Monday, February 26, 2018

BacterioFiles 329 - Special Secreting Structure Studied

Type 6 Secretion System protein
By User:Astrojan, CC-BY 4.0
This episode: New type of secretion system discovered that bacteria use to stab amoeba predators to escape their digestion!

Download Episode (7.8 MB, 8.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Avastrovirus 1

News item

Journal Paper:
Böck D, Medeiros JM, Tsao H-F, Penz T, Weiss GL, Aistleitner K, Horn M, Pilhofer M. 2017. In situ architecture, function, and evolution of a contractile injection system. Science 357:713–717.

Other interesting stories:
  • Gut microbe metabolites keep yeasts from taking over (paper)
  • Ancient fungi extracted minerals that helped ancient plants create oxygen
  • How microbes survive on and affect tombstones (paper)
  • Stomach bacterium produces interesting anti-inflammatory compound (paper)
  • Finding archaea in the human lung, gut, skin, and nose (paper)

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

    Subscribe: iTunes, RSS, Google Play. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.

    Episode outline:

    Monday, February 19, 2018

    No episode this week

    No episode this week. I am working on getting some papers published! Stay tuned.

    Monday, February 12, 2018

    BacterioFiles 328 - Focused Phages Fight Films

    Bacteriophages
    By Sherwood Casjens,Elaine Lenk
    CC BY-SA 3.0
    This episode: Phages bound to magnetic nanoparticles can be guided and pulled toward their target, penetrating biofilms to kill harmful microbes!

    Download Episode (9.6 MB, 10.4 minutes)

    Show notes:
    Microbe of the episode: Veillonella alcalescens

    News item

    Journal Paper:
    Li L-L, Yu P, Wang X, Yu S-S, Mathieu J, Yu H-Q, Alvarez PJJ. 2017. Enhanced biofilm penetration for microbial control by polyvalent phages conjugated with magnetic colloidal nanoparticle clusters (CNCs). Environ Sci Nano 4:1817–1826.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Social group membership affects lemur gut microbes
  • Viruses can transfer genes between kingdoms
  • Trace gases in atmosphere enough to support microbes in Antarctica
  • Magnetic bacteria can swim even against the current
  • Engineered bacteria produce internal scaffolds for better biotech productions

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

    Subscribe: iTunes, RSS, Google Play. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.

    Episode outline:

    Monday, February 5, 2018

    BacterioFiles 327 - Microbe Metabolite Meliorates Malaise

    Influenza virus particles
    This episode: Gut microbes in mice break down plant foods and produce molecules that stimulate the immune system to resist influenza!

    Thanks to Drs. Ashley Steed and Thaddeus Stappenbeck for their contributions!
    Download Episode (9 MB, 9.8 minutes)

    Show notes:
    Microbe of the episode: Bougainvillea chlorotic vein banding virus

    News item

    Journal Paper:
    Steed AL, Christophi GP, Kaiko GE, Sun L, Goodwin VM, Jain U, Esaulova E, Artyomov MN, Morales DJ, Holtzman MJ, Boon ACM, Lenschow DJ, Stappenbeck TS. 2017. The microbial metabolite desaminotyrosine protects from influenza through type I interferon. Science 357:498–502.

    Other interesting stories:
  • Nanobots with propellers modeled after bacterial flagella
  • Embedding useful bacteria into "ink" used to print 3D structures
  • Controlling behavior of individual bacteria using a computer
  • Exercise alone can affect microbiota
  • Microbes in ISS are similar to microbes in Earth homes

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

    Subscribe: iTunes, RSS, Google Play. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.

    Episode outline: