Small Things Considered

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 →

Talmudic Question #202

Why do bacteria – think Agro­bacterium, Strepto­myces, Bor­relia among others – not care at all if they have linear and circular chromo­somes and episomes (plasmids, prophages) side-by-side in one cell? Read more →

Talmudic Question #200 ─ Our Twitter Poll

by Christoph 
To cele­brate our two hun­dredth Tal­mu­dic Quest­ion "What is the lead­ing cause of bac­ter­ial or ar­chae­al death?" we made a poll on Twit­ter. Thanks to our fol­low­ers we re­ceived more than 100 votes, wow! We sug­gest­ed the fol­low­ing as pos­sible... Read more →

Talmudic Question #201

Given that today is the day that the US celebrates Thanks­giving... What is Pseudomonas syringae pv phaseolicola – inhabitants of the green beans used for the traditional casserole – most thankful for? Read more →

Talmudic Question #200

what is the leading cause of bacterial or archaeal death? Read more →