455: Marine Microbes Make Megapascal Management Molecule

This episode, in honor of World Ocean Day: Bacteria that may move
between high and low pressure areas in the ocean use a particular
molecule to protect their cells from being crushed!


Download Episode (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Rickettsia rickettsii


 


News item

 


Takeaways



Life in the ocean can have many challenges, depending on the
organism and where it lives. Microbes can be found in almost
every region, from the warmest to coldest, brightest to
darkest, and shallowest to deepest. Sometimes microbes are
carried from shallow to deep regions, where the weight of so
much water causes immense pressure, which can inhibit
cellular structural integrity and function. So life in the
deep sea must have ways to deal with this pressure to
survive. In this study, bacteria transform a fairly common
chemical into a molecule that cushions and protects their
cellular structures from the effects of high pressure,
allowing them to survive lower down than they would
otherwise.


 
Journal Paper:
Qin Q-L, Wang Z-B, Su H-N, Chen X-L, Miao J, Wang X-J, Li C-Y,
Zhang X-Y, Li P-Y, Wang M, Fang J, Lidbury I, Zhang W, Zhang
X-H, Yang G-P, Chen Y, Zhang Y-Z. 2021. Oxidation of
trimethylamine to trimethylamine N -oxide facilitates high
hydrostatic pressure tolerance in a generalist bacterial
lineage. Sci Adv 7:eabf9941.



Other interesting stories:



Engineering microbes to produce petroleum product precursor
isoprene




 


Email questions or comments to bacteriofiles at gmail dot
com. Thanks for listening!


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