1.

Links between cell-cell signalling and ecology of Bacillus

The lecture at the most important international conference on cell-cell interactions in bacteria that is organized every three years by American Society for Microbiology was presented by Dr. Polonca Štefanič, a member of the project team. She presented results on ecotype demarcation and correlation between ecotypes and pherotypes, which revealed important drivers of pherotype evolution. Evolution of pherotypes that are encoded by the comQXPA loci, is in part driven by ecological diversification of bacilli and in part also by social interactions that involve cooperation and cheating.

B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference

COBISS.SI-ID: 4026744

2.

Communication of soil bacteria

The invited lecture, presented by Prof. Ines Mandić-Mulec, focused on the microbial quorum sensing communication in soil and evolution and stability of this cooperative behavior. She presented advances in the field of bacterial cell-cell signaling focusing on ecological aspects of bacterial cell-cell recognition, cooperation and cheating. The recent experimental work of this project which pertains to the diversity and evolution of pherotypes in relation to Bacillus subtilis ecotypes and their distribution in soil ws also presented. The results suggest that communication between ecologically related strains is favored over interactions between ecotypes, yet the later is still maintained in the population at low frequency enabling occasionally cooperation between ecotypes and even between Bacillus species. In mixed cultures of wild type Bacillus strains and/or co-cultures of wild type and quorum sensing mutants the complex social interactions, involving recognition of self and non-self, co-exstince and competition as well as mechanisms that preserve cooperation were discussed.

B.04 Guest lecture

COBISS.SI-ID: 3952248

3.

The impact of growth medium on biofilm morphology and exopolymer composition in Bacillus subtilis

This is the first study that shows correlation between media composition (an ecological parameter) and a chemical composition/molecular diversity of biofilms matrix (EPS) in undomesticated strain of Bacillus subtilis. The study also shows that matrix composition influences development and morphology of biofilms. The work was presented at the 9th Congress of the Slovenian Biochemical Society and 5th Congress of Slovenian Microbiological Society.

B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference

COBISS.SI-ID: 3952760