BacterioFiles 278 - Fungal Family Friends and Foes

Colletotrichum disease on bean pods

By David B.Langston

This episode: Some fungi change from making plants sick to being helpful to plants! How do plants react to them?
Download Episode (8.1 MB, 8.8 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Hacquard S, Kracher B, Hiruma K, Münch PC, Garrido-Oter R, Thon MR, Weimann A, Damm U, Dallery J-F, Hainaut M, Henrissat B, Lespinet O, Sacristán S, Themaat EVL van, Kemen E, McHardy AC, Schulze-Lefert P, O’Connell RJ. 2016. Survival trade-offs in plant roots during colonization by closely related beneficial and pathogenic fungi. Nat Commun 7:11362.

Other interesting stories:

New E. coli can tolerate different stages of biofuel production

Microbes can protect each other from toxins such as antibiotics

Even grains can benefit from nitrogen-fixing bacteria (paper)

Ninja star bacterial disposable battery

Evolving E. coli to fix CO₂ (when given very rich food source)

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles 277 - Sailor Cells Store Selenium

Magnetotactic bacteria with 

magnetosome chains visible

From: Edouard Alphandéry

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2014.00005

This episode: Bacteria with their own magnetic compass can also clean up and recover toxic but valuable elements!
Download Episode (6.1 MB, 6.7 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Tanaka M, Knowles W, Brown R, Hondow N, Arakaki A, Baldwin S, Staniland S, Matsunaga T. 2016. Biomagnetic Recovery and Bioaccumulation of Selenium Granules in Magnetotactic Bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 82:3886–3891.

Other interesting stories:

Gut microbe communities are affected by genetics

New microbe can do interesting chemistry to make antibiotics and stuff

Microbes in the gut cooperate with each other (paper)

Cyanobacterium's eyeball ability can sense and respond to UV light

Fungus can remove mercury from water (paper)

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles 276 - Single-cell Slime School

Physarum polycephalum on a log

By frankenstoen - flickr, CC BY 2.5 

This episode: Individual slime molds show the ability to learn about their environment!
Download Episode (8.8 MB, 9.6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Boisseau RP, Vogel D, Dussutour A. 2016. Habituation in non-neural organisms: evidence from slime moulds. Proc R Soc B 283:20160446.

Other interesting stories:

Lactobacilli could control fungal plant pathogen (paper)

Probiotics may not be helpful if one is genetically unable to respond to them

Activity of gut microbes can affect nervous system inflammation

Biofilms develop good electrical conductivity (paper)

Three ways antibiotics affect more than just infections

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

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BacterioFiles 275 - Building Bacterial Batteries

This episode: Scientists build a battery out of microbes and electrodes that can store and release electricity repeatedly!
Download Episode (7.5 MB, 8.1 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Interesting articles about anaerobic digesters
Journal Paper:
Molenaar SD, Mol AR, Sleutels THJA, ter Heijne A, Buisman CJN. 2016. Microbial Rechargeable Battery: Energy Storage and Recovery through Acetate. Environ Sci Technol Lett 3:144–149.

Other interesting stories:

Viruses are transferred with fecal transplant, but only ones that attack bacteria (paper)

Communities of microbes on skin don't change much

Antibodies from mother in milk help babies tolerate good microbes

Bacteria could help control insects by killing males

More associations between childhood bacteria and asthma

Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter, or Facebook