Roberto Kolter
Roberto Kolter | |
---|---|
Born | 1953 Guatemala |
Known for | molecular microbiology ,
microbial ecology |
Institutions | Harvard Medical School |
Doctoral advisor | Donald Helinski |
Other academic advisors | Charles Yanofsky |
Website | http://gasp.med.harvard.edu/ |
Roberto Kolter is Professor of
As Professor Emeritus, Kolter has continued his involvement in science by communicating microbiology to scientific and general audiences.[7][8] Since 2016, Kolter has been co-blogger (with Moselio Schaechter) of the popular microbiology blog, Small Things Considered.[9] From 2014 to 2018, Kolter and Scott Chimileski developed two exhibitions at the Harvard Museum of Natural History: World in a Drop, open in 2017, and Microbial Life, open through 2020.[10] In parallel, Chimileski and Kolter wrote the book Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World (Harvard University Press, 2017).[7][11][12] During a 2018 interview at EAFIT University in Colombia, Kolter explained that he is “in a more contemplative phase of his career," adding that he is enjoying "being able to exercise a little more the 'Ph' (Philosophy) of my PhD".[8]
Early life, education and academic career
Kolter was born and raised in
Research
Summary
The research activities of Kolter's laboratory at
In total, Kolter has co-authored over 250 research and other scholarly articles which together have been cited over 50,000 times.
Some of Kolter's significant scientific contributions are categorized below in chronological order.
Major topics of investigation
Regulation of DNA replication
As a graduate student, Kolter's research provided early evidence for what was called the "replicon hypothesis," proposed by Jacob, Brenner and Cuzin in 1962.[42] His work defined an origin of DNA replication that led to the development of many suicide cloning vectors still in use today.
- Kolter, R; Helinski, DR (1978). "Construction of plasmid R6K derivatives in vitro: characterization of the R6K replication region". Plasmid. 1 (4): 571–80. PMID 372982.
- Kolter, R; Inuzuka, M; Helinski, DR (Dec 1978). "Trans-complementation-dependent replication of a low molecular weight origin fragment from plasmid R6K". Cell. 15 (4): 1199–208. S2CID 20082813.
- Kolter, R; Helinski, DR (1982). "Plasmid R6K DNA replication. II. Direct nucleotide sequence repeats are required for an active gamma-origin". J Mol Biol. 161 (1): 45–56. PMID 6296394.
Peptide antibiotic biosynthesis and ABC exporters
As a new faculty member at Harvard Medical school in the 1980s, Kolter's research group made use of
- Gilson, L; Mahanty, HK; Kolter, R (1990). "Genetic analysis of an MDR-like export system: the secretion of colicin V". EMBO J. 9 (12): 3875–84. PMID 2249654.
- Fath, MJ; Kolter, R (1993). "ABC transporters: bacterial exporters". Microbiol. Rev. 57 (4): 995–1017. PMID 8302219.
- Yorgey, P; Lee, J; Kördel, J; Vivas, E; Warner, P; Jebaratnam, D; Kolter, R (1994). "Posttranslational modifications in microcin B17 define an additional class of DNA gyrase inhibitor". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 91 (10): 4519–23. PMID 8183941.
Physiology and evolution during stationary phase
In the late 1980s, Kolter's research group became interested in bacteria living in the stationary phase of the growth cycle, a state more like the natural conditions that bacteria experience in environments outside of the laboratory.[43] The group discovered regulatory systems exclusive to cells in this non-growing state and found that mutants with greater fitness in stationary phase evolved and rapidly took over the cultures.[16][17][44] The Zambrano et al. paper in 1993 which published this finding was one of the earliest examples of evolution occurring in the laboratory, or experimental evolution.[18]
- Almirón, M; Link, AJ; Furlong, D; Kolter (1992). "Escherichia coli". Genes Dev. 6 (12B): 2646–54. S2CID 10308477.
- Siegele, D; Kolter, R (1992). "Life after log". J Bacteriol. 174 (2): 345–348. PMID 1729229.
- Zambrano, MM; Siegele, DA; Almirón, M; Tormo, A; Kolter (1993). "Escherichia coli mutants that take over stationary phase cultures". Science. 259 (5102): 1757–60. S2CID 680360.
- Kolter, R; Siegele, DA; Tormo, A (1993). "The stationary phase of the bacterial life cycle". Annu Rev Microbiol. 47: 855–74. PMID 8257118.
- Zambrano, MM; Kolter, R (1996). "GASPing for life in stationary phase". Cell. 86 (2): 181–4. S2CID 13569021.
Bacterial biofilms
In the 1990s, Kolter's group began to focus on the regulation and genetic components of surface-associated communities of bacteria called biofilms. Before then, biofilms had been discovered and were studied in the context of biofouling and in engineering solutions to prevent biofouling,[45][46][47] but the genetics of biofilm formation was unexplored and most microbiologists did not view biofilm formation as a physiological process of bacterial cells.[48][49][50] The lab went on to discover major regulatory systems underpinning biofilm development[51][52] and characterized key materials within the extracellular matrix of biofilms using model species like Pseudomonas aeruginosa,[53][54][55] Escherichia coli,[56] Vibrio cholerae,[57][58] and Bacillus subtilis.[59][60][61][62] Microbial biofilms have since become a major field of microbiology, recognized as a predominant lifestyle of microbes in nature, with relevance to medicine and infections caused by pathogenic bacteria.[63][64]
- O'Toole, GA; Kolter, R (1998). "Initiation of biofilm formation in Pseudomonas fluorescens WCS365 proceeds via multiple, convergent signaling pathways: a genetic analysis". Mol Microbiol. 28 (3): 449–61. S2CID 43897816.
- O'Toole, GA; Flagellar, Kolter R. (1998). "Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm development". Mol Microbiol. 30 (2): 295–304. S2CID 25140899.
- O'Toole, G; Kaplan, HB; Kolter, R (2000). "Biofilm formation as microbial development". Annu Rev Microbiol. 54: 49–79. PMID 11018124.
- Branda, SS; González-Pastor, JE; Ben-Yehuda, S; Losick, R; Kolter, R (2001). "Fruiting body formation by Bacillus subtilis". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 98 (20): 11621–6. PMID 11572999.
Microbial intraspecies interactions, cell differentiation & division of labor
Another body of research stemmed from work on biofilms in the Kolter group in collaboration with the laboratory of Richard Losick: the discovery that subpopulations of different functional cell types develop within single-species biofilms of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Some cells were found to express genes for motility, others for sporulation, cannibalism, surfactant production or the secretion of extracellular matrix.[26] Some cell types were found localized in clusters in different physical locations and time points during biofilm development.[25] Another study from the group in 2015 showed that collective behaviors like group migration across a surface can emerge due to interactions between multiple cell types.[27]
- Vlamakis, H; Aguilar, C; Losick, R; Kolter, R (2008). "Control of cell fate by the formation of an architecturally complex bacterial community". Genes Dev. 22 (7): 945–53. PMID 18381896.
- López, D; Vlamakis, H; Losick, R; Kolter, R (2009). "Paracrine signaling in a bacterium". Genes Dev. 23 (14): 1631–1638. PMID 19605685.
- López, D; Vlamakis, H; Losick, R; Kolter, R (2009). "Cannibalism Enhances Biofilm Development in Bacillus subtilis.". Mol Microbiol. 74 (3): 609–618. PMID 19775247.
- van Gestel, J; Vlamakis, H; Kolter; Collectives, Cell (2015). "Bacillus subtilis Uses Division of Labor to Migrate". PLOS Biol. 13 (4): 4. PMID 25894589.
- Lyons, NA; Kraigher, B; Stefanic, P; Mandic-Mulec, I; Kolter (2016). "Bacillus subtilis". Curr Biol. 26 (6): 733–42. PMID 26923784.
Microbial interspecies interactions
Much of Kolter's most recent work focused on interactions between several species in mixed communities, as they typically exist in natural environments. This work has produced several influential studies of the
- Hogan, DA; Kolter, R (2002). "Pseudomonas-Candida interactions: an ecological role for virulence factors". Science. 296 (5576): 2229–32. S2CID 23124129.
- Shank, EA; Klepac-Ceraj, V; Collado-Torres, L; Powers, GE; Losick, R; Kolter (2011). "Bacillus subtilis forming biofilms are mediated mainly by members of its own genus". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 108 (48): E1236–43. PMID 22074846.
- Traxler, MF; Watrous, JD; Alexandrov, T; Dorrestein, PC; Kolter, R (2013). "Interspecies interactions stimulate diversification of the Streptomyces coelicolor secreted metabolome". mBio. 4 (4): 4. PMID 23963177.
- Segev E, Wyche TP, Kim KH, Petersen J, Ellebrandt C, Vlamakis H, Barteneva N, Paulson JN, Chai L, Clardy J, Kolter R. Dynamic metabolic exchange governs a marine algal-bacterial interaction. 2017. eLife.
- Lyons NA, Kolter R. Bacillus subtilis Protects Public Goods by Extending Kin Discrimination to Closely Related Species. mBio. 2017; 8 no. 4e00723-17.
Communication of microbial science to the public
Kolter is an advocate and participant in the communication of microbial science to early career microbiologists and non-scientific audiences.[7] His work in this area began during his term as Co-Director of the Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative from 2003 to 2018. In this role, Kolter organized an annual public lecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts on topics of general relevance, such as microbial foods and drinks like cheese, sake and wine.[65] His work in science communication then intensified in the years leading up to his retirement and now as an Emeritus professor through invited lectures, writing and museum projects.[8][66]
Books
- Germ Stories by ISBN 1891389513
- March of the Microbes by John Ingraham (authored a foreword) ISBN 0674064097
- Microbes and Evolution:The World Darwin Never Saw, 2012, co-edited with Stanley Maloy, American Society of Microbiology Press, ISBN 1891389513
- Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World, 2017, coauthored with Scott Chimileski, Harvard University Press, ISBN 067497591X
Museum exhibitions
From 2014 through 2018, Kolter and Scott Chimileski spearheaded two public exhibitions at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.[7][11] World in a Drop: Photographic Explorations of Microbial Life was an artistic exhibition that featured imagery produced through Chimileski and Kolter's collaboration, and was open from August 2017 to January 2018.[67] Subsequently, Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight opened in February 2018 as major special exhibition supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Kolter and Chimileski are guest curators of Microbial Life and the exhibition remains open until March 2020.[10] These exhibitions have traveled internationally at the Eden Project in the UK and EAFIT University in Medellín, Colombia, among other locations.[7][8][68][69][70]
Chimileski and Kolter were also advisors and contributed imagery for Invisible Worlds at the Eden Project, a permanent exhibition sponsored by the Welcome Trust.[71] Their still and time-lapse imagery was featured in the Bacterial World Exhibition at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 2018, and in the World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in 2019.
Teaching and editing
Kolter has a long record of teaching at Harvard University and at international summer courses. At Harvard he taught Biofilm Dynamics and he is currently developing a Massive Open Online Course with HarvardX on fermentation and microbial foods.[72] He is a regular instructor at the Microbial Diversity Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the EMBO-FEBES summer microbiology course in Spetses, Greece and the John Innes/Rudjer Bošković Summer School in Applied Molecular Microbiology in Dubrovnik, Croatia.[7] In 2000, he received the ASM International Professorship Award.[7]
Kolter has been the cover editor of the
Sources
- ^ "Presidents of the Society (1899-present)". www.asm.org. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
- ^ "Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology | Faculty | Roberto Kolter, Ph.D." micro.med.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- ^ "The Undiscovered Planet". Harvard Magazine. 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
- ^ "Kolter Lab | Unearthing the Secrets of the Microbial World | Harvard Medical School". gasp.med.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "The Kolter Lab | Roberto". gasp.med.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
- ^ a b c d EAFIT, Universidad. "Solo mitad humanos". www.eafit.edu.co (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-30.
- ^ a b "Announcement". Small Things Considered. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- ^ a b "At Harvard, microbes by the mile". Harvard Gazette. 2018-03-26. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
- ^ a b "Scott Chimileski Photography - Into the microbial world". www.scottchimileskiphotography.com. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
- ^ Shaw, Jonathan (2017-08-03). "Life Beyond Sight". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- ^ Rennie, John. "The Beautiful Intelligence of Bacteria and Other Microbes". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- ^ "Roberto Kolter - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
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- ^ Science News, Dec. 22, 2008
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- ^ "Appreciating Wine and the Microbes that Make it. Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative" (PDF).
- ^ Chimileski, Scott; Koter, Roberto (2017-12-21). "Microbes gave us life". STAT. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- ^ "Harvard scientists turn beauty of microbes into museum material". Harvard Gazette. 2017-10-27. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- ^ miloperrin (2018-11-03). "World in a Drop – Stunning Microbial Photo Exhibition |". Weekend Stuff. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
- ^ EAFIT, Universidad. "Zoom fotográfico al mundo microbiano". www.eafit.edu.co (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- ^ "Drop into Eden for stunning new microbial photo exhibition". Eden Project. 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- ^ "Invisible Worlds: zooming in for a closer look". Eden Project. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
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External links
- Kolter, Roberto (8 October 2021). "The History of Microbiology—A Personal Interpretation". Annual Review of Microbiology. 75 (1): 1–17. S2CID 234471146.
- Science Matters with Roberto Kolter: Fascinated by an invisible world, by Harvard Medical School
- Opening lecture for the Microbial Life exhibition in 2018 on the Harvard Museum of History YouTube Channel
- The microbial jungles all over the place (and you), a TED-ED animation on biofilms
- Biofilm Up Close, FASEB Bioart Award-winning image in The Scientist in 2016
- Turning Point: Roberto Kolter, an interview by Nature Jobs in 2015 about views on training postdoctoral fellows
- Brave new world: recent evolution of an insect-transmitted pathogen, a seminar given by Dr. Kolter in 2017 at the US National Institutes of Health
- Why Write? Communicating Your Results to Further Scientific Knowledge, a writing seminar held at the ASM Headquarters in 2010
- Biology of Microbial Communities, interview in 2007 with JoVE
- The Undiscovered Planet, an article about the Microbial Science Initiative in Harvard Magazine in 2007
- Link to all of Kolter's publications on PubMed and Google Scholar