Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · 15d

PPE51 is one of the best candidates to form a MOM transport channel. However, our data indicate that it is not that simple. PPE51 mutations in Mmarinum (4 close homologs) indeed reduce the growth on glycerol & glucose, but also highly increase permeability.. and no, we do not fully understand this

PPE51 modulates membrane integrity in Mycobacterium marinum | mBio

The impermeable outer membrane of pathogenic mycobacteria presents a major obstacle to nutrient acquisition and antibiotic penetration. PPE51, a substrate of the ESX-5 secretion system, has previously...

journals.asm.org

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · 21d

fems-microbiology.org/internationa...

International Microorganism Day - FEMS

International Microorganism Day (IMD) is an initiative coordinated by FEMS, originally launched by the Portuguese Society for Microbiology (SPM) in 2017. Since then, International Microorganism Day ha...

fems-microbiology.org

Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Aug 27

www.who.int/news/item/08...

Kenya achieves elimination of human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness as a public health problem

The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Kenya as having eliminated human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness as a public health problem, making it the tenth country to reach t...

www.who.int

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Aug 4

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
After 10 years they finally found the culprit… great work, although it is not so surprising that it turns out to be a Vibrio sp.

Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3 is a causative agent of sea star wasting disease - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The causative agent of sea star wasting disease has been elusive. This study used genetic datasets and experimental exposures to demonstrate that a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida caused di...

www.nature.com

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Jun 26

A nice example of evolutionary ‘bush mechanics’ we ran into, two periplasmic substrate binding proteins have been reused for a completely different role in mycobacteria

Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · Jun 25

Reading:

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-biofil... via @QuantaMagazine

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry | Quanta Magazine

Micro decisions can have macro consequences. A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Jun 15

This biologist aims to solve the cell’s biggest mystery. Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

This biologist aims to solve the cell’s biggest mystery. Could it help cancer patients, too?

Four decades after his lab found odd, massive particles inside cells, Leonard Rome is still determined to figure out what “vaults” do

www.science.org

Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · May 9

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mycobacterium bovis infected domestic cats in an officially bovine tuberculosis free country resulting in human infection

Although the Netherlands is an officially bovine tuberculosis (bTB) free (OTF) country, sporadic infections with Mycobacterium bovis still cause tuber…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Heran Darwin, PhD @heran.bsky.social · Apr 16

The #GRCMyco2025 group photo is now in everyone's mygrc folder! It was VERY sunny....

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Apr 18

Krista Freeman et al 𝘊𝘌𝘓𝘓

stunning atomic-level imaging (Cryo-EM, cryo-ET) reveals how 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐠𝐞 Bxb1 reshapes its tail tip to breach the mycobacterial cell wall and deliver DNA to the cytoplasm

can inform precise targeted phage therapies for TB and NTM infections

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Mar 26

Congratulations Cornelia and enjoy this very special occasion!

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Tracy Palmer @proftracypalmer.bsky.social · Mar 13

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... exciting new study on role of disulphide bond formation in secretion and motility in Bacteroidota

A central, shared role for disulfide bonds in Bacteroidota protein transport and gliding motility

The gliding motility and Type 9 Secretion Systems (T9SSs) of Bacteroidota share a Power Chain that in current models uses a Hub complex to distribute energy to both the T9SS translocon and a moving gl...

www.biorxiv.org

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Mar 4

Especially the coiled-coil domain is intriguing…

Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Mar 4

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Structural basis of siderophore export and drug efflux by Mycobacterium tuberculosis - Nature Communications

Mycobacteria produce small molecules (mycobactins) to acquire the essential nutrient iron. Here, Earp et al determine the cryo-EM structures of the mycobactin exporter MmpL4, which also effluxes the T...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

ASM @asm.org · Feb 20

For all its prominence in research, E. coli is a blip in a rich microbial world. Scientists are rethinking our infatuation with microbiology’s superstar and considering what can—and should—constitute a model organism going forward. Read the article: asm.org/Articles/202...

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Tom Scriba @tomscriba.bsky.social · Feb 7

Stopping clinical trials with such haste is unethical and potentially dangerous and violates the very principles that all who conduct interventional studies must adhere to. It is sad and exposes ignorance and a complete lack of respect for people!

Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · Feb 7

Abandoned in the Middle of Clinical Trials, Because of a Trump Order

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/h...

Dozens of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen in Response to Trump’s USAID Order

The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Augustinas Silale @augustsilale.bsky.social · Feb 3

New preprint 🚨: with @madejmar.bsky.social we found that the Bacteroidetes beta-barrel assembly machinery is quite different to E. coli. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cryo-EM

Comparison of B. theta and E. coli BAM machineries. Only BamAD components are shared, and B. theta BAM has five novel components, BamF-I.

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Jan 30

Last ever lecture in the infamous W&N building at the VU Amsterdam…apparently it had one of the longest hallways in the Netherlands, 250 meter.

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Hassan Salem @hassansalem.bsky.social · Jan 20

How do animals compensate for trait loss?

In beetles, symbiosis is a consistent strategy. Where the repeated loss of endogenous digestive enzymes is offset by functionally convergent symbioses: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Excited to share our latest, out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social!

Symbiotic leaf beetles and the organs that allow them to stably maintain beneficial microbes.

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Jan 16

I can also ask around in our university if you are interested, cool research

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Greg Priest @gregpriest.bsky.social · Oct 4

Researchers have engineered symbiotic associations between fungal cells and introduced organelles in an effort to explore how endosymbiosis might have given rise to eukaryotic cells.

🌱🐋🧪🦫🧠 #Evolbio

Is this how complex life evolved? Experiment that put bacteria inside fungi offers clues

Biologists created a symbiotic system that hints at how cell features such as mitochondria and chloroplasts might have emerged a billion years ago.

www.nature.com

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Jan 14

great work, is this part already published?

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Megan Sorensen @messorensen.bsky.social · Dec 11

Out today! Our review on the current evidence of protein import into endosymbionts/early organelles. We cover protists, insects and plant systems, so something for everybody!

With Mygg Stiller, Lena Kröninger and Eva Nowack.

#protistsonsky #SymbioSky

febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

FEBS Press

The acquisition of bacterial endosymbionts by ancient host cells followed by massive adaptation of the partners gave rise to mitochondria and plastids. Today, various systems with younger and less in...

febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Wilbert Bitter

Waggoner Lab @labwaggoner.bsky.social · Jan 11

A BCG kill switch strain protects against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mice and non-human primates with improved safety and immunogenicity
@naturemicrobiol.bsky.social
@saehrt.bsky.social @joanneflynn19.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Engineered Mycobacterium tuberculosis triple-kill-switch strain provides controlled tuberculosis infection in animal models - Nature Microbiology

Engineered kill-switch-encoding Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects, elicits immune responses and is cleared from immunocompetent and immunocompromised mice, providing a model of controlled tuberculosi...

www.nature.com

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Wilbert Bitter @wilbertbitter.bsky.social · Nov 28

I would like to propose our methane-eating mycobacterium that lives in a cave biofilm of pH 1 dwelling on volcanic gasses. Other methanotrophs apparently can not survive here (just like most other life forms). But surely hundreds of other microbes also have insane lifestyles.

Methane-eating relative of tuberculosis bacteria found in cave - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

An international team of scientists discovered new unique bacteria living on the walls of a cave in Romania, using methane as their only source of food.

vu.nl

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