Monday, November 28, 2016

BacterioFiles 278 - Fungal Family Friends and Foes

Colletotrichum disease on bean pods
This episode: Some fungi change from making plants sick to being helpful to plants! How do plants react to them?
Download Episode (8.1 MB, 8.8 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Hacquard S, Kracher B, Hiruma K, Münch PC, Garrido-Oter R, Thon MR, Weimann A, Damm U, Dallery J-F, Hainaut M, Henrissat B, Lespinet O, Sacristán S, Themaat EVL van, Kemen E, McHardy AC, Schulze-Lefert P, O’Connell RJ. 2016. Survival trade-offs in plant roots during colonization by closely related beneficial and pathogenic fungi. Nat Commun 7:11362.

Other interesting stories:
  • New E. coli can tolerate different stages of biofuel production
  • Microbes can protect each other from toxins such as antibiotics
  • Even grains can benefit from nitrogen-fixing bacteria (paper)
  • Ninja star bacterial disposable battery
  • Evolving E. coli to fix CO2 (when given very rich food source)

  • Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

    Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter, or Facebook

    Monday, November 21, 2016

    BacterioFiles 277 - Sailor Cells Store Selenium

    Magnetotactic bacteria with 
    magnetosome chains visible
    From: Edouard Alphandéry
    Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
    DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2014.00005
    This episode: Bacteria with their own magnetic compass can also clean up and recover toxic but valuable elements!
    Download Episode (6.1 MB, 6.7 minutes)

    Show notes:
    News item

    Journal Paper:
    Tanaka M, Knowles W, Brown R, Hondow N, Arakaki A, Baldwin S, Staniland S, Matsunaga T. 2016. Biomagnetic Recovery and Bioaccumulation of Selenium Granules in Magnetotactic Bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 82:3886–3891.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Gut microbe communities are affected by genetics
  • New microbe can do interesting chemistry to make antibiotics and stuff
  • Microbes in the gut cooperate with each other (paper)
  • Cyanobacterium's eyeball ability can sense and respond to UV light
  • Fungus can remove mercury from water (paper)

  • Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

    Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter, or Facebook

    Monday, November 14, 2016

    BacterioFiles 276 - Single-cell Slime School

    By frankenstoen - flickr, CC BY 2.5 
    This episode: Individual slime molds show the ability to learn about their environment!
    Download Episode (8.8 MB, 9.6 minutes)

    Show notes:
    News item

    Journal Paper:
    Boisseau RP, Vogel D, Dussutour A. 2016. Habituation in non-neural organisms: evidence from slime moulds. Proc R Soc B 283:20160446.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Lactobacilli could control fungal plant pathogen (paper)
  • Probiotics may not be helpful if one is genetically unable to respond to them
  • Activity of gut microbes can affect nervous system inflammation
  • Biofilms develop good electrical conductivity (paper)
  • Three ways antibiotics affect more than just infections

  • Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

    Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter, or Facebook

    Monday, November 7, 2016

    BacterioFiles 275 - Building Bacterial Batteries

    This episode: Scientists build a battery out of microbes and electrodes that can store and release electricity repeatedly!
    Download Episode (7.5 MB, 8.1 minutes)

    Show notes:
    News item

    Interesting articles about anaerobic digesters
    Journal Paper:
    Molenaar SD, Mol AR, Sleutels THJA, ter Heijne A, Buisman CJN. 2016. Microbial Rechargeable Battery: Energy Storage and Recovery through Acetate. Environ Sci Technol Lett 3:144–149.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Viruses are transferred with fecal transplant, but only ones that attack bacteria (paper)
  • Communities of microbes on skin don't change much
  • Antibodies from mother in milk help babies tolerate good microbes
  • Bacteria could help control insects by killing males
  • More associations between childhood bacteria and asthma

  • Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

    Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter, or Facebook