New research shows that bacteria get 'hangry,' too

Date:
April 3, 2023
Source:
University of North Carolina Health Care
Summary:
Researchers have discovered, using a recently developed technology,
that genetically identical cells within a bacterial community have
different functions, with some members behaving more docile and
others producing the very toxins that make us feel ill.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Have you ever been so hungry that you become angry, otherwise known as "hangry?" New research by Adam Rosenthal, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, has found that some bacteria
cells get hangry too, releasing harmful toxins into our bodies and making
us sick.


========================================================================== Rosenthal and his colleagues from Harvard, Princeton and Danisco Animal Nutrition discovered, using a recently developed technology, that
genetically identical cells within a bacterial community have different functions, with some members behaving more docile and others producing
the very toxins that make us feel ill.

"Bacteria behave much more different than we traditionally thought,"
said Rosenthal. "Even when we study a community of bacteria that are
all genetically identical, they don't all act the same way. We wanted
to find out why." The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, are particularly important in understanding how and why bacterial communities
defer duties to certain cells - - and could lead to new ways to tackle antibiotic tolerance further down the line.

Rosenthal decided to take a closer look into why some cells act as
"well- behaved citizens" and others as "bad actors" that are tasked with releasing toxins into the environment. He selected Clostridium perfringens
-- a rod- shaped bacterium that can be found in the intestinal tract
of humans and other vertebrates, insects, and soil -- as his microbe
of study.

With the help of a device called a microfluidic droplet generator,
they were able to separate, or partition, single bacterial cells into
droplets to decode every single cell.

They found that the C. perfringens cells that were not producing
toxins were well-fed with nutrients. On the other hand, toxin-producing
C. perfringenscells appear to be lacking those crucial nutrients.

"If we give more of these nutrients," postulated Rosenthal, "maybe we can
get the toxin-producing cells to behave a little bit better." Researchers
then exposed the bad actor cells to a substance called acetate.

Their hypothesis rang true. Not only did toxin levels drop across the community, but the number of bad actors reduced as well. But in the
aftermath of such astounding results, even more questions are popping up.

Now that they know that nutrients play a significant role in toxicity, Rosenthal wonders if there are particular factors found in the environment
that may be 'turning on' toxin production in other types of infections,
or if this new finding is only true for C. perfringens.

Perhaps most importantly, Rosenthal theorizes that introducing nutrients
to bacteria could provide a new alternative treatment for animals and
humans, alike.

For example, the model organism Clostridium perfringensis a powerful foe
in the hen house. As the food industry is shifting away from the use of antibiotics, poultry are left defenseless from the rapidly spreading,
fatal disease. The recent findings from Rosenthal et al. may give farmers
a new tool to reduce pathogenic bacteria without the use of antibiotics.

As for us humans, there is more work to be done. Rosenthal is in the
process of partnering with colleagues across UNC to apply his recent
findings to tackle antibiotic tolerance. Antibiotic tolerance occurs
when some bacteria are able to dodge the drug target even when the
community has not evolved mutations to make all cells resistant to an antibiotic. Such tolerance can result in a less- effective treatment,
but the mechanisms controlling tolerance are not well understood.

In the meantime, Rosenthal will continue to research these increasingly
complex bacterial communities to better understand why they do what
they do.

* RELATED_TOPICS
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# Bacteria # Microbes_and_More # Microbiology # Biology
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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_North_Carolina_Health_Care. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Ryan McNulty, Duluxan Sritharan, Seong Ho Pahng, Jeffrey P. Meisch,
Shichen Liu, Melanie A. Brennan, Gerda Saxer, Sahand Hormoz, Adam Z.

Rosenthal. Probe-based bacterial single-cell RNA sequencing
predicts toxin regulation. Nature Microbiology, 2023; DOI:
10.1038/s41564-023- 01348-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230403133512.htm

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