph.D. will be a huge value-add.

I am in II PUC Commerce. I have taken up Computers, Economics, Business Studies and Accountancy as my subjects. I am not able to decide what to take up after PUC. I opted for Computers as I was not keen on Mathematics and Statistics. Though the concepts in Computers are interesting, I dont want to pursue the subject further. I have developed an interest in Business Studies, Economics and Accounts. The confusion is what to take up: B.Com, BBA or BBM. I am interested in law and cyber law too. I seek your advice.

Param Shah

Do not be perturbed. When you took the Commerce stream, you would have had a vision. Pursue it. Mathematics and Statistics are crucial in any aspect of the corporate world and area of business.

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Q&A: A career in microbiology


  1. Microbiology