www.fems-microbiology.org

The official newsletter for FEMS Affiliates

A F F I L I AT E S L E T T E RNovember 2011

New FEMS Focus issue now available!

Also in this issue

Featured abstract from FEMS Yeast Research

Featured review from FEMS Reviews

FEMS turns 37!

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Upcoming Grants deadlines

Microbiology tidbits

FEMS President Bernhard Schink just recently confirmed that the next FEMS Congress will be held in Leipzig, Germany.

The said congress will be the fifth one that FEMS will organise for microbi-ologists around the world.

Leipzig is located about a hundred miles south of Berlin and is one of the two largest cities in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.

It has always been a trade city, situ-ated during the time of the Holy Ro-man Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two impor-tant trade routes.

At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing.

Leipzig was ranked as 68th most liv-able city in the world in 2010. Also in the same year, it was included in the New York Times’ list of top 10 of cities to visit.

By virtue of tradition, FEMS travels from one European country to anoth-er for its biennial congresses.

The first FEMS Congress was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The second was in Madrid, Spain followed by the third congress in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The fourth FEMS Congress was held last June 26 - 30 in Geneva, Switzer-land.

The fifth FEMS Congress will be held in the summer of 2013 (July 21 - 27).

More information about this event will be revealed in the following months. If you are interested follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest developments.

Leipzig’s townhall

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Protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium are the causa-tive agents of malaria. Despite more than 100 years of re-search, the complex life cycle of the parasite still bears many surprises and it is safe to say that understanding the biology of the pathogen will keep scientists busy for many years to come. Malaria research has mainly concentrated on the pathologi-cal blood stage of Plasmodium parasites, leaving us with

Review article: Plasmodium exo-erythrocytic development

many questions concerning parasite development within the mosquito and during the exo-erythrocytic stage in the vertebrate host. After the discovery of the Plasmodium liver stage in the middle of the last century, it remained understudied for many years but the realization that it represents a promising target for vaccination approaches has brought it back into focus. The last decade saw many new and exciting discoveries concerning the exo-erythrocytic stage and in this review we will discuss the highlights of the latest developments in the field.

Graewe, S., Stanway, R. R., Rennenberg, A., Heussler, V. T. (2011), Chronicle of a death foretold: Plasmodium liver stage parasites decide on the fate of the host cell. FEMS Microbiology Reviews. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2011.00297.x

Humans can distinguish between wines produced using wine strains and wild strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as well as its sibling species, Saccharomyces paradoxus. Wine strains pro-duced wine with fruity and floral characteristics, whereas wild strains produced wine with earthy and sulfurous characteristics.

The differences that were observed between wine and wild strains provides further evidence that wine strains have evolved phenotypes that are distinct from their wild ancestors and rel-evant to their use in wine production.

Hyma, K. E., Saerens, S. M., Verstrepen, K. J. and Fay, J. C. (2011), Divergence in wine characteristics produced by wild and domesti-cated strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEMS Yeast Research, 11: 540–551. doi: 10.1111/j.1567-1364.2011.00746.x

Domesticated versus wild wine strains

FEMS Yeast Research welcomes your high-quality papers. Submit them here.

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FEMS JOURNALSList of Virtual Issues

FEMS Immunology & Medical MicrobiologyVirtual Special Issue on Rickettsia FEMS Yeast ResearchVirtual Issue on Apoptosis Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Virtual Issue

FEMS Microbiology EcologyPolar and Alpine Microbiology

Autumn in Delft

Did you know that FEMS just turned 37 years old this month?

It was in autumn in 1974, 22 November to be ex-act, when the first council was formed with the unanimous appointment of A. Lwoff as President; M. Modarski, Vice-President; H. Smith, Treasurer; A.H. Rose, Secretary-General; and C.J.E.A. Bulder as Meetings Secretary.

This council was formed when an interim Execu-tive Committee called for a meeting of all European microbiological societies on the above-mentioned date. In this meeting, the microbiological societies were invited to send one delegate each to formally elect an Executive Committee.

From that day on, FEMS has grown into an organisa-tion of more than 40 microbiological societies link-ing tens of thousands of microbiologists in Europe and the rest of the world.

To further be true to its commitment as the voice of microbiology in Europe, it does not only concentrate on the quantity of its member societies but on the quality of benefits that it offers as well.

The number of microbiology-related meetings that FEMS supports increases every year. So do the mi-crobiologists who are able to develop their knowl-edge through FEMS Grants and Fellowships.

To foster the exchange of ideas and continuous learning, FEMS has also turned its once triennial con-gress into a biennial congress. Like a scientist who wants to change the world, FEMS does not rest on its laurels and tries to do better every year.

And on it’s 37th birthday, it’s just but fitting to say: Happy Birthday, FEMS!

The voice of microbiology in Europe. We advance and unify microbiology knowledge.

Keverling Buismanweg 4, 2628 CL Delft, The NetherlandsT: 0031 15 269 3920 | F: 0031 15 269 3921 | E: fems@fems-microbiology.org

The FEMS Affiliates Letter is a production of FEMS Central Office

D E A D L I N E S Microbiology Tidbits...

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F E M S A F F I L I A T E S L E T T E R

1 December 201115 June 2012

FEMS Research FellowshipsFEMS Visiting Scientist Grants

15 December 20111 June 2012

FEMS National & Regional Congresses Grants

1 March 2012 FEMS Meeting Grants

(for meetings to be held in 2013)

1 April 20121 September 2012

FEMS Meeting Attendance Grants

1 October 2012FEMS Advanced Fellowships

Multidrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Found Growing in Nearly Half of Infected Patient RoomsMultidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-AB) was found in the environment of 48 percent of the rooms of patients colonized or infected with the pathogen, according to a new study published in the November issue of the American Journal of In-fection Control. (Elsevier via Alpha Galileo)

Pulsating Response to Stress in Bacteria Discovered If the changing seasons are making it chilly inside your house, you might just turn the heater on. That’s a reasonable response to a cold environment: switch-ing to a toastier and more comfortable state until it warms up outside. Biologists have long thought cells would respond to their environment in a simi-lar way. But now researchers are finding that cells can respond using a new kind of pulsating mecha-nism, instead of just shifting from one steady state to another and staying there. (California Institute of Technology)

Bacteria May Readily Swap Beneficial Genes: Mi-crobes Trade Genetic Coding for Antibiotic Resist-ance and More As much as people can exchange information in-stantaneously in the digital age, bacteria associated with humans and their livestock appear to freely and rapidly exchange genetic material related to human disease and antibiotic resistance through a mecha-nism called horizontal gene transfer (HGT). (Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology)

Fighting Fire With Fire: ‘Vampire’ Bacteria Have Po-tential as Living AntibioticA vampire-like bacterium that leeches onto specific other bacteria -- including certain human pathogens -- has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates. (University of Virginia)