by S. Marvin Friedman — The emergence of multiple drug-resistant bacterial strains, the prevalence of recalcitrant biofilm configurations, and the reluctance of the pharmaceutical industry to initiate new antibiotic discovery programs have led to the development of a formidable population of bacterial pathogens that is increasingly difficult to control. After a long but successful era of research… Read more →
« March 2012 | Main | May 2012 »
What Is This Link to 'Mushrooms in Works of Art'?
by Elio — On the left side of this blog, in amongst the Blogroll links, is a somewhat strange entry, “Mushrooms in Works of Art.” I’ll save you the trouble of clicking on it. This is the website of a registry that lists works of art, mainly Western, that display mushrooms. Now, why would… Read more →
On Retrons
by Habib Maroon — Retrons are an understudied type of prokaryotic retroelement responsible for the synthesis of an enigmatic species of small extra-chromosomal satellite DNA termed multicopy single-stranded DNA (msDNA). msDNAs are actually composed of both a single-stranded (ss) DNA and a ssRNA. The 5' end of the msDNA is covalently bonded to an… Read more →
The Winner of the 2012 Peter Wildy Prize: Vincent Racaniello
by Elio — The winner of the 2012 Peter Wildy Prize For Microbiology Education is Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University, a fellow blogger (Virology Blog) and the podcast host of TWiV (This Week in Virology), TWiP (This Week in Parasitism), and TWiM... Read more →
The Immunological Synapse Goes Viral
by Merry Youle — Here’s yet another tale of how a cunning virus has converted one of our antiviral defenses into a tool for its own purposes. The co-opted mechanism is one used by cytotoxic T-cells to kill virus-infected cells: the immunological synapse. More on this in a moment. The virus is Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type I (HTLV-1). The appropriated tactic… Read more →
Talmudic Question #86
Given that so many kinds of bacteria are intimately associated with animals and plants, why are so relatively few pathogenic? Read more →
Oddly Microbial: Ribocytes
by Marcia Stone — Ribocytes, our 4-billion year old RNA ancestors, were quintessentially microbial, quite different though than modern cells which eventually out-divided most of these little creatures and probably ate the rest. But while they were here ribocytes ruled the world—inventing both the genetic code and protein synthesis during their reign. The fact that… Read more →
Wily Phage Trumps Host Toxin
by Merry Youle — Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are a dime a dozen. They are found on plasmids and chromosomes within many prokaryote groups—even those with an intracellular lifestyle. Each is a two-gene operon, one gene encoding a toxin protein, the other the cognate antitoxin. Key to their function is the differential stability of the… Read more →
Living On the Edge… of the Swarm
by Gemma Reguera — If anybody knows how to move, it’s bacteria. They swim in liquids using rotating flagella, but they also know how to twitch, glide, and slide on surfaces. The mechanisms that power their surface motility are varied, ranging from energy-intensive processes such as the extension and retraction of type IV pili… Read more →