#vibrio

Vibrio cholerae

His name is Vibrio, he's a Clear Quartz, he's head mechanic for Towering Inferno's starship racing team, and I think he falls in love easy and fucks hard

Bacterial Breakout

Species of Vibrio bacteria are a major cause of food poisoning in humans, commonly acquired through the consumption of raw shellfish or contaminated water. Infection with the bacteria leads to nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea as the bacteria invade the cells lining the intestine and multiply rapidly. While researchers have figured out that Vibrio uses needle-like appendages (known as the type III secretion system) to enter intestinal cells, how the bugs get back out was a mystery. Now, it’s been discovered that, inside the cell (highlighted in red), the bacteria (green) secrete fat-modifying enzymes called lipases, which alter the cholesterol components of the cell’s plasma membrane, weakening its structure. This allows the jostling multitude of bugs to eventually push their way out. The liberated bacteria are then free to invade more intestinal cells, or to escape the body and, if not properly destroyed, lie in wait for another victim.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Suneeta Chimalapati and Marcela de Souza Santos, and colleagues, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Published in eLife, August 2020

DANGEROUS BACTERIA THRIVE ON OCEAN PLASTIC DEBRIS

Specialist bacteria have seem to be eating the plastic garbage we throw into the ocean, but recent research shows that dangerous Vibrio bacteria are also living in plastic debris. Plastic has become the most common form of marine debris since it entered the consumer arena less than 60 years ago, and presents a major and growing global pollution problem. Despite this, what we know about plastic on open ocean ecosystems is poorly understood, particularly for microbial communities. 

Researchers has collected floating plastic in the North Atlantic  and after analyze them with scanning electron microscopy and next-generation sequencing to characterize the attached microbial communities they unveiled a diverse microbial community refer to as the “Plastisphere”. 

Visualization of the surface show active hydrolysis of plastic (as the main picture). As proof, a DNA analisis identified several hydrocarbon-degrading gene in these bacteria, supporting the possibility that microbes play a role in degrading plastic. Some Plastisphere members may be opportunistic pathogens such as Vibrio bacteria that dominated one plastic samples. Plastisphere communities are distinct from surrounding surface water, implying that plastic serves as a novel ecological habitat in the open ocean. Vibrio are bacterias found in seawater, and cause Vibriosis. People with vibriosis become infected by consuming raw or undercooked seafood or exposing a wound to seawater, which could lead to death.

Plastic has a longer half-life than most natural floating marine substrates, and a hydrophobic surface that promotes microbial colonization and biofilm formation.

Photo: Microbial cells pitting the surface of sample,  All scale bars is 10 μm.