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Diversity in Microbiology

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Diversity in Microbiology
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As the President of the Microbiology Society, I am eager that we continue to build on our work supporting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Greater diversity within all that we do will widen the talent pool available for the field of microbiology and create networks of ideas and collaborations, potentially leading to greater development and innovation. Working to be inclusive helps us ensure we have a thriving community, which in turn will pave the way for us to support microbiology into the future. I have commissioned a number of articles from under-represented groups, highlighting the talent we have within our Society, and where our members are producing cutting-edge research within our discipline.

Professor Gurdyal Besra, Microbiology Society President

Photo credit: iStock/ Angelina Bambina


Collection Contents

7 results

    • ‘Queer in Microbiology’: a Microbiology Society members’ endeavour for creating a safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQIA+ microbiologists

      The past decade has seen growing awareness of the challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ scientists, including discrimination in the workplace and the lack of representation. Initiatives such as 500 Queer Scientists, Pride in STEM and the Microbiology Society’s LGBTQIA+ events have been instrumental in promoting inclusivity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). The Microbiology Society and its members have played a pivotal role in these efforts and summarized here are their initiatives towards safer and more inclusive scientific and research environments. Starting with a series of interviews and blog posts about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ microbiologists in research, the Society has promoted the organization of networking and social events and developed guidelines for creating more inclusive scientific conferences. These initiatives have not only improved the representation and visibility of LGBTQIA+ individuals in microbiology, but have also served as a blueprint for similar efforts in other scientific areas. Nevertheless, despite improvements in some areas, full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ scientists is still hindered by societal and institutional policies around the world. Here, we propose novel measures to support and empower LGBTQIA+ microbiological communities within learned societies.

    • spores tolerate disinfection with sodium hypochlorite disinfectant and remain viable within surgical scrubs and gown fabrics

      is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea globally. Its spores have been implicated in the prevalence of infection due to their resistance and transmission ability between surfaces. Currently, disinfectants such as chlorine-releasing agents (CRAs) and hydrogen peroxide are used to decontaminate and reduce the incidence of infections in clinical environments. Our previous research demonstrated the ability of spores to survive exposure to recommended concentrations of sodium dichloroisocyanurate in liquid form and within personal protective fabrics such as surgical gowns; however, the present study examined the spore response to clinical in-use concentrations of sodium hypochlorite. Spores were exposed to a 10 min contact time of 1000, 5000 and 10 000 p.p.m. sodium hypochlorite, and spore recovery was determined. To understand whether biocide-exposed spores transmitted across clinical surfaces , biocide-exposed spores were spiked onto surgical scrubs and patient gowns and recovery was determined by a plate transfer assay. Scanning electron microscopy was used to establish if there were any morphological changes to the outer spore coat. The results revealed that viable biocide-exposed spores can be recovered from surgical scrubs and patient gowns, with no observable changes to spore morphology, highlighting the potential of these fabrics as vectors of spore transmission. This study demonstrates that alternative strategies should be urgently sought to disinfect spores to break the chain of transmission in clinical environments.

    • PET-CT for characterising TB infection (TBI) in immunocompetent subjects: a systematic review

      There is emerging evidence of a potential role for PET-CT scan as an imaging biomarker to characterise the spectrum of tuberculosis infection (TBI) in humans and animal models.

      Synthesis of available evidence from current literature is needed to understand the utility of PET-CT for characterising TBI and how this may inform application of PET-CT in future TBI research.

      The aims of this review are to summarise the evidence of PET-CT scan use in immunocompetent hosts with TBI, and compare PET-CT features observed in humans and animal models.

      MEDLINE, Embase and PubMed Central were searched to identify relevant publications. Studies were selected if they reported PET-CT features in human or animals with TBI. Studies were excluded if immune deficiency was present at the time of the initial PET-CT scan.

      Six studies – four in humans and two in non-human primates (NHP) were included for analysis. All six studies used 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro--glucose (2-[18F]FDG) PET-CT. Features of TBI were comparable between NHP and humans, with 2-[18F]FDG avid intrathoracic lymph nodes observed during early infection. Progressive TBI was characterised in NHP by increasing 2-[18F]FDG avidity and size of lesions. Two human studies suggested that PET-CT can discriminate between active TB and inactive TBI. However, data synthesis was generally limited by human studies including inconsistent and poorly characterised cohorts and the small number of eligible studies for review.

      Our review provides some evidence, limited primarily to non-human primate models, of PET-CT utility as a highly sensitive imaging modality to reveal and characterise meaningful metabolic and structural change in early TBI. The few human studies identified exhibit considerable heterogeneity. Larger prospective studies are needed recruiting well characterised cohorts with TBI and adopting a standardized PET-CT protocol, to better understand utility of this imaging biomarker to support future research.

    • Disruption of MenT2 toxin impairs the growth of in guinea pigs

      Toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems are abundantly present in the genomes of various bacterial pathogens. TA systems have been implicated in either plasmid maintenance or protection against phage infection, stress adaptation or disease pathogenesis. The genome of encodes for more than 90 TA systems and 4 of these belong to the type IV subfamily (MenAT family). The toxins and antitoxins belonging to type IV TA systems share sequence homology with the AbiEii family of nucleotidyl transferases and the AbiEi family of putative transcriptional regulators, respectively. Here, we have performed experiments to understand the role of MenT2, a toxin from the type IV TA system, in mycobacterial physiology and disease pathogenesis. The ectopic expression of MenT2 using inducible vectors does not inhibit bacterial growth in liquid cultures. Bioinformatic and molecular modelling analysis suggested that the genome has an alternative start site upstream of the annotated gene. The overexpression of the reannotated MenT2 resulted in moderate growth inhibition of . We show that both and transcript levels are increased when is exposed to nitrosative stress, . When compared to the survival of the wild-type and the complemented strain, the Δ mutant strain of was more resistant to being killed by nitrosative stress. However, the survival of both the Δ mutant and the wild-type strain was similar in macrophages and when exposed to other stress conditions. Here, we show that MenT2 is required for the establishment of disease in guinea pigs. Gross pathology and histopathology analysis of lung tissues from guinea pigs infected with the strain revealed significantly reduced tissue damage and inflammation. In summary, these results provide new insights into the role of MenT2 in mycobacterial pathogenesis.

    • Novel application of metagenomics for the strain-level detection of bacterial contaminants within non-sterile industrial products – a retrospective, real-time analysis

      The home and personal care (HPC) industry generally relies on initial cultivation and subsequent biochemical testing for the identification of microorganisms in contaminated products. This process is slow (several days for growth), labour intensive, and misses organisms which fail to revive from the harsh environment of preserved consumer products. Since manufacturing within the HPC industry is high-throughput, the process of identification of microbial contamination could benefit from the multiple cultivation-independent methodologies that have developed for the detection and analysis of microbes. We describe a novel workflow starting with automated DNA extraction directly from a HPC product, and subsequently applying metagenomic methodologies for species and strain-level identification of bacteria. The workflow was validated by application to a historic microbial contamination of a general-purpose cleaner (GPC). A single strain of was detected metagenomically within the product. The metagenome mirrored that of a contaminant isolated in parallel by a traditional cultivation-based approach. Using a dilution series of the incident sample, we also provide evidence to show that the workflow enables detection of contaminant organisms down to 100 CFU/ml of product. To our knowledge, this is the first validated example of metagenomics analysis providing confirmatory evidence of a traditionally isolated contaminant organism, in a HPC product.

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