BacterioFiles 272 - Parasite Prevents Pollution Poisoning

Brine shrimp Artemia

Credit: Xavier on Flickr

This episode: Worm parasites infecting brine shrimp help them survive better in arsenic-polluted environments!
Download Episode (7.9 MB, 8.6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Sánchez MI, Pons I, Martínez-Haro M, Taggart MA, Lenormand T, Green AJ. 2016. When Parasites Are Good for Health: Cestode Parasitism Increases Resistance to Arsenic in Brine Shrimps. PLOS Pathog 12:e1005459.

Other interesting stories:

French company trying to create lighting using bacteria (paywall)

Generating electricity with clever bio-solar panels

Microbiome proteins don't change much, not affected by probiotics (paper)

Microbes are important for tasty food

Plants can withhold food from uncooperative fungal symbionts

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BacterioFiles 270 - Bacteria Block Bug Babies

Thrips, with fluorescent gut bacteria
Credit: Miranda Whitten

This episode: Insect gut microbes can be engineered to act as birth control, population control, or disease control for bugs!
Download Episode (13.3 MB, 14.5 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

This Week in Parasitism episode about Trypanosoma
Unedited statement about this paper from Professor Dyson

Journal Paper:
Whitten MMA, Facey PD, Sol RD, Fernández-Martínez LT, Evans MC, Mitchell JJ, Bodger OG, Dyson PJ. 2016. Symbiont-mediated RNA interference in insects. Proc R Soc B 283:20160042.

Other interesting stories:

Various different yeasts help make coffee and chocolate

Maybe treating endangered animals for parasites is not a good idea

Empty virus could be useful for carrying things to specific places

Fungus treatment could help make more environment-friendly fiberboard (paper)

Algae can count how many times they've divided

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BacterioFiles 263 - Germ Jettisoned Jellyfish Genes

This episode: Microscopic parasites of fish and worms actually came from jellyfish-like animals, after losing most of their genome!
Download Episode (7.7 MB, 8.3 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Chang ES, Neuhof M, Rubinstein ND, Diamant A, Philippe H, Huchon D, Cartwright P. 2015. Genomic insights into the evolutionary origin of Myxozoa within Cnidaria. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112:14912–14917.

Other interesting stories:

Deodorant use affects armpit microbes

Mammals like dolphins have ocean-influenced microbe communities (paper)

Relatively few bacteria may have immune systems (paper)

Diatoms are attracted to silica minerals

Interesting interactions with bear microbes and hibernation

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BacterioFiles 259 - Fluke Froth Fosters Fester Fixing

This episode: I converse with Dr. Michael Smout about a liver fluke parasite could help heal chronic wounds faster!
Download Episode (13.4 MB, 14.6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Smout MJ, Sotillo J, Laha T, Papatpremsiri A, Rinaldi G, Pimenta RN, Chan LY, Johnson MS, Turnbull L, Whitchurch CB, Giacomin PR, Moran CS, Golledge J, Daly N, Sripa B, Mulvenna JP, Brindley PJ, Loukas A. 2015. Carcinogenic Parasite Secretes Growth Factor That Accelerates Wound Healing and Potentially Promotes Neoplasia. PLOS Pathog 11:e1005209.

Michael Smout's research portfolio
Winning presentation about this research on FameLab
The Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

Other interesting stories:

Good bacteria help protect fish from pathogens (paper)

New microbes from glacial ice could be useful (paper)

Making hybrid yeast could create potentially useful strains

Cooperating bacteria exclude non-cooperators from their colonies

Engineered bacteria can have built-in kill switches to control them in environment (paper)

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BacterioFiles 211 - Stenotrophomonas Summons Snare-Setting Saviors

Fungal trap
Wang et al. 2014

This episode: Bacteria in soil signal to fungi to save them from predatory roundworms!

Download Episode (9.9 MB, 10.8 minutes)

Show notes:
News blog/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Bacteria eat photographs to make cool, creepy art

Microbial communities in NYC Central Park are as diverse as anywhere

Giant clams catch light just right to disperse it to their symbiotic algae

Changing yeast's environment can allow it to tolerate (and produce) more ethanol

Hydrothermal vent viruses seem to survive by helping hosts adapt (paper)

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BacterioFiles 207 - Microbe Messages Mire Malaria Movement

Green fluorescence shows α-gal expression
Yilmaz et al. 2014

This episode: Gut microbes may induce an immune response that protects against malaria!

Download Episode (10.2 MB, 11.2 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Gut bacteria help immune responses even in the lungs (of mice)

Conductive bacteria can encase themselves in uranium

Discovering and prepping bacteria to degrade environmental pollutants

Using bacteria to reduce arsenic toxicity in rice

Soil fungi protect potatoes from parasites

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BacterioFiles 187 - Bacteria Bolster Bedbug Biotin

This episode: Some Wolbachia bacteria produce vitamin B7 for their insect hosts!

Download Episode (7.1 MB, 7.75 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Play classic video games with live microbes

Bacterial polysaccharides could make better low-fat products

Getting rid of H. pylori could be associated with obesity

Bacteria fight against bad fungal infection of rice

Converting plant parts directly into ethanol

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 179 - Functionless Phages Feel Fatiguing

This episode: Defective phages in bacterial genomes can still have burdensome effects! Why do the bacteria keep them around?

Download Episode (10.4 MB, 11.3 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Microbes are essential and important for all life on the planet

Modified virus could treat most dangerous brain cancers

Microbes help inhibit worms that harm plants (paper)

Trying to figure out what gut viruses people had in the 14th century (paper)

Beewolves have close hereditary connection with their bacterial symbionts

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

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BacterioFiles 174 - Synthetic Cells Sense and Send Signals

This episode: Bacteria with engineered circuits can detect and keep a record of stuff in their environment, like in the gut!

Download Episode (14.6 MB, 15.9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Bacteria turn lots of city waste into useful energy

Antibiotics may sometimes be more harmful than helpful

It's important to take care of gut bacteria

Gut bacteria are important for immune system development

Gut microbes may influence the development of type 1 diabetes

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 163 - Pseudomyrmex Sidekicks Stop Sprout Sickness

This episode: Ants teaming with bacteria help defend plants from bacterial pathogens!

Download Episode (9.4 MB, 10.2 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

**Virus modified to infect and destroy only cancer
**Compounds from ocean bacteria could inhibit pathogens without inducing resistance
**Dog-related microbes could affect the gut microbe in ways that protect against allergies (paper)
**Stomach bacteria are most peaceful in humans they've co-evolved with
**Bacteria in toxic environment could be useful converting toxic elements into useful electronic components

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

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 143 - Parasites Prevent Paired Pestilences

This episode: Gut parasites may fight each other to infect!

Download Episode (9.7 MB, 10.6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

**Fungus-bacterium community does well producing biofuel from cellulose (paper)
**Improving microbes' ability to generate electricity
**Cyanobacterium can produce 5 different biofuels
**Sequencing-based community sampling may overestimate microbial diversity (paper)
**Bacteria could help harvest biofuel algae by clumping them together (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles Micro Edition 140 - Transposon Tunes Timely Transcription

This episode: "Selfish" jumping gene is actually helpful for its host plant's resistance to disease!

Download Episode (5.56 MB, 6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

**Gut microbes may make difference in autoimmunity between males and females
**Helpful fungal symbiont prevents growth of toxin-producing fungi in potatoes (paper)
**Modified soil bacteria could treat parasite infections (paper)
**Mothers transfer good bacteria to babies through breastmilk
**Pollution-degrading bacteria are more common than was known

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles Micro Edition 135 - Prodigious Pandora Particles Perceived

This episode: New giant virus discovered, with a genome larger than that of some eukaryotes!

Download Episode (7.5 MB, 8.1 minutes)

Show notes:
News item 1/News item 2/News item 3/News item 4/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

**Using bacteria as factories to produce drugs, originally found in plants, cheaply
**Ocean bacteria can "see" by sensing the color of light and adjusting their behavior
**Though many gut viruses are stable, some change rapidly over time
**Reducing need for fertilizer by creating artificial plant-bacteria symbioses
**Fungal symbionts help plants tolerate heat and drought (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 99 - Protecting Pathogen Proteins Produces Potential Preventives

This episode: Using a bacterial trick to protect pathogen proteins from radiation could help produce useful vaccines!

Download Episode (5.3 MB, 5.75 minutes)
Transcript

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:
**Seeing how modern bacteria fare with a 500-million-year-old gene replacement
**Microbes are domesticated too, such as this fermentative fungus
**Probiotics can help with upper respiratory tract infections (Review)
**In elderly, living conditions can affect the health of gut microbial communities
**Fungus can help clean up contaminated water in mines

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 98 - Modified Microbes Make Mosquito Midguts Murder Malaria

This episode: Scientists engineer mosquito gut bacteria to fight malaria!

Download Episode (4.15 MB, 4.5 minutes)
Transcript

Show notes:
News item 1/News item 2/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:
**Dog microbes could protect kids against asthma induced by a virus
**Enzyme from marine microbe could clean teeth better than toothpaste
**Underground bacteria could be helpful or harmful for long-term radioactive waste storage
**New algae strain produces unusual amounts of oil for biofuels
**Changes in gut microbes could be part of why gastric bypass helps weightloss

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 72 - Microbes Manipulate Mosquito Messages

This episode: Bacteria on your skin affect your attractiveness to mosquitoes!

Download Episode (2.7 MB, 3 minutes)
Transcript

Show notes:
News item 1/News item 2/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:
**Virus from smallpox vaccine could help people survive longer with liver cancer
**Craig Venter planning to engineer biofuel-producing algae
**Developing prebiotics by growing fecal bacteria in sugar beet pulp (paper)
**Lactic acid bacteria could be probiotics in mouth too (paper)
**Bacteria can be multicellular too
**Probiotics could help protect gut from radiation
**Probiotics could help treat pancreatitis

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 63 - Bombus Bacteria Beat Baddies

This episode: Bee colonies share gut bacteria to prevent disease!

Download Episode (3.1 MB, 3.33 minutes)
Transcript

Show notes:
News article/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:
**Bacterial nanowires are pretty awesome at moving electrons
**Yeast cells, probably like early ancestors, can get by on very little oxygen
**Scientists imitate viral method of transferring genes to cells
**Algae biofuels work pretty well but not awesome
**Bacteria-eating bacteria seem to behave differently in different kinds of light
**Bacteria could clean up mercury contamination in environment
**Bacteria engineered to seek and destroy pathogens

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 58 - Baculovirus Blocks Bug Behavior

This episode: Viruses take over caterpillars' behavior!

Download Episode (2.5 MB, 2.75 minutes)
Transcript

Show notes:
News article 1/News article 2/Journal Paper

Wired article on various mind-controlling parasites

Other interesting stories:
**Wood-digesting enzyme in bacteria could help make biofuels
**Slime mold likes to eat herbal sleeping pill
**Virus that could treat lung cancer
**Predatory bacteria could treat difficult infections
**Plant-symbiont bacteria could make useful chemicals
**Engineered virus could help make highly efficient solar panels
**Combining technologies to make biofuels and stuff

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 44 - Mosquito Microbes Mitigate Malaria

This episode: Bacteria fight malaria in the bellies of mosquitoes!

Download Episode (4.4 MB, 4.75 minutes)
Transcript

Show notes:
News item 1/News item 2/Journal paper

Other interesting stories:
**Paper about probiotic that could prevent toxic shock syndrome
**Growing up on a farm seems to prevent asthma--probably because of microbes
**Probiotic could help treat stomach ulcers
**Making biofuels out of brewery waste
**Bacteria growing on old dead trees are forest's best source of nitrogen
**Gut bacteria seem to affect organ function

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles Micro Edition 28 - Gross Glowing Grubs

This episode: Bacteria keep birds from eating the larvae they parasitize!

Download Episode (3.14 MB, 3.5 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal paper

Other interesting stories:
**Another giant virus in a small host
**Making cancer vaccine with bacteria
**Using bacteria to get natural gas from nonproductive coal
**Cholera bacteria destroy the competition
**Genome of a plant probiotic

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

Subscribe at iTunes, check out the show at Twitter, MicrobeWorld, or SciencePodcasters.org

This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.