Frontiers research topic

Just want to point out a recent research topic in the Frontiers serie in Evolutionary and Genomic Microbiology dedicated to the PVC superphylum. This serie contains interesting contributions on the condensed state of the Planctomycetes genome, on the molecular signatures for the PVC clade, ... .

Of particular interest, is the article by Speth et al. whose genomic analysis indicates the presence of an asymmetric bilayer outer membrane in Planctomycetes and Verrucomicrobia. Very interesting article that provides more evidences against the exceptional aspect of the Planctomycetes membranes organisation. The presence of key genes in the Planctomycetes genomes indicates that the outer membrane is at least related to the outer membrane of other 'classical' (if there is any such thing) Gram-negative bacteria, see also the commentary by Yıldırım and Linke about the definition of a Gram-negative.

EMBO PVC workshop

It is my pleasure to announce the very first meeting exclusively dedicated to the bacterial PVC superphylum. The EMBO PVC workshop will take place from Feb. 28th to March 2nd 2013, in Heidelberg, Germany. It promises to be a very interesting conference with fascinating talks about those peculiar bacteria. In order to promote interaction between biologists, we recommend all participants to at least present a poster and if possible a short talk. This EMBO workshop will be the first one to focus on the characterization and fundamental understanding of the PVC members. The Workshop will bring together researchers working on such bacteria and provide a broad coverage of those exceptional bacterial features and evolutionary scenarios. The scope of the symposium is to facilitate discussion among researchers who recently advanced the field by investigating particular features in PVC-bacteria and scientists who hypothesize on the impact PVC-bacteria had on eukaryotic or archaeal cell evolution. Addressing the current controversy is encouraged. I am looking forward to meet you there.