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Bacteria have thrived for eons in a wide range of environments, showcasing their remarkable evolutionary success. The survival of these ancient microbes requires a variety of molecular mechanisms, some shared with humans and others singular to bacteria. Bacteria in natural settings and host environments impact health, agriculture and environmental science. Significant advances have been made recently in understanding signaling pathways, metabolism, macromolecular biosynthesis processes and community behavior of these microbes.

Our symposium at Discover BMB aims to create a collaborative synergy between biologists studying various aspects of microbiology and those conducting mechanistic studies in the fields of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Our focus centers on three significant themes that have substantially advanced in mechanistic understanding in recent years. In the first, we explore how bacteria make, break and listen to small molecules that allow them to communicate and respond to each other and the environment.  In the second, we investigate how macromolecular machines operate in bacteria, coordinating massively complex regulatory and responsive strategies. Finally, we highlight the vast web of interactions among bacteria, their viruses, the host cells they infect and their fellow bacteria, as we come to appreciate the communities of living systems that are present around us.

Keywords: Bacteria, signaling, nucleotide, regulation, interaction, community, macromolecular complexes, structure, microbes, environment.

Who should attend:  Those intrigued by the realm of microbes.

Theme song:  "We're spending most of lives living in a microbe’s paradise" (based on )

This session is powered by the overwhelming number of bacteria compared to us.         

Microbial signaling, communication and metabolism

Signaling nucleotides in microbes

Jade Wang (chair), University of Wisconsin–Madison

Vincent T. Lee, University of Maryland, College Park

Ming Chen Hammond, University of Utah

Emily E. Weinert, Pennsylvania State University

Microbial machines

Peter Chien (chair), University of Massachusetts Amherst

Erin Goley, Johns Hopkins University

Monica Guo, University of Washington

Briana Burton, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Microbial communities

Chair: Erin Goley

Stavroula Hatzios, Yale University

John Whitney, McMaster University

Christopher S. Hayes, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ami S. Bhatt, Stanford University