Small Things Considered

An antibiotic honeycomb

by Manuel Sánchez
Atomic force mi­cros­co­py (AFM) is one of the most pow­er­ful tools in stu­dy­ing the sur­fac­es of any ma­ter­ial. So it should come as no sur­prise that it has been used in the stu­dy of vi­ral en­vel­op­es and bio­lo­gi­cal mem­branes. One of its great ad­van­tages... Read more →

Once more: I → Y → II ?

by Christoph
In part 1, I looked at Bi­fi­do­bac­ter­ium bi­fi­dum to see if the oc­ca­sion­al­ly ob­served Y-shape of these bac­ter­ia gives any hint on their mode of cell di­vis­ion ─ may­be long­i­tu­di­nal di­vi­sion? No, there is no tan­gible clue that they di­vi­de by split­ting their Y zip­per-like be­tween the "arms". Here now I ask the same... Read more →

I → Y → II ?

by Christoph
Don't worry, STC won't switch to cu­nei­form without warning. What va­gue­ly re­sem­bles a chemi­cal for­mu­la or a cu­nei­form text is meant to keep the title as short as pos­sible. More verbose: I will take a clos­er look at Y-shap­ed bac­te­r­ia to see if their "ir­re­gu­lar" shape points to their mode of cell di­vi­sion... Read more →

The Very Bacterial Caterpillar

by Jennifer Frazer
Glued to the in­side of your mouth this ve­ry mo­ment (there's a 50% chance) may be plump bac­te­ri­al ca­ter­pil­lars. They cling to your cheek with paired little hold­fasts, like the feet of a to­ma­to horn­worm re­so­lu­te­ly clasp­ing its stem. Of course, rather than to­ma­toes and to­ma­to leaves, the diet of... 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 →

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 →

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 →

Ice Ice Maybe

by Janie
The ability to trigger ice formation is a property shared by certain particles both organic and inorganic, including bacteria, viruses, phytoplankton, pollen, soot, dust. These little particles help water molecules come together and form ice at warmer temperatures than freezing point... Read more →

A Dinoflagellate and its Mucosphere

by Christoph
There are strikingly dif­fer­ent table man­ners among hu­man cul­tures past and pre­sent when it comes to food in­gest­ion, who wouldn't know. Not so with our single-cel­led eu­kar­yo­tic re­la­tives, the pro­tists, who gobble up eve­ry­thing that feels and smells about right? Wrong. En­gulf­ment, as bio­lo­gists call this be­ha­vio­ral pro­cess is a bit like put­ting a bowl of ra­men noo­dles to your lips and... Read more →

Escherichia coli – Flagship Bacterium of Molecular Biology

by Roberto
There is little doubt that Esche­ri­ch­ia coli is a fa­vo­ri­te of ours here at STC. E. coli fans from around the world seem to get a spe­cial thrill when we post any new de­vel­op­ment aris­ing from stu­dies on this as­ton­ish­ing mo­del bac­te­ri­um. We are so ta­ken by it that our co­ver­age has gone be­yond de­scrib­ing re­search. Pre­vious­ly on STC... Read more →