Author: Diana Lutz

Bacteria adjust to wide fluctuations in food supply by controlling how big they get and how often they divide. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have just worked out the control system E. coli use to delay division so they can bulk up when food suddently becomes abundant. What can be delayed can also be stopped, so the control system may provide an opportunity to design a new class of antibiotics.

In June, a rover named Zoe set out into the Atacama Desert on the west coast of South America to test a suite of instruments intended for future missions to Mars under Mars-like conditions. One of the instruments aboard Zoe was a Raman spectrometer designed by a team led by Alian Wang of Washington University in St. Louis. A fragile lab instrument that was ruggidized to survive the desert, the Raman spectrometer is expected to fly on the 2020 Mars mission.

Some social amoebae farm the bacteria they eat. Now a collaboration of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard University has taken a closer look at one lineage, or clone, of  D. discoideum farmer. This farmer carries not one but two strains of bacteria. One strain is the “seed corn” for a crop of edible bacteria, and the other strain is a weapon that produces defensive chemicals. The edible bacteria, the scientists found, evolved from the toxic one.

The International Society of Photosynthesis Research, meeting this August in St. Louis, is offering an afternoon of talks and demonstrations about the original “green” chemistry invented by bacteria and plants and its relevance to our energy future. Intended for teachers, students and the public, “Photosynthesis in our Lives” will take place from 3- 5 p.m. the afternoon of Sunday, August 11, 2013 in the Parkview room at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch.  RSVP to: http://parc.wustl.edu/outreachRSVP by August 7, 2013.

Washington University in St. Louis chemist D. André d’Avignon, who manages the university’s high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance facility, has been named the winner of the 2013 Saint Louis Award. The Saint Louis Award, administered by the St. Louis section of the American Chemical Society, is given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of chemistry and demonstrated the potential to further the advancement of the chemical profession.

With the help of modern genetic technology and the resources of the International Rice GeneBank, which contains more than 112,000 different types of rice, evolutionary biologist Kenneth Olsen has been able to look back in time at the double domestication of rice (in Asia and in Africa) and its double “de-domestication” to form two weedy strains. Olsen predicts the introduction of pesticide-resistant rice will drive ever faster adaptation in weedy rice.

WUSTL biologist Alan Templeton and colleagues in Israel and Germany received $2 million to look at the shifting patterns of gene expression, called the transcriptome, in two remarkably versatile species of fire salamander, one native to Israel and the other to Germany. The work may explain why this genus of salamanders is able to adapt to a wide variety of habitats when most salamander species live in one.

In the June 5 issue of Neuron, WUSTL biologist Erik Herzog and his colleagues report the discovery of a crucial part of the biological clock: the wiring that sets its accuracy to within a few minutes out of the 1440 minutes per day. This wiring uses the neurotransmitter, GABA, to connect the individual cells of the biological clock in a fast network that changes strength with time of day.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, a geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut, will be visiting Washington University in St. Louis the week of May 20 for a round of activities centered on lunar exploration, including a seminar about Schmitt’s geological exploration of the Moon’s Valley of Taurus-Littrow, an “exploration forum” and the review meeting of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera’s team, which is being hosted by WUSTL’s Brad Jolliff.

Bethany Ehlmann, who graduated from WUSTL in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in earth and planetary science, has been selected as one of 17 Emerging Explorers by National Geographic. The Emerging Explorers Program recognizes and supports uniquely gifted and inspiring adventurers, scientists and innovators who are at the forefront of discovery, adventure and global problem-solving while still early in their careers.