Publications related to Mechanisms of DNA Uptake by Naturally Competent Bacteria

Bactericidal effect of tetracycline in E. coli strain ED1a may be associated with ribosome dysfunction

Martin Beck, Camille Véronique Bernadette Goemans, Christian Eugen Zimmerli

Ribosomes translate the genetic code into proteins. Recent technical advances have facilitated in situ structural analyses of ribosome functional states inside eukaryotic cells and the minimal bacterium Mycoplasma. However, such analyses of Gram-negative b ...

Nature Research2024

Dangerous acquaintances: the interplay between type IV pili and the type VI secretion system during Vibrio cholerae's environmental lifestyle

Simon Bernhard Otto

Cholera, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has affected humanity throughout history and still impacts millions of people every year. Apart from being a human pathogen, V. cholerae is a common member of the aquatic environment. Due to this natural re ...

EPFL2024

Interactions between pili affect the outcome of bacterial competition driven by the type VI secretion system

Melanie Blokesch, Anne-Florence Raphaëlle Bitbol, Simon Bernhard Otto, Richard Marie Servajean, Alexandre Lemopoulos

The bacterial type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a widespread, kin-discriminatory weapon capable of shaping microbial communities. Due to the system’s dependency on contact, cellular interactions can lead to either competition or kin protection. Cell-to-ce ...

2024

Resolving bacterial cell biology: from replisome dynamics to cell wall synthesis

Chen Zhang

Bacteria are ubiquitous single cellular organisms. Compared to eukaryotic cells, bacteria have two unique characteristics: the membrane-less nucleoid and the cell wall built of peptidoglycan (PG). In most bacteria, a single circular chromosome is compacted ...

EPFL2024

Machine learning method for the classification of the state of living organisms' oscillations

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

The World Health Organization highlights the urgent need to address the global threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Efficient and rapid detection of bacterial response to antibiotics and their virulence state is crucial for the effective treatmen ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024

Stability of influenza A virus in droplets and aerosols is heightened by the presence of commensal respiratory bacteria

Tamar Kohn, Htet Kyi Wynn, Céline Terrettaz, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Marta Augugliaro, Shannon Christa David, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Walter Hugentobler, Laura José Costa Henriques, Daniel Scott Nolan

Aerosol transmission remains a major challenge for control of respiratory viruses, particularly those causing recurrent epidemics, like influenza A virus (IAV). These viruses are rarely expelled alone, but instead are embedded in a consortium of microorgan ...

American Society for Microbiology2024

Chromosome organization shapes replisome dynamics in Caulobacter crescentus

Suliana Manley, Laurent Casini, Chen Zhang

DNA replication in bacteria takes place on highly compacted chromosomes, where segregation, transcription, and repair must occur simultaneously. Within this dynamic environment, colocalization of sister replisomes has been observed in many bacterial specie ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Single-cell analysis of the interactions between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and macrophages

Ophélie Rutschmann

Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is a highly effective pathogen infecting nearly a third of the world's population. An M. tuberculosis infection starts when droplets containing bacteria enter an individual's lungs. The first host cells to contact the bacteria ar ...

EPFL2024

Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous photo-Fenton elimination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria bearing intracellular or extracellular resistance: Do resistance mechanisms interfere with disinfection pathways?

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Truong-Thien Melvin Le, Jérémie Decker

The present study aimed to fill the knowledge gap between the implications of intracellular and extracellular antibiotic resistance mechanisms may inflict on the inactivation pathways of the photo-Fenton process under mild conditions. It was thus designed ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Simple optical nanomotion method for single-bacterium viability and antibiotic response testing

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Allan Bonvallat, Eugenia Rossetti

Antibiotic resistance is nowadays a major public health issue. Rapid antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST) are one of the options to fight this deadly threat. Performing AST with single-cell sensitivity that is rapid, cheap, and widely accessible, is ch ...

National Academy of Sciences2023

Biofilm morphogenesis on soft hydrogels

Alice Cont

Bacteria often colonize their environment in the form of surface attached multicellular communities called biofilms. Biofilms grow from surface-attached cells that undergo division while self-embedding in a viscoelastic matrix. Biofilms grow at the surface ...

EPFL2023

Functional characterization of Drosophila melanogaster immune effectors

Alexia Laurie Carboni

Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the "fruit fly", is a genetically tractable model organism widely used to study biological processes, notably the innate immune system. The advent of novel genome editing technologies, such as the CRISPR-Cas9 syst ...

EPFL2023

The Effects of Spatial Organization and Fluid Flow on the Social Interactions in Microbial Communities

Jeremy Pak Hei Wong

Bacteria often engage in social interactions with neighbouring bacteria. Ecosystems which are subjected to social interactions have been widely studied in well mixed settings such as test tubes, allowing us to identify the cellular components contributing ...

EPFL2023

Homogeneous Environmental Selection Structures the Bacterial Communities of Benthic Biofilms in Proglacial Floodplain Streams

Leïla Ezzat, Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Jade Brandani, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Streams draining proglacial floodplains harbor benthic biofilms comprised of diverse microbial communities. These high-mountain ecosystems are rapidly changing with climate warming, and it is therefore critical to better understand the mechanisms underlyin ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

DNA modifications impact natural transformation of Acinetobacter baumannii

Christian Iseli, Nicolas Jean Philippe Guex, Melanie Blokesch, Nina Vesel, Alexandre Lemopoulos

Acinetobacter baumannii is a dangerous nosocomial pathogen, especially due to its ability to rapidly acquire new genetic traits, including antibiotic resistance genes (ARG). In A. baumannii, natural competence for transformation, one of the primary modes o ...

2023

Time-Resolved Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy and Single-Molecule Spectroscopy

Samuel Mendes Leitão

The evolution of the 3D morphology is at the center of many relevant biological processes ranging from cellular differentiation to cancer invasion and metastasis. Microscopy techniques, such as electron microscopy (EM), super-resolution (SR) optical micros ...

EPFL2023

Bacterial colonization in realistic environments: how mechanics impact biofilm formation in the wild and during infection

Tamara Rossy

A variety of physical inputs acts onto bacteria in nature. However, these are most often ignored in the studies of their physiology. There is now increasing evidence indicating that bacteria respond to physical stimuli, including mechanical forces. Yet, qu ...

EPFL2023

A Rapidly Responsive Sensor for Wireless Detection of Early and Mature Microbial Biofilms

Hubert Girault, Andreas Stephan Lesch, Bhawna Nagar, Wanderson Oliveira Da Silva

Biofilm-associated infections, which are able to resist antibiotics, pose a significant challenge in clinical treatments. Such infections have been linked to various medical conditions, including chronic wounds and implant-associated infections, making the ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2023

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing with integrated photonic crystal optical tweezers

Nicolas Villa

The abusive use of antimicrobial drugs during the last eighty years has favoured the natural selection of resistant pathogens able to neutralise drugs efficiently. Nowadays, antimicrobial resistance contributes to millions of deaths yearly, threatens the e ...

EPFL2023

Sulfurospirillum diekertiae sp. nov., a tetrachloroethene-respiring bacterium isolated from contaminated soil

Christof Holliger, Julien Maillard, Junxiong Wang

Two anaerobic, tetrachloroethene- (PCE-) respiring bacterial isolates, designated strain ACSDCE T and strain ACSTCE, were characterized using a polyphasic approach. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, motile, non-spore-forming and shared a vibrioid- to spirill ...

2023