Biology

Progress

Are Invasive Plants More Toxic than Native Ones?

The Chemical Ecology and Toxicology group at UAB analysed the concentration of certain molecules of the Senecio pterophorus shrub, which are toxic to vertebrates and invertebrates, in plants collected in their native environment and in three non-native environments, to determine whether changes in their own chemical composition and toxicity take place.

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Progress

How the World's Largest Salamander Feed?

An international team has developed three-dimensional models of the bite of the world's largest living amphibian, the Chinese giant salamander, an endangered animal. Understanding how this species hunts not only broadens the knowledge of its biology but can also help in reconstructing how early tetrapods and extinct amphibians fed.

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Progress

Cairanoolithus: a Large Egg for a Small Dinosaur With Wide Hips

The study of the microstructure of the eggshell of Cairanoolithus conducted by Albert G. Sellés and Angel Galobart, both researchers at the ICP, reveals that this egg type does not belong to sauropod dinosaurs but to ankylosaurs, and probably to Struthiosaurus, a genus of armored dinosaurs. The finding would represent the first description of thyreophora eggs in the world.

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Progress

Negative Information in Mate-Choice Copying

Choosing whom to mate with is one of the most important decisions for any living organism, especially for females, for whom the costs of reproduction are generally higher. The classical models of female mate choice evolution assume that their preferences are genetically innate and that they will never change, but empirical evidence suggests it is not so.

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04/2015 -

Production of Toxin-Free Bacterial Amyloid

Inclusion bodies or amyloids are nanostructured protein aggregates produced inside a cell, frequent in certain bacteria, and with interesting biomedical applications such as drug protein delivery. Until now, the use of inclusion bodies was limited by the presence of own toxins from the producing bacterial cells. A study has developed several toxin-free Escherichia coli strains from which amyloids free from potentially hazardous cell contaminants have been produced.

References

Rueda, F.; Cano-Garrido, O.; Mamat, U.; Wilke, K.; Seras-Franzoso, J.; García-Fruitós, E.; Villaverde, A. Production of functional inclusion bodies in endotoxin-free Escherichia coli. Applied Microbiology and Technology. 2014, vol. 98, num. 22, p. 9229-9238. doi: 10.1007/s00253-014-6008-9.

Bacteria inclusion bodies are cost-effective nanostructured protein materials produced in bacteria with intriguing biomedical applications, including protein drug release and biofunctional topographies.
 
Inclusion bodies belong to the newly identified class of non-toxic, functional amyloids that acting as biomimetics of secretory glands in the endocrine system, combine release of functional protein with mechanical stability. However, the uses of inclusion bodies might be largely narrowed by the presence of residual endotoxins from the producing bacterial cells.
 
In collaboration with Prof Uwe Mamat, from the Leibniz-Center for Medicine and Biosciences (Borstel, Germany), who has developed several Escherichia coli strains deficient in the cell wall lipopolysaccharide, we have produced and characterized functional inclusion bodies in K-12 derivative endotoxin-free strains.
 
Our data indicate that these materials, being indeed free from potentially hazardous cell contaminants keep both the mechanical and biological properties (including cell penetrability) that make them appealing for their use in biological interfaces. These data indicate, then, that Prof’s Mamat strains are suitable to be used as bacterial factories for the production of fully biocompaticle and highly tuneable protein materials of bacterial origin based on functional amyloids.
 
Top left figure: Bacterial inclusion bodies produced in endotoxin-free enterobacteria.

Fabián Rueda
Olivia Cano-Garrido
Joaquin Seras-Franzoso
Elena García-Fruitós
Antonio Villaverde

Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB)

antoni.villaverde@uab.cat

2024 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

B.11870-2012 ISSN: 2014-6388