Small Things Considered

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 →

A Change in the Plan of Construction

by Roberto — On occasion you might come across an odd-looking plant where the flower organ has been replaced by a leafy structure. To the amateur gardener this will seem a remarkable curiosity, to the professional plant grower it will signify substantial economic losses. To Johann Wolfgang von Goethe such sights meant the... Read more →

Family Feud: Commensal vs. Pathogenic Neisseria

by Camille Brzechffa — Although several current research endeavors developing preventative measures focus on vaccines for N. gonorrhoeae, few have examined how resident bacteria of the human body can combat its colonization. Read more →

Touch-Tone Transcription: A Pathogen's Sense of Touch

by Janie — In a world buzzing with sensory input of all stripes and colors, a bacterium isn't one to miss out on any of the latest surrounding scoop. The sense of touch is not ignored. Mechanical feedback influences how a bacterium might move or stay in place... Read more →

The COVID-19 Virus by the Numbers

by Elio — The trio of Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, here augmented by Avi Flamholz, have done it again. In the past, they presented us the astounding numbers for the distribution of biomass on this planet, no less. We highlighted this seminal contribution to our understanding of the living world... Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Cytokines

by Elio — Cytokines are small proteins (~5−20 kDa) that play a large role in our defenses against infection. They stimulate both the innate and the acquired immunity and coordinate the interplay between the two, thus can be properly called immunomodulators. There are lots of them, including interferons, interleukins, tumor necrosis factors, chemokines... Read more →

Virus. ...simply a piece of bad news wrapped up in protein, really ?

by Christoph — In my prior post, I answered the question "are viruses alive?" with a firm: no. That was the short answer, but there is also a long answer... and it's long because it's complicated. Read more →

Virus? ...simply a piece of bad news wrapped up in protein.

by Christoph — In the middle of the first major pandemic of my lifetime I feel the need, as a microbiologist, to make occasional contributions that may help individuals and society approach the pandemic in a reasonably informed way. Today, I'd like to contribute with a small dose of 'microbial literacy,' as called for by Ken Timmis and colleagues... Read more →

Three to Tango

by Elio — How many symbioses that involve three partners can you think of? Surely, not many. But here is one, involving a pathogenic fungus, a bacterium, and a fungal virus. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Contagion

by Elio — A much used term nowadays, "con­ta­gi­on" or in ad­jec­tive form, "con­ta­gi­ous," is de­rived from La­tin 'con­tā­giō' (touch­ing, con­tact, con­ta­gi­on) re­la­ted to 'con­tin­gō' (touch clo­se­ly). In its ori­gi­nal mean­ing, the term re­fer­red so­le­ly to a dis­ease trans­mis­sible by di­rect phy­si­cal con­tact. Now­adays, its mean­ing has been broad­ened to in­clude all com­mu­ni­cable or in­fect­ious dis­ea­ses. As the Wi­ki­pe­dia says: "Of­ten the word... Read more →