BacterioFiles

This episode: A fungus-infecting virus transforms the fungal foe into a friend of its host plant! Download Episode  (6.1 MB, 8.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Hepacivirus J   News item Takeaways Viruses can be useful for treating various diseases, especially bacterial infections and cancer. Their ability to target certain cell types specifically makes them great at hunting down and...

This episode: Bacteria pay for the privilege of cruising around soil on fungus filaments! Download Episode  (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Clostridium acetobutylicum News item Takeaways In the complex environment of soil, many different kinds of organisms coexist. Some compete with each other, while others cooperate in fascinating interactions. One example is how bacter...

This episode: Bacteria protect farmed mushrooms from damage by other bacteria by breaking down their toxins! Download Episode  (4.9 MB, 7.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Tomato mosaic virus Takeaways Almost all organisms are vulnerable to pathogenic microbes that make them sick or cause damage. Most also have other microbes that help them grow better or protect them from pathogens....

This episode: Actinomycete bacteria are often helpful to insects, but some can be deadly yet still attractive! Download Episode  (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces corchorusii   News item Takeaways Actinomycete bacteria do a lot of interesting things. They grow like fungi, with mycelia and spores, and produce many interesting compounds, including antibiotics and...

This episode: Warmth helps mice build stronger bones, mediated by bacteria producing certain compounds! Download Episode  (6.8 MB, 9.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Aquaspirillum serpens   News item Takeaways Bones aren't just solid, structural supports for the body's tissues. They're active and alive, housing important components of the immune system, and also capable of being brok...

This episode: Copper electrodes, rather than killing bacteria in microbial fuel cells, allow them to generate higher densities of electric current! Download Episode  (5.0 MB, 7.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Xipapillomavirus 2   News item Takeaways Copper is widely used as a way to make surfaces and materials antimicrobial, to cut down on the spread of pathogens in hospitals and ot...

This episode: Combining Salmonella with something called photoimmunotherapy to attack tumors in multiple ways! Download Episode  (8.2 MB, 11.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Shimwellia blattae Takeaways Distinguishing healthy from unhealthy tissue is one of the big challenges when dealing with cancer. Since cancer is derived from healthy tissue, there are many similarities between th...

This episode: Large phage discovered that contains a compact version of the CRISPR/Cas defense/gene editing system! Download Episode  (5.9 MB, 8.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Stenotrophomonas virus IME13 News item Takeaways CRISPR/Cas systems have made a lot of things in gene editing much easier in certain organisms. It's almost as easy as just getting the cells to produce the Cas...

This episode: A probiotic can protect intestine-like cell growths from destruction by pathogens, but it can also be infected by a virus that makes it more harmful to intestinal cells! Download Episode  (6.9 MB, 10.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Euphorbia yellow mosaic virus   News item Takeaways There are many strains of  Escherichia coli . Some are pathogenic, in the gut or the ur...

This episode: Bacteria living in the driest place on earth have ways to extract water from the mineral structures of rocks! Download Episode  (3.7 MB, 5.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Irkut lyssavirus   News item Takeaways Microbes living in extremely dry conditions have it tough. Water is important both for the chemistry and structure of all cells. Desert microbes are very good at...

This episode: Cable bacteria around rice roots transport electrons and help prevent formation of methane!   Thanks to Vincent Scholz for his contribution! Download Episode  (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Vibrio alginolyticus   News item Takeaways Transforming other things into methane is a great way to make a living for some kinds of microbes. These tend to live under st...

This episode: Bacteria that can store sugar as glycogen have multiple advantages when food is only available sporadically! Download Episode  (7.2 MB, 10.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Carnivore bocaparvovirus 3 Takeaways Almost all habitats experience some sort of change and fluctuation; very few are totally stable, depending on the timeframe. So strategies to change and adapt with...

This episode: Bacteria in soil produce smells to attract arthropods that eat them but also spread their spores! Download Episode  (6.2 MB, 9.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Blotched snakehead virus   News item Takeaways Soil, especially after a rain, often has a characteristic "earthy" smell. This soil smell is actually the result of certain bacteria producing a volatile chemical ca...

This episode: The skin microbes that people leave behind may be used to identify them, even after other people have touched the same surface! Download Episode  (5.4 MB, 7.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Actinobacillus lignieresii Takeaways The microbial communities in and on our bodies are highly complex and highly varied between people; this complexity has raised the question of wh...

This episode: Bacterial cells with their genomes removed can still be active and useful! Download Episode  (10.2 MB, 14.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Rosavirus A Takeaways Microbes have amazing biochemical transformation abilities, creating and breaking down many compounds and proteins. This makes them great candidates for many purposes, in medicine, industry, and environmental re...

This episode: A fungus paralyzes its tiny worm prey by acting on the worm's own sensory hairs! Download Episode  (6.0 MB, 8.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bat associated cyclovirus 9 Takeaways Not all predators are fast or agile; some are sneaky, or good trap builders, or just good chemists. The predator club includes animals but also plants and even fungi. For example, the oyster...

This episode: This episode: A bacteriophage and bacterial predator can wipe out a population of bacteria that could develop resistance to each individually! Thanks to Laura Hobley, J. Kimberley Summers, and Jan-Ulrich Kreft for their contributions!   Also a note: I will be taking a short break from podcasts while I rebuild my collection of awesome microbiology stories to talk about. Download Episo...

This episode: Certain bacteria can greatly affect the makeup of a microbial community, even if they quickly disappear!   Thanks to Dr. Daniel Amor for his contribution! Download Episode  (6.3 MB, 9.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Gadgets Gully virus News item Takeaways Microbial communities show more than just competition between species. Stable assemblies of many species can exist...

This episode: Helping insect-killing bacterial symbionts of nematodes evolve resistance to chemicals that major corn pests use to defend themselves! Download Episode  (10.0 MB, 14.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Listeria virus PSA Takeaways Interactions between species and even kingdoms in nature can be complex and multilayered. This means that when we want to intervene to cause a p...

This episode: Producing both biodiesel and bioethanol fuels from cold-loving Arctic algae! Download Episode  (8.7 MB, 12.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Royal Farm virus Takeaways Renewable fuels such as biofuels can allow existing infrastructure and vehicles to continue to operate in a more sustainable manner, which could reduce the cost and impact of switching to new/different sys...

This episode: Using phages to target gold nanoparticles to infecting bacteria, then using light to heat the nanoparticles just enough to kill the bacteria! Thanks to Raymond Borg and Huan Peng for contributing! Download Episode  (10.6 MB, 15.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Pantoea agglomerans News item Takeaways Viruses that infect bacteria, bacteriophages, are often very good at ov...

This episode: Simplified gut communities growing in bioreactors grow and metabolize reproducibly, with only moderate variations, even when individual members of the community are absent! Download Episode  (8.2 MB, 11.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Citrobacter virus Merlin Takeaways The community of microbes in our guts is highly complex, with thousands of species all interacting wi...

BacterioFiles is back! This episode: Measuring how quickly marine methane-consuming microbes become active when new methane enters an area! Download Episode  (9.0 MB, 13.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Torque teno midi virus 6 Takeaways Oceans and the organisms living in them have a large effect on the planet, in terms of climate and gases they absorb from or release into the atmosp...

This episode: A newly discovered species of bacteria consumes other bacteria as prey by engulfing them! Download Episode  (8.7 MB, 12.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: SARS-CoV-2! This is the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, the current pandemic. For more up-to-date information, please refer to the American Society for Microbiology , This Week in Virology , and other reputable so...

This episode: A phage defends its genome against bacterial host defenses by building a wall to keep them out! Download Episode  (7.0 MB, 10.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Myroides odoratus and M. odoratimimus News item Takeaways Parasites and their hosts are constantly in arms races with each other, each thriving best when it acquires new and more effective methods of attack, defen...