BacterioFiles 184 - Fungus Friends Fabricate Fragrance

This episode: Truffle's microbiome helps produce its attractive aromas!

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Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Microbes in lungs (of mice) seem to help reduce inflammation

Link between early antibiotics and asthma may be just correlations with genetics

Pancreatic cancer might be detectable by changes in mouth bacteria

Understanding pandas' gut bacteria could help us help them

Native microbes on grape leaves can resist pesticide treatments (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 183 - Simplex-Sick Stem Cell Salve

This episode: Cancer-killing viruses could work even better when loaded into stem cells!

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Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Many genes can be swapped in area around fungal mycelia (paper)

Fungus could help control invasive tree species

Dust storms can have effects by spreading fungal spores (paper)

Hand bacteria differ between people in different places

Microbiome manipulation seems to be rising as a medical treatment

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 182 - Chloroplast Colonizers' Contradictory Conflicts

This episode: BacterioFiles teams up with The Plant Pathology Podcast to talk about how microbes living in plants sometimes team up with the plants, sometimes with plant pathogens!

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Show notes:
Journal Paper
Lee et al. 2009 paper: Fusarium sometimes prevents corn smut

Other interesting stories:

Deep-sea vent viruses sabotage cell storage

Bacteria probably could survive accidental trip to Mars

Microbes that survive in petroleum could do well in other harsh processes

Many cyanobacteria produce potentially useful antifungal compounds (paper) (paper)

Poor agricultural practices may reduce soil microbe diversity (paper)

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

Scientists for Science

My interests here mostly are not focused on research directly relating to infectious diseases and pathogens, but I do think this research is worth doing, worth funding, and worth talking about. Pathogens can be just as fascinating as any other microbe, if not sometimes more so.

However, in light of certain recent research that has had a high potential for shock value (such as modifying bird flu to be transmitted easily between ferrets), there has some talk of restricting the kinds of research that should be done on potentially dangerous emerging pathogens (or, in the case of smallpox, almost obsolete ones).

The hosts of This Week in Virology have discussed this issue a great deal recently, and I agree with them that great care must be taken when putting in place these sorts of restrictions. The risks of such research are generally known and minimized by the regulations we already have in place (only working in BSL-3 and -4 conditions, for example), whereas the benefits are unknown and could be very great, even beyond the question of how to treat or prevent the disease being studied. The results of basic science are unpredictable.

So what is needed is not gut reactions to the issue, but careful, serious, considered conversation. If you feel the same way, whether you're a scientist or not, you can show your support by visiting www.scientistsforscience.org (founded by the TWiV team, I believe) and by spreading the word.

BacterioFiles 181 - Spore-formers Smash Salmonella's Solanum Strongholds

This episode: Soil bacteria could help prevent food poisoning from bacteria in raw tomatoes!

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Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Life history correlates with gut communities, sometimes expected and sometimes not

Single bacterial species can consume multiple different organic gases

Skin bacteria may affect how wounds heal

Microbes kill frog-killing fungi

Algae can use many wavelengths of light that plants cannot

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 180 - Phage Functions Fight Fortifications

This episode: Some phages can fight back against bacterial defenses with recently discovered genes!

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Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Antibiotic treatment of certain bacterial disease associated with weight gain

Knowing what is a healthy microbiome is tricky

Knowing how the microbiome is related to obesity is tricky

Genes for antibiotics in fungi could have come from bacteria

Antibiotics could disrupt newborns' adaptation to microbes

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

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This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.

BacterioFiles 179 - Functionless Phages Feel Fatiguing

This episode: Defective phages in bacterial genomes can still have burdensome effects! Why do the bacteria keep them around?

Download Episode (10.4 MB, 11.3 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Microbes are essential and important for all life on the planet

Modified virus could treat most dangerous brain cancers

Microbes help inhibit worms that harm plants (paper)

Trying to figure out what gut viruses people had in the 14th century (paper)

Beewolves have close hereditary connection with their bacterial symbionts

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

Subscribe at iTunes, check out the show at Twitter, MicrobeWorld, or Facebook

This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.