BacterioFiles

This episode: Bacteria are able to extract metals from rocks for industrial use, even in microgravity! Download Episode  (6.2 MB, 9.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Decapod ambidensovirus 1   News item   Takeaways As humanity makes progress toward becoming an interplanetary species, consideration is needed on how travelers can survive and thrive in distant places. These methods may l...

This episode: Bacteria living inside soil fungus produce toxins that can protect their host from tiny predators! Download Episode  (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mycobacterium  virus DLane Takeaways Soils have many different organisms cooperating and competing for resources. Some little worms called nematodes prey on fungi in the soil, while fungi may effectively defend...

This episode: Certain nectar-dwelling bacteria can induce pollen to germinate to access their tasty proteins! Download Episode  (6.0 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Clostridium oceanicum   News item   Takeaways Nectar in flowers seems like it would be a great place for microbes to live, since it has so much sugar, but it's actually somewhat difficult to thrive solely in and on...

This episode: Bacteria produce a compound that causes a phage lurking in the genome of a competing species to wake up and start killing that competitor! Download Episode  (8.2 MB, 12.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Zaire ebolavirus   News item   Takeaways Some bacteriophages infect and immediately destroy their hosts in a burst of new viruses, while others can be stealthier, integra...

This episode: A eukaryote has symbionts living in it: green algae and also purple bacteria, a combo never seen before! Download Episode  (6.1 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Staphylococcus  virus phiETA   News item   Takeaways Having bacteria as endosymbionts is fairly common in life on Earth: almost all eukaryotes have them in the form of mitochondria and sometimes chloroplas...

This episode: Training a phage strain on bacteria can increase its ability to control those bacteria for much longer than an untrained phage! Download Episode  (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Pepper yellow leaf curl Indonesia virus   News item   Takeaways With resistance to antibiotics spreading more and more among deadly bacteria, finding alternatives to treat infections...

This episode: A bacterial communication signal makes algae stop growing, which helps them survive virus attacks! Download Episode  (5.3 MB, 7.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Veillonella parvula   Takeaways Many interesting interactions between microbes take place in the ocean. As single-celled organisms lacking complex sensory organs, many such interactions and communications are me...

This episode: Transplanting microbes from some corals to others could help the corals survive high temperatures! Download Episode  (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces olivaceoviridis   News item   Takeaways The ever-rising temperatures of our modern world are putting more and more stress on various ecosystems. This is true even on the ocean floor: record-high tem...

This episode: Bacteria can resist the force of gravity in liquid culture by covering themselves with goopy sugar polymers like parachutes! Download Episode  (10.4 MB, 15.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brevicoryne brassicae virus   Takeaways Put bacteria in a centrifuge, and most of the time you end up with a compact pellet of cells at the bottom of the tube, and mostly cell-free li...

This episode: Newspapers report on scientific studies about microbiomes a fair amount, but certain kinds of studies are more likely than others to show up in the news! Download Episode  (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Cafeteriavirus-dependent mavirus   Takeaways Research into the human microbiome has generated a lot of interest, even among non-scientists. This is especial...

This episode: A virus of archaea stops cells from dividing, so they just keep getting bigger and releasing more viruses! Download Episode  (6.9 MB, 10.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces caelestis   Takeaways Viruses affect their hosts many different ways: instant hostile takeover of cellular machinery, lurking unseen in the genome for generations, inducing reduced cell div...

This episode, in honor of World Ocean Day: Bacteria that may move between high and low pressure areas in the ocean use a particular molecule to protect their cells from being crushed! Download Episode  (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Rickettsia rickettsii   News item   Takeaways Life in the ocean can have many challenges, depending on the organism and where it lives. Micr...

This episode: Spores of some bacteria latch onto the tails of other bacteria and ride along as they move around in the soil! Download Episode  (5.5 MB, 8.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bohle iridovirus   News item   Takeaways The soil is a complex environment, and microbes that live in soil need complex lifestyles to thrive. There are many examples of cooperation, competition, and...

This episode: Some bacteria produce antibiotics that can also help them gather more nutrients! Download Episode  (5.0 MB, 7.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Diadromus pulchellus toursvirus   News item 1   Takeaways Antibiotics have saved a lot of lives since they were discovered and used to treat many previously untreatable bacterial infections. But bacteria themselves have been maki...

This episode: Single-celled eukaryotes can thrive without oxygen with the help of bacterial endosymbionts that respire nitrate the way our mitochondria respire oxygen!   Thanks to Jon Graf for his contribution! Download Episode  (12.4 MB, 18.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brenneria salicis   News item 1  / News item 2   Takeaways The combination of a bacterium and other microbe int...

This episode: Despite being photosynthetic, some kinds of algae engage in predatory behavior, hunting and consuming live bacteria! Download Episode  (4.9 MB, 7.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus 1   News item   Takeaways Although most of them are microscopic, algae perform a significant portion of the photosynthesis on the planet, because there are s...

This episode: Lighting in caves open to tourists supports the growth of unwanted photosynthetic bacteria! Download Episode  (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Dill cryptic virus 2   Takeaways Caves can contain amazing beauty, intricate geological formations formed by minerals, water, and time. Some, such as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, have been fitted with instruments to...

This episode: Deep-sea bacteria can detoxify cadmium and convert it to light-capturing particles! Download Episode  (5.8 MB, 8.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Arthrobacter  virus Sonny   Takeaways Hydrothermal vents can have thriving communities, despite being too deep for much light to penetrate. Microbes can derive energy from chemicals coming out of the vent, and form the foundat...

Finally found some good stories, so we're back! This episode: How slime molds encode and use memories built into their own bodies! Download Episode  (4.6 MB, 6.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Aeromonas salmoncida News item   Takeaways Despite being single-celled organisms, slime molds have fairly complex behavior, including a basic form of memory. They often grow as a network of tub...

This episode: Giant bacteria with many chromosomes in each cell carry extra genes to help them live in many different environments! Download Episode  (8.7 MB, 12.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Propionibacterium virus SKKY News item   Takeaways We think of bacteria a certain way: too small to see and having mostly just a single large chromosome with all the genes they need for their...

This episode: The biofilm that probiotic bacteria can leave behind on a titanium implant seems to help it integrate better with the existing skeleton, with less inflammation and risk of infection! Download Episode  (5.5 MB, 7.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Methylobacterium organophilum News item   Takeaways Skeletal implants make it a lot easier for many people to stay mobile as th...

This episode: Engineered bacteria encapsulated in little beads sense chemicals from landmines and give off light! Download Episode  (6.4 MB, 9.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bifidobacterium pullorum Takeaways Landmines are a good way to take an enemy by surprise and do some damage. They're so good that some places in the world still aren't safe to go decades after a conflict, due t...

This episode: An interesting bacterial genetic element protects against viruses in a unique way! Download Episode  (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mongoose associated gemykibivirus 1 News item Takeaways Even single-celled, microscopic organisms such as bacteria have to deal with deadly viruses infecting them. And while they don't have an immune system with antibodies and...

This episode: Certain gut microbes protect mice from harmful effects of high-energy radiation! Download Episode  (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Solenopsis invicta  virus-1 News item Takeaways High-energy radiation can be very dangerous. Besides a long-term increased risk of cancer due to DNA damage, a high enough dose of radiation can cause lethal damage to multiple sys...

This episode: Algae surviving impact that killed the dinosaurs seem to have consumed other organisms to make it through the dark times! Download Episode  (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Chaetoceros tenuissimus RNA virus 01 News item Takeaways Being able to look through time and learn about what might have happened to creatures throughout Earth's history is what makes pal...