BacterioFiles 226 - Deep Dwellers Diversify

This episode: Archaea living in the deep ocean (and their viruses) have clever ways to maintain diversity and adaptability!

Download Episode (10.3 MB, 11.25 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Super-slow-growing bacteria may evolve without reproducing

Human gut bacterium is especially able to digest yeast cell walls

Soil fungi can convert uranium to more recoverable insoluble form (paper)

Viruses may have helped human brain develop through history

Accessory genes make each bacterial strain unique

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 225 - Implanting Internal Invader Immunity

This episode: Don't have immunity? Create your own! Scientists engineer cells to destroy their HIV infections using the bacterial immune system!

Download Episode (14.5 MB, 15.8 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Insect bacteria produce small RNAs to communicate with hosts (paper)

Yeast can make lots of useful things

Engineering E. coli to better tolerate biofuels it produces (paper)

Pathogens can resist phage infection, but often at a cost (paper)

Microbes can survive on space vessels and cause problems away from Earth

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 224 - Super Small Cells

Ultramicrobacterium.
Fig 3 Luef et al 2015

This episode: Scientists discover what seem to be ultra-small bacteria, possibly smaller than the theoretical minimum size!

Download Episode (12.3 MB, 13.4 minutes)

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

Other interesting stories:

Bacteria could produce good biofuels from renewable resources (paper)

Studying quorum sensing by 3D-printing bacterial biofilms (paper)

Marine algae could be good source of nutrients alternative to fish oil

Caterpillar mind-control virus seems to manipulate response to light

9 cool things about microbes

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 223 - Fecal Fusions Forecast Fatness

This episode: Sampling microbial populations in sewage from cities could reveal differences in the human populations, such as prevalence of obesity!

Download Episode (9.1 MB, 9.9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Bacterial communities could be evidence about sexual crimes

Bacteria around plants could fight plant diseases (paper)

Microbes can greatly affect mouse gut's protective mucus layer

Cyanobacteria could survive on Mars and produce breathable oxygen

Garbage in Yellowstone permitted hot spring microbial rainbow

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 222 - Cells Store Solar Sparks

The setup. Torella et al. 2015

This episode: Bacteria engineered to produce liquid fuel can eat carbon dioxide and hydrogen from solar-powered water-splitting!

Download Episode (11.2 MB, 12.25 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Some bugs need their vitamin-producing microbes, but kill them to harvest the vitamins

How specific gut microbes influence immune system (paper)

Bacteria used to produce various food ingredients

Bacteria could produce polyester beads that bind specific proteins (paper)

Rainforest bacteria could help plants grow better in poorer soil (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 221 - Co-culture Close Contact, Cats, and Cockerels

More related than some bacteria

This episode: More distantly related bacteria can help each other grow (and produce lots of hydrogen) by temporarily fusing with each other!

Download Episode (12.7 MB, 13.9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Bacterial close contact

Note: I said C. acetobutylicum was used in WWII to make acetone for bombs, but it was actually World War I, used to make cordite, a replacement for gunpowder.

Other interesting stories:

Gut microbes can affect brain's defensive barrier in mice

Getting E. coli to produce higher amounts of nice-smelling biofuel compounds

Using fungi to control avocado-damaging pests

Bacterial proteins used to modify human cells' immune signaling (paper)

Worm gut bacteria could help degrade plastic waste

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 220 - Coliforms Cooperate by Conduit

Tubes!
Pande el al. 2015

This episode: Bacteria can connect to each other with tiny tubes to exchange nutrients!

Download Episode (10 MB, 10.9 minutes)

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

Other interesting stories:

If society collapsed, we could eat microbes

Archaea could produce useful antibacterials too

Tree-killing diseases can help forests be more diverse

Animals have taken the genes bacteria use to poison each other

Viruses can sometimes survive frozen for centuries (paper)

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

Subscribe at iTunes, check out the show at Twitter, MicrobeWorld, or Facebook

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