Small Things Considered

Will the real phage lambda please stand up?

by Nicholas Redmond | Phage infection of a bacterial cell typically begins when the phage’s tail fibers bind a receptor on the host cell, allowing for the ejection of genetic material. At this point, either the lytic or lysogenic cycle begins. Read more →

Bullseye! Promising Research on a Vaccine for Lyme Disease

by Samantha Rocha | Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the United States, with most cases occurring in the Northeastern states. Western blacklegged ticks commonly reside on deer, where they become infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease. Read more →

Limiting Manganese to Reduce Enterococcus faecalis Virulence

by Madeline Beaulieu | With the reported rise in antibiotic-resistant pathogens, it remains important to study the basic biology of these organisms to uncover what makes them so durable. Why do they survive so well in certain environments, and how might we effectively interfere with that? Read more →

Outer Membrane Vesicles and Biopearling – A Snippet

by Elio | When I started out in microbiology some 70 years ago, bacte­ria were just little balls or sausage-shaped rods, and, if you were of a fancy mindset, corkscrew-like structures. Some were endowed with flagella or capsules, but not much else. Their surface area was limited to what you could see under an optical microscope. Read more →

TWiM #206: Bacteria send nucleotide signals

The TWiM holobionts pay tribute to Stuart Levy, and reveal the remarkably diverse array of cyclic nucleotides synthesized by bacteria that likely mediate interactions with animal and plant hosts. Read more →

Membranes to Molecular Machines: A Mechanical Vision of Life

by Janie | In his new book, Mathias Gro­te delves into our mo­le­cu­lar ma­chines with a fo­cus on mem­branes and their com­po­nents, es­pe­cial­ly pumps. He gives struc­tu­ral bio­lo­gy time in the lime­light – a break from the genetics and ge­no­mics frenzy of the modern era. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Acetogenesis

By Roberto and Elio | If you are not deeply steeped in microbial metabolism terminology, your first guess at the meaning of acetogenesis might be simply the production of acetate. Is vinegar production, the oxidation of ethanol to acetate by acetic acid bacteria, an example of acetogenesis? Not quite... Read more →

Space-tolerant Micronauts

by Alise Muok and Ariane Briegel
Try to imagine a crea­ture that can sur­vive from the heat of 150°C (300°F) to the cold of –270°C (–454°F), in the ab­sence of oxy­gen, af­ter com­plete de­hy­dra­tion, at 1,000× at­mo­sphe­ric pres­sure, and af­ter the ra­di­a­tion and va­cuum of space. Who might such space travelers be? Read more →

Talmudic Question #169

Lactose is rarely found in Nature except for mammalian milk. How come? Read more →

A Vertical Symbiont Keeps Its Chromosome Oriented Towards The Host

by Philipp Weber | Have you ever heard of 'Can­di­da­tus Thio­sym­bion onei­sti' It is a rod-sha­ped bac­te­ri­um that at­ta­ches, via one of its pol­es, to the cu­ticle of a ma­rine ne­ma­to­de. Onei­sti is com­mit­ted to have each daugh­ter cell in con­stant and in­ti­mate con­tact with its host. To ac­comp­lish this, it can­not simple elon­gate along... Read more →