The Laboratory of Microbial Gene Technology


LMG – Laboratorie for Mikrobiell Genteknologi

The main research theme in our group is molecular microbiology, and lactic acid bacteria, propionibacteria as well as pathogens are organisms being studied. Of special interest is the relationship between probiotic and intestinal pathogenic bacteria. We are interested in unraveling the genetic information concerning the behaviour of and interactions between such bacteria. DNA microarray technology is one of the key tools we are using to compare the genomes and transcriptomes of probiotics, commensals and pathogens. The following species are studied: Enterococcus faecalis; Enterococcus faecium; Staphylococcus aureus; Streptococcus pneumoniae, Lactobacillus sakei and Bacillus cerus.

Another important and recognized area of research from our group is antimicrobial peptides (bacteriocins) produced by many bacterial species. Their mode of action, target recognition, immunity, resistance development as well as gene regulation (quorum sensing) are some of the topics being studied in great detail.

Along with bacteriocins, also research on bacteriophages in Lactococcus lactis has been a key research field in our laboratory for many years because lactococci play important roles during manufacturing diverse dairy products. The diversity of lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria in infants and piglets is another interesting project relevant to health and probiotics, and of industrial interest.  

Another project related to food is to study how milk fat components influence on the microbial activities in fat reduced cheese so that we can achieve better control of microorganisms and their metabolic properties during cheese ripening.

Some recent publications:

Bacteriocin Immunity: J. Bacteriology. 2010 Apr;192(8):2068-76 on the news
Enterococcus faecalis in response to blood: PLoS One. 2009 Nov 4;4(11):e7660
Bacteriocin receptor: Microbiology 2009 Sep;155(Pt 9):2949-61
Bacteriocin receptor/immunity: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Feb 13;104(7):2384-9
Enterococcal Bacteriocins J. Bacteriol. Review. 2007 Feb;189(4):1189-98

List of key publications from LMG over the years

Some moments in LMG science
Working at LMG

Relevant meetings

The 15thETOX Meeting European Workshop on Bacterial Protein Toxins. Early registration & abstracts deadline: April 1st 2011.

4th Congress of the European Microbiologists FEMS 2011. Geneva, Switzerland, June 26-30, 2011.

Biofilm meeting-3-4/May Oslo; daedline 1/April

NFM

Interesert i Masteroppgaver ved LMG please click here

A flourescing nematode

Feeding bees with lactic acid bacteria

Joint meeting between LMG and groups from UCC (University college Cork) in Cork 2010(some more detail in Norwegian)