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!

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

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

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.

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!

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

BacterioFiles 290 - Lichens' Little Lodgers

Lichens on rock near Las Vegas, NV

I'm back! This episode: Lichens, long known to be a partnership between fungi and algae, now discovered to have an important third member!

Download Episode (8.1 MB, 8.9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Spribille T, Tuovinen V, Resl P, Vanderpool D, Wolinski H, Aime MC, Schneider K, Stabentheiner E, Toome-Heller M, Thor G, Mayrhofer H, Johannesson H, McCutcheon JP. 2016. Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens. Science 353:488–492.

Other interesting stories:

Some protists like to eat archaea (paper)

Bee bacteria can break down harmful sugars in bee food (paper)

Testing how best to use mosquito bacteria to block virus transmission (paper)

Studying Inuit gut microbes

Temperature affects Wolbachia health in mosquitoes (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.

Short Break

I'm putting the show on pause again for a short while, because I'm too busy with other things for the moment. But it'll be back soon with more exciting stories!

BacterioFiles Special - Novozymes' Nathan Cude

This episode: An interview with Dr. Nathan Cude, team leader at Novozymes BioAg Alliance, working on finding and bringing to market soil microbes that can help crops grow!

Download Episode (14.1 MB, 15.4 minutes)

Show notes:
Novozymes
BioAg Alliance
Nathan Cude on Twitter and LinkedIn

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.

BacterioFiles 289 - Prehistoric Paired Prokaryote Partners

This episode: Great apes' specific gut microbe communities have been with us for millions of years!

Download Episode (9.1 MB, 10 minutes)

Show notes:
News item 1/News item 2

Journal Paper:
Moeller AH, Caro-Quintero A, Mjungu D, Georgiev AV, Lonsdorf EV, Muller MN, Pusey AE, Peeters M, Hahn BH, Ochman H. 2016. Cospeciation of gut microbiota with hominids. Science 353:380–382.

Other interesting stories:

Gut bacteria could help treat kidney disease (paper)

Virus that infects viruses acts as genomic antiviral defense for host

Microbial archaeology studies bacteria resistant to copper in medieval foundry (paper)

Bacteria embedded in porous stones make good water filters (paper)

Computers can use microbes to estimate time of death

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.