Pseudomonas aeruginosa is notorious for causing disease across vast taxonomic terrain (insects, worms, vertebrates, plants). Which viruses have a comparably wide host range?
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by Elio | We confess to having missed a report of one of the microbial world's most unusual structures. These are pili-like filaments located on an archaeon that look for all the world like strands of barbed wire with a three-pronged grappling hook at the end. The article appeared in 2005 and has not had any follow-up that we could find.
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by Elio | "A particle of small-pox matter, so minute as to be borne by the wind, must multiply itself many thousandfold in a person thus inoculated; and so with the contagious matter of scarlet fever..."
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The purpose of this blog is to share our appreciation for the width and depth of the microbial activities on this planet. We will emphasize the unusual and the unexpected phenomena for which we have a special fascination... (more)