Tuesday 20th October – #MicroTwJC looks at a novel siderophore system and whether it is essential for the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in airway mucus

First and foremost, apologies for the late posting of this article! What with the rugby world cup and everything in work it has just been an immense couple of weeks.  But alas, the paper is here!

The paper has been chosen by myself (@sbi5ar) and will be discussed with the help of Nel (@helloitsnel).

Title:

A novel siderophore system is essential for the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in airway mucus

Abstract:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa establishes airway infections in Cystic Fibrosis patients. Here, we investigate the molecular interactions between P. aeruginosa and airway mucus secretions (AMS) derived from the primary cultures of normal human tracheal epithelial (NHTE) cells. PAO1, a prototype strain of P. aeruginosa, was capable of proliferating during incubation with AMS, while
all other tested bacterial species perished. A PAO1 mutant lacking PA4834 gene became susceptible to AMS treatment. The ΔPA4834 mutant was grown in AMS supplemented with 100 μM ferric iron, suggesting that the PA4834 gene product is involved in iron metabolism. Consistently, intracellular iron content was decreased in the mutant, but not in PAO1 after the AMS treatment. Importantly,
a PAO1 mutant unable to produce both pyoverdine and pyochelin remained viable, suggesting that these two major siderophore molecules are dispensable for maintaining viability during incubation with AMS. The ΔPA4834 mutant was regrown in AMS amended with 100 μM nicotianamine, a phytosiderophore whose production is predicted to be mediated by the PA4836 gene. Infectivity of the ΔPA4834 mutant was also significantly compromised in vivo. Together, our results identify a genetic element encoding a novel iron acquisition system that plays a previously undiscovered role in P. aeruginosa airway infection.

Questions:

1. Is this paper well written and easy to understand?

2. Does the introduction set the scene for the research presented?

3. Do the methods appear reliable and are they well explained?

4. Do the results and discussion make sense?

5. What (if any) future work could lead on from this?

In addition to these questions, hopefully we can explore whether the clinical significance that the paper portrays is justified though the research methods that have been used.

See you all next Tuesday (20th October 2015) at 20:00 (08:00 pm) BST

#microtwjc Oct 6th 2015 – Lets discuss something slightly different

Hello Microtwjc community!

This week we are going to have a discussion on a recent article I have published with Laura Bowater (@Lauramcbow) and Paul Hoskisson (@PaulHoskisson) on engaging students on STEM degrees with the Antimicrobial Resistance issue. Yes this is not something we have discussed before as we have generally focussed on research papers. However, all of us at some point do interact with students at all levels. We are also interested to see what you all have to say on this subject….

You can find the paper here:

Inspiring STEM undergraduates to tackle the AMR crisis.

Things to discuss:

1. Can you think of other ways to engage students on this topic?
2. Do you have specific examples that would also work as case examples?
3. Can we improve our engagement of under and post-graduates on topical issues within the learning environment?

See you all on twitter at 8 PM Tomorrow night!

Phil