Sarah Wettstadt - science writer and communicator

Chromombacterium transports violacein within outer membrane vesicles to kill other bacteria

Bacteria firing toxic bubbles

Bacteria can form outer membrane vesicles and fill them with antibiotics. They then send these toxic bubbles off to kill competing bacteria.

A virus solely consists of a protein -lipid envelope and a genome. A bacterium is a physiologically active cell

About the differences between bacteria and viruses

The differences between bacteria and viruses are based on their structure, size and reproduction. While bacteria are generally considered living organisms, viruses are not.

Bacteria in your gut digest your food and have a gut party.

How a healthy gut microbiome protects you and how to keep its superpower

Your gut microbiome is full of helpful and fascinating bacteria. They all work together to keep you healthy, digest your food and fight off intruders. Here, you will learn about what a healthy gut microbiome is, what it does and how to keep it.

The one-component system senses a signal and translates it by binding to DNA.

How bacteria sense and respond to the environment

Bacteria use one-component systems and two-component systems to sense their environment and adapt to changing conditions.

Bacteria like Desulfovibrio vulgaris produce scissors that cut the bacteria free from their biofilms.

Bacteria breaking free from home

To protect themselves from the environment, bacteria build shielding biofilms houses. But once such a house gets old, bacteria need to break out it. For that, bacteria produce special scissors that can break biofilms and set free the bacteria.

Whenever a bacterium delivers a toxin into a prey bacterium, it wants to hurt it real bad. This means, that a toxin generally targets any of the essential components of the prey bacterium to make sure there is no chance of survival.

The bacterial armoury

Bacteria developed lethal killing machines to deliver toxins into other organisms. These toxic bullets have different functions to break up essential components of the prey. Independent on what the target of the toxin is, the prey surely will not come out happy after that!

Vibrio bacteria use their T6SS killing machine for movement or DNA uptake.

Should I kill or should I go? Bacteria making decisions

Bacteria have powerful killing machines with which they carve out their own niches. To kill competitors, bacteria from the Vibrio family, have a powerful crossbow and its arrows availble. However, these bacteria can decide whether they risk a kill and take up what’s left of the dead prey or they escape the dangerous situation. Here, we look at how bacteria decide to kill or flee.

Cable bacteria – unusual bacteria conduct electricity

Cable bacteria are long chains of bacteria that transport electrons within this chain. In this fascinating bacterial cable, these bacteria then conduct electricity.

Haem binds at the outside of a bacterium and is transported inside by a barrel like transporter

Thanks to iron, bacteria know where they are

Bacteria can sense the iron concentration of their environment thanks to special iron transporters, of which they produce multiple.

Bacteria cause caries by producing an acidic environment.

How bacteria cause caries on your teeth

Bacteria in your mouth protect your teeth from pathogenic bacteria. When you eat lots of sugars, the pathogens can fight off your friendly bacteria. The more pathogenic bacteria grow on your teeth, the more acids they produce that can cause caries and cavities. Learn about the bacterial battles in your mouths.

Human red blood cells have two different antigens on their surface

Bacteria changing blood types

Some bacteria in our guts have proteins that cleave off sugars from our blood cells. This can lead to temporally changing blood types to feed the bacteria.

When two bacteria are spotted together and both produce a bacteriocin, they kill each other.

Bacteria talk about bacteriocin so that they assemble and battle as a team

When bacteria are under attack, they are telling their siblings about the incoming danger. This allows them to produce weapons – like the molecule bacteriocin – to prepare themselves for a counterattack. With this altruistic behaviour, bacteria assemble and fight back as a team.

The bacterial cycle of biofilm formation

Bacteria building houses

Bacteria can be major problems for human health. One of the reasons for that is because they have the ability to hide in their own houses. Such a house is called a bacterial biofilm which protect bacteria from harsh environments, toxic chemicals and to form a community within the biofilm.

Schematic of Contact dependend growth inhibition between bacteria. The attacker releases a toxin which binds on the surface of the prey bacterium.

Bacteria and contact-dependent growth inhibition: Death on a stick

Bacteria use a stick weapon to kill other bacteria that do not belong to their family. This stick is the so-called contact-dependent growth inhibition weapon – a very complex killing device. Read on to learn about this weapon.

Invasive bacteria use attachment tools like pili and adhesins to adhere to cells

How bacteria get (too) attached

Pathogenic bacteria developed different mechanisms to attach to human host cells. However, our immune system learned to fight back, so that a constant battle between bacteria and host is happening in our bodies.

Tiny Biological Needles: How Some Bacteria Are Able to Infect Their Targets

Some pathogenic bacteria use a weapon which is called type 3 secretion system to infect their host targets.

Bacteria swim towards attracting chemicals

Chemotaxis helps bacteria move towards goodies

Chemotaxis helps bacteria to know that they are surrounded by certain chemicals. They can then move towards them if the chemicals are helpful. But how does chemotaxis work? Find out here.

Multidrug resistant bacteria have many different ways of dealing with antibiotics

About antimicrobial resistance mechanisms

Bacteria developed different antimicrobial resistance mechanisms to get rid of antibiotics. Here, you will learn what bacteria do with antibiotics so that they don’t harm them and what superbugs are.

Bacteria form nanotubes between cells to exchange nutrients

How bacteria feed each other in times of hunger

When bacteria are hungry, they sometimes also need the help of their friends. In that case, bacteria can build little tubes between them to exchange nutrients. With this bacterial nanotube, they can exchange nutrients and thus feed each other to make sure everyone survives.

Regulatory circuit of how bacteria sense environmental signals. Membrane bound anti-sigma factor releases a sigma factor into the cytosol after signal binding which modifies gene expression

How bacteria sense iron in their environment

Bacteria sense iron in the environment via proteins that are transporters and receptors in one. The transporter imports iron, while the receptor tells the bacterium that iron is present on the outside. This activates a whole circuit so that the bacterium produces more transporters to capture as much iron as possible.

Sarah