Bacterial techniques and applications articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  05 December 2023 | Open Access

  Machine learning-based motion tracking reveals an inverse correlation between adhesivity and surface motility of the leptospirosis spirochete

  A common approach to study bacterial motility is fluorescent labelling, but this can be hampered by protein expression instability and/or interference with bacterial physiology. Here, Abe et al. describe a machine learning-based method for motion tracking of spirochetes on cultured animal cells, which does not require labelling and might be applied to study motility of other bacterial species.

  • Keigo Abe
  • , Nobuo Koizumi
  •  & Shuichi Nakamura

• Article
  03 November 2022 | Open Access

  Solar-driven methanogenesis with ultrahigh selectivity by turning down H₂ production at biotic-abiotic interface

  While the combination of synthetic and biological systems offers an appealing strategy for solar-to-fuel conversion, such hybrid systems typically suffer from low selectivity. Here, authors integrate a bimetallic alloy with a CdS-containing methanogen for selective CO₂ reduction to methane.

  • Jie Ye
  • , Chao Wang
  •  & Yujie Xiong

• Article
  12 September 2022 | Open Access

  Polyvinyl chloride degradation by a bacterium isolated from the gut of insect larvae

  Microbial degradation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has previously been reported, but little is known about the degrading strains and enzymes. Here, Zhe et al. isolate a PVC-degrading bacterium from the gut of insect larvae and shed light on the PVC degradation pathway using a multi-omic approach.

  • Zhe Zhang
  • , Haoran Peng
  •  & Feng Ju

• Article
  01 September 2022 | Open Access

  Bacteria loaded with glucose polymer and photosensitive ICG silicon-nanoparticles for glioblastoma photothermal immunotherapy

  Different blood-brain barrier permeable systems, such as bacteria loaded with chemotherapy, have been proposed to treat glioblastoma. Here, the authors generate bacteria loaded with glucose polymer and photosensitive ICG silicon-nanoparticles to eliminate bacteria-infected glioblastoma cells and induce an anti-tumour immune response upon photothermal therapy.

  • Rong Sun
  • , Mingzhu Liu
  •  & Yao He

• Article
  22 February 2022 | Open Access

  High-throughput identification and quantification of single bacterial cells in the microbiota

  Here, Jin et al., develop a method called Barcoding Bacteria for Identification and Quantification (BarBIQ), which allows to both characterize the global microbiome and to identify and quantify single-cell bacterial members in a high-throughput manner.

  • Jianshi Jin
  • , Reiko Yamamoto
  •  & Katsuyuki Shiroguchi

• Article
  17 June 2021 | Open Access

  Triboelectrification induced self-powered microbial disinfection using nanowire-enhanced localized electric field

  Air-transmitted pathogens are a recognized threat to public health. Here, the authors develop a self-powered, rapid disinfection method toward air-transmitted microbes using the localized electric field to damage the outer structures of microbes driven by a triboelectric nanogenerator.

  • Zheng-Yang Huo
  • , Young-Jun Kim
  •  & Sang-Woo Kim

• Article
  05 May 2021 | Open Access

  IFN-γ-dependent NK cell activation is essential to metastasis suppression by engineered Salmonella

  Cancer metastasis is one of the major causes of cancer related deaths and there is an urgent need to find more clinically effective metastasis targeting agents. Here, the authors show that Salmonella YB1 inhibits metastasis in multiple mouse models of cancer through a mechanism dependent on IFN-γ and NK cells.

  • Qiubin Lin
  • , Li Rong
  •  & Jian-Dong Huang

• Article
  24 September 2020 | Open Access

  Abiraterone acetate preferentially enriches for the gut commensal Akkermansia muciniphila in castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients

  Abiraterone acetate (AA) is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Here, the authors show that, in prostate cancer patients, orally administered AA remodels the gut microbiome and promotes the enrichment of the commensal bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila at the expense of androgen-utilizing Corynebacterium species.

  • Brendan A. Daisley
  • , Ryan M. Chanyi
  •  & Jeremy P. Burton

• Article
  16 December 2019 | Open Access

  A bacterial gene-drive system efficiently edits and inactivates a high copy number antibiotic resistance locus

  Genedrives bias the inheritance of alleles in diploid organisms. Here, the authors develop a gene-drive analogous system for bacteria, selectively editing and clearing plasmids.

  • J. Andrés Valderrama
  • , Surashree S. Kulkarni
  •  & Ethan Bier

• Article
  06 November 2019 | Open Access

  Evaluation of 16S rRNA gene sequencing for species and strain-level microbiome analysis

  Here, the authors explore the potential of the 16S gene for discriminating bacterial taxa and show that full-length sequencing combined with appropriate clustering of intragenomic sequence variation can provide accurate representation of bacterial species in microbiome datasets.

  • Jethro S. Johnson
  • , Daniel J. Spakowicz
  •  & George M. Weinstock

• Article
  12 September 2019 | Open Access

  An in vitro model maintaining taxon-specific functional activities of the gut microbiome

  The authors present an in vitro gut microbiome model that maintains the functional and compositional profiles of individual gut microbiomes, as assessed by metaproteomics. Gut microbiome responses to metformin in this model correlate with those shown in mice fed a high-fat diet.

  • Leyuan Li
  • , Elias Abou-Samra
  •  & Daniel Figeys

• Article
  14 August 2019 | Open Access

  An anaerobic bacterium host system for heterologous expression of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters

  Anaerobic bacteria represent a rich source of biological and chemical diversity but are difficult to cultivate and there is a lack of heterologous expression systems. Here the authors develop an expression system based on S. mutans UA159 for biosynthetic gene clusters from anaerobic bacteria.

  • Tingting Hao
  • , Zhoujie Xie
  •  & Yihua Chen

• Article
  21 March 2019 | Open Access

  Assessing the viability of transplanted gut microbiota by sequential tagging with D-amino acid-based metabolic probes

  The mechanisms underlying the success or failure of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) are unclear. Here, Wang et al. use a mouse model of FMT to show that fluorescent D-amino acids can be used to track the transplanted microbiota in the recipient animals.

  • Wei Wang
  • , Liyuan Lin
  •  & Chaoyong James Yang

• Article
  06 September 2018 | Open Access

  Utilization of rare codon-rich markers for screening amino acid overproducers

  Current toxic analogues-based amino acid overproducer screening method cannot provide accuracy, sensitivity and high throughput simultaneously. Here, the authors use rare codon rich marker for the selection of overproducers of multiple amino acids from random mutation libraries of E. coli and C. glutamicum.

  • Bo Zheng
  • , Xiaoyan Ma
  •  & Yi-Xin Huo

• Article
  05 February 2016 | Open Access

  Total biosynthesis of opiates by stepwise fermentation using engineered Escherichia coli

  Opiates—the gold standard for pain relief—are currently produced by extraction from opium poppies. Here the authors show that bacteria can serve as an efficient and flexible platform for the production of opiates by demonstrating the total synthesis of Thebaine and hydrocodone from stepwise fermentation in E. coli.

  • Akira Nakagawa
  • , Eitaro Matsumura
  •  & Hiromichi Minami

• Article
  13 November 2014 | Open Access

  Rapid detection of single bacteria in unprocessed blood using Integrated Comprehensive Droplet Digital Detection

  Early detection of blood stream infections is essential for providing effective treatments. Here the authors present a system integrating DNAzyme sensors, droplet microfluidics and a high-throughput 3D particle counter that can detect specific, single bacterial cells in blood within a few hours.

  • Dong-Ku Kang
  • , M. Monsur Ali
  •  & Weian Zhao