457 - Small Cell Studies: Superior Scoops

Plant microbiome
By KMG Dastogeera et al.
CC BY-SA 4.0

This episode: Newspapers report on scientific studies about microbiomes a fair amount, but certain kinds of studies are more likely than others to show up in the news!

Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Cafeteriavirus-dependent mavirus

Takeaways

Research into the human microbiome has generated a lot of interest, even among non-scientists. This is especially true since the beginning of the Human Microbiome Project in 2007. But sometimes things are lost in translation from published studies into general news.

This study is a survey of microbiome studies reported in six different news sources from three different countries, either general news or business news. General news did a better job reporting on different kinds of microbiome studies proportionally, but certain kinds of studies were reported on proportionally more or less frequently than they were published.

Journal Paper:
Prados-Bo A, Casino G. 2021. Microbiome research in general and business newspapers: How many microbiome articles are published and which study designs make the news the most? PLOS ONE 16:e0249835.

Other interesting stories:

• Gut microbes in C-section babies can be similar to non-surgical births after several years

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

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456 - Invader Induces Increased Immensity

Sulfolobus infected
with STSV1
By Xiangyux
From Wikipedia

This episode: A virus of archaea stops cells from dividing, so they just keep getting bigger and releasing more viruses!

Download Episode (6.9 MB, 10.1 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces caelestis

Takeaways

Viruses affect their hosts many different ways: instant hostile takeover of cellular machinery, lurking unseen in the genome for generations, inducing reduced cell division or excessive cell division, and more. Archaeal viruses are relatively unknown in their genetic abilities and lifestyles, but we do know that they tend not to destroy their hosts through explosive viral reproduction, and that some archaea have eukaryote-like cell cycle phases.

In this study, some viruses infecting a thermophilic archaeon interrupt its cycle in the growth phase, so hosts expand in size up to around 17 times normal, continuously releasing new viruses over time. Eventually some archaea in the population gain resistance to the viruses via their CRISPR/Cas systems, and normal-sized cells dominate the population again.

Journal Paper:
Liu J, Cvirkaite-Krupovic V, Baquero DP, Yang Y, Zhang Q, Shen Y, Krupovic M. 2021. Virus-induced cell gigantism and asymmetric cell division in archaea. Proc Natl Acad Sci 118:e2022578118.

Other interesting stories:

• Chocolate is a fermented food

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

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455 - Marine Microbes Make Megapascal Management Molecule

Myroides profundi
By Qin et al. 2021,
Sci Adv 7:eabf9941
CC BY-NC 4.0

This episode, in honor of World Ocean Day: Bacteria that may move between high and low pressure areas in the ocean use a particular molecule to protect their cells from being crushed!

Download Episode (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Rickettsia rickettsii

News item

Takeaways

Life in the ocean can have many challenges, depending on the organism and where it lives. Microbes can be found in almost every region, from the warmest to coldest, brightest to darkest, and shallowest to deepest. Sometimes microbes are carried from shallow to deep regions, where the weight of so much water causes immense pressure, which can inhibit cellular structural integrity and function. So life in the deep sea must have ways to deal with this pressure to survive. In this study, bacteria transform a fairly common chemical into a molecule that cushions and protects their cellular structures from the effects of high pressure, allowing them to survive lower down than they would otherwise.

Journal Paper:
Qin Q-L, Wang Z-B, Su H-N, Chen X-L, Miao J, Wang X-J, Li C-Y, Zhang X-Y, Li P-Y, Wang M, Fang J, Lidbury I, Zhang W, Zhang X-H, Yang G-P, Chen Y, Zhang Y-Z. 2021. Oxidation of trimethylamine to trimethylamine N -oxide facilitates high hydrostatic pressure tolerance in a generalist bacterial lineage. Sci Adv 7:eabf9941.

Other interesting stories:

• Engineering microbes to produce petroleum product precursor isoprene

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

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, or RSS. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.