Week in Review: June 23–27

Tracking chikungunya virus; reconsidering wood decay-based fungal classification; ASC specks spread inflammation; antibiotic tolerance in E. coli; RIKEN review yields corrections

| 3 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
3:00
Share

WIKIMEDIA, GRAHAM BEARDSIn the face of repeated exposure to ampicillin, populations of Escherichia coli quickly evolve tolerance for the drug, springing back to life once antibiotic treatment has stopped, according to a study published in Nature this week (June 25). Researchers from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel repeatedly exposed cultures of E. coli to high concentrations of ampicillin. Within as few as 10 cycles, the team found that some bacteria had survived the antibiotic treatments by lengthening the period of time they stay dormant.

“So far we’ve been familiar with tolerance conferred by dormant persister cells. This is a new phenomenon, extended lag, where mutants have a longer lag time, and that extended lag allows them to survive an attack by antibiotics,” said microbiologist Kim Lewis, director of the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Boston, who was not involved in the study.

PIXABAY, VIELEINERHUELLEWood-decaying fungi have long been classified by whether they degrade just cellulose or both lignin and cellulose, but a study of fungal genomes published in PNAS this week (June 23) suggests that classifying such species might not be so brown-and-white. In its paper, a team of investigators from the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute suggested there may exist “a continuum rather than a dichotomy between the white-rot and brown-rot modes of wood decay.”

“There was a lot of suspicion within the scientific community that the decay mechanisms wouldn’t be as straightforward as they’re currently classified, but the data wasn’t quite there,” said Dan Eastwood, a fungal biologist at Swansea University in Wales, who ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio