PLoS Genetics: A Broad Brush, Global Overview of Bacterial Sexuality
“These results have several implications. Firstly, plasmids and ICEs share the same protein families, and should be considered as alternative vehicles for...
Tag: microbes
PLoS ONE: High Diversity of the Saliva Microbiome in Batwa Pygmies
“In conclusion, the Batwa exhibit higher diversity in their saliva microbiome composition. A number of unique genera are found only in the Batwa, and the ...
PLoS ONE: Predator Cat Odors Activate Sexual Arousal Pathways in Brains of Toxoplasma gondii Infected Rats
“Cat odors induce rapid, innate and stereotyped defensive behaviors in rats at first exposure, a presumed response to the evolutionary pressures of predat...
PLoS Biology: Endosymbiosis: Lessons in Conflict Resolution
“In sum, the past few years have witnessed a surge of new empirical and theoretical approaches to understand the dynamics of bacterial–insect relationship...
Three Snug Bugs – ScienceNOW
“Mealybugs are the Russian nesting dolls of the animal world. Their bodies harbor a bacterium that helps them turn plant sap into usable nutrients, and th...
A Bug in a Bug in a Bug – ScienceNOW
“But when Von Dohlen and her student Shawn Kohler examined the mealybugs’ so-called “symbiotic spheres,” long assumed to be host structu...
PLoS Pathogens: Selection of Resistant Bacteria at Very Low Antibiotic Concentrations
“These results add another dimension to the evolution of resistance and suggest that the low antibiotic concentrations found in many natural environments ...
Antarctic microbes live life to the extreme : Nature News
“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...
Friendly bacteria fight the flu : Nature News
“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...
The Deep Carbon Observatory: Going underground | The Economist
“Current estimates suggest that half of all the living matter on Earth lives underground, at depths of up to 5km. Some people think the share may be bigge...