An article published in the journal “Microbiology Spectrum” reports the results of experiments based on the use of genetically modified bacteriophage viruses to combat strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that developed resistance to various antibiotics. These findings offer a way to neutralize these bacteria and new insights into the interactions between bacteriophages and bacteria that may be useful in other medical research.

A team of researchers led by biologist Jessie Vandierendonck of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB) characterized eight different so-called temperate bacteriophages and tested genetic modifications that enabled these viruses to insert Shiga toxin into enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli bacteria to neutralize them. This proof-of-concept could represent the beginning of a strategy to combat harmful bacteria.

An article published in the journal “Cell Host & Microbe” reports the results of a study on the widespread symbiosis between predatory protists and bacteria related to species that are pathogenic to various animal species and sometimes to humans. A team of researchers led by scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) conducted a series of analyses on water samples collected at the surface of the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the North Atlantic and identified protists that have predatory habits that eat some species of bacteria but are in symbiosis with other species. The results suggest a long and complex history of relationships that sometimes are symbiosis and sometimes are parasitism by bacteria with animals and choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals among eukaryotes.