A new type of bacteria has been named after famed musician Frank Zappa. The newly identified bacteria is also known to cause acne and it has also been found to be infecting grape vines.
Frank Zappa has made a name for himself as a successful musician, bandleader and composer. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1995. While naming an acne-causing bacterium after Zappa may not seem like a compliment, this isn't the first time that scientists have named new discoveries after him. Back in the late 80s, a genus of fish was named after Zappa. He has also lent his name to spiders, jellyfish and even an asteroid.
The scientists who identified the bacterium have dubbed it P. acnes type Zappae. P. acnes is known as the bacterium responsible for human acne. The researchers say that the inspiration for the name was taken from the Italian word "zappa," which translates to "hoe." However, they were also partly inspired by Zappa, who wrote a line in a song called "Jewish Princess." The said line contained the phrase "sand-blasted zits," which influenced the researchers when they were thinking up a new name for the P. acnes variant they discovered.
Andrea Campisano, a researcher from the Center for Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems and Bioresources based in Italy, is one of the members of the team that identified the bacterium. The team published their findings in the online journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
While P. acnes type Zappae may cause acne in humans, the researchers found it from a different source. While checking microbiome data gathered using plant samples from Northeast Italy, the team found the bacterium. The researchers found P. acnes type Zappae colonizing the bark and pith tissues of certain grapevines.
"Humans, like most organisms, have established a long-lasting cohabitation with a variety of microbes, including pathogens and gut-associated bacteria," said Campisano and his colleagues. "Studies which have investigated the dynamics of such associations revealed numerous cases of bacterial host switches from domestic animals to humans."
"Much less is, however, known about the exchange of microbial symbionts between humans and plants," the researchers added.
The discovery is particularly interesting due to the fact that this is the first recorded instance of a bacteria host transfer between domesticated plants and human.
The researchers estimated that the transfer might have happened around 7,000 years ago when humans first domesticated the grape vine.
"Phylogenetic and population genetic analyses suggest that the establishment of the grapevine-associated P. acnes as obligate endophyte is compatible with a recent transfer event, likely during the Neolithic, when grapevine was domesticated," said the researchers.
