by Elio
We are fond of posting “Talmudic Questions,” questions we consider to be more interesting than their answers. The very first of them, dated December 1, 2006, reads as follows: Where on Earth would one expect to find a single species of microbes (a pure culture) for sustained periods of time? Symbioses (mutualistic or parasitic) do not count, neither do Petri dishes.
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De Profundis…
How Many Genomes Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
by Elio
Let me rephrase that. How many genomes does it take for an aphid to make tryptophan? If you thought it was one, you'd be wrong: the answer is two, neither being the aphid’s. Remember that aphids live off plant sap that is poor in some amino acids? And that they get some of the missing amino acids from the metabolism of an endosymbiont...
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Recent Blog Items We've Enjoyed – Fall Harvest
by Elio
Phage-hunter Tim Sampson of Blogging for Bacteriophages has a mind-boggling calculation about how far the phages of this planet would stretch if laid end to end. Plus a phage ballad. Seen through the eyes of J. A. Ginsburg armed with 10x lens, lichens get their time of day at...
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Intraterrestrials
by Manuel Sanchez
Among Jules Verne's famous works is 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. Have you read the book or seen one of the movie versions? If so, you will remember that when the fearless explorers descended into the depths of a volcano, they encountered prehistoric life forms such as plesiosaurs. It turns out that Verne wasn't far off. When we descend into the Earth's depths, we may...
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Fine Reading: Metagenomics
by Elio
Nothing like being lazy on a nice Autumn weekend. If you are so inclined, and yet you are wondering about metagenomics and specifically about what it has done for our understanding of the microbial world, here’s a satisfying piece by Hugenholtz and Tyson. For those who can't wait to read it, here are some...
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Where Art Thou, O Nucleoid?
by Conrad Woldringh
In a post on May 12, Elio asked where ribosomes are located in bacterial cells. According to a 2006 paper by Ortiz et al., "the ribosomes are evenly distributed throughout the cytosol" and "no distinct nucleoid territory was observed." This prompts one to also ask: Where art thou, o nucleoid?
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Talmudic Question #39
Except for viroids, can you think of any place where there are “naked,” (capsidless) viruses outside of hosts?
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Fine Reading: A Quick Guide to the Bacterial Flagellar Motor
by Elio
The bacterial flagellar motor deserves great write-ups. Hardly anything in biology is more fascinating than this marvel of miniaturization. Not surprisingly, this smallest and most perfect of electric motors has a worthy advocate. Howard C. Berg of Harvard, who has himself contributed a great deal to our understanding of how the flagellar motor works, has written a short but powerful...
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News from the Department of Mimivirology: Part II
by Elio
New and tantalizing facts continue to emerge from those on the frontlines studying the giant viruses. A recent paper by La Scola et al. reports the discovery of a novel virus found in amoebas that requires mimivirus for replication. This defective virus has been called Sputnik...
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