by Mechas — The ability to fix nitrogen is usually regarded as a property of only a few diazotrophic bacteria and archaea. A new study now shows that some eukaryotes may be capable of fixing nitrogen via the newly described nitroplast, an organelle that has evolved from an endosymbiont. Read more →
Oscillibacter and Cholesterol
by Roberto — From its humble beginnings as an inhabitant of the Japanese corbicula clam alimentary canal to center stage attention-getter as a cholesterol-lowering resident of the human gut, Oscillibacter has experienced a meteoric rise to stardom... Read more →
Inactive Ingredients Meet Gut Microbes
by Janie — Among all the human microbiome's kaleidoscopic effects on human health, one likely less frequently thought about by prescribing medical professionals is the ability to chemically alter the medications we take. It's well-established that our gut residents are teeming with enzymes... Read more →
Chemotaxis Praxis
by Janie — In storytelling, there is a famous principle called Chekhov's gun. "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don't put it there." This pithy (and very debatable) directive, attributed to the eponymous playwright, smells a whole lot like the (similarly very debatable) viewpoint of adaptationism... Read more →
A miniature piñata
by Christoph
Can you imagine a children's party in Mexico without a piñata as the main attraction? One of the kids hits the suspended piñata with a stick until it bursts and the entire contents, usually sweets, splatters onto those standing around waiting expectantly. Microbiologists sometimes throw a party, too, though...
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Eukaryogenesis: Questions in Questions in Questions
by Janie
For a very long time, symbiogenesis was scoffed at as a fringe science. This mindset plagued the field from the get-go in the 1880s, when the botanist Andreas Franz Wilhem Schimper first put forth the idea that eukaryotic organelles might be bacterial, to the turn of the century, which saw the first key paper on symbiogenesis...
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Mycorrhizae and Land Plants – An Update
by Roberto
I am fortunate that among the first impressions of my day, I take in this view of land plants. Given my proclivity for microbiology my mind inevitably wonders to what I cannot see, the underground network of filamentous fungi connecting the roots of those plants, the mycorrhizae.
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Safeguarding Beetle Development
by Mechas and Roberto
This is the story of how pursuing a century-old observation led to the recent discovery the chemical ecology involved in protecting a beetle from fungal infection during larval molting. It shall come as no surprise that we would be thrilled by such a story; throughout the lifetime of the blog, we've had posts on insect-microbe symbioses...
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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...
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Green Sloths and Robots
by Roberto
... in the case of red parrot feathers the pigment has the added benefit of protecting the plumage from bacterial degradation. Today I stay on the topic of animal coloration by describing the peculiar pelage pigment of sloths. Exactly what constitutes an eye-catching color is, of course, in the eye of the beholder.
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