microscopy
Minireview | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyScratching the Surface: Bacterial Cell Envelopes at the NanoscaleThe bacterial cell envelope is essential for viability, the environmental gatekeeper and first line of defense against external stresses. For most bacteria, the envelope biosynthesis is also the site of action of some of the most important groups of antibiotics. It is a complex, often multicomponent structure, able to withstand the internally generated turgor pressure. Thus, elucidating the architecture and dynamics of the cell envelope...
Observation | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyQuantitative Visualization of Gene Expression in Mucoid and Nonmucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa Aggregates Reveals Localized Peak Expression of Alginate in the Hypoxic ZoneA goal for microbial ecophysiological research is to reveal microbial activities in natural environments, including sediments, soils, or infected human tissues. Here, we report the application of the hybridization chain reaction (HCR) v3.0 to quantitatively measure microbial gene expression in situ at single-cell resolution in bacterial aggregates. Using quantitative image analysis of thousands of...
Research Article | Molecular Biology and PhysiologyMreB Forms Subdiffraction Nanofilaments during Active Growth in Bacillus subtilisThe construction of the bacterial cell envelope is a fundamental topic, as it confers its integrity to bacteria and is consequently the target of numerous antibiotics. MreB is an essential protein suspected to regulate the cell wall synthetic machineries. Despite two decades of study, its localization remains the subject of controversies, its description ranging from helical filaments spanning the entire cell to small discrete entities...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyChanges in Endosymbiont Complexity Drive Host-Level Compensatory Adaptations in CicadasSap-feeding insects critically rely on one or more bacteria or fungi to provide essential nutrients that are not available at sufficient levels in their diets. These microbes are passed between insect generations when the mother places a small packet of microbes into each of her eggs before it is laid. We have previously described an unusual lineage fragmentation process in a nutritional endosymbiotic bacterium of cicadas called ...