Small Things Considered

'tis the 30th of November...

...and today we celebrate the first anniversary of this blog. It’s been fun (and considerable work). We thank all who have contributed by writing articles, commenting, and visiting. Read more →

Shining More Light on LOVs – An Update

by Elio  
We recently posted a piece on Brucella abortus becoming more virulent when grown in the light, a puzzling finding if there ever was one. Like many other forms of life, B. abortus has a flavin-binding light-sensitive protein domain called LOV that is responsible for this phenomenon. So far, not many other functions can be attributed... Read more →

Wayward Locomotive

by Elio  
Mycoplasma have good press agents. They frequently make the news these days, often because they have the smallest genomes of any free-living organism and, mirabile dictu, because their genome has been transplanted into a willing "anucleate" recipient, creating the first "synthetic cell." You might think that small means simple, but not so. Qualities of these organisms surpass their elephantine brethren in both complexity and fascination. Read more →

Fossil Fats

by Tanja Bosak  
In the beginning, there were fats, and in the end, only fats will remain. This is, in simple words, the basis of a new field of research: the study of molecular fossils. Molecular fossils are remnants of the actual lipid molecules that formed the cell membranes of ancient organisms. Because all organisms have membranes, most old fats may not tell us anything more than... Read more →

Talmudic Question #24

Why didn't mitochondria and chloroplasts cede all of their DNA to the nucleus, as did most hydrogenosomes and certain other organelles? Read more →

Microbial Sociology

by Elio  
Few topics of recent have been as titillating as communication among bacteria. Just like insects, bacteria "talk" to each other in a chemical language, asking one another questions such as: How many of us are there? Is it time to make a biofilm? Do conditions call for making toxins? and (the grandfather of them all) Should we... Read more →

An Ancient Fungus On A Fungus On A Fungus

by Elio  
Sometimes the title says it all. Evidence of mycoparasitism and hypermycoparasitism in Early Cretaceous amber tells you: (a) that the authors are talking about something that took place some 100 million years ago, and (b) that there are several layers of parasitism in the specimen in question. So, what is this specimen... Read more →

Special Delivery – Eukaryote Style

by Merry Youle  
Type III secretion, the mechanism that introduces bacterial proteins into eukaryote host cells, rates among the most exciting themes of modern pathogenic microbiology. What makes it fascinating is both its biomechanics(it makes use of a fancy nanotechnology needle-like de­vice) and its strategic aspects (the delivered pro­:teins, termed effector pro­teins, enable the bacterial pathogens to attach to or damage the host cell). Read more →

An Update on: Space Odyssey, Salmonella Style

by Elio  
A previous post regarding the experiments performed with Salmonella during a Space Shuttle flight elicited some interesting comments. We communicated them to the senior author of the paper, Dr. Cheryl Nickerson of Arizona State University. She sent us the following thoughtful and informative response. Read more →

Circadian Rhythms Revisited (and maybe even explained!)

by Elio  
The very first item in this blog was about the circadian rhythm in cyanobacteria. We celebrated the amazing finding by a group from Nagoya University that the 24-hour circadian clock of Synechococcus elegans can be reconstituted in vitro with just three purified proteins in the presence of ATP. Read more →