New research reveals that diet can change the evolutionary path of bacteria in the gut, within host-relevant timescales. The study, published in Cell Host & Microbe, demonstrates how quickly Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta), a prevalent bacterium in the human gut, acquires adaptive mutations in response to dietary changes. These findings show that acquisition of genetic changes can explain the observed microbiota-mediated negative effects that unbalanced diets have on host health.

Every 6 minutes someone is told they’re going blind. One of the major causes of human blindness is a disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), which causes progressive degeneration of the retina and vision loss. Approximately one-tenth of Retinitis Pigmentosa cases worldwide are caused by mutations in the rhodopsin gene. Researchers from ITQB NOVA and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência had now identified a crucial mechanism for the production of Rhodopsin, the light-sensitive protein of photoreceptors, using fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and human cells as models.

Microbial communities form complex ecosystems, built on networks of interactions. Gut bacteria, inside our bodies are an example, and we depend on them to help us digest food, to control our mood, or to protect us from infection. Nasopharyngeal multi-strain bacteria like Streptococcus pneumoniae are another example, often carried asymptomatically but sometimes causing trouble to the host. Depending on underlying diversity, microbial community dynamics can lead to different outcomes between health and disease, and display different stability or resistance to invasion.

Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have created a mathematical model and simulated numerically the progression of age-related macular degeneration, one of the main causes of blindness. This model can be used to better understand how this disease appears and assess the most effective treatments.

Researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, have discovered that in the developing retina, and important part of the central nervous system, the divisions leading to the first differentiating neurons are asymmetric and that this asymmetry is necessary to generate the correct types of neurons in the right numbers and proportions. The study, published in the scientific journal eLife, is the first to report this asymmetry and the molecular processes underlying it, opening new paths for understanding how the complex brain develops its architecture and function.

The study led by Luís Ferreira Moita, principal investigator at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, and published in the journal Immunity, reveals that tetracyclines (broad spectre antibiotics), by partially inhibiting cell mitochondria activity, induce a compensatory response on the organism that decreases tissue damage caused during infection. This finding opens new doors in the field of disease tolerance and positions this group of antibiotics as potential adjuvant treatment for sepsis, due to their effects that go beyond the control of bacterial burden.

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