There is currently an intense debate in microbial societies on whether evolution in complex communities is driven by competition or cooperation. Since Darwin, competition for scarce food resources has been considered the main ecological interaction shaping population dynamics and community structure both in vivo and in vitro. However, facilitation may be widespread across several animal and pla...

Relative abundances of Staphylococcus and Streptococcal species. (a) Relative abundance of Staphylococcus species plotted against each sample, ordered by increasing abundance. Each bar represents the abundance of genus as a percentage of the entire microbial community, with different colours within a bar representing one of the top nine individual species/strains, with remaining species/strains...

Two studies from Jarosz et al. describe how [GAR(+)], a protein-based epigenetic determinant found mainly in wild yeast strains, can be activated by microbial cross-kingdom communication. With the aid of genetically and ecologically diverse bacteria, yeast can override an ancient regulatory mechanism of glucose repression, promoting both microbial diversity and lifespan extension.

The physiological role of microbial surfactants production in microorganisms includes antimicrobial activity and break down of complex hydrocarbon substances to make the substrates readily available for uptake in adverse environmental conditions. Wax degrading bacteria are a significant group of microorganisms facilitated mainly by the production of microbial surfactants to emulsify waxy substa...

Microbial bioremediation of petroleum wastewater by phenol-degrading-bacteria holds promise in circumventing the issue of petroleum-spill related pollution. Herein, biodegradation of petroleum wastewater samples collected from oil refinery site was carried out in a fluidized bed bioreactor by Ca-alginate immobilized biomass of phenol-degrading strains of Bacillus cereus (AKG1 MTCC9817 and AKG2 ...

In industrial biotechnology, microbial cultures are exposed to different local pressures inside bioreactors. Depending on the microbial species and strains, the increased pressure may have detrimental or beneficial effects on cellular growth and product formation. In this review, the effects of increased air pressure on various microbial cultures growing in bioreactors under moderate total pres...

In this review, initial microbial adhesive interactions are divided into adhesion to substratum surfaces, coaggregation between microbial pairs and co-adhesion between sessile and planktonic microorganisms of different strains or species. The physico-chemical mechanisms underlying the adhesive interactions are described and a critical review is given of currently employed methods to study micro...

Microbial adaptations often occur via genomic mutations under adverse environmental conditions. This study used Escherichia coli ΔadhE cells as a model system to investigate adaptation to anaerobic conditions, which we then compared with the adaptive mechanisms of two closely related E. coli strains, K-12 and B. In contrast to K-12 ΔadhE cells, the E. coli B ΔadhE cells exhibited significantly ...

The mechanisms by which intestinal bacteria achieve their associated health benefits can be complex and multifaceted. In this respect, the diverse microbial composition of the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) provides an almost unlimited potential source of bioactive substances (pharmabiotics) which can directly or indirectly affect human health. Bacteriocins and fatty acids are just two exam...

an aquifer located within a petroleum processing plant in moín, costa rica, suffers hydrocarbon pollution. this study aimed to determine the ability of indigenous microorganisms from this site to degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) to evaluate the feasibility of an eventual bioremediation process. aerobic conditions were found in the aquifer, while microbial analyses of the groundw...