Small Things Considered

Active Lysogeny Regulatory Switches: Scars That Can Make Genes Whole

Scars are not injuries… A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.– China Miéville, The Scar by Daniel P. Haeusser Last year Small Things Considered was hurt by the loss of one of our regular contributors,...

Retrospective, December 2014

As is our custom at this time of year, we go over the material that has appeared in this blog over the last six months. Seems like a lot of stuff, but it’s the result of the work of quite a number of dedicated people, all of whom deser...

Why CRISPR Doesn't Work in E. coli

by Elio John Davison, French Institute for Agricultural Research, Versailles We received this query: »I enjoyed the article on your blog 'Six Questions About CRISPRs' by Merry Youle. I am an ex-lambdologist, having quit phage lambd...

Two More Questions about CRISPRs

by Merry Figure 1. Following in the footsteps of the bacteria, we bolster our adaptive immune defenses by vaccination with inactivated viruses. Source Over the past eight years, step-by-step, researchers have established a b...

A Good Defense Is Worth Stealing

by Merry Youle Add phage ICP1 to the list. Source One widely-used tactic for defense against phage and other mobile genetic elements is to deploy a CRISPR-Cas system (click here and here) to recognize and chop them into pi...

Retrospective, June 2012

We continue our semi-annual ritual and post this quick tour of featured blog postings since our December, 2011, Retrospective. Viruses It’s Raining Viruses! (Merry) Metabolic genes acquired from their hosts are one strategy used...

Retrospective, December 2011

We’ve prepared this quick tour for you, with brief visits to all the major articles we posted since our May, 2011, retrospective. Microbial Behavior Are You Me or Am I You? Proteus mirabilis is one sentient bug: it can distinguish ...

And We Thought We Knew What CRISPRs Do!

by Merry Youle …these findings lead us to assert that each CRISPR region should not be assumed to have a role in resistance to phage infection until such a conclusion is experimentally validated. (Source.) A biofilm micr...