Bacteria

Ethanoperedens thermophilum in red and its symbiote Desulfofervidus auxilii in green

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An article published in the journal “mBio” reports the discovery of an archaeon that feeds on ethane in hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Guaymas Basin, in the central area of ​​the Gulf of California. A team of researchers led by Gunter Wegener of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology proposed the name Ethanoperedens thermophilum for this archaeon that lives in symbiosis with a bacterium already known for which Wegener and his collaborators proposed the name Desulfofervidus auxilii. The interest in these microorganisms goes beyond biological curiosity because the metabolic process that degrade ethane is reversible, and this means that other similar archaea could transform carbon dioxide into ethane. This would lead to their use for the production of ethane, the second most common component of natural gas after methane with 15%.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Image CDC/ Janice Haney Carr)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” reports a study concerning bacterial immune defenses of the CRISPR-Cas type, which could turn out to be a disadvantage against some types of viruses. A team of researchers analyzed the immune systems present in the genome of over 170,000 bacteria to try to understand the reactions against bacteriophage viruses. The conclusion that CRISPR antiviral systems are sometimes a disadvantage offers an explanation of why only a minority of bacteria have them in their DNA. It also offers new information on bacteria’s defense strategies viruses’ attack strategies with a sort of arms race between them.

The study of bacteria offers new clues to the evolution of photosynthesis

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An article published in the journal “Trends in Plant Science” reports a deveolpment of a theory on the evolution of photosynthesis. Tanai Cardona and A. William Rutherford of Imperial College London studied various bacteria belonging to species capable of photosynthesis. Their conclusion is that the photosynthesis we know today thanks to plants was possible much earlier than previously thought and wasn’t an evolution of another form that is generally considered more primitive and doesn’t lead to the release of oxygen.

Charles Paradis with a soil core sample (Photo courtesy Lance E. King/Y-12 National Security Complex. All rights reserved)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Communications” reports the first use of a technique called BONCAT+FACS to isolate the active microbes present in a soil sample. A team of scientists led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) adapted a technique developed to isolate proteins produced in cells to transform it into a tool that could identify single active microbes. This will help to understand in new details parts of ecosystems difficult to investigate, also obtaining information on large-scale cycles existing in the environment.

Lactobacillus acidophilus

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An article published in the journal “General Psychiatry” reports the results of a research on the positive effects of the regulation of gut microbiota in alleviating anxiety problems. A team of researchers from the Shanghai Mental Health Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine examined 21 studies that involved a total of 1,503 people and found that in most cases there were improvements thanks to interventions to regulate gut microbiota, in some cases based on the addition of probiotic supplements and in other cases with even better results with adjustments to the daily diet.