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The official newsletter for FEMS Affiliates

A F F I L I AT E S L E T T E RMAR 2013

and the variety of its research fields. He believes the success of the journal should be based on timely choice of original topics written by outstanding scientists that everyone would like to read but also by young rising stars of-fering their critical opinion. For further insight, read his Editorial.

In conclusion, he wishes all readers a good time in the company of our jour-nal and in enjoying the diversity of the microbial life!

Also in this issue:

Publications Pages:• Polar Research:

- Thematic issue “Polar and Alpine Microbiology” - FEMRE Editor working in Dirck Gerritsz laboratory - Cool selection of FEMS research articles

Grants Corner:• FEMS Meeting Attendance

Grants

Society Feature:• Estonian Society for Micro-

biology

DEADLINES

List of FEMS-sponsored meetings

Microbiology Tidbits

After 4 years at the helm, Dieter Haas has retired as Chief Editor of FEMS Mi-crobiology Reviews. At the handover meeting held in the FEMS office in Delft on 1st March, he was thanked for his tenure as Chief Editor and Professor Alain Filloux welcomed as his succes-sor.

On accepting the position, Professor Filloux said ‘This was not an easy de-cision since the commitment to this task will be immense, but the reward of contributing to the success of such a journal will be worth the effort. As a microbiologist, I have always valued the journal content and have published several reviews of which I have always been proud.’

He confirmed that he and the specialist editorial team will strive in the highly competitive nature of scientific publish-ing to continue the work of Dieter Haas in placing FEMS Microbiology Reviews among the list of ‘must read’ journals. Microbiology is a vast, fast moving, ever increasing, field in its complexity

Handing over the reins:Chief Editor FEMS Reviews

Handover meeting of Chief Editor of FEMS Reviews. From left to right: Goda Sporn (Editorial Coordinator), Alain Filloux (new Chief Editor), Jim Prosser (Publications Manager), Dieter Haas

(former Chief Editor) and Gillian van Beest (Editorial Administrator).

Handing over the reins: Alain Filloux doing up his FEMS tie.

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F E M S A F F I L I A T E S L E T T E R , M A R 2 0 1 3

P U B L I C AT I O N S PA G E

Polar Research

Dutch scientists from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea research (NIOZ), including FEMS Microbiology Reviews Editor Corina Brussaard are providing an important contribution to climate change and biodiversity research with particular focus on research into algae and iron and other trace elements in the warming Antarctic seawater at the first Dutch laboratory on Antarctica.

Officially opened in January, the Dirck Ger-ritsz Laboratory consists of four sea containers that have been converted into laboratories and placed in a docking station. Who is Dirck Ger-ritsz? You may have heard of the polar explorers Amundsen, Shackleton and Scott but Dirck Ger-ritsz is not a name that we connect with polar re-search. Find out who he is and more in this blog: http://www.nioz.nl/nioz-blog-en.

Most of the Earth’s biosphere is characterized by low temperatures (below 5 °C) and cold-adapted microorganisms are now known to be widespread in nature. Scientists, politicians and the general public alike now share the conviction that understanding (micro)biology of polar and alpine systems is of paramount importance to many urgent questions related to global climate, shrinking of polar areas and disappearing of glaciers and other habitats. The latest thematic issue of FEMS Microbiology Ecology is dedicated to polar and alpine microbiology, featuring 26 papers with topics including the ecology of lakes, glaciers, tundra soils and polar deserts, with a broad range of microbes, including bacteria, archaea, yeast, filamentous fungi and lichens. The issue can be found here.

Thematic issue “Polar and Alpine Microbiology”, FEMS Microbiology Ecology

FEMSRE Editor working in Dirck Gerritsz laboratory

Screenshot of Corina Brussaard during a television interview about the first Dutch laboratory on Antarctica.

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F E M S A F F I L I A T E S L E T T E R , M A R 2 0 1 3

P U B L I C AT I O N S PA G E

Diversity and cold adaptation of culturable endophytic fungi from bryophytes of maritime AntarcticaZhang et al., FEMS Microbiology Letters, 341(1): 52-61

Endophytic fungi associated with three bryophyte species in the Fildes Region of King George Island, maritime Antarctica, were studied by culture-dependent method. The results herein demonstrate that the Antarctic bryophytes are an interesting source of fungal endophytes and the endophytic fungal composition is different among the bryophyte species, and suggest that these fungal endo-phytes are adapted to cold stress in Antarctica. Read more

- Cool selection of FEMS research articles -

Wilkins et al., FEMS Microbiology Review, 37(3)

Antarctica is arguably the world’s most important continent for influ-encing the Earth’s climate and ocean ecosystem function. This review puts into perspective the insight that has been and can be gained about Antarctica’s aquatic microbiota by using molecular biology, and in particular, metagenomic approaches, by revealing deep insight into which microorganisms are present in cold environments, and what biogeochemical processes they perform. Read more

Key microbial drivers in Antarctic aquatic environments

Antarctic yeast as biocontrol agents for apple diseaseVero et al., FEMS Yeast Research, 13(2): 189-199

• Selection of yeast based on ability to grow in apple juice at low temperatures• Use for control of postharvest diseases of apple in cold storage environment

• Growth of biofilms to protect apples Read more

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F E M S A F F I L I A T E S L E T T E R , M A R 2 0 1 3

CHECKLIST FOR YOUR FEMS MEETING ATTENDANCE

GRANT APPLICATION

FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants regulationsapply to each application for the FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants; the requirements consist of but are not limited to the following:• You are a member of a FEMS Member Society• You are not older than 36 years at the closing date of the meeting• You are an active microbiologist• An abstract for which you are the presenting author is added• The meeting that you are attending is not supported by a FEMS Meeting Grant• You have read the regulations for your application and you fulfill ALL requirements• You have completely filled-up the application form• The following should be submitted along with your application form: 1. a curriculum vitae including a list of publications 2. one letter of recommendation 3. the abstract 4. a letter confirming its acceptance by the meeting organisers 5. a photograph 6. a letter confirming the membership by the FEMS Society• Please send the complete application to grants@fems-microbiology.org before the deadline of 1 April 2013.

FEMS MEETING ATTENDANCE GRANTS

FEMS starts each spring with the deadline for the FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants on 1 April.

These are grants awarded to young European scientists wishing to attend microbiology meetings that are not supported by a FEMS Meetings Grant.

Meeting Attendance Grants may support attendance at meetings worldwide, but preference will be given for meetings within the European area.

The maximum amount of a Meeting Atten-dance Grant is €600 while the minimum is €250.

We are calling on young scientists wishing to apply for a Meetings Attendance Grant to first familiarize themselves with the regulations governing FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants.

Completed applications should be received at FEMS Central Office by:• 1 April, for attendance at meetings opening between 1 May – 30 September.• 1 September, for attendance at meetings opening between 1 October – 30 April.

The regulations and application forms are available electronically. Please read them carefully and check the list at the right before contacting the FEMS Office.

G R A N T S C O R N E R

CALL for APPLICATIONS

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F E M S A F F I L I A T E S L E T T E R , M A R 2 0 1 3

The Estonian Society for Microbiology (EMS) was es-tablished in 1992 as a successor of the Estonian branch of Microbiological Society of the former Soviet Union. The two past Chairs are Professor Tiina Alamäe and Ene Talpsep; currently, Professor Jaak Truu holds this position. Our logo representing a Petri dish with letters EMS on the cover was designed by a student Aiki Järv-iste. Our society is small (the average number of mem-bers being approximately 80) as befits a very small country with a population of just over a million. Impor-tantly, students comprise over 30% of our members. Microbiologists belonging to our Society come mostly from two big towns of Estonia, Tartu and Tallinn where the universities and other major Estonian scientific in-stitutions are situated. Despite our smallness, we have been active in distributing information on microbiolo-gy-related events through our mailing lists, organizing conferences and seminars and promoting our young members. The Society highly appreciates belonging to FEMS, in particular our young members receiving FEMS grants enabling them to work in research labo-ratories all over Europe.

Our society has organized conferences of our own, as well as several joint events, one example being a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on bioremediation of soils contaminated with aromatic compounds. An up-to-date overview of microbiology-related research and people in Estonia is available at Estonian Research Portal ETIS.

The members of our Society are engaged in a wide ar-ray of microbiology-related research including muta-tional processes and physiological adaptation of bac-teria to environmental stress, microbial communities in the environment and the effect of pollution, and bacterial enzymes of biotechnological importance to name a few topics. High-quality technological research is carried out at the Competence Centre of Food and Fermentation Technologies (Tallinn) which deals with advanced cultivation technologies of microorganisms and different novel aspects of food. The next big chal-lenge for our Society is organization of the Second Congress of Baltic Microbiologists in Tartu in 2014.

Estonian Society for Microbiology

S O C I E T Y F E AT U R E

Microbiologists engaged in jenka dance at final dinner of the Conference of the Society in 1996 at National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn.

Group of our members attending the First Congress of Bal-tic Microbiologists in Riga, 2012. Prof. Jaak Truu, our cur-rent chairman is standing second from the right.

Prof. Maia Kivisaar ‘s opening words at a NATO Advanced Re-search Workshop in Tartu in 2004. On the left is Dr. Hermann Heipieper, one of the current MiniReviews editors of FEMS Microbiology Letters.

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The FEMS Affiliates Letter is a production of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies.

F E M S A F F I L I A T E S L E T T E R , M A R 2 0 1 3

DEADLINES1 April 2013

1 September 2013FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants

15 June 2013 1 December 2013

FEMS Research Fellowships

1 June 2013 15 December 2013

FEMS National & Regional Congresses Grants

2 4 A p r i l 2 0 1 3Biodeterioration of Wood and Wood Products, BWWP 2013, Tartu, Estonia

2 6 A p r i l 2 0 1 34th Microbial Genome Maintenance Meeting Oslo, Norway

2 5 M a y 2 0 1 3Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Inter-actions and Virulence in Human Fungal Patho-gens, HFP2013, Paris, France

FEMS-Sponsored Meetings, Spring 2013

MICROBIOLOGY TIDBITS

Prokaryotic genes enabled evolution of extremophilic alga The red alga Galdieria sulphuraria is an extraordinary extremophile. The alga lives in hot, toxic metal-rich, acidic springs and shows an enormous metabolic flex-ibility. In a recent issue of Science, Schönknecht et al. report that this alga has acquired at least 5% of its pro-tein-coding genes from various bacteria and archaea through horizontal gene transfer, which likely facilitat-ed the environmental adaptation of this eukaryote.

Source: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

NASA rover rock analysis points to potentially past life on MarsThe NASA rover Curiosity has analysed its first sam-ple from the interior of a rock on Mars. The rock was selected because it may hold evidence of wet envi-ronmental conditions long ago. Scientists identified sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon, which are key ingredients for life and could therefore have supported microbial life on Mars.

Source: NASA

Vibriophages hijack immune system of cholera bac-teriaScientists have revealed that vibriophages harbour DNA sequences encoding a fully functional immune system. The viral immune system disables the immune system of cholera bacteria, allowing the phage to kill the bacteria and multiply to produce more phage off-spring. This is the first evidence that viruses can acquire a wholly functional and adaptive immune system.

Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Micro-algae used as new energy sourceResearchers from the Ennesys Lab in France have de-veloped a carbon neutral system that produces ener-gy from waste water by cultivating micro-algae. The algae consume the pollution in the water, allowing them to grow and to produce biofuel.

Source: Ennesys