Small Things Considered

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 →

The Bacterial Symbionts of the Giant Tube Worms Are Varied In Shape and Function

by Elio  
Some thirty years ago it was my good fortune to sit in an air­plane next to the famed marine micro­biologist, the late Holger Jannasch, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He shared with me stories of his deep-sea explor­ations, especially his voyages in the sub­mersible Alvin. These included visits to the recently discovered deep sea hydro­thermal vents... Read more →

Trans-Translation Part 2: Of Vibrios and Squids

by Janie  
This New Year story begins with newly hatched baby bobtail squids. Each squid is translucent and barely the size of a grain of barley. As they swim around, the six pores on their heads ringed with mucus-coated cells snag passerby Vibrio fischeri from the water. Read more →

Biofilms by Insect Endosymbionts

by Janie
From a microbial perspective, in­sect me­ta­mor­pho­sis is a trea­cher­ous bu­si­ness. The trans­for­ma­tion from little earth­bound craw­ler to lapis-blue flier is a fla­shy eye-cat­cher, but the change is more than skin-deep. Deep with­in the lar­va, the con­tents of the gut are emp­tied, in­tes­ti­nal cells wi­ther away by auto­phagy and apo­pto­sis, and the ca­vi­ty is re-up­hol­ster­ed with di­vi­ding stem cells... 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 →

Trichoplax & Company II.

by Christoph
When searching the metagenomes ob­tain­ed from single Tri­cho­plax H2 in­di­vi­du­als for 16S and 18S rRNA-spe­ci­fic se­quen­ces, Gru­ber-Vo­dic­ka et al. found, next to the pre­va­lent Tri­cho­plax and Grel­lia se­quen­ces a third se­quen­ce at high fre­quen­cy that mat­ched well with known 16S rRNA se­quen­ces from the Ma­ri­na­mar­gu­lis­bac­te­ria (ZB3), a branch with­in the phy­lum Mar­gu­lis­bac­te­ria... Read more →

Trichoplax & Company I.

by Christoph
Take a few thousand small eu­kar­yo­tic cells, al­low for a few dif­fe­rent cell types, and sea­son the cells ge­ne­rous­ly with en­do­sym­bionts (no, not mi­to­chon­dria, they al­ready have these!). Let the cells self-or­ga­ni­ze into a pat­ty – or a po­ta­to chip, if you're more in­to a ve­gan life­style – with a dia­me­ter of ap­pro­xi­ma­te­ly 0.5–1.0 mm, and a mere 25 µm thick.
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Life After CPR

by Mechas Zambrano and Roberto
For most English speakers, CPR would be assumed to stand for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, oftentimes a real life saver. But for many readers of this blog, the acronym has a whole different meaning. For the last few years, CPR, has stood for the "Candidate Phyla Radiation." The discovery of the CPR superphylum was (and remains) one of the most remarkable developments in our growing realization that the genetic diversity... Read more →

A sprinkle of acid a day keeps the law enforcement away

by Aleks Prochera
Imagine you look like someone dangerous, a criminal, an enemy. Despite being an exemplary citizen, you have to deal with the possibility that, at one point or another, you might get in trouble with law enforcement simply because you appear threatening. That's a struggle that many bacterial members of a plant's microbiome face. Read more →

The Continuing Saga of Insect-Associated Streptomyces

by Roberto
For some reason that I cannot really pinpoint, I am con­ti­nu­ally fascinated by the interactions that are continually discovered between insects and bacteria. Among some of my favorites are those that involve insects that carry bacteria that produce antimicrobial com­pounds that in turn provide a useful function for the insect.
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