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Discover Latest #Bacterium News, Articles and Videos with Contenting
1. Scientists Find Bacteria That Eats Plastic In a breakthrough study, scientists have identified a strain of bacteria that is capable of breaking down the plastic found in food packaging and other products. The bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, was discovered living on plastic debris at a waste disposal site in Japan. The research team, which was led by Professor Shosuke Yoshida from the Kyoto Institute of Technology, found that I. sakaiensis 201-F6 had the ability to break down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. The bacteria use two enzymes to convert the PET into a more easily metabolized form, which then allows them to feed on it as a source of energy. This is the first time that a microorganism has been observed to have the ability to degrade PET plastic. The findings could have significant implications for helping to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment.
Tuberculosis under the sea: A marine sponge microbe provides insights into the bacterium's evolution
The surprising discovery of a bacterium in a marine sponge from the Great Barrier Reef with striking similarity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen responsible for tuberculosis (TB), could unlock and inform future TB research and treatment strategies. TB remains one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, yet the origins of M. tuberculosis are still not fully understood.
Neolithic bones reveal isolated Yersinia pestis infections, not pandemics
Since the catastrophic pandemics of the Middle Ages, one disease has almost proverbially symbolized contagion and death: the plague. It is now known that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis has been present in Central and Northern Europe for more than 5,000 years. However, it is still uncertain whether it also led to pandemics and mass deaths in its early forms.
Scientists uncover genetic secrets of Staphylococcus aureus survival in humans
The most detailed study to date on the mechanisms by which a common type of bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, adapts to living on the human body could help improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of certain infections.
Salmonella Typhimurium has a sweet tooth | Research Communities by Springer Nature
Salmonella Typhimurium is a facultative anaerobic bacterium belonging to the family of Enterobacteriaceae and a common cause of diarrheal disease. In Schubert et al., we investigated the key nutrients that S. Typhimurium utilizes during gut infection.
Turning Automotive Waste into Value: Bioleaching Iron and Zinc with Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans | Research Communities by Springer Nature
Metal waste from the automotive industry is a growing challenge. We used Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, an acid-loving bacterium, to recover 99% of Zn and Fe from galvanized scrap in 72 h. This fast, low-cost bioleaching method offers a sustainable path for metal recovery and waste valorization.
Computational tool reveals how dormancy shapes evolution in TB and other organisms
Tuberculosis is the world's deadliest infectious disease, due in part to its ability to hide out for years in the lungs before starting an infection. Now, a new computational method developed by researchers at Cornell sheds light on how going dormant—sometimes for multiple generations—has affected the evolution of the tuberculosis bacterium (Mtb) and other organisms that can temporarily drop out of the gene pool.
How the evolution of a single gene allowed the plague to adapt, prolonging the pandemics
Scientists have documented the way a single gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, allowed it to survive hundreds of years by adjusting its virulence and the length of time it took to kill its victims, but these forms of plague ultimately died out.