by Elio
The special issue of Science of 27 November 2009 (Volume 326, Issue 5957) focusing on Spatial Cell Biology contains a larger than usual number of items with a microbial focus. Although only one1 of the six featured Reviews on the topic in question is microbial, three of six Perspectives2, one of two Research Articles3, and three of twelve Reports4 fit the bill.
Readers of this blog need not be reminded that if Science reported on the living world in proportion to the numbers and to the past and present importance of living organisms, the biological portion of each issue would be at least 90% microbial in content!
1L. Shapiro et al., Why and How Bacteria Localize Proteins.
2Norman Letvin, Moving Forward in HIV Vaccine Development; J.F. Banfield and M. Young, Variety—the Splice of Life—in Microbial Communities; H. Ochman and R. Raghvan, Excavating the Functional Landscape of Bacterial Cells.
3S. Kühner et al., Proteome Organization in a Genome-Reduced Bacterium (Mycoplasma).
4E. Yus et al., Impact of Genome Reduction on Bacterial Metabolism and Its Regulation; M. Güell et al., Transcriptome Complexity in a Genome-Reduced Bacterium (Mycoplasma); R.G. Tawar et al., Crystal Structure of a Nucleocapsid-Like Nucleoprotein-RNA Complex of Respiratory Syncytial Virus.
Since Elio includes viruses in the microbiology coalition, I have the following comment:
Two years ago when I was a guest at the New England regional ASM meeting, i was given an "anti-nucleus" button to wear, which I wore while talking about my favorite subject, retroviruses. This inspires a Talmudic-like query - is the virus the microbe, or is the infected cell the microbe? Because I think my favorite microbe is essentially a eukaryotic cell.
Posted by: Welkin | December 09, 2009 at 02:22 AM
Three cheers for "Microbiophilia." Or should I call it "Microbiocentricity"?
Let's go back to our Pliny the Elder: "Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest creations." Yes, he was discussing insects, but if Pliny had had a microscope...
Posted by: Mark O. Martin | December 08, 2009 at 01:23 PM
If the proportions were truly representative, we'd have about 95% prokaryotic literature*, 4% protist, and then the token plant OR invert paper each week. Mammals would be mentioned once every 6 months...mmmm, biomed-free paradise!
*Perhaps even more like ALL prokaryotic with one article per year on a protist...
Posted by: Psi Wavefunction | December 08, 2009 at 12:17 PM