Small Things Considered

Secondary Metabolites

by Andy Bodnar, Michelle Prieto, and Carleen Villarreal | The war between bac­te­ria and pha­ges has been wa­ging for eons lon­ger than hu­mans have ex­ist­ed. Con­sequent­ly, ma­ny bacte­ria have de­ve­loped no­vel and unique ways for de­fen­ding them­selves against these fo­reign in­va­ders. Some change their sur­face pro­teins to pre­vent de­tec­tion, like chang­ing a lock on a door. Others give their own lives, ini­tia­ting... Read more →

Distributed virusing?

by Jamie | Viruses are very creative genetic entities. Their supersonic mutation rates (compared to ours) have allowed them to explore a wide range of possibilities in genome structure. Thus, while all cellular life has double-stranded DNA genomes, with options limited to circular or linear chromosomes, viruses are represented by just about every type of genome imaginable. Read more →

Phage Therapy – an Update

by Elio | Has there ever been a more perplexing topic in microbiology than phage therapy? Well, that of probiotics comes close. Both have an over 100-year history, both have proponents as well as detractors, both have seen major investments in research and commercialization. Read more →

Fungi, Toxins, and Fungal Viruses (A Snippet)

by Elio | Fungi make toxins (called, not surprisingly, mycotoxins). This won’t surprise you because you know that certain mushrooms are poisonous and you may know of the aflatoxins, noxious chemicals made by molds that grow on stored grains. Read more →

Phage Phactories

by Merry | it’s not news to STC readers that phages encode cytoskeletal proteins. Daniel Haeusser’s fine post related this story as it was known in 2012. Two key papers published that year investigated the tubulin homologs found in phage genomes. At that time, phage-encoded tubu­lin homologs fell into two phylogenetic clusters... Read more →

"We Are What We Are"

by Christoph Weigel | If I were a stage director and contracted for another revival of the Broadway show 'La Cage aux Folles' (including the chorus line's "We Are What We Are" ) I would not waver a minute to choose for all leading roles members of the Pseudomonas family. All are true professionals (method acting, Meisner technique ), versatile in acting solo, or as a team, in dancing and in singing. Read more →

Old Enzymes Tell Stories

by Elio | Offhand, what can you say about the enzymes of the earliest cells? Surely, a few things pop up, for example, they were fewer in number and probably simpler than the ones we have now. They must have had fewer frills than the modern ones, which tend to have clear-cut tastes for substrates and... Read more →

tRNA Chop Shop: Retrotransposons Beware

by Jamie Henzy | Vertebrate genomes are teeming with sequences from retroviruses that have infected the cells of the germ line over the course of evolution. Known as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), the vast majority of these once fierce foes have been defanged by mutations that make them incapable of expressing viral proteins, let alone infectious particles. Read more →

When it comes to HERV-K, I beg to differ

by Jamie Henzy | Although it's a regular occurrence for bacteria to acquire new genes whole cloth, by horizontal gene transfer, such events are rather rare for complex eukaryotes like us. Eukaryotes are vastly more inclined to take advantage of gene duplication events. An exception to this rule is the presence in vertebrate genomes of numerous retroviral sequences (endogenous retroviruses, or ERVs, for short) that were acquired presumably when a retrovirus infected a sperm or egg cell. Read more →

A naturalist's book of viruses

by Jamie Henzy | Who isn't intrigued by viruses? Capable of wiping out entire populations, causing epidemics of biblical proportions, and wrecking crops, viruses entered the consciousness of humans because of their destructive potential. Too tiny to be seen, they were born from Koch's postulates, at first existing only in the imaginations of their early discoverers, such as Beijerinck, Ivanovsky, Twort, and d'Herelle. In the 1940s, electron micrographs revealed the first shadowy images of bacteriophage particles, and the eeriness of their outlines encouraged dread and captured the imagination of those who saw them. Read more →