The Bischofs lab studies complex adaptive traits (CATs) of stressed bacteria. Our goals are to understand, to control and to engineer such traits. Using tools from molecular biology, microscopy and mathematical modelling we investigate how signaling networks regulate CATs. We seek to reveal fundamental organizing principles that relate the molecular network design to population-level behavior and vice versa. This should facilitate rational manipulations of bacterial populations and the implementation of novel functionalities into “smart” communities in the future.
Our research specfically focuses on beneficial, spore-forming and industrially relevant Bacilli. We study the formation and the revival of endospores. We also investigate bacterial communication networks that regulate the production of stress-associated secondary metabolites which have beneficial effects on the lifes of plants, animals and humans. With our basic research findings we open up new ways to control bacterial populations and to engineer them for biotechnological applications.
The µCATs Lab is an independent Research Group of the MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology. We work in close collaboration with other groups from the BioQuant and Heidelberg University and also enjoy collaborating with external groups.
Selected Publications
- A. Mutlu, C. Kaspar, N. Becker and I. B. Bischofs
A spore quality-quantity tradeoff favors diverse sporulation strategies in B. subtilis
ISME J, 14, 2703-2714, 2020
- H. Babel, P. Naranjo-Meneses, S. Trauth, S. Schulmeister, G. Malengo, V. Sourjik and I. B. Bischofs
Ratiometric population sensing by a pump-probe signaling system in Bacillus subtilis
Nature Communications 11, 1176, 2020
- A. Mutlu, S. Trauth, M. Ziesack, K. Nagler, J. Bergeest, K. Rohr, N. Becker, T. Höfer and I. B. Bischofs
Phenotypic memory in Bacillus subtilis links dormancy entry and exit by a spore quantity-quality tradeoff
Nature Communications 9:69, 2018
