Program

Tuesday 12th June

• 8:30 – 8:55 Registration
• 8:55 Welcome - Chancellors’ Building, room 1.12

Session 1 Regulation

CHAIR: David Leak

• 09:00 Ciaran Condon
  • Suppression of the essential nature of RNase M16 (YqfG), required for 3' maturation of B. subtilis 16S ribosomal RNA, by deletion of RNase R
• 09:15 Roland Hartmann
  • Function and regulation of two 6S RNAs in Bacillus subtilis
• 09:30 Matthias Mack
  • A dual control mechanism synchronizes riboflavin and sulphur metabolism in Bacillus subtilis
• 09:45 Hermann Rath
  • A SigB-dependent antisense RNA affects osmotic induction of opuB expression in Bacillus subtilis
• 10:00 Laura Teichmann
  • Suppressor analysis illuminates the structure/function relationship of the glycine betaine synthesis repressor GbsR
• 10:15 Sylvain Durand
  • sRNA-mediated activation of gene expression by inhibition of 5’-3’exonucleolytic mRNA degradation

Session 2 Cell division

CHAIR: TBA

• 11:00 Henrik Strahl
  • Bacillus subtilis does not form microscopically detectable cardiolipin domains
• 11:15 Jeanine Rismondo
  • Discovery of genes required for lipoteichoic acid glycosylation predicts two distinct mechanism for wall teichoic acid glycosylation
• 11:30 Edward de Koning
  • Divisome maturation in Bacillus subtilis single cells
• 11:45 Seamus Holden
  • Treadmilling by FtsZ filaments drives Bacillus subtilis peptidoglycan synthesis and bacterial cell division
• 12:00 Dirk-Jan Scheffers
  • PBP2B PASTA domains interact with DivIB to stabilize cell division
• 12:15 Yongqiang Gao
  • Cell division in the cell wall-less bacterium Acholeplasma laidlawii

Session 3 – Interesting Biology

CHAIR: Colin Harwood

• 14:30 Jörg Stülke
  • DNA topoisomerases in Bacillus subtilis: A tale on mutants and suppressors
• 14:45 Hannah Gaimster
  • Lethal depletion of essential cell envelope proteins can be rescued by slowing DNA replication in Bacillus subtilis
• 15:00 Alexandre Deloupy
  • Stochastic gene expression in Bacillus subtilis
• 15:15 Sabine Schneider
  • Development of a reporter gene system to characterise riboswitch function and to identify riboswitch modulators by high-throughput screening
• 15:30 Ken-ichi Yoshida
  • Rapid conjugative mobilization of a 100 kb segment of Bacillus subtilis chromosomal DNA is mediated by a helper plasmid with no ability for self-transfer
• 15:45 Anna A. Toymentseva
  • Mobilization and transfer of plasmids and chromosomal DNA mediated by optimized ICEBs1 conjugative element

Session 4 – Antibiotics 1

CHAIR: Ulrike Mäder

• 16:30 Carolin Kobras
  • Exploring the substrate specificity of the antimicrobial peptide resistance transporter BceA-BceB in Bacillus subtilis
• 16:45 Luiza P. Morawska
  • Preadaptation of Bacillus subtilis to mild osmostress contributes to increased antibiotic resistance
• 17:00 Mary K. Phillips-Jones
  • Characterisation of the VanA-type VanS histidine kinase involved in glycopeptide resistance in Gram-positive bacteria and its ligand interactions
• 17:15 Gabriela Henriques
  • Towards the understanding of the regulation of SppA by YteJ in Bacillus subtilis.

Wednesday 13th June

Session 5 Biotechnology

CHAIR: Anne Breüner

• 9:00 Andreas Knapp
  • The spacer region in the 5´-UTR strongly affects recombinant protein production in Bacillus subtilis
• 9:15 Alexandria Holland
  • Investigating protein secretion in Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius
• 9:30 Matthew Styles
  • Engineering Parageobacillus for the Production of Terpenes: Building Better Chassis Organisms for Industrial Biotechnology
• 9:45 Luca Longanesi
  • γ-PGA production through Consolidated Bioprocessing in engineered B. subtilis lab strains
• 10:00 Matteo Cavaletti
  • Optimization of γ-PGA biosynthesis supported by synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies
• 10:15 Ioannis Mougiakos
  • Characterizing a thermostable Cas9 for bacterial genome editing and silencing

Session 6 - Sporulation and development

CHAIR: TBC

• 10:45 Imrich Barák
  • What we (don’t) know about the asymmetric septum in Bacillus subtilis
• 11:00 Munehiro Asally
  • Quality monitoring during sporulation in B. subtilis
• 11:15 Ilka Bischofs
  • Phenotypic memory links different stages of the B. subtilis life cycle
• 11:30 Akos Kovacs
  • Cheating promotes evolution of hyper-cooperators by shifting phenotypic heterogeneity in biofilms
• 11:45 Sven Halbedel
  • Novel gpsB suppressor genes contributing to regulatory proteolysis and cell division
• 12:00 Sofia Arnaouteli
  • Exploring the role of pulcherrimin in Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation
• 12:15 Karin Bjerre
  • Investigating of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens spores and vegetative cells in fecal samples from pigs

Session 7 – Antibiotics 2

CHAIR: Kevin Devine

• 14:30 Auke J. van Heel
  • BAGEL4: A user-friendly web server to mine RiPPs and bacteriocins
• 14:45 Amanda Y. van Tilburg
  • Bacillus subtilis as heterologous production host for lantibiotics
• 15:00 Nina Lautenschlaeger
  • A novel heterologous whole-cell biosensor in Bacillus subtilis for the comprehensive detection of b-lactam antibiotics
• 15:15 Marjorie Gibbon
  • Towards understanding signalling between the bacitracin resistance transporter BceA-BceB and histidine kinase BceS of Bacillus subtilis

Session 8 – Cereus Group

CHAIR: Cinzia Calvio

• 16:00 Monika Ehling-Schulz
  • Bacillus cereus, a multifaceted pathogen: The challenge of discriminating high and low enteropathogenic strains
• 16:15 Nick Waterfield
  • Bacillus cereus G9241 – to anthrax and back again
• 16:30 Ludivine Rousset
  • Oligotrophy induces phenotypic diversification of Bacillus cereus AH187
• 16:45 Jan Maarten van Dijl
  • Can Bacillus thuringiensis and other microorganisms isolated from chronic wounds ‘pacify’ Staphylococcus aureus?