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Zombie bacteria keep building DNA after death - Biology Cell & Microbiology - Biotechnology

Gabriel Antonio Minero in the laboratory, illustrating the experiment using props he has sewn and built himself. The orange soft toy represents DNA, the blue one is a bacteriophage, and the LEGO flower represents the flower-like structures of crystallized DNA. But where are the zombie bacteria? They are hiding in the biofilm sample under the microscope right next to him, where they are busy producing the flower-like DNA structures. Credit: Peter F. Gammelby, Aarhus University

Researchers at Aarhus University have discovered that bacteria can continue producing DNA after they die. And they have found a way to control what gets produced. The discovery could eventually contribute to the development of new biological materials.

Researchers at Aarhus University have found something that could belong in a horror film: bacteria that continue producing DNA after they are dead. Or rather, the machinery they leave behind carries on working. And behind it all are viruses that both kill the bacteria and provide some of the equipment.

The researchers have even worked out how to get the bacteria's "zombie factories" to produce DNA according to a particular blueprint.

They have published both the discovery and the method in Angewandte Chemie.

Viruses on standby

Bacteria often live in communities known as biofilms. They are surrounded by a sticky substance that contains DNA, among other things. It serves as both building material and protection—for example, in the plaque we brush off our teeth.

This illustration, which covers the entire back cover of Angewandte Chemie, shows how bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—can trigger the production of new DNA in a biofilm. The blue bacteria are alive, while the green ones are dead but have not become zombies. The pink, ladder-like structures represent dead "zombie bacteria" producing special DNA structures called G-quadruplexes. The red circle shows a bacteriophage that can lie dormant inside a bacterium. When activated, it can cause the bacterial cell to burst, releasing enzymes that continue producing DNA outside the cell. At the bottom right, a light-blue enzyme is shown repeatedly copying an artificially created ring of DNA. This produces long DNA strands (red) containing G-quadruplexes (pink), which can assemble into the red, flower-like structures seen in the biofilm and give it new chemical properties. Parts of the illustration were created using BioRender. Credit: Gabriel Antonio Minero / Angewandte Chemie

Many bacteria also carry what are known as bacteriophages—viruses that infect only bacteria. Some bacteriophages can lie dormant as part of a bacterium's genetic material.

The researchers deprived two bacterial species, Shewanella oneidensis and Bacillus subtilis, of nutrients. This caused some of the dormant viruses to wake up and multiply. Eventually, they burst the bacterial cells open.

You might think that would bring all work to a halt.

But when the cells burst, both the building blocks of DNA and specialized enzymes were released. And the enzymes continued making DNA outside the dead bacteria—out in the biofilm.

"In a way, life goes on after the bacterium has died," says the study's first author, assistant professor Gabriel Antonio Minero from the Department of Biology at Aarhus University.

Flowers from the dead

To find out whether they were really seeing newly produced DNA—rather than merely remnants of the burst cells—the researchers added a small, artificially made ring of DNA to the bacterial cultures. 

One of the red, flower-like structures, captured under a microscope. It formed in a biofilm of the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis. Credit: Gabriel Antonio Minero / Angewandte Chemie

The ring served as a blueprint that the enzymes could copy over and over again. The new DNA had a distinctive structure that could be detected using fluorescent dyes.

Under the microscope, the DNA combined with other substances to form shapes resembling flowers in one bacterial species and long strands in the other. And when the researchers used a bacterial strain that lacked the relevant viruses, none of this particular DNA was produced.

Minero calls the bacteriophages nano-architects. Although they kill some of the bacteria, they also supply part of the molecular machinery that makes it possible to keep building the biofilm.

Zombies with special powers

The researchers have done more than get the machinery of dead bacteria to produce DNA. They have also worked out how to change the blueprint and thereby determine which type of DNA the machinery produces.

"What matters most to me is that we can hijack the process," says Minero.

Among other things, the researchers got the zombie factories to produce what are known as G-quadruplexes. These are DNA structures that fold into particular shapes, allowing them to bind other molecules and act rather like enzymes, speeding up certain chemical reactions.

Minero likens this to giving the zombies armor or a weapon, equipping the biofilm with new properties.

The armor has not, of course, been shown to protect against antibiotics or other attacks. But the researchers have demonstrated that this special DNA can act as a catalyst and alter the biofilm's electrical properties.

An evolutionary puzzle

The discovery also raises an intriguing question: why do some bacteria harbor dormant viruses in their genetic material?

Is it mere coincidence that bacteriophages can help build on the bacterial community after killing some of its members? Or has this interaction evolved because, under certain conditions, it benefits the bacteria?

The researchers cannot yet answer that.

What can the zombies be used for?

The discovery opens up some intriguing possibilities. After all, DNA is not just a blueprint for life. It can also have chemical properties that make it useful for other purposes.

One area of potential interest is environmental biotechnology, where researchers are already trying to harness bacteria for wastewater treatment and bioenergy production.

In the longer term, Minero envisions programming the bacteria's DNA production to create different materials that could help break down pollutants. Instead of making the biological materials in a factory, perhaps the bacteria could be made to produce them wherever they are needed.

But there is still a long way to go

The experiments were carried out in the laboratory with two bacterial species and DNA blueprints supplied by the researchers themselves.

They have shown that they can control which DNA is produced and give it particular chemical properties. They have not yet demonstrated that the technology can clean up polluted water or improve the practical production of bioenergy.

The study thus raises many new questions and possibilities for the researchers to explore.

And if all this has left you thinking that bacteria in biofilms are so well protected that they are practically immortal, think again:

The bacteria really are dead. It's just that some of their machinery hasn't gotten the message. 

Provided by Aarhus University 

by Aarhus University

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Zombie bacteria keep building DNA after death

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NASA’s Perseverance Offers Clues to Protect Crews From Mars Dust - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This 360-degree panorama from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover shows Neretva Vallis, the dusty, long-dried river channel that cuts through the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging to samples of spacesuit materials that are carried aboard the rover, including some that are small enough to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream. The findings will be published Tuesday, Oct. 27, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and could inform spacesuit and habitat design, dust-removal procedures, and crew health standards for future NASA missions to Mars.

“NASA has a long history of turning challenges into workable solutions and of finding creative ways to use the data that we have to answer questions beyond what it was originally collected for,” said Lindsay Hays, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Dust has been a surface-exploration challenge since the Apollo program. Perseverance is giving our engineers and flight surgeons measurements they can use to improve our existing designs well before the first American astronauts arrive on Mars.”

Lunar dust scratched visors, degraded outer spacesuit layers, and damaged their seals during NASA’s Apollo missions, and some crew members reported symptoms similar to hay fever.

Rounded by wind-driven collisions with other particles, dust grains on Mars are less abrasive than those on the Moon. They also are enriched in sulfur, chlorine, and iron and contain more silica than lunar dust. Regional and global dust storms on Mars can keep the grains recirculating throughout the atmosphere as well.  

The rover carries a set of five samples of spacesuit material. The swatches, each three-quarters of an inch (20 millimeters) square, are part of a calibration target used to test the settings of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), an instrument on Perseverance’s robotic arm. The calibration target for another instrument that provided the dust measurements, called PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), carries a sample of Teflon and of basaltic glass.

Because Teflon contains no elements that PIXL can directly detect, whatever elemental signals the X-ray spectrometer picks up from that sample comes from dust resting on it.

The team also analyzed swatches of Teflon and Vectran, two materials used in spacesuits, on SHERLOC’s calibration target. NASA sent the swatches to Mars to study how spacesuit materials hold up on the planet’s surface.

“Perseverance’s main job is to search for signs of ancient microbial life, but the mission was also designed to help prepare for human explorers. That effort includes technology demonstrations like MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) and Ingenuity, as well as the spacesuit samples,” said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Fine, ultrafine

While earlier measurements on Mars resolved dust particles down to about 3 micrometers across, PIXL detected two categories of even smaller particles: fine particles measuring less than 2.5 micrometers (a human hair is about 70 micrometers wide) and ultrafine particles around 100 nanometers (about 700 times thinner than a human hair). Particles on PIXL’s Teflon target and SHERLOC’s Vectran swatch averaged about 2 micrometers. On PIXL’s basaltic glass and SHERLOC’s Teflon swatch, dust particle sizes ranged down to about 100 to 300 nanometers. 

This annotated composite image shows the location on NASA’s Perseverance of the calibration target for rover’s SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument. At right is a close-up of the calibration target.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Static electricity appears to determine which size dust particles stick to which surface. Dust grains become charged as they collide in the air, and different materials on the calibration target attract grains of different sizes. The finest particles stayed attached through years of driving and drilling. Organic polymers like SHERLOC’s Teflon spacesuit sample are common in the outer layers of spacesuits, and the results show they readily collect fine dust.

The study also found that some materials hold less dust than others, which could guide future choices of materials and protective coatings for spacesuits and habitats. Designs such as suitports, which let astronauts enter a suit attached to the outside of a habitat, and dual-chamber airlocks could reduce how much dust gets inside astronauts’ living quarters.

“The existence of Mars dust at these ultrafine sizes has been predicted for a long time, and PIXL gave us the chance to measure it directly on Mars,” said Scott VanBommel, a Perseverance scientist at Washington University in St. Louis and the paper’s lead author. “The larger clumps, the Martian dust bunnies, get shaken off over time. But the smallest particles stay behind, and those are the ones that pose the greatest challenge for human support systems.”

Chemically, the dust matches the iron- and sulfur-rich composition that earlier missions measured. The PIXL instrument also found the dust to be enriched in phosphorus and detected signs of calcium sulfate.

Protecting crews

On Earth, airborne particles, or particulate matter, below 2.5 micrometers (that is, fine particles) are tied to a range of negative health effects because they can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Studies have shown that ultrafine particles (those no larger than 100 nanometers) can travel from the nasal cavity to the brain along the olfactory nerve.

Martian dust is composed predominantly of silicate minerals and carries chemically reactive compounds, including perchlorates that can disrupt thyroid function and reactive iron that induces cellular damage. Scientists believe that the health risks of Mars dust depend on the quantity of dust and length of exposure.

The PIXL results are the first on-site measurements of fine and ultrafine particles on Mars, and this research can inform broader efforts to refine indoor dust-exposure limits for astronauts, develop safe habits, and establish ways to remove dust while exploring Mars.

NASA is already working on solutions to extraterrestrial dust hazards, using ground test facilities and lunar missions as proving grounds for future Mars explorers. In March 2025, the agency tested an Electrodynamic Dust Shield, which used electric fields to clear lunar regolith from glass and thermal radiator surfaces on the Moon. Developed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it landed on the Moon aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers at the Lunar Development and Test Facility use vacuum chambers and lunar regolith simulant to test spacesuit components, mechanisms, and a Handheld Lunar Electrostatic Dust Mitigation tool ahead of Artemis missions to the lunar surface.

More about Perseverance

Managed for NASA by Caltech, JPL built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. NASA JPL also built PIXL and SHERLOC.

To learn more about Perseverance visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance 

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Normal Blood Pressure Numbers Can Hide a Risk: A Few Hundred Brain Cells Keep It Steady

When a nurse wraps a cuff around your arm, you get a number. It is a snapshot, and over time those snapshots are averaged into a verdict: normal or not. But blood pressure is not a flat line. It rises when you stand up, jumps when you exercise, dips as you fall asleep and climbs again as you wake. New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests that the brain has a small dedicated crew keeping those swings in check, and that when it fails, the average can still look perfectly fine.

The part of blood pressure we rarely measure

Clinical blood pressure is usually judged by its average. Yet evidence has been building that short-term variability matters on its own: large or rapid swings are linked to a higher risk of heart disease, stroke and brain injury, even when the mean sits in the normal range. What has been less clear is what, in the body, actually holds those fluctuations in check.

A small population of brainstem neurons

The team, led by Stephen Abbott, PhD, identified a small population of adrenergic neurons in the brainstem, the region that runs automatic functions such as breathing and heart rate. These cells appear to limit blood pressure swings as the body moves between everyday states: sleeping, waking, standing and exercising.

The headline result is how few cells are involved. According to the researchers, losing just a few hundred of these neurons produced unstable blood pressure while the mean pressure stayed normal. In Abbott’s words, that shows the system responsible for steadiness from moment to moment had stopped working. He summed up the shift in thinking as a move toward keeping blood pressure stable from moment to moment, rather than only lowering the numbers.

On the experimental side, the preprint version of the study describes recordings of these neurons alongside blood pressure, heart rate, brain activity and muscle activity in unanesthetized rats.

A link to a rare neurological disease

The same type of cells has previously been found to be damaged or missing in people with multiple system atrophy, a rare, fatal neurological disorder related to Parkinson’s disease. Severe difficulty regulating blood pressure is a common feature of that condition, so the new findings fit a picture in which losing these neurons and losing blood pressure stability go together.

The authors go a step further and raise the possibility that problems with these cells could contribute to unstable blood pressure in other conditions too, including cases where standard measurements look normal. That is a hypothesis, not a demonstrated result.

What this does and does not tell us

·         It identifies a plausible biological mechanism for blood pressure variability. It does not show that people with normal readings are at hidden risk because of this particular cell group.

·         It does not yet offer a treatment. The researchers say that understanding the mechanism could eventually help in developing therapies that reduce harmful fluctuations and protect the heart and brain.

·         It does not mean that average blood pressure stopped mattering. The argument is that the average is an incomplete picture, not an irrelevant one.

The study was published in Circulation Research and funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant HL148004). The authors report no financial interests related to the work. The university also frames the discovery as part of the goals of its new Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which aims to speed laboratory findings toward patient treatments.

If you have questions about your own blood pressure, the right person to ask is your doctor. This post summarises a research finding and is not medical advice.

Sources and further reading

·         Original press release: Department of Pharmacology Researchers Map Brain’s Blood Pressure Control Center (UVA School of Medicine, 18 February 2026)

·         Paper: Souza GMPR, Thakkalapally H, Berry FE, Wisniewski LF, Atongazi UM, Stornetta DS, Abbott SBG. Control of Blood Pressure Variability Across Behavioral States by Brainstem Adrenergic Neurons. Circulation Research, 2026. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.125.326792

·         Preprint of the study: Control of Blood Pressure Variability Across Behavioral States by Brainstem Adrenergic Neurons (bioRxiv)

Source: Normal Blood Pressure Numbers Can Hide a Risk: A Few Hundred Brain Cells Keep It Steady 

Technician cracks 1,600-year-old mystery to replicate color-changing effect of Roman glass masterpiece - Chemistry - Materials Science

Top view of the famed Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum, showing the glass both green and ruby red. Credit: Chappsnet/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The Lycurgus Cup, a world-renowned 4th-century A.D. artifact housed in the British Museum, is constructed of "dichroic" glass that shifts from jade green in reflected light to ruby red in transmitted light. This means that depending on where the light source is positioned, observers can see the cup displayed in two distinctive, contrasting colors.

It is one of only 40 surviving glass cage cups from the period and is one of the most complete. The Lycurgus Cup is the only one exhibiting this visual effect. Its colors, artistry and almost perfect condition have intrigued and confounded historians and glassmakers alike for centuries. Its exceptional colors and narrative, depicting a mythical Thracian king ensnared in vines because of his misdeeds, led to the artifact being recognized as one of the seven glass wonders of the world by an international panel of artists and conservators in 2022.

While no one knows exactly how its famous color-changing effect was created, experts believe the Romans achieved it by adding tiny amounts of gold and silver which, under the right conditions, formed layered nanoparticles thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand. Because these nanoparticles are smaller than the wavelengths of light, they absorb light strongly and display vibrant colors depending on their size and shape.

Many have tried to reproduce this dichroic effect with varying success, but establishing a consistent, repeatable recipe has long proved elusive.

After being challenged by project manager Christina Metcalfe to replicate it for the university's LightFest in 2025, experts from the University of Sheffield have successfully reproduced the effect observed in the famous artifact, finally solving the age-old mystery. 

Credit: David Heath, University of Sheffield

Recreating the Roman glass recipe

For University of Sheffield technician Dr. Lisa Hollands, replicating the effect was very much a labor of love.

"I knew that making a glass of this type was likely to be a complex task, as it is not just a case of adding nanoparticles to glass," said Hollands, from the University of Sheffield's School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering.

"I've studied and worked with glass for over 25 years, so I used the knowledge and experience I've gained, coupled with a modern scientific understanding of what I was trying to achieve.

"To start with, I worked with a leading Roman glass expert, professor Caroline Jackson, to research what was already known about glass of the time and developed a base glass using modern materials to mimic what the Romans might have used. Then came the more difficult part of trying to get small amounts of gold and silver into the glass in the right form.

"Although if the Romans could have seen me experimenting, they'd probably laugh and ask: 'Why does she not know how to make this?'"

After many painstaking experiments with different furnace types, starting materials and oxygen levels—and even the inclusion of sugar—Hollands finally hit upon a glass recipe that appeared opaque green in reflected light and red when a light was shone through it.

Dichroic glass cup created by University of Sheffield technician Lisa Hollands. Credit: Ed Cartledge, Sort of Films

An ancient recipe becomes contemporary sculpture

The initial piece was exhibited at LightFest, an event held in Sheffield by the Molecular Photonic Breadboards project in partnership with the universities of Sheffield and Bristol. The project aims to design new materials that harness the power of light for sustainable technologies, vital to the U.K.'s economic success in areas like solar energy, quantum technologies and health care diagnostics.

Molecular Photonic Breadboards project manager Metcalfe said, "The next step was to commission a piece worthy of paying homage to its illustrious predecessor.

"We approached Elliot Walker, one of the U.K.'s finest glass artists and winner of season two of Netflix's 'Blown Away,' who accepted the challenge and was commissioned to create a contemporary sculpture using Hollands' recipe."

Walker said, "It is a very rare thing to have the opportunity to work with glass developed from ancient mixtures and recipes, and it is always a very exciting one.

"You can really get an idea of how the glassmakers of the past would have adapted to this sort of glass; it's like shaking their hands."

This idea of a bridge between the intervening centuries, along with practical considerations, provided the inspiration for the final piece.

"I wanted to keep the sculpture quite classical in form and to carry through the original story of Lycurgus shown on the cup, but we needed a blown element within this to really show the dichroic glass," Walker added.

"The piece is a blend of the Lycurgus story and the Farnese Atlas sculpture, with the globe replaced by a cup."

A public debut and lasting applications

The piece will be unveiled to the public at the Millennium Gallery as part of the university's Festival of the Mind from Nov. 6 to 15, 2026. From there, it will be on display in perpetuity at the Turner Museum of Glass in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering.

"We set out to create something tangible to help the public understand what is possible when these tiny nanoparticles are embedded in something," Metcalfe added.

"What Lisa and Elliot have managed to achieve has surpassed all our expectations. The incredible historic narrative really captures people's imaginations, and I like to think we've created something that people will marvel at for years to come."

While this specific glass will mainly have decorative applications, the scientific understanding gained will feed into new photonic materials and advanced glasses for radioactive waste management. 

Provided by University of Sheffield  

Source: Technician cracks 1,600-year-old mystery to replicate color-changing effect of Roman glass masterpiece