7th joint conference "Joint Microbiology & Infection Conference 2024" of the DGHM and VAAM

Prof. Dr.

Chair

Interspecies Quorum Sensing Signaling in Gut Microbiota

Plenary Speaker

Plenary Lecture

Abstract: Bacterial siderophores are a chemically diverse group of secondary metabolites to scavenge iron from natural sources. Here, I show how secreted siderophores can induce various types of social interactions among bacteria. They can serve as signalling molecules to coordinate bacterial activities in clonal groups. As iron carriers, they can be cooperatively shared among cells that possess matching receptors for ferri-siderophore uptake. Finally, siderophores can be deployed as competitive agents to withhold iron from competitors with non-matching receptors. Using data from the single-cell to the microbiome level, I explain how these interactions guide evolutionary and ecological dynamics in bacterial communities and how siderophores can be harnessed for human interventions against pathogens.

Siderophores as drivers of bacterial communication, cooperation, and competition

Prof.

Abstract: Small RNAs (sRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that mediate gene silencing in a sequence-specific manner. My lab discovered that some sRNAs from eukaryotic pathogens, such as Botrytis cinerea, can be transported into host plant cells and suppress host immunity genes for successful infection (Weiberg et al., Science 2013). We further demonstrated that such cross-kingdom RNAi is bi-directional. Plants can also send sRNAs into pathogens using extracellular vesicles to silence fungal virulence genes as part of its immune responses (Cai et al., Science 2018). We found that plants have multiple classes of extracellular vesicles, and exosome is the major class responsible for sRNA delivery. We identified a group of RNA binding proteins that contribute to the selective sRNA loading into extracellular vesicles (He et al., Nature Plants, 2021). Recently, we show that fungal pathogen B. cinerea also utilizes extracellular vesicles to transport sRNAs, which can enter plant cells through clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathway (He et al., Nature Communications, 2023). Furthermore, we found that some plant mRNAs can also be secreted by extracellular vesicles and enter fungal cells to be translated for fungal inhibition (Wang et al., Cell Host & Microbe, 2024). Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking is broadly present between many interacting organisms.

Plenary Session 7 (Joint)
Communicating Microbes

Appointment

Chair

Programme

Plenary Session 7 (Joint)Communicating Microbes

Appointment

Chair

Programme

Plenary Session 7 (Joint)
Communicating Microbes