Wilbert Bitter

🧐”Study reveals how #tuberculosis exploits immune defenses to promote infection.”
🔗to study published in Science Immunology ⬇️
Mycobacterial α-glucans hijack dectin-1 to facilitate intracellular bacterial survival
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A bacteriophage tubulin forms microtubule-like assemblies with nine protofilaments Combining cryoelectron tomography and single-particle cryoelectron microscopy, Basu et al. define a nine-protofilament assembly in the PhuZ protein of the E. coli-infecting bacteriophage Goslar. Gosla...

www.cell.com/structure/ab...

Asking for a friend?

🚨PhD position alert🚨

🔬Cryo-EM? ✅ 🧫Membrane proteins? - we've got 165 TMs for you! ✅

Join me and the team👥 in beautiful Amsterdam🚴 to untangle the amazing mycobacterial protein secretion machinery!

📝Apply here: tinyurl.com/mmxnfpnw

📆Deadline: 23 January

#PhDstudent #T7SS #cryoEM #newPI

The exact role of LpqZ and FecB in functioning or these two arabinosyltransfreases still has to be elucidated.

Frameshift mutations in these genes have a major effect on antibiotic sensitivity, indicating cell envelope alterations. Pulldown experiments indicated that these two proteins in fact do something completely different, they interact with AftA and AftB involved in arabinogalactan biosynthesis.

FecB and LpqZ, are two proteins belonging to periplasmic substrate binding protein family and FecB was implicated in iron transport. However.... they are not in operon with the rest of genes coding for the transporter system.

A new role for lipoproteins LpqZ and FecB in orchestrating mycobacterial cell envelope biogenesis | mBio Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains the world’s deadliest bacterial infection, in part because the bacterium’s unique cell envelope makes it highly resistant to antibioti...

Of course I like all the papers that we publish, but this is actually a very cool story, a great example of 'bush mechanics' in mycobacteria.
A new role for lipoproteins LpqZ and FecB in orchestrating mycobacterial cell envelope biogenesis | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A ubiquitin-like protein controls assembly of a bacterial type VIIb secretion system Cryo-EM structure reveals how a ubiquitin-like protein orchestrates assembly of a bacterial weapon system.

Our latest T7SS study is now out in Science Advances!
We solved the cryoEM structure of the T7SSb core unit (T7bCU) composed of YukB, YukC, and YukD from Bacillus subtilis, revealing how these components assemble within the secretion machinery.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

in fact, people with Sg bacteremia are usually screened for a missed colon cancer. If this would be true for other cancer, you would expect similar associations and they are mostly just not there.

Point in case is S. gallolyticus that is associated with colon cancer (a cancer type where microbes do get a foothold, for obvious reasons). People with colon cancer often get bacteriemia with this bacterium.

still skeptical.... The crucial point is that, if bacteria get a foothold, like in a privileged site in a tumor, they will grow out and cause local and systemic problems.

Two M. tuberculosis RelE toxins don’t cut mRNA, they slice 16S rRNA itself, shutting down translation in a totally unexpected way, new study reveals.
A big leap in understanding TB’s survival tricks and new angles for therapies.

📖 shorturl.at/Z8MVX
✍️ @genevauxpierre.bsky.social & coll.
#MicroSky

Joe Neilands, that brings back very old memories.. one of my first (wonderful) foreign lab visits. I left the siderophore field some time ago… good luck finding someone

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...

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

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/internationa...

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/news/item/08...

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/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.

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

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.

Reading:

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

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

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

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

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...

Congratulations Cornelia and enjoy this very special occasion!

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

Especially the coiled-coil domain is intriguing…

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/articles/s41...

Agar plate covered in E. coli.

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...

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!