#microtwjc January 12, 2016: Helicobacter nickel binding-protiens are important in colonization

Hello readers!

It’s the new year and #microtwjc is back. Please join Danny (@id_EATER) and Phil (@wragbags) at 20:00 (GMT) on twitter to discuss this paper from the folks at the Pasteur Institute. This group works on the bacterium Helicobacter Pylori which is associated with gastritis and peptic ulcers. As you might guess this means it has special adaptations to thrive in the acidic conditions of the stomach!

The paper we will discuss is titled: Evolution of Helicobacter: Acquisition by Gastric Species of Two Histidine-Rich Proteins Essential for Colonization. It takes an initial observation in the literature though a comparative genomics approach to in vitro experiments and finally into a in vivo system in order to explain a role of two proteins in gastric colonization by Helicobacter.

Please keep the following discussion points/questions in mind when reading the paper and feel free to tweet to @microtwjc or comment below with any points/questions you might have during reading.

1. What was known about the subject before this paper was published? How do the authors make it easy to contextualize their findings in the field?
2. What have we learnt after reading the paper?
3. How does the data support the conclusions and what are some limitations in the experimental design?
4. What was done well in this paper?
5. What future work would be of interest to conduct?

You can read the full paper here and I have included the abstract and author summary after the jump. Hope to see you online!