Small Things Considered

The Krebs (Bi)Cycle

by Christoph
Today I'm tak­ing you on a short tour, a (bi)­cycle tour. Don't be alarmed, it won't be a long ride. And no pre­vi­ous fit­ness check! You can cycle di­rect­ly on your screen. A mi­ni­mum of brain ac­ti­vi­ty is ex­pect­ed though. You gues­sed it, it's about the Krebs cycle. More pre­cise­ly: The Krebs (Bi)­Cycle. Let's pedal! Read more →

Talmudic Question #200

what is the leading cause of bacterial or archaeal death? Read more →

TWiM 274: Bacterial Endosymbionts Block Giant Viruses

Mark Martin returns to TWiM to join the discussion of how to design a complex gut microbiome, and protection of protists from virus infection by intracellular bacterial symbionts. Read more →

In the Company of Bacteria: Amoebae

by Christoph  
In times long past, highly evolved eu­karyotes, for ex­ample bio­chemists, oc­ca­sio­nal­ly quip­ped that bac­ter­ia were noth­ing more than a bag of en­zymes. Well, from the per­spec­tive of bac­ter­ia, one could easi­ly re­turn the com­pli­ment: eu­kar­y­o­tes, for ex­ample single-cel­led amoe­bae, are little more than a... Read more →

Is Pseudomonas aeruginosa ubiquitous?

by Roberto
Going back several decades I tried to argue that, contrary to po­pular belief, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is not a ubiquitous bac­terium. This was based on our difficulties in obtaining strains from pristine environments, conversations with many colleagues de­scribing similar experiences, and... Read more →

Spetses "The New Microbiology" Summer School

by Roberto  
Participants of the Spet­ses Sum­mer School first tra­vel to Athens and then em­bark on a near­ly three-hour fer­ry ride across the Sa­ro­nic Gulf to reach Spet­ses. Con­se­quent­ly, al­most every­one is tired upon ar­rival. But no mat­ter how ex­haust­ed, every­one feels in­vi­go­rat­ed by the ma­gi­cal feel­ing of... Read more →

Summer Courses in Microbiology

by Roberto
These days in New Eng­land – spe­ci­fi­cal­ly in Cam­bridge, where I am now – the air is crisp as the tem­pe­ra­tures are be­gin­ning to drop and the leaves are al­ready dis­play­ing mag­ni­fi­cent col­ors. Fall is in full swing, and sum­mer is a me­mo­ry. But this past sum­mer, once again, left me with the de­light­ful me­mo­ry... Read more →

Kitasatospora, a bacterium promoted to honorary amoeba

by Christoph  
A de­cade ago, Elio wound up a post on en­do­cy­to­sis by E. co­li with the bold re­mark: "If in­deed E. co­li is on­ly one pro­tein away from en­do­cy­to­sis, per­haps this work will com­pel us to cross en­do­cy­to­sis off the list of phy­sio­lo­gi­cal traits that are ex­clus­ive at­tri­bu­tes of the eu­kar­yo­tic cell plan." For sure, ex­pres­sing hu­man ca­veo­lin‑1 in E. co­li... Read more →

Pepe Casadesús (1951─2022)

by Roberto
If you ever visited the De­part­ment of Ge­net­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Se­vil­la, Spain, you most li­ke­ly met Jo­sep Ca­sa­de­sús; Pe­pe as he was uni­ver­sal­ly known. If you were so ve­ry for­tu­nate, I am sure you still have last­ing and won­der­ful me­mo­ries of that en­coun­ter. Doubt­less, you will re­mem­ber how he... Read more →

A Whiff of Taxonomy – Biostraticola tofi

by Christoph  
No, Biostraticola tofi is not a "flagship bacterium" of molecular biology like E. coli, which was re­cent­ly ce­le­bra­ted by Ro­ber­to. In fact, it's hardly known even among hard­core mi­cro­bio­lo­gists! Yet this spe­cies is a close re­la­tive of E. coli, loo­se­ly speak­ing a first cou­sin. But as it goes... Read more →