BacterioFiles 349 - Magnet Microbes Make Millivolts

Magnetotactic bacteria with
magnetosome chains visible
From: Edouard Alphandéry
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2014.00005

This episode: Bacteria that contain tiny magnets can generate an electric current!

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Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Mamastrovirus 2

Journal Paper:
Smit B.A., Van Zyl E., Joubert J.J., Meyer W., Prévéral S., Lefèvre C.T., Venter S.N. 2018. Magnetotactic bacteria used to generate electricity based on Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction. Lett Appl Microbiol 66:362–367.

Other interesting stories:

• Deep-sea fangly fishes have tight relationship with their light-producing bacteria

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BacterioFiles 348 - Huge Host Hackers Have Historic Histones

Marseillevirus
By: Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

This episode: Giant viruses produce DNA-packing proteins that seem to have branched off from eukaryotes far back in evolutionary history!

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Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Caulobacter maris

News item

Journal Paper:
Erives AJ. 2017. Phylogenetic analysis of the core histone doublet and DNA topo II genes of Marseilleviridae: evidence of proto-eukaryotic provenance. Epigenetics & Chromatin 10:55.

Other interesting stories:

Swimming bacteria can affect liquid viscosity, to the point of superfluidity

Tiny soil roundworms can sense and avoid pathogens by their gases

Beetle bacterium makes defensive compound with genes taken from an ocean microbe

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

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BacterioFiles 347 - Adenovirus Adapter Allows Assignment

Virus and shielded virus
Schmid et al, 2018, Nat Commun

This episode: Adding adapters to anti-cancer virus helps it avoid destruction by the body so it can target the tumors!

Thanks to Dr. Andreas Plückthun for his contribution!

Download Episode (7.8 MB, 8.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Tomato leaf curl Vietnam virus

News item

Journal Paper:
Schmid M, Ernst P, Honegger A, Suomalainen M, Zimmermann M, Braun L, Stauffer S, Thom C, Dreier B, Eibauer M, Kipar A, Vogel V, Greber UF, Medalia O, Plückthun A. 2018. Adenoviral vector with shield and adapter increases tumor specificity and escapes liver and immune control. Nat Commun 9:450.

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

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BacterioFiles 346 - Prokaryote Prey Plug Picoalgae

Alga (C) with bacterial prey (P)
By: Kamennaya et al,
PLOS Biol 2018

This episode: Very small ocean algae consume bacterial prey of a similar size to themselves by engulfing them only partially!

Download Episode (8.9 MB, 9.7 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Bradyrhizobium japonicum

Journal Paper:
Kamennaya NA, Kennaway G, Fuchs BM, Zubkov MV. 2018. “Pomacytosis”—Semi-extracellular phagocytosis of cyanobacteria by the smallest marine algae. PLOS Biol 16:e2003502.

Other interesting stories:

Using nanomagnets to control quorum sensing by pulling bacteria together (paper)

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

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BacterioFiles 345 - Super Sonic Cell Sacs

Anabaena flos-aquae,
a source for gas vesicle genes

This episode: Protein bags of gas in bacteria could help make ultrasound imaging more versatile!

Download Episode (7.6 MB, 8.25 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Cronobacter virus Esp2949-1

News item

Journal Paper:
Bourdeau RW, Lee-Gosselin A, Lakshmanan A, Farhadi A, Kumar SR, Nety SP, Shapiro MG. 2018. Acoustic reporter genes for noninvasive imaging of microorganisms in mammalian hosts. Nature 553:86–90.

Other interesting stories:

Laxatives shown very disruptive to gut microbes in mice

Evidence not good that probiotics can reduce anxiety in people

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

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Episode outline: