Graduate Students Mini Symposium - VIII - 2024

Microbiology Seminar Series

  • Date: Aug 26, 2024
  • Time: 01:15 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Location: MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology
  • Room: Lecture Hall / Hybrid
  • Host: IMPRS
  • Contact: imprs@mpi-marburg.mpg.de

01:15 PM - Undine Mies (RG Brune)
Insect gut Elusimicrobiota

The intestinal tracts of insects harbor diverse and often enigmatic clades of bacteria whose biology remains unexplored as they remain uncultivated. One such lineage is the phylum Elusimicrobiota, a member of the PVC superphylum and comprises at least four class-level lineages of mostly uncultured bacteria. Only the classes Elusimicrobia and Endomicrobia each have a single cultured representative. Here, we report the isolation of the three cockroach-associated members of Elusimicrobiaceae from the guts of two cockroaches and performed a detailed physiological and phylogenetic characterization which we combined with a comparative analysis of all available genomes of Elusimicrobiaceae that includes uncultured representatives from termites, vertebrates and hypoxic seawater.


01:45 PM - Elizaveta Bobkova (AG Erb)
Engineering differential transport through N-terminal linker functionalization of self-inserting nanopores

Engineering-controlled transport across synthetic membranes is a persistent challenge, often requiring complex biological machinery or reliance on detergents. Our approach leverages alpha-hemolysin, a self-inserting nanopore, introducing a differential transport property by customizing the pore entrance. Through microscopy and electrophysiological measurements, we validate successful pore integration and functionality. Ongoing assessment using plate reader assays and microfluidics demonstrates differential transport between pore variants for small molecule dyes. The presented strategy may facilitate various applications with only minor modifications, such as enhancing in-vitro biochemical pathways by compartmentalization. Selective transport of vital metabolites like ATP could enable spatially separated bioreactions or introduce novel biomaterials. This customization strategy represents a significant step towards achieving controlled transport, fostering spatially controlled reactions.


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