22 posts · 5,856 views
This blog will open up the amazing and hidden world of microbes (bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses). They inhabit almost every environmental niche and shape everything on Earth, including the evolution of higher organisms like animals and plants. Did you know for example that the energy generated in the cells of your body is made by bacterial cells that were assimilated millions of years ago and evolved into mitochondria? Or that almost all of the antibiotics, immunosuppressant and anticancer drugs used in human medicine are natural products made by microbes?
microbelog
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- January 22, 2013
- 04:00 AM
- 111 views
The sting in the tail of antibiotic use
by microbelog in Microbelog
Recently, I found a paper published in mBIO that describes how antibiotic use in farming is involved in the spread of resistance genes. In this case the work focuses on the humble honeybee (Apis mellifera). Since the 1950s, beekeepers in the USA have been using the antibiotic oxytetracycline – a ‘broad-spectrum’ antibiotic that kills most [...]... Read more »
Tian, B., Fadhil, N., Powell, J., Kwong, W., & Moran, N. (2012) Long-Term Exposure to Antibiotics Has Caused Accumulation of Resistance Determinants in the Gut Microbiota of Honeybees. mBio, 3(6). DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00377-12
- January 17, 2013
- 04:00 AM
- 106 views
Leaking leachate
by microbelog in Microbelog
Sometimes you find a paper with a title so intriguing you just have to find out a little more about it. Recently, I came across a paper about ‘entombed pigs’, so how could I possibly ignore it? I learned a fair bit about animal-disease control methods in Asia and the use of quicklime to decompose [...]... Read more »
Yang, S. (2012) Characterization of Microbial Community in the Leachate Associated with the Decomposition of Entombed Pigs. Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 22(10), 1330-1335. DOI: 10.4014/jmb.1205.05006
- October 22, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 191 views
See-through soil
by microbelog in Microbelog
Imaging technologies have come a long way since the invention of the microscope 400 or so years ago. Now we can look at the circulatory system in a developing chicken embryo or the hair cells on a terrapin’s inner ear, but there’s one very familiar place that remains a mystery: the inside of a plant [...]... Read more »
Downie H, Holden N, Otten W, Spiers AJ, Valentine TA, & Dupuy LX. (2012) Transparent soil for imaging the rhizosphere. PloS one, 7(9). PMID: 22984484
- September 26, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 154 views
Dictyostelium discoideum: more than meets the eye.
by microbelog in Microbelog
It’s tempting to think of amoebae as the single, fried-egg-shaped animal cells we learned about in biology at school – and when there’s plenty of food around, that’s pretty much right. But what happens when the food runs out? For the soil-dwelling Dictyostelium discoideum, things get a little weird. These amoebae usually feed on bacteria [...]... Read more »
Chen ZH, & Schaap P. (2012) The prokaryote messenger c-di-GMP triggers stalk cell differentiation in Dictyostelium. Nature, 488(7413), 680-3. PMID: 22864416
- September 13, 2012
- 01:55 PM
- 152 views
A window into the past
by microbelog in Microbelog
The hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes potentially life-threatening diseases, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. The virus is transmitted by bodily fluids and is thought to infect around two billion people, causing approximately 600 000 deaths a year. HBV has at least ten genotypes. Each genotype, which refers to the arrangement of genetic material in a [...]... Read more »
Bar-Gal GK, Kim MJ, Klein A, Shin DH, Oh CS, Kim JW, Kim TH, Kim SB, Grant PR, Pappo O, Spigelman M, Shouval D. (2012) Tracing hepatitis B virus to the 16th century in a Korean mummy. Hepatology. DOI: 10.1002/hep.25852
- September 6, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 185 views
Getting out of a sticky situation
by microbelog in Microbelog
Biofilms get a pretty bad rep, and rightly so. Colloquially known as ‘slime’, these sticky scaffolds of polysaccharides, proteins and DNA are produced by colonies of bacteria and let them cling to wet surfaces, whether those are crustacean shells, water pipes or artificial cardiac valves. Bacteria within biofilms are difficult to kill, which makes them [...]... Read more »
Absalon C, Ymele-Leki P, & Watnick PI. (2012) The bacterial biofilm matrix as a platform for protein delivery. mBio, 3(4). PMID: 22807566
- August 21, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 204 views
Drug resistance and persistence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
by microbelog in Microbelog
As we’ve discussed before, Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the major cause of tuberculosis, a disease that has plagued humans for millennia. The oldest recorded case of TB is in a 500 000-year-old fossil of Homo erectus. Despite the best efforts of modern medicine, we have so far failed in our fight against this disease, which kills up [...]... Read more »
Grant SS, Kaufmann BB, Chand NS, Haseley N, & Hung DT. (2012) Eradication of bacterial persisters with antibiotic-generated hydroxyl radicals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(30), 12147-52. PMID: 22778419
- August 14, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 174 views
Getting to the roots of the problem.
by microbelog in Microbelog
With the global population approaching seven billion and showing no sign of slowing, it’s not surprising that governments are worried about food security. A future without genetically modified crops now seems impossible. In one of the more exciting genetic modification projects, scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich are trying to engineer wheat that [...]... Read more »
Bulgarelli D, Rott M, Schlaeppi K, Ver Loren van Themaat E, Ahmadinejad N, Assenza F, Rauf P, Huettel B, Reinhardt R, Schmelzer E.... (2012) Revealing structure and assembly cues for Arabidopsis root-inhabiting bacterial microbiota. Nature, 488(7409), 91-5. PMID: 22859207
Lundberg DS, Lebeis SL, Paredes SH, Yourstone S, Gehring J, Malfatti S, Tremblay J, Engelbrektson A, Kunin V, del Rio TG.... (2012) Defining the core Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome. Nature, 488(7409), 86-90. PMID: 22859206
Schrey SD, Erkenbrack E, Früh E, Fengler S, Hommel K, Horlacher N, Schulz D, Ecke M, Kulik A, Fiedler HP.... (2012) Production of fungal and bacterial growth modulating secondary metabolites is widespread among mycorrhiza-associated streptomycetes. BMC microbiology, 12(1), 164. PMID: 22852578
- July 19, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 238 views
Who’s a sponge(r)?
by microbelog in Microbelog
Microbiomes are the communities of microorganisms that live in, or on, host plants or animals. They are a subject quite literally close to our hearts (and every other major organ). Over the past four years, the Human Microbiome Project has spent billions trying to define the species of bacteria that are associated with different parts [...]... Read more »
Fan L, Reynolds D, Liu M, Stark M, Kjelleberg S, Webster NS, & Thomas T. (2012) Functional equivalence and evolutionary convergence in complex communities of microbial sponge symbionts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(27). PMID: 22699508
- June 12, 2012
- 05:00 AM
- 195 views
Microbe(s)-on-microbe action
by microbelog in Microbelog
Poor old Vibrio vulnificus, it just can’t catch a break. This Gram-negative marine bacterium (and occasional human pathogen) is the first species found to be infected by both a virus and a predatory bacterium. Let’s step back a moment and look at the smaller picture. Just like humans, bacteria are regularly infected by viruses. These [...]... Read more »
Chen, H., & Williams, H. (2012) Sharing of Prey: Coinfection of a Bacterium by a Virus and a Prokaryotic Predator. mBio, 3(2). DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00051-12
- June 7, 2012
- 08:05 AM
- 229 views
Guest post: A wolf in sheep’s clothing (kind of)
by microbelog in Microbelog
Like bacteria, viruses have existed for millions of years, yet even after all this time we still don’t really know when or how they evolved. Viruses are grouped into families based on their genome, which can be either DNA or RNA. Like all other organisms on Earth, viruses evolve, and they mix their genomes with [...]... Read more »
Diemer, G., & Stedman, K. (2012) A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses. Biology Direct, 7(1), 13. DOI: 10.1186/1745-6150-7-13
- May 2, 2012
- 04:57 AM
- 265 views
Guest post: New ammunition in the fight against infection
by microbelog in Microbelog
Most of us have at some point in our life received a course of antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection. However, treatment options are becoming limited for many infections, as some bacteria have developed resistance to multiple antibiotics, such as the ‘superbug’ methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), or the recently emerged totally drug-resistant (TDR) TB. With [...]... Read more »
Sass, P., Josten, M., Famulla, K., Schiffer, G., Sahl, H., Hamoen, L., & Brotz-Oesterhelt, H. (2011) Antibiotic acyldepsipeptides activate ClpP peptidase to degrade the cell division protein FtsZ. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(42), 17474-17479. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1110385108
- April 23, 2012
- 03:10 PM
- 248 views
Cholera loves chitin
by microbelog in Microbelog
Last year, I was lucky enough to visit the Wellcome Collection’s Dirt exhibition, which featured several microbiology treasures. Among other objects, I saw an original van Leeuwenhoek microscope and a first edition of Robert Hooke’s Micrografia. I also had the chance to get close to an original copy of John Snow’s cholera map. Snow, who [...]... Read more »
Nahar, S., Sultana, M., Naser, M., Nair, G., Watanabe, H., Ohnishi, M., Yamamoto, S., Endtz, H., Cravioto, A., Sack, R.... (2012) Role of Shrimp Chitin in the Ecology of Toxigenic Vibrio cholerae and Cholera Transmission. Frontiers in Microbiology. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2011.00260
- March 22, 2012
- 12:37 PM
- 328 views
Smarty ants: agriculture, antibiotic use and biofuels?
by microbelog in Microbelog
Ants are amazing insects, and fungus-growing ants are perhaps the most amazing of all. This group includes the leafcutter ants that you’ve probably seen on David Attenborough’s TV programmes, carrying carefully cut leaf fragments to their nests along well-defined trails in the rainforest. Millions of ants can be found within a single underground nest the [...]... Read more »
Aylward FO, Burnum KE, Scott JJ, Suen G, Tringe SG, Adams SM, Barry KW, Nicora CD, Piehowski PD, Purvine SO.... (2012) Metagenomic and metaproteomic insights into bacterial communities in leaf-cutter ant fungus gardens. The ISME journal. PMID: 22378535
- February 13, 2012
- 12:00 PM
- 396 views
Meningitis vs the immune system: kill or be killed
by microbelog in Microbelog
Neisseria meningitidis is a very nasty bug that can cause life-threatening bacterial meningitis; however, many people have the bacteria living harmlessly in their nasopharynx (the area at the back of your nose). The problems begin when the bacteria enter the bloodstream, after which rapid disease progression is likely. Even if it’s not fatal, meningitis can [...]... Read more »
Sjölinder M, Altenbacher G, Hagner M, Sun W, Schedin-Weiss S, & Sjölinder H. (2012) Meningococcal Outer Membrane Protein NhhA Triggers Apoptosis in Macrophages. PloS one, 7(1). PMID: 22238624
- February 6, 2012
- 12:00 PM
- 342 views
Everybody wants good neighbours
by microbelog in Microbelog
Streptomyces are weird and wonderful, even among the Bacteria (and this is a kingdom not short on oddities). They look and grow like fungi but are 1000 times smaller. That characteristic earthy smell you get walking in the countryside? That’s made by Streptomyces bacteria. They also make about 60 per cent of all the antibiotics [...]... Read more »
Vetsigian K, Jajoo R, & Kishony R. (2011) Structure and evolution of streptomyces interaction networks in soil and in silico. PLoS biology, 9(10). PMID: 22039352
- January 30, 2012
- 02:43 PM
- 368 views
Bioluminescent bacteria: what a way to glow
by microbelog in Microbelog
We all love living things that glow in the dark, and scientists are no exception. Roger Tsien won a Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering and developing green fluorescent protein and – perhaps even more excitingly – evil scientists turned mice fluorescent in a recent episode of the BBC television series Sherlock. For animals that [...]... Read more »
Zarubin, M., Belkin, S., Ionescu, M., & Genin, A. (2011) From the Cover: Bacterial bioluminescence as a lure for marine zooplankton and fish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(3), 853-857. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1116683109
- January 16, 2012
- 02:33 PM
- 332 views
Try anything once?
by microbelog in Microbelog
For some reason, I’ve a real hankering for Japanese food at the moment. I’ve no idea why – perhaps it’s due to me going through some old photos from when I toured across the country visiting labs about ten years ago. In one of them, I’m standing underneath a large fibreglass puffer fish outside a [...]... Read more »
Yu VC, Yu PH, Ho KC, & Lee FW. (2011) Isolation and Identification of a New Tetrodotoxin-Producing Bacterial Species, Raoultella terrigena, from Hong Kong Marine Puffer Fish Takifugu niphobles. Marine drugs, 9(11), 2384-96. PMID: 22163191
- January 9, 2012
- 04:13 AM
- 413 views
The changing face of the invisible Arctic
by microbelog in Microbelog
Have you watched the BBC One documentary series Frozen Planet? It’s an amazing show that really highlights the changing nature of the frozen wilderness. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the Arctic polar bears as the environment they live in continues to disappear. Understandably, the programme focuses on large, impressive beasts, but I wondered [...]... Read more »
Comeau AM, Li WK, Tremblay JÉ, Carmack EC, & Lovejoy C. (2011) Arctic Ocean microbial community structure before and after the 2007 record sea ice minimum. PloS one, 6(11). PMID: 22096583
- November 2, 2011
- 11:48 AM
- 453 views
Pathogenic fungi use plants’ proteins against them.
by microbelog in Microbelog
Fungal diseases in plants cause huge economic problems for farmers worldwide, either by reducing crop yield or by killing plants outright. These disease-causing fungi produce an array of compounds, known as ‘virulence factors’ that they use to breach plant defences. The two are locked in a constant arms race, with the plant trying to produce [...]... Read more »
Djamei A, Schipper K, Rabe F, Ghosh A, Vincon V, Kahnt J, Osorio S, Tohge T, Fernie AR, Feussner I.... (2011) Metabolic priming by a secreted fungal effector. Nature, 478(7369), 395-8. PMID: 21976020
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