Small Things Considered

Take a Deep Breath of... Methane

by Christoph | If you were faced with the task of pre­par­ing a lec­ture se­ri­es on "ge­ne­ral bac­te­ri­al phy­si­o­lo­gy", you could ea­si­ly choose Pseu­do­mo­nas ae­ru­gi­no­sa  as your com­pan­ion, your mo­del or­gan­ism, to co­ver (al­most) eve­ry to­pic. Yet, when it comes to me­ta­bo­lic ver­sa­ti­li­ty, you could also think of Rho­do­pseu­do­mo­nas pal­us­tris  as an al­ter­na­ti­ve. This Al­pha­pro­teo­bac­te­ri­um of the... Read more →

Psilocybin (A Snippet)

by Elio | I suppose that among the readers of this blog interest in the biology and biochemistry of psilocybin may outweigh that in its recreational value (but I am not taking bets). Anyhow, there is something to report on its biosynthesis and, less so, on what's in it for the mushroom that makes it Read more →

Mono Lake (a Snippet)

by Elio | Travel down the eastern slope of California's Sierra Nevada and you will run into a number of breathtaking sights. Ranking high among them is Mono Lake, a large shallow lake that sports a collection of strange limestone columns. Protruding some 30 feet above the water surface, these structures, known as chimneys, consist of calcium carbonate... Read more →

How Bacteria on our Skin Might Prevent Skin Cancer

by Jammal Abu-khazneh and Chih-Kai Yang | The skin is the largest organ in the human body and is home to diverse microbial communities. While this may be unsettling for some germophobes, recent work has uncovered potential health benefits from bacteria that are part of our normal skin microbiomes. Read more →

The Truth Is In The Outcome

by Elio | Coprolites - fossil feces - are nothing short of a marvel. A message from the past, they divulge important information about what their makers lived on as well as on how they lived Read more →

To The Bottom of the Sea

by Elio | Are there instances of water-containing sites on Earth that (pardon the expression) have not yet been metagenomicized? Surely many remain, but their numbers must be dwindling quite rapidly. Read more →

Of Mountains and Microbes…

by David Lipson | Thanks, Elio – this is a fascinating post. The silica cycle indeed deserves respect, and it is probably responsible for major planetary events, such as driving the evolution of C4 photosynthesis in land plants since the formation of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau helped drive down CO₂ levels to their low, pre-industrial levels. Some... Read more →

Snacking on thistles (second bite)

by Christoph | For the thistle tortoise beet­le, Cas­si­da ru­bi­gi­no­sa, bit­ing once into its pre­fer­red food is not enough, it tak­es a se­cond bite. So, 80 years af­ter the first de­scrip­tion of a bac­te­ri­al sym­biont in C. ru­bi­gi­no­sa by H.-J. Stam­mer, Hassan Salem and his col­lea­gues took up the thread and stu­di­ed the sym­biont to more... Read more →

Snacking on thistles (first bite)

by Christoph | Way back in 1936, the zoologist H.-J. Stammer published a study of various beetles of the Cassidinae family (order Co­le­o­ptera) and their microbial symbionts. Among them was the thistle tortoise beetle, Cas­sida rubiginosa, an obligate foliovore, or put another way, a dedicated ve­gan with a penchant for thistles (Cirsium sp.). Thistles were a pest for far­mers in the pre-Roundup™ age, and some... Read more →

More Respect For the Silicon Cycle, Please

by Elio | Silicon is the second most abundant element within Earth’s crust and is necessary for the livelihood of protists, plants, and animals. Maybe best known, silica (SiO₂ or opal) is used by marine organisms such as diatoms and rhizarians to build their glassy and often beautiful shells. Read more →