bacteria
Environmental MicrobiologyUse of a Fluorescent Analog of Glucose (2-NBDG) To Identify Uncultured Rumen Bacteria That Take Up GlucoseWe introduce a method for identifying what substrates are consumed by bacteria in natural communities. Our method offers significant improvement over existing methods for studying this characteristic. Our method uses a fluorescently labeled substrate which clearly labels target bacteria (glucose consumers in our case). Previous methods use isotope-labeled substrates, which are notorious for off-target labeling (due to cross-feeding of...
Environmental MicrobiologyButyrivibrio hungatei MB2003 Competes Effectively for Soluble Sugars Released by Butyrivibrio proteoclasticus B316T during Growth on Xylan or PectinFeeding a future global population of 9 billion people and climate change are the primary challenges facing agriculture today. Ruminant livestock are important food-producing animals, and maximizing their productivity requires an understanding of their digestive systems and the roles played by rumen microbes in plant polysaccharide degradation. Butyrivibrio species are a phylogenetically diverse group of bacteria and are...
Environmental MicrobiologyFocused Metabolism of β-Glucans by the Soil Bacteroidetes Species Chitinophaga pinensisIt is well known that the forest litter layer is inhabited by a complex microbial community of bacteria and fungi. However, while the importance of fungi in the turnover of natural biomass is well established, the role of their bacterial counterparts is less extensively studied. We show that Chitinophaga pinensis, a prominent member of an important bacterial genus, is...
Food Microbiology | SpotlightThe Interior Surfaces of Wooden Barrels Are an Additional Microbial Inoculation Source for Lambic Beer ProductionAlthough the coolship step is generally regarded as the main contributor to the spontaneous inoculation by environmental air of fresh worts for lambic beer production, it is known that microorganisms often associate with specific surfaces present in a brewery. However, knowledge about the association of microorganisms with the interior surfaces of wooden lambic barrels is limited. To clarify the role of casks and foeders as additional...
Microbial EcologyIn Vitro Community Synergy between Bacterial Soil Isolates Can Be Facilitated by pH Stabilization of the EnvironmentUnderstanding interspecies interactions in bacterial communities is important for unraveling species dynamics in naturally occurring communities. These dynamics are fundamental for identifying evolutionary drivers and for the development of efficient biotechnological industry applications. Recently, pH interplay among community members has been identified as a factor affecting community development, and pH stabilization has been...
Food MicrobiologyDynamics and Biodiversity of Bacterial and Yeast Communities during Fermentation of Cocoa BeansIn spite of the limited effectiveness of the considered inoculated starter strains, this study provides new information on the microbial development of box and heap cocoa fermentations, under inoculated and noninoculated conditions, as we coupled yeast/bacterial amplicon-based sequencing data with microbial metabolite detection. The information so far available suggests that microbial communities have played an important role in the...
Environmental MicrobiologyIsolation of Previously Uncultured Slow-Growing Bacteria by Using a Simple Modification in the Preparation of Agar MediaMost microbial species inhabiting natural environments have not yet been isolated. One of the serious issues preventing their isolation is intrinsically slow and/or poor growth. Moreover, these slow and/or poor growers are likely to be highly sensitive to environmental stresses, especially oxidative stress. We reported previously that interaction between agar and phosphate during autoclave sterilization generates hydrogen peroxide,...
- Genetics and Molecular BiologyQuorum Sensing in Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi and Erwinia toletana: Role in Virulence and Interspecies Interactions in the Olive Knot
This is a report on studies of the quorum sensing (QS) systems of the olive knot pathogen Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi and olive knot cooperator Erwinia toletana. These two bacterial species form a stable community in the olive knot, share QS signals, and cooperate, resulting in a more...
- MinireviewLEA Proteins and the Evolution of the WHy Domain
The late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) family is composed of a diverse collection of multidomain and multifunctional proteins found in all three domains of the tree of life, but they are particularly common in plants. Most members of the family are known to play an important role in abiotic stress response and stress tolerance in plants but are also part of the plant hypersensitive response to pathogen infection.