Monday, May 29, 2017

BacterioFiles 295 - Fly Ferries Fungus Feebleness

Lycoriella fly
By Kai Heller, CC BY 3.0
This episode: Fungus-eating flies transfer viruses that help make fungi less harmful to plants!

Download Episode (7.8 MB, 8.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Another example of viruses doing weird things in this fungus

Journal Paper:
Liu S, Xie J, Cheng J, Li B, Chen T, Fu Y, Li G, Wang M, Jin H, Wan H, Jiang D. 2016. Fungal DNA virus infects a mycophagous insect and utilizes it as a transmission vector. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113:12803–12808.

Other interesting stories:
  • Iron-containing molecules can help various bacteria generate electricity
  • Exercise lifestyle can affect gut community (paper)
  • New discovery of plastic-degrading microbe enzymes
  • Controlling bacterial metabolism dynamically
  • Bacteria in bats could be good at fighting fungal pathogens (paper)

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    Monday, May 22, 2017

    BacterioFiles 294 - Bacteria Benefit Bad Burns

    Lactobacillus plantarum colonies
    Donald Breakwell et al. 2007. 
    This episode: Probiotic bacteria prevent deadly infections in mice with serious burns!

    Download Episode (6.3 MB, 6.92 minutes)

    Show notes:
    Journal Paper:
    Argenta A, Satish L, Gallo P, Liu F, Kathju S. 2016. Local Application of Probiotic Bacteria Prophylaxes against Sepsis and Death Resulting from Burn Wound Infection. PLOS ONE 11:e0165294.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Bacteria can help cotton plants tolerate salt (paper)
  • Fiber stops microbes from eating protective gut mucus
  • Potential new antibiotics predicted and discovered in human microbes
  • Bacteria communicate to work together against viruses
  • Root bacteria help protect plants against arsenic and infections

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

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    Monday, May 15, 2017

    BacterioFiles 293 - Millet Microbe Makes Meshes

    Finger millet
    This episode: Bacteria in finger millet roots create special killing traps for damaging fungi!

    Download Episode (7.5 MB, 8.25 minutes)

    Show notes:
    News item

    Journal Paper:
    Mousa WK, Shearer C, Limay-Rios V, Ettinger CL, Eisen JA, Raizada MN. 2016. Root-hair endophyte stacking in finger millet creates a physicochemical barrier to trap the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum. Nat Microbiol 1:16167.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Animal study of phage cocktail to treat cholera
  • Soil microbes could help clean up arsenic contamination (paper)
  • Bacteria with nucleus-like structure even have nuclear pore-like structures
  • Using bacteria to find best enzymes for degrading lignin (paper)
  • Making microbial fuel cells with paper

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

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    Monday, May 8, 2017

    BacterioFiles 292 - Testing Tardigrade Tolerance Tricks

    Tardigrade
    By Bob Goldstein and Vicky Madden
    CC BY-SA 3.0
    This episode: Tiny super-resistant animals, tardigrades, make proteins that can directly shield DNA from radiation!

    Download Episode (7.3 MB, 8 minutes)

    Show notes:
    News item 1/News item 2

    Journal Paper:
    Hashimoto T, Horikawa DD, Saito Y, Kuwahara H, Kozuka-Hata H, Shin-I T, Minakuchi Y, Ohishi K, Motoyama A, Aizu T, Enomoto A, Kondo K, Tanaka S, Hara Y, Koshikawa S, Sagara H, Miura T, Yokobori S, Miyagawa K, Suzuki Y, Kubo T, Oyama M, Kohara Y, Fujiyama A, Arakawa K, Katayama T, Toyoda A, Kunieda T. 2016. Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein. Nat Commun 7:12808.

    Other interesting stories:
  • New sunscreen compounds could come from bacteria
  • Bacterial fingerprints don't last forever (paper)
  • Virus infecting bacteria makes structure like a nucleus (paper)
  • Microbes could produce useful, biological nanowires
  • Finding viruses to control fungal pathogens of plants

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    Monday, May 1, 2017

    BacterioFiles 291 - Pseudomonas Cyanide Supplies Seed Sustenance

    Cyanide ion
    This episode: Cyanide-producing bacteria help plants grow, not by harming pathogens but by freeing up nutrients!

    Download Episode (8.5 MB, 9.25 minutes)

    Show notes:
    Journal Paper:
    Rijavec T, Lapanje A. 2016. Hydrogen Cyanide in the Rhizosphere: Not Suppressing Plant Pathogens, but Rather Regulating Availability of Phosphate. Front Microbiol 7

    Other interesting stories:
  • Pooling samples from multiple donors could help fecal transplant effectiveness (paper)
  • Phage-resistant bacteria can become vulnerable by taking up sensitive genes
  • How mice are handled affects results of mouse gut microbe studies (paper)
  • Bacteria communicate with electrical signals
  • Shrubland plants and microbes always negotiating

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

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