Small Things Considered

The Early Days of Restriction Enzymes

by John Collins — In the early 1960s, Werner Arber in Switzerland discovered that foreign DNA entering a bacterial cell could be cleaved on both strands by restriction endonucleases (restriction enzymes). This was part of the host's defense against viral attack. For this discovery he shared the 1978 Nobel Prize with Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans. Read more →

Butyribacterium, E. coli and the Elephant – A Snippet and an Adumbration

by Roberto — I could not help myself. As I begin another year of blogging at STC, I had to start with this recurring theme of elephants. It does have the feeling of a blogger's equivalent to a composer's ostinato (think obstinate) – a motif that persistently repeats. Oh, but what wonderfully alluring motif, E. coli and Elephants! Read more →

Small predators that could save our lives

by Jéssica Gil Serna — The world of predatory bacteria is a true reflection of the David versus Goliath story. A small cell needs to kill its large prey to ensure its own survival. This is the case of bacteria of the genus Bdellovibrio whose importance has been highlighted in recent years as a possible alternative to defeat antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: "Silent Mutation", part 2|2

by Christoph — To con­tinue with the com­parison of apples and pears from the first part, here is an ex­ample of a syno­ny­mous mu­ta­tion that can rightly be de­scribed as a si­lent mu­tation... Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: "Synonymous Substitution", part 1|2

by Christoph — We are oc­ca­sion­al­ly warned not to com­pare ap­ples with pears (sor­ry, Eng­lish speak­ers, not with or­anges this time). Sure, both are pome fruits, and both plants be­long to the Rosa­ceae fa­mily, but they dif­fer no­tab­ly in shape, feel, smell and taste. Ge­neti­cists may well need a si­mi­lar warn­ing when they some­times use the terms si­lent mu­ta­tion and syn­ony­mous sub­sti­tu­tion in­ter­change­ab­ly. Read more →