Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Bacteria make pearl chains

For the first time, scientists in Bremen were able to observe bacteria forming pearl chains that protrude from the cell surface. These pearl chains serve to better absorb and store substances from the environment. The researchers now present their results in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Electron microscope image of a long pearl chain on a flavobacterium.

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology / Tanja Fischer

Bacteria have no mouth. They eat by absorbing substances from their environment via their cell wall. However, there are natural physical limits to this way of “eating”. To bypass these limits, some bacteria enlarge their cell surface.

For example, they form tubular extensions or small bubbles, so called vesicles. A group of researchers led by Jens Harder from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, has now observed for the first time that bacteria initially form tubes and then vesicles.

North Sea bacteria with pearl chains

„We have investigated a flavobacterium that is widespread in the North Sea,“ says Harder. These bacteria live in a nutrient-poor, so-called oligotrophic, environment. It is therefore advantageous for them to enlarge their cell surface and thus have more space to hold and absorb sugar and other food with enzymes on the surface.

„Bacteria that have vesicles or tubes for this purpose have already been observed," Harder continues. "The flavobacteria we studied have one after the other: First we observed tubes, then regular strings of pearls. The formation of pearls probably results from a twisting of the fatty acid molecules in the cell wall."

Ecologically successful strategy

The flavobacteria examined in this study appear in large numbers in so-called bacterial blooms in the North Sea, which occur after the annual algae spring blooms.

They have a special set of enzymes to use laminarin, the storage sugar of the algae. Harder and his colleagues fed the bacteria coloured laminarin to check whether there was an exchange between the pearl chains and the „main cell“.

And indeed, the dye also appeared in the pearl chains. „We think that enzymes on the surface of the pearl chains capture, hold and break up the laminarin sugar and then deliver it to the cell,” Harder explains. It seems to pay.

„The mass occurrence of flavobacteria after algal blooms clearly reveals their ecological success.”

Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

Prof. Dr. Jens Harder
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology,
Bremen, Germany
Phone: +49 421 2028-702
E-Mail: jharder@mpi-bremen.de

Dr. Fanni Aspetsberger
Press Officer
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology,
Bremen, Germany
Phone: +49 421 2028-947
E-Mail: faspetsb@mpi-bremen.de

Originalpublikation:

Tanja Fischer, Martin Schorb, Greta Reintjes, Androniki Kolovou, Rachel Santarella-Mellwig, Stephanie Markert, Erhard Rhiel, Sten Littmann, Dörte Becher, Thomas Schweder, Jens Harder: Biopearling of interconnected outer membrane vesicle chains by a marine flavobacterium. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00829-19

Weitere Informationen:

https://www.mpi-bremen.de/en/Page3906.html

Dr. Fanni Aspetsberger | Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie

Im Focus: Solving the mystery of quantum light in thin layers

A very special kind of light is emitted by tungsten diselenide layers. The reason for this has been unclear. Now an explanation has been found at TU Wien (Vienna)

It is an exotic phenomenon that nobody was able to explain for years: when energy is supplied to a thin layer of the material tungsten diselenide, it begins to...

Im Focus: An ultrafast glimpse of the photochemistry of the atmosphere

Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have explored the initial consequences of the interaction of light with molecules on the surface of nanoscopic aerosols.

The nanocosmos is constantly in motion. All natural processes are ultimately determined by the interplay between radiation and matter. Light strikes particles...

Im Focus: Shaping nanoparticles for improved quantum information technology

Particles that are mere nanometers in size are at the forefront of scientific research today. They come in many different shapes: rods, spheres, cubes, vesicles, S-shaped worms and even donut-like rings. What makes them worthy of scientific study is that, being so tiny, they exhibit quantum mechanical properties not possible with larger objects.

Researchers at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility located at DOE's Argonne National...

Im Focus: Novel Material for Shipbuilding

A new research project at the TH Mittelhessen focusses on the development of a novel light weight design concept for leisure boats and yachts. Professor Stephan Marzi from the THM Institute of Mechanics and Materials collaborates with Krake Catamarane, which is a shipyard located in Apolda, Thuringia.

The project is set up in an international cooperation with Professor Anders Biel from Karlstad University in Sweden and the Swedish company Lamera from...

Im Focus: Controlling superconducting regions within an exotic metal

Superconductivity has fascinated scientists for many years since it offers the potential to revolutionize current technologies. Materials only become superconductors - meaning that electrons can travel in them with no resistance - at very low temperatures. These days, this unique zero resistance superconductivity is commonly found in a number of technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Future technologies, however, will harness the total synchrony of electronic behavior in superconductors - a property called the phase. There is currently a...