Small Things Considered

Little things matter, in both virology and your PhD

by Shuxuan Zheng — Blaise Pascal said that "Little things console us because little things afflict us." In the time of CO­VID-19, Pascal's words have never been more prescient. Viruses – those little things behind the global microbiological threat – demand not only our fear but also our respect. Read more →

TWiM 215: Cultural transformation and pathogen emergence

A ferret model for infection by SARS-CoV-2, and how Neolithization lead to emergence of a human bacterial pathogen. Read more →

Pandemic Readings Considered

by Daniel — As we all hunker down in quarantine from the global spread of SARS-CoV-2 and associated COVID19, some may have extra time available, perhaps to pick up a good book. We therefore thought we’d help out by offering a list of suggested pandemic-related readings. Read more →

Talmudic Question #176

Currently, when a bacterial or archaeal genus or species has been well characterized but is yet-uncultured, it is given 'Candidatus' status. Should this practice be continued or is time to abolish it? Why? Read more →

Three to Tango

by Elio — How many symbioses that involve three partners can you think of? Surely, not many. But here is one, involving a pathogenic fungus, a bacterium, and a fungal virus. Read more →

Fine Reading: Guts and Glory, Microbiome Edition

by Janie — Research on the microbiome, particularly the gut microbiome, garners ever-increasing attention from both the scientific and public eye (and the press). But as with most other fads, there’s a need to parse out fact from fiction... Read more →

Processing the Ps in Times of Stress

by Daniel — A decade ago, Fred Neidhardt wrote a tour de force post for our blog on a case of con­ver­gence be­tween bac­te­ri­al phy­sio­lo­gy and vi­ru­lence that fea­tured a re­view by Da­le­broux et al. from Mi­chele Swan­son's lab. The spe­ci­fic to­pic of that con­ver­gence was the role that the nuc­leo­tide gua­no­sine te­tra­phos­phate (ppGpp) plays in the in­tra­cel­lu­lar... Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Contagion

by Elio — A much used term nowadays, "con­ta­gi­on" or in ad­jec­tive form, "con­ta­gi­ous," is de­rived from La­tin 'con­tā­giō' (touch­ing, con­tact, con­ta­gi­on) re­la­ted to 'con­tin­gō' (touch clo­se­ly). In its ori­gi­nal mean­ing, the term re­fer­red so­le­ly to a dis­ease trans­mis­sible by di­rect phy­si­cal con­tact. Now­adays, its mean­ing has been broad­ened to in­clude all com­mu­ni­cable or in­fect­ious dis­ea­ses. As the Wi­ki­pe­dia says: "Of­ten the word... Read more →

Proteorhodophytina: Obscure Red Algae Are Keepers of Deep Evolutionary Secrets

by Lukáš Novák — You may be familiar with some red algae even without realizing it, as many species have profound ecological, industrial, and culinary importance! Macroscopic red algae represent one third of all seaweeds grown in aquaculture worldwide and create half of the economic value generated by this industry. Among the most commonly used are species of the genus Pyropia... Read more →

Fungomania III. Of a Fungus and a Crop

by Roberto — There are literally thousands of fungal species that cause plant diseases and their effects on agricultural crops ends of costing billions of dollars every year. Many of these fungal plant pathogens are fascinating subjects for study. Among the many, I have a personal "favorite." I place the word in quotes because I recognize the oddity of labeling a pathogen... Read more →