Small Things Considered

Pore Hopping

by Christoph  
In his re­cent post, Ro­ber­to was pleased to learn of a stu­dy ad­dress­ing bac­terial che­mi­cal eco­lo­gy with­in a very small eco­sys­tem, name­ly the hair fol­li­cles of hu­man skin, where Cuti­bac­ter­ium ac­nes con­tend with Sta­phy­lo­cocci. Here now, it's again about C. acnes, but this time about se­ver­al strains com­pet­ing for growth in hu­man hair fol­li­cles, pores. An eco­lo­gi­cal fa­mi­ly af­fair, so to speak. Read more →

Chemical Ecology of the Skin Microbiota

by Roberto  
The secretion of small molecules is likely one of the most common ways in which bacteria interact with other bacteria, regardless of their environmental setting. Like many others, I like to refer to that universe of chemical interactions as "bacterial chemical ecology." Read more →

Fine Reading: Lessons from the COVID Pandemic

by Roberto  
For many, the horrors lived through the pandemic are now receding memories. From a more objective perspective, we can now begin to ponder some key questions. What did each one of us learn from the experience? What should we have known from the start of the pandemic? Read more →

Surrounded by Antibiotic Resistance

by Mechas  
Most of us have at some point used antibiotics. These "miracle drugs" stop infectious bacteria from growing out of control, essentially curing us from what could be fatal infections. But antibiotics are also marvelous for other reasons. Read more →

Microcins – Spanish foresight in studying gut microbial ecology

by Roberto  
There is no need to go into great length to describe the current interest in the human microbiome, particularly the intestinal microbiome. It's a topic in microbial ecology that has recently attracted scientists and laypeople from across the world. But from reading about it... Read more →

Insect Symbiont–Host Balance

by Mechas  
The diversity of life on earth is not only astounding but inundated with myriad expressions of host-symbiont relationships. Among these, microbial symbionts are so pervasive that they could be considered the rule, rather than the exception, among multicellular eukaryotes. Read more →

Gene Transfer Agents and Survival

by Mechas  
We recently posted an update on horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to highlight the existence of strategies used by bacteria to exchange DNA – in addition to those traditionally acknowledged, that is transformation, transduction and conjugation. One of these more recently recognized mechanisms involves entities called gene transfer agents (GTAs). Read more →

Biocrusts

by Mechas  
Have you ever heard of biocrusts? If not, you are not alone. I only stumbled upon this term recently and was surprised to find that it represents a growing field of research on what appear to be fragile, surface soil communities that are just the opposite. Biocrusts are incredibly resilient to inhospitable conditions. Read more →

Go FISHing to Image Bacterial Communities

by Davide Ciccarese  
Bacterial communities live in a small world where cells fill any available micron. Depending on their location and surrounding environment, they can readily respond to changes by gearing up their gene repertoire to insure their position in a densely packed biofilm. To be able to visualize this... Read more →

Finding the actual needle in a virtual haystack

by Christoph  
...by glo­bal se­quenc­ing of en­vi­ron­men­tal DNA (eDNA) col­lect­ed from a sam­pling site and its ta­xo­nom­ic clas­si­fi­ca­tion and quan­ti­fi­ca­tion by bio­in­for­matics. When an­a­lyz­ing such vo­lu­min­ous da­ta­sets, ope­ra­tion­al ta­xo­nom­ic units (OTUs) often pop up that cor­res­pond to known ta­xa/spe­cies never found at the samp­ling site − the to­pic that brought you here − in ad­di­tion to...  Read more →