“Nori is, by far, the most likely source of bacteria with porphyran-digesting genes. It’s the only food that humans eat that contains any porphyrans and u...
“Enterotypes aren’t quite as well-defined as, say, blood groups, but they could have similar uses as medical markers. The microbiome helps us to digest ou...
“You might not expect bacteria living in Antarctic ice to be well suited to life in a boiling kettle, but that is what Chilean scientists discovered durin...
“By performing genetic analyses and mass spectrometry on ground-up toad brains, the researchers found 79 different antimicrobial peptides—the widest varie...
“Researchers have identified a new ally in the war against tooth decay: an enzyme produced by a mouth bacterium that prevents plaque formation. The findin...
“Amaral-Zettler and Mincer also found genetic and microscope evidence of eukaryotes on the plastic. What she calls the “plastisphere” might co...
“Many of the viruses prey on the bacteria in our bodies, altering their numbers and diversity and shuffling genes—including genes for antibiotic resistanc...
Microbial geneticists found some really divergent sequences in ocean microbes collected on the Sorcerer II study by Venter and gang. One possible thought is tha...
“Neomycin-sensitive bacteria naturally present in the mice’s bodies provided a trigger that led to the production of T cells and antibodies that cou...
Cross posted from my new fledgling blog Practical Microbes I can’t believe that I haven’t written about this amazing paper from MIT anthropologist, Heather Paxs...