Bacterium

Antibiotic Resistant Bacterium Uses Sonar-like Strategy to “See?Enemies or Prey

For the first time, scientists have foundthat bacteria can use a Sonar-like system to spot other cells (eithernormal body cells or other bacteria) and target them for destruction.Reported in the December 24 issue of Science, this finding explains howsome bacteria know when to produce a toxin that makes infection moresevere. It may lead to the design of new toxin inhibitors. “Blocking orinte...

Highly adaptable genome in gut bacterium key to intestinal health

A bacterium that lives in the human gut adaptively shifts more than a quarter of its genes into high gear when its host's diet changes from sugar to complex carbohydrates. This adaptive mechanism not only allows the bacterial species to survive rapidly changing nutrient conditions but also helps maintain the functions and stability of the gut's highly complex microbial society, according...

Harmful Bacterium Commonly Found in Poultry May Survive Refrigeration and Frozen Storage Combined

Glia appear essential for 'hair cells'responsible for hearing and balance. Traditionally viewed as supportingactors, cells known as glia may be essential for the normal developmentof nerve cells responsible for hearing and balance, according to newUniversity of Utah research. The study is reported in the January 6,2005 issue of Neuron and is co-authored by scientists at the Universityof Was...

Sequencing of marine bacterium will help study of cell communication

The opportunity to annotate the genome of the glow-in-the-dark bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which lives in symbiotic harmony within the light organ of the bobtail squid, has helped a Virginia Tech microbiologist advance her research on quorum sensing, or how cells communicate and function as a community. Researchers studying the newly sequenced genome of the marine bacterium V. fischeri, d...

Researchers identify protein crucial for survival of Lyme-disease bacterium

When the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease lacks a specific protein that responds to an incoming meal of blood, it is unable to be transmitted from the tick to a new animal host, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The findings suggest that the protein, called BptA, is essential for the bacterium Borrelia burgdorfei (Bb) to survive in the gut of its tick h...

Scientists reveal how disease bacterium survives inside immune system cell

New research on a bacterium that can survive encounters with specific immune system cells has strengthened scientists' belief that these plentiful white blood cells, known as neutrophils, dictate whether our immune system will permit or prevent bacterial infections. A paper describing the research was released today online in The Journal of Immunology. Frank R. DeLeo, Ph.D., of Rocky Mountain Lab...

Marine bacterium suspected to play role in global carbon and nitrogen cycles

Scientists successfully grow 'dwarf belonging to the sea' in laboratoryScientists are now revisiting, and perhaps revising, their thinking about how Archaea, an ancient kingdom of single-celled microorganisms, are involved in maintaining the global balance of nitrogen and carbon. Researchers have discovered the first Archaea known to oxidize ammonia for energy and metabolize carbon dioxide by su...

Discovery that bacterium is phosphate gourmet key clue to what makes it most social of bacteria

New research into one of the world's most social bacteria - Myxococcus xanthus, has discovered that it has a gourmet style approach to its consumption of phosphates, which provides a key clue to what makes it the most "social" of bacteria. Myxococcus xanthus is amazingly social and co-operative for a bacterium. It "hunts" as a pack, it makes a collective decision with other M. xanthus whet...

How does Mycobacterium tuberculosis infect the lung?

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common major infectious disease today. It is estimated that two billion people--or one-third of the world's population--are chronically infected without active symptoms. Nine million new cases of active disease are diagnosed annually, resulting in two million deaths. TB is predominantly a lung disease. It is caused by a microbe called Mycobacterium tuberculosis which...

How E. coli bacterium generates simplicity from complexity

The ubiquitous and usually harmless E. coli bacterium, which has one-seventh the number of genes as a human, has more than 1,000 of them involved in metabolism and metabolic regulation. Activation of random combinations of these genes would theoretically be capable of generating a huge variety of internal states; however, researchers at UCSD will report in the Dec. 27 issue of Proceedings of the...

Experimental TB drug effective against resistant and latent mycobacterium tuberculosis

An experimental tuberculosis drug may be effective against not only multi drug-resistant forms of the disease but could also be the first compound to treat the latent stage of infection as well. Researchers report their results today at the 2006 ASM Biodefense Research Meeting. "The class of which this compound is the lead has a very different mechanism of action from any other drug curr...

Supersized 'island' of resistance genes discovered in an infectious bacterium

Researchers have discovered a cluster of 45 genes coding for antibacterial drug resistance in the bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii, a major cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide. The study was reported in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. "We expected to find resistance genes," said lead author, Pierre-Edouard Fournier, researcher at the Structural and Genomic Information...

Scientists discover a new disease-causing bacterium in an immune-compromised patient

Researchers discovered a new bacterium in an immune-compromised patient, according to a study recently published in PLoS Pathogens. The bacterium belongs to the family Acetobacteraceae and includes bacteria common in the environment, some of which are used in industry, such as vinegar-making. "This is the first reported case of invasive human disease caused by any of the Acetobacteraceae," acco...

Genes discovered that allow gum disease bacterium to invade arteries

Researchers have identified the genes in gum-disease bacteria that allow them to invade and infect human arterial cells, offering one possible explanation for a perceived connection between gum disease and heart disease. Scientists from the University of Florida, Gainesville, present their findings today at the 106th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Orlando, Florida.</...

UGA scientists unravel 'molecular inch-worm' structure of walking-pneumonia bacterium

Researchers at the University of Georgia, using glow-in-the-dark proteins and microcinematography, have helped unravel the development and function of a complex organelle in the bacterium that causes "walking pneumonia." The researchers have described in new, precise detail the unique cell extension that forms on one end of the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This structure, called a "ter...

Common ancestry of bacterium and plants could be key to an effective new treatment for chlamydia

Rutgers researchers have discovered that the Chlamydia bacterium, which causes a sexually transmitted disease (STD), shares an evolutionary heritage with plants. That shared evolutionary heritage, which is not found in most other bacteria, points to a prime target for development of an effective cure for Chlamydia infections. "The unique connection between the Chlamydia bacterium and plant...

Researchers uncover protection mechanism of radiation-resistant bacterium

Recent discoveries by researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) could lead to new avenues of exploration for radioprotection in diverse settings. Michael J. Daly, Ph.D., an associate professor in USU's Department of Pathology, and his colleagues have uncovered evidence pointing to the mechanism through which the extremely resilient bacterium Deinococcus radiodu...

Researchers from the UGR use a bacterium to obtain biopreservatives from food

The research group "Estudio de sustancias antagonistas producidas por microorganismos" (Antagonistic substances produced by microorganisms), part of the Microbiology Department of the University of Granada (Universidad de Granada [ ]), has succeeded in isolating enterocin AS-48, which could have a medium-term use as food biopreservative. This repres...

New bacterium discovered -- related to cause of trench fever

But genetic detective work revealed that she was infected with a new b...