Small Things Considered

Evolution-Proofing Antibiotics

by Vilhelmiina Haavisto  
Since the dis­co­ve­ry of pe­ni­cil­lin and its de­vel­op­ment in­to a the­ra­peu­tic agent, an­ti­bio­tics have re­vo­lu­tion­ized me­di­cine and saved count­less lives. How­ever, the way we use these life-sav­ing me­di­cat­ions is fun­da­men­tal­ly un­sus­tain­able as pa­tho­gens ra­pid­ly evolve re­sist­ance, ren­der­ing ma­ny se­ri­ous in­fect­ions ef­fect­ive­ly un­treat­able. Read more →

The Hunger Games

by Elio  
I am not usually drawn to start out an ar­ticle by con­si­der­ing a bac­te­ri­um's name, but when con­front­ed with Ag­gre­ga­ti­bac­ter ac­ti­no­my­ce­tem­co­mit­ans, I had to take a pause. A well-tra­vel­ed Gram-negative coc­co­ba­cil­lus, this car­rier of such a con­vo­lut­ed mo­ni­ker start­ed life simp­ly as an Ac­ti­no­ba­cil­lus... Read more →

Fine Reading: Evolution of Pathogen Tolerance

by Roberto  
While reading a review yesterday, I recalled a conversation I had with a student nearly forty years ago. He did not appear interested in the subject of my lectures – bacterial genetics and physiology – so I was curious to know the reasons why. Read more →

Typhus Vaccines

by Roberto  
As a U.S. citizen living abroad, I often get queried about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Why do so many people refuse the vaccine? Let me put it bluntly: I do not understand it. Read more →

Fine Reading: Did You Know That Algae Can Be Pathogens?

by Elio  
Not all of us, me in­clud­ed, are ful­ly aware that the al­gae in­clude pa­tho­gens of many ver­te­bra­tes, such as hu­mans and do­mes­ti­cat­ed ani­mals. The most im­port­ant ones are Pro­to­the­ca bo­vis (once P. zopfii) and P. wicker­hamii. A fine over­view of this sub­ject by Shave, Mill­yard and May from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bir­ming­ham, UK, has been... Read more →

Bacterial Symbionts Halt The Disease Burden of Dengue Virus

by Rupinder Kaur, Sarah R. Bordenstein, and Seth R. Bordenstein  
Amidst a global surge and focus on COVID-19 infections, other diseases that have had and will continue to have impact on hu­man health cannot be forgotten. Dengue, for example, continues to be a major mosquito-borne viral infection, impacting more than 100 million people per year. Dengue can inflict... Read more →

Having the bow and arrow might not be enough...

by Natália C. Drebes Dörr
Daily challenges in the life of mi­cro­sco­pic or­gan­isms are not that dif­fer­ent from those ex­per­ienc­ed by chee­tahs and ga­zel­les in the sa­van­nas. Bac­te­ria are usu­al­ly em­bed­ded in com­mu­ni­ties where they need to ac­tive­ly com­pete for food and space. Also, they are often under the at­tack of vo­ra­cious pre­dators such as bac­te­rio­pha­ges and pro­tists, which they fight... Read more →

Spy Gadgets

by Janie
Some bacterial enzymes have interesting character arcs. DNA poly­merase, courtesy of Thermus aquaticus, soaks up the limelight as an enzyme pulled out of bacteria and cata­pulted into molecular biology stardom. One enzyme that is certainly less-known is FbaB, which helps Strepto­coccus pyogenes adhere to and invade host cells... Read more →

The Streptococcal Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

by Janie
In Norse mythology, the goddess Freyja has a cloak of feathers that can ferry her between human and falcon forms. The Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca sometimes wore a jaguar skin to disguise himself. Sneaking into the ranks of such mythological figures is the more tangible and much smaller Group A Streptococcus... Read more →

Erisipelothrix rhusiopathiae on TV – A Snippet

by Elio
A recent epi­sode of the Brit­ish TV series 'Doc Mar­tin' dealt with a some­what un­usu­al bac­te­ri­um. Se­ver­al child­ren in the small town in Corn­wall came down with what the good doc­tor thought was im­pe­ti­go, a high­ly con­tagi­ous skin in­fect­ion caused by staph or strep. But the lab re­port... Read more →