NIH VideoCast - The importance of growing slowly: roles for redox active "antibiotics" in microbial survival

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The importance of growing slowly: roles for redox active "antibiotics" in microbial survival

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Air date:	Wednesday, January 13, 2016, 3:00:00 PM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Views:	Total views: 285 (111 Live, 174 On-demand)
Category:	WALS - Wednesday Afternoon Lectures
Runtime:	01:09:29
Closed captioning:	Check box to display CC outside of the video Note: You can drag the captioning window around and resize it
Description:	Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series Microorganisms have dominated the biosphere for billions of years, and have impacted every facet of the Earth’s near-surface environments. For the first billion years of their existence, they thrived in the absence of molecular oxygen. Though microorganisms (including those dominating chronic infections of the lung, and other body parts) are capable of generating energy in the absence of oxygen with alacrity, more often than not, they are studied in the laboratory where they grow rapidly under oxygen-replete conditions. We know surprisingly little about how microbes survive under anoxic conditions when they are dividing slowly. Yet slow-growth under anoxia defines much of microbial existence. In this lecture, Dr. Newman will introduce the importance of anaerobic, slow-growth physiology in the microbial world, focusing on a problem of clinical relevance: how the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, survives in the largely anoxic mucus collecting in the lungs of individuals with cystic fibrosis. The story of its survival is colorful, pivoting around its usage of a class of redox-active pigments called "phenazines", which act as antibiotics in the presence of oxygen. Dr. Newman will discuss a variety of important physiological functions phenazines play for P. aeruginosa under anoxic conditions that transcend their antibiotic activity, including facilitating ATP generation, redox homeostasis, iron acquisition, survival in multicellular communities, and cell-cell signaling. She will close the lecture by discussing the importance of better understanding slow-growth physiology for controlling microbial activities in a variety of contexts, including those of relevance to human health. For more information go to https://oir.nih.gov/wals

NLM Title:	The importance of growing slowly : roles for redox active "antibiotics" in microbial survival / Dianne K. Newman.
Author:	Newman, Dianne K. National Institutes of Health (U.S.),
Publisher:
Abstract:	(CIT): Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series. Microorganisms have dominated the biosphere for billions of years, and have impacted every facet of the Earth's near-surface environments. For the first billion years of their existence, they thrived in the absence of molecular oxygen. Though microorganisms (including those dominating chronic infections of the lung, and other body parts) are capable of generating energy in the absence of oxygen with alacrity, more often than not, they are studied in the laboratory where they grow rapidly under oxygen-replete conditions. We know surprisingly little about how microbes survive under anoxic conditions when they are dividing slowly. Yet slow-growth under anoxia defines much of microbial existence. In this lecture, Dr. Newman will introduce the importance of anaerobic, slow-growth physiology in the microbial world, focusing on a problem of clinical relevance: how the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, survives in the largely anoxic mucus collecting in the lungs of individuals with cystic fibrosis. The story of its survival is colorful, pivoting around its usage of a class of redox-active pigments called "phenazines", which act as antibiotics in the presence of oxygen. Dr. Newman will discuss a variety of important physiological functions phenazines play for P. aeruginosa under anoxic conditions that transcend their antibiotic activity, including facilitating ATP generation, redox homeostasis, iron acquisition, survival in multicellular communities, and cell-cell signaling. She will close the lecture by discussing the importance of better understanding slow-growth physiology for controlling microbial activities in a variety of contexts, including those of relevance to human health. For more information go to https://oir.nih.gov/wals.
Subjects:	Bacteria, Anaerobic--physiology Phenazines Pseudomonas aeruginosa--physiology
Publication Types:	Lecture Webcast

NLM Classification:	QW 131
NLM ID:	101676584
CIT Live ID:	17656
Permanent link:	https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=17656

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