FEMS Affiliates Letter, September 2012

SEPTEMBER 2012

A F F I L I AT E S L E T T E R The official newsletter for FEMS Affiliates

Prof. Bauke Oudega elected as next FEMS Vice-President diT: PHOTO CRE

Also in this issue:

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Publications Corner: • Highlights from FEMS Microbiology Reviews • FEMS Journals open for new cover images • New FEMS Journal open for submissions

Several changes occurred during the 39th FEMS Council Meeting in Toulouse, France on 15 September 2012. A new Vice-President was elected, the Secretary-General-elect and Grants Secretary-elect took office and a Member-at-Large for Education was appointed.

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Grants Page • Featured Grantee: Stacy Krueger-Hadfield • Featured Fellow: Francesca Turroni • FEMS Lwoff Award is open for nominations Society Page: Société Française de Microbiologie (French Society of Microbiology)

Dr Bauke Oudega of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam was elected as the next Vice-President. He will officially take on his post in September next year (2013) when current Vice-President Jean Claude Piffaretti takes on the role of FEMS President.

Secretary-General Tone Tonjum and Grants Secretary Vaso Taleski officially stepped down as their terms of office ended. Drs Stefano Donadio and Jaroslav Spizek succeeded them accordingly. Drs Donadio and Spizek

were elected for the said positions during the 38th Council Meeting in Leuven, Belgium last year.

The FEMS Executive Committee also wielded its right to appoint a new committee member in the person of Dr Joanna Verran. She will be a new Member-at-Large focusing on education. Dr Verran is the current Delegate of the International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Society. She also has an excellent track record in microbiology education.

This year’s FEMS Council Meeting was held in Toulouse, France on the invitation of Société Française de Microbiologie (SFM - French Society of Microbiology) delegate Dr Eric Oswald. FEMS thanks the SFM and Dr Oswald for their hospitality.

Website for FEMS 2013 now live SAVE the DATE: FEMS 2013 DEADLINES List of FEMS-sponsored meetings Microbiology Tidbits

Participants of the 39th FEMS Council Meeting in Toulouse, France

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HIGHLIGHT ARTICLES from FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS

How to avoid unfriendly neighbors Multi-species biofilm communities are environments in which complex but ill understood exchanges between bacteria occur. This review describes our current understanding of competitive relationships involving nonbiocidal biosurfactants, enzymes, and metabolites produced by bacteria and other microorganisms. These molecules target all steps of biofilm formation, ranging from inhibition of initial adhesion to matrix degradation, jamming of cell–cell communications, and induction of biofilm dispersion. This review provides a new perspective on competitive interactions within biofilms that could lead to antibiofilm strategies of potential biomedical interest.

Olaya Rendueles, Jean-Marc Ghigo FEMS Microbiology Reviews 36: 972–989

Living with friendly neighbors Nearly all biofilm communities in nature comprise a variety of microorganisms. In this review, we focus on interactions occurring within a multi-species biofilm and their effects on the nature of the mixed community.

Interactions among species within a biofilm can be antagonistic, such as competition over nutrients and growth inhibition, or synergistic. The latter can result in the development of several beneficial phenotypes including the promotion of biofilm formation by co-aggregation, metabolic cooperation where one species utilizes a metabolite produced by a neighboring species, and increased resistance to antibiotics or host immune responses compared to the mono-species biofilms. These beneficial interactions in mixed biofilms have important environmental, industrial, and clinical implications.

Sivan Elias, Ehud Banin FEMS Microbiology Reviews 36: 990-1004

P U B L I C AT I O N S PA G E

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Call for Journal Covers Do you want your beautiful images of microbes published? Why not send them to us?

The FEMS Journals are currently looking for new images to be used in the 2013 journal covers. The chosen images will be the faces of the journals (one image/journal) for a whole year. They will also be used for advertising spreads and other marketing products to endorse the journals.

Please send your images to publications@fems-microbiology.org.

SUBMIT TODAY and be part of the future of research in infectious disease microbiology with Pathogens and Disease. www.fems-microbiology.org

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THE FEMS-LWOFF AWARD IS NOW OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

G R AN T S CO R N ER

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Francesca Turroni was awarded a FEMS Advanced Fellowship (FAF) in 2011 for a 12-month Post Doc Research on the molecular characterization of bifidobacterial microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions in Cork, Ireland.

Francesca Turroni was a Post Doc Research Scientist in the University of Parma in Parma, Italy when she was awarded the FEMS Advanced Fellowship.

Her fellowship lasted 12 months (01 September 2011 - 31 August 2012) at the University College Cork in Cork, Ireland.

When asked what the influence of the FEMS Advanced Fellowship is on her project and personal career, she explained, “The possibility to make a Post Doc in a new lab might offer me other interesting job opportunities at the end of the Post Doc experience.”

Her research focused on the molecular characterization of bifidobacterial microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions. “This project is important in order to understand the functionality of next generation of health promoting bacteria,” she explained.

Her paper, “Global Genome Transcription Profiling of Bifidobacteriumbifidum PRL2010 under In Vitro Conditions and Identification of Reference Genes for Quantitative Real-Time PCR”, is connected with her research and was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

She was happy to have been granted the FEMS Advanced Fellowship since without it, she could not have conducted her research project.

Turroni recommends the FEMS Advanced Fellowship to young scientists. “This is a really great opportunity for young scientists to develop their careers,” she said. www.fems-microbiology.org

THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE FEMS FOCUS FEATURING OUR INTERVIEW WITH PROF. ANNE GLOVER IS NOW ELECTRONICALLY AVAILABLE.

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The French Society of Microbiology (SFM) is a non-profit organization founded in 1937 under the name “Association of French-speaking Microbiologists” with the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France as its headquarters. It was governed by the law of 1901 and recognized as a charity since 1993. For reasons of consistency with foreign companies, the society chose the name French Society of Microbiology.

The French Society of Microbiology aims to bring together microbiologists from France and Frenchspeaking countries, working in different areas of medical microbiology, industrial, and environmental physiology, genetics, taxonomy, hygiene and antimicrobial agents.

It is composed of six sections: • Medical Microbiology (Human and Veterinary) • Anti-Infectious Agents • General Microbiology • Ecology, Environment and Biodiversity • Food Microbiology • Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Each section can create study groups, permanent or temporary, working on specific topics. Sections and Study Groups following were created: • Virology (1959) • Mycology (1963) • Soil Microbiology (1963) • Food Microbiology (1963) • Immunology (1965) • Antibacterial Agents (1969) renamed Antimicrobial Agents (1983) • Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (1975) • Clinical Microbiology (1976) • Education (1977) • Anaerobic (1980) • Tropical Microbiology (1980) • Marine Microbiology (1980) • Freshwater Microbiology (1983) • Genetics and Physiology (1985) • Taxonomy (1985) S O C I E T Y F E AT U R E

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SFM organizes or sponsors symposia and meetings, alone or in collaboration with other societies. It also publishes a regular newsletter and a website to communicate its aims.

Its next event will be the SFM Congress on 7-8 February 2013 which will be held in Lille, France with the following important dates: Call for Papers Opening: April 2012 Closing Date: 28 September 2012 Selection: October 2012 Registration Opening: June 2012 Date of rate change: January 3, 2013 Scholarships Application Deadline: November 16, 2012

SFM Fast Facts French Name: Société Française de Microbiologie English Name: French Society of Microbiology OFFICERS Chairman: René Courcol Vice-Presidents: Cambau Emmanuelle , Jean-Luc Tholozan Secretary-General: Alain Gravet Treasurer: Jean-François Desnottes Communication: Jean-Pierre Marcel SECRETARIAT Mailing Address: 191 rue de Vaugirard, 75015 Paris Email address: secretariat.sfm @ orange.fr WEBSITE www.sfm-microbiologie.org

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The website for the next FEMS Congress is now up and running. Interested participants can now access General Information on the event, Preliminary Timetable and Sponsorship/Exhibition information.

Although the Online Registration is yet to open, there is enough information available on registration fees and payment procedure.

There are 200 Congress Grants available for Young European Scientists who would like to attend the event too.

The FEMS Congress will be held at the Leipziger Messe Congress Center in Leipzig, Germany.

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Important dates to keep in mind are: • February 11, 2013 - Abstract Submission Deadline • March 15, 2013 - Deadline for Submission of Congress Grants Application • April 15, 2013 - Early Bird Registration Deadline • June 15, 2013 - Late Registration Deadline

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DEADLINES 1 December 2012 15 June 2013 FEMS Research Fellowships 15 December 2012 1 June 2013 FEMS National & Regional Congresses Grants

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MICROBIOLOGY TIDBITS Most Extensive Pictures Ever of an Organism’s DNA Mutation Processes Biologists and informaticists at Indiana University have produced one of the most extensive pictures ever of mutation processes in the DNA sequence of an organism, elucidating important new evolutionary information about the molecular nature of mutations and how fast those heritable changes occur.

Source: Indiana University Assessing a New Technique for Ensuring Fresh Produce Remains Salmonella-Free Researchers at the Institute of Food Research have tested a new technique to ensure fresh produce is free of bacterial contamination.

1 March 2013 FEMS Meeting Grants (for meetings to be held in 2014) 1 April 2013 1 September 2013 FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants

Source: Norwich BioScience Institutes

FEMS-Sponsored Meetings, October - November 2012 2 5 O c t o b e r 2 012 Actinobacteria within Soils: Capacities for Mutualism, Symbiosis and Pathogenesis Muenster, Germany

Alpine Glaciers Contribute to Carbon Cycling An international collaboration led by Tom Battin from the Department of Limnology of the University of Vienna unravels the role of Alpine glaciers for carbon cycling. They have uncovered unexpected biogeochemical complexity of dissolved organic matter locked in glaciers and studied its fate for carbon cycling in glacier-fed streams.

Source: University of Vienna

14 N o v e m b e r 2 012 Marine Microbiology and Biotechnology: Biodiscovery, Biodiversity and Bioremediation University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Flu Antibody’s ‘One-Handed Grab’ May Boost Effort Toward Universal Vaccine, New Therapies Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and Sea Lane Biotechnologies have solved the co-crystal structure of a human antibody that can neutralize influenza viruses in a unique way. The antibody recognizes the crucial structure that flu viruses use to attach to host cells, even though previously this structure had been thought too small for an antibody to grab effectively. The immune protein manages to hit this precise spot by using just a small part of its target-grabbing apparatus. In so doing, it can neutralize a broad range of dangerous flu viruses.

Source: The Scripps Research Institute

The FEMS Affiliates Letter is a production of FEMS Central Office

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