1. health and fitness
2. disease

Molecular Microbiology News
Issue 2, December 2014
Despite my disbelief, the end of 2014 is upon us! Through the haze of end of year parties I hope all
members are reflecting on a successful, exciting and rewarding 2014 and I wish you all happy
holidays and a safe start to 2015. Congratulations to all those members who had success in the
latest ARC and NHMRC funding rounds and best of luck to those preparing to throw their hat in the
ring next year.
For this issue Professor Roy Robins-Browne agreed to participate in our first researcher profile
story providing an insight into his illustrious career. I have also collated news from our state
branches and again we have a great list of diverse new publications from our SIG members. I hope
you enjoy the read and a big thank you to those who contributed to this edition. I again would like to
encourage you all to participate in the development of this quarterly newsletter by submitting
publications, awards, news and research stories to me at: [email protected]
Happy Holidays,
Hayley Newton
Chair, Molecular Microbiology Special Interest Group, ASM
Parasitology & Tropical Medicine SIG
is pleased to announce
Parasitology and Tropical Medicine
Master Class 2015
In Perth on 6th – 7th March 2015
The PTM SIG (ASM & ACTM) is holding its Annual National Parasitology and Tropical Medicine
workshop (Master Class) in Perth next year.
Venue: University of WA – Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre, E-learning suites
The Master Class includes:
Practical Laboratory Workshops Sessions
Seminars and hands-on laboratory sessions by experts
Interactive sessions and Quiz
Daily catering (lunch, morning and afternoon tea)
Discount registration for ASM, ACTM, AIMS, RCPA & ASID members
Master Class social evening
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who Should Attend:
Laboratory Scientists/Technicians – Microbiology, Molecular
Consultants & Trainees - Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases
Anyone interested in medical parasitology and tropical medicine
•
•
•
Details and how to register: website coming soon
Contacts: [email protected] or [email protected] or
[email protected]
1 Career Timeline
1972 – 1976: Pathology
Registrar, University of the
Witwaterstrand and the South
African Institute for Medical
Research, Johannesburg
1976 – 1979: Microbiologist and
Lecturer, South African Institute
for Medical Research,
Johannesburg
1979 – 1980: Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
University of Maryland School of
Medicine, Baltimore
1980 – 1981: Professor and
Head of the Department of
Microbiology, University of Natal,
Durban
1982 – 1991: Reader/Associate
Professor, Department of
Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Melbourne,
Melbourne
1986 – present: Adjunct
Professor of Medicine, University
of Maryland School of Medicine,
Baltimore
1991 – 1996: Associate
Professor, Departments of
Microbiology and Paediatrics,
University of Melbourne,
Melbourne
1996 – 1999: Professorial
Associate/Professorial Fellow,
Departments of Microbiology and
Immunology and Paediatrics,
University of Melbourne,
Melbourne
1996 – present: Inaugural
Professor/Director of
Microbiological Research, Royal
Children’s Hospital, University of
Melbourne, Melbourne
1999 – present: Professor,
Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, University of
Melbourne, Melbourne
2002 – present: Co-Leader,
Infectious Disease and
Microbiology Group, Murdoch
Childrens Research Institute,
Melbourne
Researcher Profile:
Professor Roy
Robins-Browne
Prof Robins-Browne is one of
Australia’s most esteemed
microbiologists who has taught,
supervised and mentored many
molecular microbiologists who have
passed through the Department of
Microbiology and Immunology at the
University of Melbourne. Throughout
his career, Prof Robins-Browne has
made major contributions to
microbiology and understanding the pathogenesis of bacterial infections,
especially those causing diarrhoea in children in less-developed countries.
The most recent addition to his long list of awards was the Rubbo Orator and
Medalist at the 2014 Australian Society for Microbiology meeting in
Melbourne. He took a moment out of his busy schedule to chat with me about
his path of scientific discovery.
o As a ten year old what did you want to “be when you grew up”?
By the time I was 10, I'd given up on my dreams of becoming a fireman or
engine driver, and thought that being a teacher or someone who studied
nature would be nice. I thought the latter was called a naturist, but later
discovered this was someone who doesn't wear clothes.
o What lured you into a research career in microbiology?
Interesting question. I was training to be a pathologist. When I started I
thought I'd be a generalist and train in all branches of pathology. So I
started in micro simply because they had a vacancy at the time, and then
switched to haematology. Part of my training involved some research,
which I really enjoyed, so I enrolled for a PhD in haematology. Before I
started, however, my proposed supervisor found another job. There was no
suitable replacement, so I asked my former boss in micro if I could do a
PhD with him. If he hadn’t said yes, I wouldn’t be answering this question
now.
o And what keeps you there?
As scientists and academics we are incredibly privileged to receive public
monies to test our pet theories. I value the freedom to plan and supervise
my own program of work in areas that really interest me.
o What scientific questions still drive you?
My research focus at present involves suppressing virulence as a new
approach to antibacterial chemotherapy. I'm interested in seeing if this can
have clinical applications.
o Who would you consider your significant scientific mentors? And what sort
of advice/guidance did they provide for you?
I have had numerous role models, both good and bad, who have
influenced me, starting with some of my high school teachers. The most
important lesson I learned from them was that anything worth doing is
worth doing well. If you apply this philosophy to your research, you will trust
your observations and not blame your tools for an unexpected result.
o What advice would you give to early career researchers who wish to
pursue a career in academia?
Find a challenging problem that interests you. Then engage one or more
senior colleagues whom you respect and admire to help you tackle it. In
these collaborations, be prepared to give more than you take. It will pay
off in the long run.
o Have you got a favorite career moment that you would be happy to share?
It's not exactly "a moment", but the best career move I made was to do a
postdoc in the USA. It was a life-changing experience that led to
friendships and collaborations that are still going strong more than 30
years later.
2 MiM2014 Microbiology in Maleny
Queensland Branch of the Australian Society for Microbiology
The QLD branch of the ASM had its annual scientific
meeting: Microbiology in Maleny (MiM2014) – at The
Tranquil Park Resort in Maleny on Saturday 29th of
November. This meeting was a full day of scientific
symposia with presentations from students, early
career and senior researchers, covering a broad
range of microbiological and infectious diseases
topics. The Geoff Simmons Memorial Lecture: “Multi
drug resistance and cross-resistance in bacteria of
animal origin”, was presented by Prof. Corinna
Kehrenberg from the University of Veterinary
Medicine in Hannover, Germany.
In addition to the fabulous science that was
presented, the meeting was also a great opportunity
to interact with colleagues and the ASM QLD branch
looks forward to seeing everyone at next years meeting.
Kate Seib (ASM QLD Branch Chair)
Victorian Branch: ASM BD Student Awards 2015
Calling all Victorian student members: ABSTRACTS NOW OPEN
It’s a great way to attend next year’s ASM Annual Scientific Meeting in Canberra (12-15 July 2015)
Where:
Monash University, Clayton Campus
When:
Tuesday 24th February 2015
Presentations:
Awards:
Competitors will deliver 12 minute presentations and receive 3 minutes of
question time
Two major awards are available to help students attend the national ASM meeting.
Winners will receive:
•
ASM BD Award – conference registration, an airfare and $300 towards the cost of
accommodation and is awarded to the best student presenting research carried out as
part of a PhD or Masters by Research
•
Victorian ASM Branch Award - conference registration and $200 towards the cost of an
airfare and is awarded to the best student presenting research carried out as part of a
Masters by Coursework or an Honours degree
Further details (including application forms and instructions) can be obtained by emailing:
Karena Waller ([email protected])
3 Recent Publications by SIG Members
Butler CA, Dashper SG, Zhang L, Seers CA, Mitchell HL, Catmull DV, Glew MD, Heath JE, Tan Y, Khan HS, Reynolds
EC, 2014. The Porphyromonas gingivalis ferric uptake regulator orthologue binds hemin and regulates heminresponsive biofilm development. PLoS One 9(11):e111168.
Carter GP, Larcombe S, Li L, Jayawardena D, Awad MM, Songer JG, Lyras D 2014 Expression of the large clostridial
toxins is controlled by conserved regulatory mechanisms. Int J Med Microbiol 304(8):1147-1159.
Cleverley RM, Barrett JR, Basle A, Bui NK, Hewitt L, Solovyova A, Xu ZQ, Daniel RA, Dixon NE, Harry EJ, Oakley AJ,
Vollmer W, Lewis RJ, 2014. Structure and function of a spectrin-like regulator of bacterial cytokinesis. Nat Commun
5:5421.
Cui B, Smooker PM, Rouch DA, Deighton MA, 2014. Enhancing DNA electro-transformation efficiency on a clinical
Staphylococcus capitis isolate. J Microbiol Methods pii: S0167-7012(14)00327-3.
Davies MR, Holden MT, Coupland P, Chen JH, Venturini C, Barnett TC, Zakour NL, Tse H, Dougan G, Yuen KY, Walker
MJ, 2014. Emergence of scarlet fever Streptococcus pyogenes emm12 clones in Hong Kong is associated with
toxin acquisition and multidrug resistance. Nat Genet doi: 10.1038/ng.3147.
Ha CW, Lam YY, Holmes AJ, 2014. Mechanistic links between gut microbial community dynamics, microbial
functions and metabolic health. World J Gastroenterol 20(44):16498-16517.
Harper M, St Michael F, Steen JA, John M, Wright A, van Dorsten L, Vinogradoc E, Adler B, Cox AD, Boyce JD, 2014.
Characterization of the lipopolysaccharide produced by Pasteurella multocida serovars 6, 7 and 16: Identification
of lipopolysaccharide genotypes L4 and L8. Glycobiology pii: cwu110.
Hazelton B, Thomas LC, Olma T, Kok J, O’Sullivan M, Chen SC, Iredell JR, 2014. Rapid and accurate direct antibiotic
susceptibility testing of blood culture broths using MALDI Sepsityper combined with the BD Phoenix automated
system. J Med Microbiol 63(Pt 12):1590-4.
Hiscox TJ, Ohtani K, Shimizu T, Cheung JK, Rood JI 2014. Identification of a two-component signal transduction
system that regulates maltose genes in Clostridium perfringens. Anaerobe 3:199-203
Hocking JS, Kong FY, Timms P, Huston WM, Tabrizi SN, 2014. Treatment of rectal Chlamydia infection may be more
complicated than we originally thought. J Antimicrob Chemother pii: dku493
Holden KM, Browning GF, Noormohammadi AH, Markham P, Marenda MS, 2014. Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli
deltatonB mutants are safe and protective live-attenuated vaccine candidates. Vet Microbiol 173(3-4):289-298.
Jelocnik M, Walker E, Pannekoek Y, Ellem J, Timms P, Polkinghorne A, 2014. Evaluation of the relationship between
Chlamydia pecorum sequence types and disease using a species-specific multi-locus sequence typing scheme
(MLST). Vet Microbiol 174(1-2):214-22.
Kennan RM, Gilhuus M, Frosth S, Seemann T, Dhungyel OP, Whittington RJ, Boyce JD, Powell DR, Aspan A, Jorgensen
HJ, Bulach DM, Rood JI 2014 Genomic evidence for globally distributed, bimodal population in the ovine footrot
pathogen Dichelobacter nodosus. MBio 5(5):e01821-14
Know J, Jadhav S, Sevior D, Agyekum A, Whipp M, Waring L, Iredell J, Palombo E, 2014. Phenotypic detection of
carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae by use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight
mass spectrometry and the Carba NP test. J Clin Microbiol 52(11):4075-7.
Kupz A, Bedoui S, Strugnell RA 2014. Cellular requirements for systemic control of Salmonella enterica serovar
Typhimurium infections in mice. Infect Immun 82(12):4997-5004.
Liu YC, Roujeinikova A, 2014. Expression, refolding, purification and crystallization of the sensory domain of the
TlpC chemoreceptor from Helicobacter pylori for structural studies. Protein Expr Purif pii: S1046-5928(14)00264-2
Macesic N, Morrissey CO, Cheng AC, Spencer A, Peleg AY, 2014. Changing microbial epidemiology in hematopoietic
stem cell transplant recipients: increasing resistance over a 9-year period. Transpl Infect Dis doi: 10.1111/tid.12298
4 Mavromatis CH, Bokil NJ, Totsika M, Kakkanat A, Schaale K, Cannistraci CV, Ryu T, Beatson SA, Ulett GC, Schembri
MA, Sweet MJ, Ravasi T, 2014. The co-transcriptome of uropathogenic Escherichia coil-infected mouse
macrophages reveals new insights into host-pathogen interactions. Cell Microbiol doi: 10.1111/cmi.12397
McIver C.J. and Bell S.M. 2014. A novel approach to testing Neisseria meningitidis in small volumes of CSF by a
real-time quantitative PCR assay. Australian Journal of Medical Science. 35: 42-47
McIver C.J., Bell S.M., Er N. 2014. Development of an internal amplification control system for a real-time PCR
assay for detection of Neisseria meningitidis in CSF and EDTA blood. Pathology. 46:344-347.
Omaleki L, Browning GF, Barber SR, Allen JL, Srikumaran S, Markham PF, 2014. Sequence diversity, cytotoxicity and
antigenic similarities of the leukotoxin of isolates of Mannheimia species from mastitis in domestic sheep. Vet
Microbiol 174(1-2):172-9.
Pallett, MA, Berger, CN, Pearson, JS, Hartland, EL, Frankel, G, 2014. The type III secretion effector NleF of
enteropathogenic Escherichia coli activates NF-κB early during infection. Infection and Immunity 82(11), 4878-4888.
Partridge SR, Ginn AN, Wiklendt AM, Ellem J, Wong JS, Ingram P, Guy S, Garner S, Iredell JR, 2014. Emergence of
blaKPC carbapenemase genes in Australia. Int J Antimicrob Agents pii: S0924-8579(14)00324-0.
Rees MA, Kleifeld O, Crellin PK, Ho B, Stinear TP, Smith AI, Coppel RL, 2014. Proteomic characterization of a natural
host-pathogen interaction: Repertoire of in vivo expressed bacterial and host surface-associated proteins. J
Proteome Res Oct 30.
Shen HH, Leyton DL, Shiota T, Belousoff MJ, Noinaj N, Lu J, Holt SA, Tab K, Selkrig J, Webb CT, Buchanan SK, Martin
LL, Lithgow T 2014. Reconstitution of a nanomachine driving the assembly of proteins into bacterial outer
membranes. 5:5078
rd
Shewell LK, Harvey RM, Higgins MA, Day CJ, Hartley-Tassell LE, Chen AY, Gillen CM, James DB, Alonzo F 3 , Torres
VJ, Walker MJ, Paton AW, Paton JC, Jennings MP, 2014. The cholesterol-dependent cytolysins pneumolysin and
streptolysin O require binding to red blood cell glycans for hemolytic activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci pii: 201412703.
Sobinoff AP, Dando SJ, Redgrove KA, Sutherland JM, Stanger SJ, Armitage CW, Timms P, McLaughlin EA, Beagley KW,
2014. Chlamydia muridarum infection-induced destruction of male germ cells and sertoli cells is partially
prevented by Chlamydia major outer membrane protein-specific immune CD4 cells. Biol Reprod pii:
biolreprod.114.124180.
Standish AJ, Whittall JJ, Morona R, 2014. Tyrosine phosphorylation enhances activity of pneumococcal autolysin
LytA. Microbiology 160(Pt 12): 2745-54.
Stevens K, Zaia A, Tawill S, Bates J, Hicks V, Whiley D, Limnios A, Lahra MM, Howden BP, 2014. Neisseria
gonorrhoeae isolates with high-level resistance to azithromycin in Australia. J Antimicrob Chemother pii: dku490.
Taylor KJ, Van TT, MacDonald SM, Meshnick SR, Fernley RT, Macreadie IG, Smooker PM, 2014. Immunization of mice
with Plasmodium TCTP delays establishment of Plasmodium infection. Paratise Immunol doi: 10.1111/pim.12158
Vidor C, Awad M, Lyras D 2014. Antibiotic resistance, virulence factors and genetics of Clostridium sordellii. Res
Microbiol pii: S0923-2508(14)00183-1.
Waryah CB, Gogi-Tiwari J, Wells K, Costantino P, Al-Salami H, Sunagar R, Isloor S, Hegde N, Richmond P, Mukkur T,
2014. Serological versus molecular typing of surface-associated immune evading polysaccharide antigens-based
phenotypes of Staphylococcus aureus. J Med Microbiol 63(Pt 11): 1427-31.
Wijesurendra DS, Kanci A, Tivendale KA, Bacci B, Noormohammadi AH, Browning GF, Markham PF, 2014.
Development of a Mycoplasma gallisepticum infection model in turkeys. Avian Pathol 28:1-25
Wong Fok Lung, T, Pearson, JS, Schuelein, R, Hartland, EL, 2014. The cell death response to enteropathogenic
Escherichia coli infection. Cellular Microbiology 16(12), 1736-1745.
5 Zhang B, Kunde D and Tristram S 2014. Haemophilus haemolyticus is infrequently misidentified as Haemophilus
influenza in diagnostic specimens in Australia. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 80(4), 272-273.
Zhou F, Wang Q, Sintchenko V, Gilbert GL, O’Sullivan MV, Iredell JR, Dwyer DE, 2014. Use of the 5’ untranslated
region and VP1 region to examine the molecular diversity in enterovirus B species. J Med Microbiol 63(Pt 10):133955.
6