We loved hearing @khammerschmidt.bsky.social talk about evolution at the #MultiBac2025 conference this January - check out the @asm.org report on the origins of early microbial life!

#MultiBac2025

It was fun talking about this project at a conference - I think for the first time - and a pleasure to give the very last talk at #MultiBac2025. I learned so much about multicellular bacterial systems at this meeting and take home a number of ideas and concepts.

Thanks for ending this great conference with such a stimulating, thought-provoking talk @wolframmoebius.bsky.social
#MultiBac2025

Bacterial Filamentation Drives Colony Chirality | mBio Chiral objects, such as amino acids, are distinguishable from their mirror image. For living systems, the fundamental mechanisms relating cellular handedness to chirality at the multicellular scale re...

Wolfram on chirality in E.coli colonies, see their #mBio paper
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

but also referring to Liselotte Jauffred et al #ISMEJournal on mutants and chirality
www.nature.com/articles/ism...

#MultiBac2025

Last talk at #MultiBac2025 by Wolfram Möbius - The hunt for the microscopic origin of macroscopic chirality in E. coli colonies

About 10 year collaboration with K.C. Huang

Poster prizes at #MultiBac2025 1st International Conference on Emergent Functions of Bacterial Multicellularity of SPP2389 were awarded to Ruth Viveros (Tschowri lab), Miriam Epping (Grünberger lab), Danielle Gabi Lange (Dar lab)

-sponsored by @molecularmicro.bsky.social and Curr Opin Microbiol

Berenike Maier - Membrane potential dynamics in bacterial colonies
#gonococcal_colonies #membrane_potential #protons

#MultiBac2025

Spatial population dynamics of bacterial colonies with social antibiotic resistance Bacteria frequently inhabit surface-attached communities where rich “social” interactions can significantly alter their population-level behavior, including their response to antibiotics. Understandin...

See the work of Marlis presented today in bioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Published version coming soon...

#MultiBac2025

Marlis Denk-Lobnig @marlis.bsky.social on Spatial organization of bacterial colonies with social antibiotic resistance
#MultiBac2025

Gürol mentiones their upcoming conference: WINTER Q-BIO
with @francesarnold.bsky.social and @doudna-lab.bsky.social

Everything about quantitative biology on this conference in Hawaii

#MultiBac2025

Physiological cost of antibiotic resistance: Insights from a ribosome variant in bacteria A resistant bacterial ribosome variant is outcompeted despite antibiotic pressure when Mg2+ is limited, exposing a vulnerability.

Gürol also highlights their work on Mg+, K+, ribosomes, and antibiotic resistance
see their recent Science Advances paper
www.science.org/doi/full/10....

#MultiBac2025

Bioelectronic drug-free control of opportunistic pathogens through selective excitability Staphylococcus epidermidis is a skin-dwelling bacterium responsible for common clinical infections. In this study, we discovered that S. epidermidis becomes electrically excitable when exposed to the acidic pH of healthy skin. This excitability enables antibiotics-free, bioelectronic suppression of the opportunistic pathogen using mild stimulation conditions.

Gürol explains that they can have a strong effect of electrical stimulations at pH5.0 on skin bacteria (note, the skin pH is around 5) - thus narrow proton gradient range induces selective stimulation

See their paper in Device:
www.cell.com/device/fullt...

#MultiBac2025

Gürol on manipulating K+ to regulate cell type signaling
See their recent paper on methodology
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Photo on a Bacillus colony from below with ioinc control device

#MultiBac2025

Gürol exaplains their works started about 10 years ago about action potential spread in B. subtilis colonies

#MultiBac2025

Gürol highlights that ions are the second most abundant in a living cell after water 🤔

Ions are involved in regulating emerging functions in cells, for example ion channels (K ion channel) in brain function and Bacillus development

#MultiBac2025

Last session of #MultiBac2025 with a plenary by Gürol M. Süel

Charge matters: Ionic conversations and competitions

Stephan Wimmi (Berenike Maier group) on Inside-out: Remodeling of gonococcal microcolonies due to changing pili interaction network
#MultiBac2025

Kerstin Thriene @kerstinthriene.bsky.social (Kai Papenfort lab @uni-jena.de) on Increased antibiotic resistance in Vibrio cholerae biofilms on microplastics is attributed to the plastic additive BPA
#MultiBac2025

Niclas Nordholt - Phenotypic heterogeneity in bacterial lag times and antibiotic tolerance induced by the disinfectant glutaraldehyde

Introduction to biocides and their influence on/connection to antibiotic tolerance

#MultiBac2025

Tam finishes on their ecological exploration of Myxococcous habitat, and correlation of specific fungal partner with Myxococcus, validated by laboratory interaction between the two

[Cell biologist turning into ecologist 🤔]

#MultiBac2025

Tam tells us an amazing molecular cell biology dissection of contact dependent killing identifying the components of pili with exchangable tips that have difffeent efficiency depending on the prey species

mindblowing detailed insights 😲

#MultiBac2025

A Tad-like apparatus is required for contact-dependent prey killing in predatory social bacteria

Tam shows us amazing time-lapse videos how A-motile cells of Myxococcus kill E.coli prey cells in a contact dependent manner

kilACF mutant unable to kill the prey cells in spite of invading the colony, see their @elife.bsky.social paper:
elifesciences.org/articles/724...

#MultiBac2025

Tam Mignot - Predatory soil bacteria: from molecular and cellular scales to ecology

#Mycobacteria #PredatoryBacteria #Imaging

#MultiBac2025

Thank you to Ákos for allowing those of unable to make the trip to follow along this (sold out!) conference on Emergent Functions of Bacterial Multicellularity.
#SPP2389. #MultiBac2025

Molecular Microbiology is pleased to be able to sponsor a poster prize and support this amazing community!

Julia also describes their work on intercalating antimicrobials and phage defense - in collaboration with @aharms485.bsky.social and their Basel phage collection

#MultiBac2025

Resistance against aminoglycoside antibiotics via drug or target modification enables community-wide antiphage defense In this study, we showed that various aminoglycoside resistance mechanisms do not affect the antiphage properties of these molecules and highlighted the ec

Julia describes their work on antimicrobials against phages
See their @femsjournals.bsky.social #microLIFE paper
academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

#MultiBac2025

Julia Frunzke (from @fz-juelich.de) - Bacterial multicellular behavior in antiviral defense
#MultiBac2025

Enrico concludes: gene regulatory networks might evolved by amplifying noise - network architecture neofunctionalities (predicted)

#MultiBac2025

Enrico now on Bacillus subtilis cell types and the conflict between transition => gene regulatory networks evolved to reliably adjust many genes related to cell types

Model with exact stochastic simulations - colony life cycles to create distinct cell types

#MultiBac2025