TWiM 133 letters

Arthur writes:

Hello TWIMers!

I’m a graduate student working in mycoplasmology and I  must say I’ve been overjoyed to hear the past few episodes mention our tiny friends!

Elio’s mention of their unique mechanism of moving (“Gliding Motility”) made me think of a recent paper from the group in Japan under Dr. Miyata – you may find the paper quite interesting (attached)! They’ve done a lot of work on mycoplasma motility, and local US researchers such as Dr. Mitch Balish at Miami University also have made great advances in this field.

In discussion of the Mip/Mib system, one thing that has caused some head scratching in our lab has been why the microbe cleaves the Fab portion rather than the Fc? The human species (M. genitalium and M. pneumoniae) don’t have the serine protease (at least based on homology searches) and bind to IgG nonspecifically – it makes you wonder why the microbe has conserved that binding protein? Quite a neat area that needs more work!

Thanks for such an interesting podcast and keeping me preoccupied during my hours in the mouse facility!

Warmest Regards,

Arthur

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27073090

Frank writes:

Dear Drs. of TWIM,

Two observations on pili conduction.

TWIM #51 featured Hazel Barton discussing her discoveries of microbial excavation of caves.  Barton’s comments on the role of Geobacter electron transport in speleogenesis would be very interesting.

Secondly bio-batteries would seem to be far ahead of their time.  These energy sources that are so valuable to low C/V biological systems are likely not going to be useful in our crude, relatively high C/V electronics.  I have to imagine that our current electronic technology will eventually discover and utilize biomolecular processes to accomplish computing and communication.  At that time, bio-batteries will come into critical use and we can start to approximate the complexity and elegance of multicellular organisms.

August Gloom pervades the northern California coast where the temperature is Ugh point 7 (15.5C) and the humidity is only a optical tease of much needed falling water.

Thanks for all the education.  Your importance can’t be overestimated!

Best Regards,

       Frank

Aptos, CA