Publications related to Genetic manipulation of Vibrio cholerae by combining natural transformation with FLP recombination

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

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

The dynamic genetic determinants of increased transcriptional divergence in spermatids

Christina Ernst

Cis-genetic effects are key determinants of transcriptional divergence in discrete tissues and cell types. However, how cis- and trans-effects act across continuous trajectories of cellular differentiation in vivo is poorly understood. Here, we quantify al ...

Nature Portfolio2024

A chemical biology approach to decipher chromatin ubiquitylation by RNF168

Pauline Franz

DNA damage signaling following DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) involves numerous regulating proteins, which dynamically recognize ('read') and alter ('write' or 'erase') histone post-translational modifications (PTMs). Among these PTMs, the ubiquitin syste ...

EPFL2024

Bcl-xL targeting eliminates ageing tumor-promoting neutrophils and inhibits lung tumor growth

Freddy Radtke, Nadine Fournier, Etienne Meylan, Justine Pascual, Anita Bodac, Amber Dawn Bowler, Vincent Roh

Elevated peripheral blood and tumor-infiltrating neutrophils are often associated with a poor patient prognosis. However, therapeutic strategies to target these cells are difficult to implement due to the life-threatening risk of neutropenia. In a genetica ...

Springernature2024

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

Biofilm formation on human immune cells is a multicellular predation strategy of Vibrio cholerae

Alexandre Louis André Persat, Sofya Mikhaleva

Biofilm formation is generally recognized as a bacterial defense mechanism against environmental threats, including antibiotics, bacteriophages, and leukocytes of the human immune system. Here, we show that for the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae, biofilm f ...

CELL PRESS2023

Regulation and impact of TERRA R-loops at human telomeres

Rita Valador Fernandes

Telomeres are the nucleoprotein structures found at the ends of linear chromosomes. They ensure that the termini of chromosomes are not inappropriately recognized as sites of DNA damage, and are therefore crucial for genome stability. In spite of the heter ...

EPFL2023

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

Towards Uncovering the Mechanisms of Electrophile Sensing and Signaling

Chloé Rogg

Native reactive electrophile species (RES) such as 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) act as cellular signals through covalent modification of kinetically-privileged electrophile sensor proteins. Research efforts in the field focus mainly on identifying these sensor p ...

EPFL2023

Interventionist estimands in event history analysis

Matias Janvin

The presence of competing events, such as death, makes it challenging to define causal effects on recurrent outcomes. In this thesis, I formalize causal inference for recurrent events, with and without competing events. I define several causal estimands an ...

EPFL2023

Identifying genetic and dietary modulators of metabolic disorders using systems genetics

Xiaoxu Li

Long-term consumption of lipid-rich foods can contribute to common metabolic diseases and systemic low-grade inflammation. However, dietary responses and the development of non-communicable diseases are shaped by genetic factors and gene-by-environment int ...

EPFL2023

Development of multiplexed single-molecule imaging techniques to study chromatin invasion dynamics of chromatin effector proteins

Kristina Makasheva

DNA-binding proteins physically interact with the DNA and directly affect genomic functions. The eukaryotic genome is compacted into chromatin, limiting the DNA access to nuclear factors. In this Ph.D. thesis, I explored the dynamic mechanisms, that allow ...

EPFL2023

Mechanical Properties and Nanomotion of BT-20 and ZR-75 Breast Cancer Cells Studied by Atomic Force Microscopy and Optical Nanomotion Detection Method

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

Cells of two molecular genetic types of breast cancer-hormone-dependent breast cancer (ZR-75 cell line) and triple-negative breast cancer (BT-20 cell line)-were studied using atomic force microscopy and an optical nanomotion detection method. Using the Pea ...

MDPI2023

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

Preomic profile of BxPC-3 cells after treatment with BRC4

Andrea Cavalli

BRCA2 and RAD51 are two proteins that play a central role in homologous recombination (HR) and DNA double strand break (DSB) repair. BRCA2 assists RAD51 fibrillation and defibrillation through binding with its eight BRC repeats, with BRC4 being one of the ...

ELSEVIER2023

Large Orbital Moment of Two Coupled Spin-Half Co Ions in a Complex on Gold

Stefano Rusponi, Chao Li, Boris Sorokin

The magnetic propertiesof transition-metal ions aregenerallydescribed by the atomic spins of the ions and their exchange coupling.The orbital moment, usually largely quenched due the ligand field,is then seen as a perturbation. In such a scheme, S = 1/2 io ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Glacier-Fed Stream Biofilms Harbor Diverse Resistomes and Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud

Antimicrobial resistance is an omnipresent phenomenon in the anthropogenically influenced ecosystems. However, its role in shaping microbial community dynamics in pristine environments is relatively unknown. ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

Natural competence of the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii: an elusive phenomenon

Nina Vesel

Natural competence for transformation is an important driver of horizontal DNA exchange between different organisms. This can result in accumulation of dangerous genetic features, such as antibiotic resistance genes, in a single organism. One example of an ...

EPFL2022

How Vibrio cholerae adapts to the environment: from cell shape transitions to antagonistic behavior

Leonardo Filipe Lemos Rocha

The bacterium Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of the diarrheal disease cholera, which affects millions of people every year. Apart from being a human pathogen, V. cholerae is also a common member of aquatic habitats. Whilst the mechanism that allow ...

EPFL2022