The project leader was invited to Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA to present the latest results in the field of horizontal DNA transfer research. The invitation was particularly significant because she was invited by prof Dubnau, the pioneer of competence research in Bacillus subtilis. In addition to lectures at Rutgers University, the project leader also gave lectures at Technical University of Copenhagen (DTU) (4909176) Uniformed Services University (USU) School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Bethesda, USA (5124472), Pennsylvania State University (5124216) and New York University (5124984). As an invited lecturer, she gave a talk at the conference "Plant-Microbe Interactions in the Rhizosphere" at Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China 2018 (4992888), SMD conference in Bled 2017 (4824184) and gave 4 talks at international and national conferences: FEMS 2019 (5129336), Bageco15 2019 (5063544), Conference on Bacilli 2017 (4800120), where she received the "best speaker" award, and at the 6th ASM Conference on Cell-Cell Communication and Bacteria 2017 (4855416).
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
COBISS.SI-ID: 5123960Within Slovenian Microbiological Society a journal, Mikrobiolog.si, is published, which summarizes news from the research, professional and economic fields 3 times a year. The journal presents research groups, descriptions of recently completed research projects, the latest and most resounding Slovenian achievements and interviews with the best Slovenian microbiologists. The project manager is the editor-in-chief of the journal and is also responsible for the design and graphic layout. With the editorial board of the journal, she takes care of the promotion of science in Slovenia and at the same time encourages Slovenian microbiologists to actively participate in the design of the journal by submitting articles.
C.05 Editorial board of a national magazine
COBISS.SI-ID: 61224195Members of the project team have organized and presided one of the most important conferences on Bacillus research, Bacell 2019, which is organized under the umbrella of BACIP, organization, which connects research at universities/institutes and industry working with Bacillus. It attracted 120 delegates from all over the world, even from the USA, Israel, China, Japan, Brazil and all EU countries. Moreover, representatives from 16 leading EU Biotech companies attended and supported the conference focusing on new frontiers in Bacillus research. The research was presented in 38 lectures and 35 posters given by leading scientists and young participants and published in the book of abstracts.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 299407360Member of the project team, prof. dr. Ines Mandić-Mulec was recognized at the national level with the Zois award in 2017 and Jesenko award for life-time achievements in 2020 for her achievements in the field of microbiology. After the gala event she was invited for an interview in the prime time news at the national television, where she stated her views on developments in Science in Slovenia, presented briefly her research filed of social microbiology and microbial ecology and stressed the urgent need to increase state funds for Slovenian research (4878712). As awardee of Jesenko life-time achievement award she was invited to a radio interview at national radio station Val 202 (39808771).
E.01 National awards
COBISS.SI-ID: 4878712In this Master's thesis (4849016) (co-supervisor, project leader Dr. Štefanič, supervisor Prof. Dr. Mandić-Mulec), the candidate investigated the influence of kin discrimination on horizontal gene transfer in Bacillus subtilis. To test this, strains of B. subtilis with known affinities (kin and non-kin) were isolated from the soil microscale environment. They prepared a set of antibiotic-resistant recombinant (SpR or CmR) and a fluorescent marker (cfp or yfp) strains, which allowed us to experimentally follow the horizontal DNA transfer between the strains. The results showed that the proportion of transformants was higher in the area where non-Kin strains met than when swarms of more related strains ("Kin" strains) came into contact. Another very important Master's thesis (4844920) examined Bacillus subtilis from the rhizosphere of tomato on a semi-solid medium and investigated whether isolates that would not recognize each other would compete for colonization of roots (co-supervisor Dr. Štefanič, supervisor Dr. Kraigher). Indeed, discrimination between the swarms was correlated with the competition for the root colonization, where only kin strains could co-exist on the root. The third master's thesis (5113464) investigated competition between strains of B. subtilis for root colonization, where we found that there was strong territoriality and competition for surface colonization between unrelated strains (supervisor Dr. Kraigher). The fourth master's thesis (5088376) investigated the competition of B. subtilis in biofilms (supervisor Prof. Dr. Mandić-Mulec), and the fifth and sixth master's thesis focused on the dynamics of transformation DNA exchange in mixed kin and non-kin biofilms (9082489, 8735609). Seventh master thesis (5135224) developed a new method for assessing the kin discrimination at the cellular level - on small agar media observed directly under a fluorescence microscope (co-supervisor project leader Dr. Štefanič, supervisor Prof. Dr. Mandić-Mulec). The eighth master thesis investigated the influence of kin discrimination on the complementation of public goods in mixed B. subtilis cultures (4959864) (supervisor Prof. Dr. Mandić-Mulec, co-supervisor dr. Kraigher). The ninth master thesis (32529411) introduced the methodology of bioinformatics analyzes (co-supervisor project leader Dr. Štefanič, supervisor Prof. Dr. Mandić-Mulec). All master theses contributed significantly to the development of the methodology and results of this project.
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 4849016