e coli – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Bacteria Show Capacity for Rapid, Beneficial Mutations

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2016Sciencebacteria, bacterial genome, e coli, jeffrey barrick, ltee, molecular biosciences, mutations, olivier tenaillon, richard lenski

AUSTIN, Texas — Scientists studying how microbes evolve have long assumed that nearly all new genetic mutations get passed down at a predictable pace and usually without either helping or hurting the microbe in adapting to its environment. In a new study published in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers studying tens of thousands of generations of E. coli bacteria report that most new genetic mutations that were passed down were actually beneficial and occurred at much more variable rates than previously thought. The finding could have implications for treating bacterial infections. (more…)

Boosting Biogasoline Production in Microbes

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2015Scienceaindrila mukhopadhyay, alpha carboxychromanol, andreas koeberle, berkeley lab, e coli, entzuendungserkrankung, entzuendungshemmende potenzial, escherichia coli, heather jensen, hormone activity, melanocortin receptors, metabolite, microbes, minying cai, robert dahl, veronika temml, victor hruby

Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Combine Systems Biology with Genetic Engineering to Improve Production of Isopentenol in E.Coli

In the on-going effort to develop advanced biofuels as a clean, green and sustainable source of liquid transportation fuels, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have identified microbial genes that can improve both the tolerance and the production of biogasoline in engineered strains of Escherichia coli. (more…)

Elusive viral ‘machine’ architecture finally rendered

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2014Sciencealissa mittnik, architecture, biologists, black politicians, blacks in office, brown university, cells, chromosome, claudius stroehle, cosimo posth, DNA, e coli, fatma haron, heimat im plural, judy cha, re migration, silke meyer, trevon logan, tuerkische migration

Biologists have worked with the lambda virus as a model system for more than 50 years but they’ve never had an overarching picture of the molecular machines that allow it to insert or remove DNA from the cells that it infects. Now they can, thanks to an advance that highlights the intriguingly intricate way the virus accomplishes its genetic manipulations.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For half a century biologists have studied the way that the lambda virus parks DNA in the chromosome of a host E. coli bacterium and later extracts it as a model reaction of genetic recombination. But for all that time, they could never produce an overall depiction of the protein-DNA machines that carry out the work. In a pair of back-to-back papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists produce those long-sought renderings and describe how they figured out what they should look like. (more…)

Berkeley Lab-led Project Aims to Produce Liquid Transportation Fuel from Methane

By Guest PostJanuary 23, 2014Environmentbacteria, berkeley lab, carbon dioxide, christer jansson, e coli, energy source, global warming, john tainer, kiverdi, liquid hydrocarbons, liquid transportation fuel, methane, methanotrophs, microorganism, microvi biotechnologies, novici biotech, repeat the cycle, steve yannone, stranded natural gas, thermochemical process, vehicle

How’s this for innovative: A Berkeley Lab-led team hopes to engineer a new enzyme that efficiently converts methane to liquid transportation fuel.

“There’s a lot of methane available, and we want to develop a new way to harness it as an energy source for vehicles,” says Christer Jansson, a biochemist in Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division who heads the effort. (more…)

Less Toxic Metabolites, More Chemical Product

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2013Scienceamorphadiene, antimalarial drug artemisinin, berkeley lab, biomass, chemical product, e coli, energy crops, environmental condition, escherichia coli, fuzhong zhang, jay keasling, jbei, lignin, metabolite regulatory system, microbial growth, mrna stability, nature biotechnology, renewable fuels, ribosome binding, robert dahl, toxic metabolites

The first dynamic regulatory system that prevents the build-up of toxic metabolites in engineered microbes has been reported by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). The JBEI researchers used their system to double the production in Escherichia coli (E. coli) of amorphadiene, a precursor to the premier antimalarial drug artemisinin.

Using genome-wide transcriptional analysis, the JBEI researchers identified native regions of DNA – called “promoters” – in E. coli that respond to toxic metabolites by promoting the expression of protective genes. They then developed a system based on these promoters for regulating artificial metabolic pathways engineered into the E.coli to enable the bacterium to produce amorphadiene. (more…)

Even Bacteria Use Social Networks

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2013Sciencebacteria, berkeley lab scientists, biofilm, chain like membranes, chains of vesicles, coordinate social activities, cryo electron microscopy, cryo tomography, e coli, facebook stream, imaging techniques, m xanthus, manfred auer, model, myxococcus xanthus, social networks, soil microbes, spherical organelles, vesicles

Berkeley Lab scientists image cell-to-cell connections between soil microbes

The next time your Facebook stream is filled with cat videos, think about Myxococcus xanthus.The single-cell soil bacterium also uses a social network. But forget silly distractions. M. xanthus relies on its connections to avoid getting eaten and to score its next meal.

That’s the latest insight from a team of Berkeley Lab scientists. Using several imaging techniques, they saw for the first time that M. xanthus cells are connected by a network of chain-like membranes. (more…)

Engineering Bacterial Live Wires

By Guest PostMarch 13, 2013Sciencebacterial species, berkeley lab, bioelectronic systems, biological wire, caroline ajo franklin, cell membranes, cheryl goldbeck, common language, e coli, electron, electronic communication systems, energy, energy conversion techniques, guillaume cambray, heather jensen, information transfer, largus angenent, living cell, matt hepler, metabolic pathways, michaela teravest, molecular foundry, mr 1, mtrcab pathway, nanocrystalline iron oxide, nicole beedle, protein complex, shewanella oneidensis, strain, synthesis, university of california, vivek mutalik, yancey appling

Berkeley Lab scientists discover the balance that allows electricity to flow between cells and electronics

Just like electronics, living cells use electrons for energy and information transfer. Despite electrons being a common “language” of the living and electronic worlds, living cells cannot speak to our largely technological realm. Cell membranes are largely to blame for this inability to plug cells into our computers: they form a greasy barrier that tightly controls charge balance in a cell. Thus, giving a cell the ability to communicate directly with an electrode would lead to enormous opportunities in the development of new energy conversion techniques, fuel production, biological reporters, or new forms of bioelectronic systems. (more…)

Mutant Champions Save Imperiled Species from Almost-Certain Extinction

By Guest PostFebruary 25, 2013Scienceantibiotics, bacterium, benjamin kerr, changing environments, climate change, disease causing bacteria, e coli, environmental changes, environmental deterioration, escherichia coli, eth zurich, evolutionary adaptations, evolutionary rescue, extinction, extinction bullet, genes, genetic engineering, haley lindsey, heavy metals, high concentration environment, human caused changes, imperiled species, insects, jenna gallie, lower concentration, mutant champions, number of factors, overfishing, pesticides, population, populations of microorganisms, rapid rates, relay team, seattle, susan taylor, university of washington

Species facing widespread and rapid environmental changes can sometimes evolve quickly enough to dodge the extinction bullet. Populations of disease-causing bacteria evolve, for example, as doctors flood their “environment,” the human body, with antibiotics. Insects, animals and plants can make evolutionary adaptations in response to pesticides, heavy metals and overfishing.

Previous studies have shown that the more gradual the change, the better the chances for “evolutionary rescue” – the process of mutations occurring fast enough to allow a population to avoid extinction in changing environments. One obvious reason is that more individuals remain alive when change is gradual or moderate, meaning there are more opportunities for a winning mutation to emerge. (more…)

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