In the same spirit as Talmudic Question #4, posted on December 19, 2006, here's another similarly "crazy" one... Read more →
Talmudic Question #211
Contributed by Seth Bordenstein — What is the craziest thing a phage enzyme can do to eukaryotic hosts? Read more →
Talmudic Question #210
The endosymbiosis of a cyanobacterium led to the formation of the photosynthetic organelle, the chloroplast. Along evolutionary history this organelle proved quite plastic; there are many non-photosynthetic variants with very different functions... Read more →
Talmudic Question #209
Talmudic Question #209 — What general rules do you see emerging from the ongoing studies of microbial communities that will inform our understanding of their function? Read more →
Talmudic Question #208
by Memo Berkmen — Can you imagine a place where conditions have remained relatively constant throughout much of Earth's history... Read more →
Talmudic Question #207
Talmudic Question #207 How come the smallest cells of a given bacterial species are also the ones with the slowest growth rate? Read more →
Talmudic Question #206
by Roberto — Two recent events prompt me to post this (double) Talmudic Question(s). First, I had a lot of thoughts inspired by Christoph's Monday post on stop codons being recognized by charged tRNAs in a trypanosomatid: "Stops making sense." How bizarre can non-canonical codes get? Second, I was reading posts from the past. Read more →
Talmudic Question #205
There are plenty of natural product families that inhibit essential enzymatic functions in cell wall synthesis (e.g., ß-lactams, glycopeptides), translation (e.g., aminoglycosides, tetracyclines) and transcription (e.g. rifampicin). Yet, there are very few (if any) natural products that specifically inhibit bacterial DNA polymerase. Why have such compounds not been found? Read more →
Talmudic Question #204
Mitochondria evolved from an ancestral alpha proteobacterium. However, present day mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNA) from plants and animals are very different. ... What different selective pressures might have led to these two vastly different evolutionary outcomes? Read more →
Talmudic Question #203
What sensory information allows you to recognize/identify microbial activities in their natural settings? Read more →