Small Things Considered

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 to force it... 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 →

Talmudic Question #199

Biosynthetic genes for many an­ti­bio­tics evol­ved hund­reds of mil­lions of years ago. Re­sist­ance genes evol­ved con­cur­rent­ly among neigh­bor­ing bac­teria. If most neigh­bors to anti­bio­tic pro­ducers are re­sist­ant, what is... Read more →

Primo Levi's periodic table, and when scientists write fiction

by Janie
There are lots of fantastic books that convey love of a science, depict the braided lines of logic and intuition and luck in experimentation, and depict scientists' lives both in and beyond the lab. Memoir, fiction, biography. Science as metaphor for life, these books will frequently allude to... Read more →