BacterioFiles 222 - Cells Store Solar Sparks

The setup. Torella et al. 2015

This episode: Bacteria engineered to produce liquid fuel can eat carbon dioxide and hydrogen from solar-powered water-splitting!

Download Episode (11.2 MB, 12.25 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Some bugs need their vitamin-producing microbes, but kill them to harvest the vitamins

How specific gut microbes influence immune system (paper)

Bacteria used to produce various food ingredients

Bacteria could produce polyester beads that bind specific proteins (paper)

Rainforest bacteria could help plants grow better in poorer soil (paper)

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

BacterioFiles 221 - Co-culture Close Contact, Cats, and Cockerels

More related than some bacteria

This episode: More distantly related bacteria can help each other grow (and produce lots of hydrogen) by temporarily fusing with each other!

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Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Bacterial close contact

Note: I said C. acetobutylicum was used in WWII to make acetone for bombs, but it was actually World War I, used to make cordite, a replacement for gunpowder.

Other interesting stories:

Gut microbes can affect brain's defensive barrier in mice

Getting E. coli to produce higher amounts of nice-smelling biofuel compounds

Using fungi to control avocado-damaging pests

Bacterial proteins used to modify human cells' immune signaling (paper)

Worm gut bacteria could help degrade plastic waste

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 220 - Coliforms Cooperate by Conduit

Tubes!
Pande el al. 2015

This episode: Bacteria can connect to each other with tiny tubes to exchange nutrients!

Download Episode (10 MB, 10.9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/News item 2/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

If society collapsed, we could eat microbes

Archaea could produce useful antibacterials too

Tree-killing diseases can help forests be more diverse

Animals have taken the genes bacteria use to poison each other

Viruses can sometimes survive frozen for centuries (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 219 - Fungi Facilitate Photosynthetic Fuels

Fungal mycelium
Image credit: Roslyn Noar

This episode: Fungi can act like sticky nets to help harvest algae for biofuels!

Download Episode (8.3 MB, 9 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Bacteria produce substance that could control harmful algal blooms (paper)

Bacterial proteins in gut can protect mice from rotavirus

Beware of contamination in microbial sequence survey studies

Passionate kissing can transfer a lot of bacteria (not always a bad thing)

Mouse virus can act like gut bacteria in maintaining gut health

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 218 - Parasitoids Pass Protective Prokaryotes

Such a cute parasitoid
Arrows indicate Wolbachia
Ahmed et al. 2015

This episode: Parasitoid wasps spread helpful bacterial symbionts between their whitefly prey!

Download Episode (10.9 MB, 11.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Making magnetic bacteria do a dance (w/ video)

Viruses have influenced evolution and genetics of plants, including wine grapes

Deep-sea fungus produces potentially useful chemicals (paper)

Effective genetic modification of fungi could lead to useful biotech processes

Microbe-shaped (though not microbe-flavored) popsicles

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 217 - Fungus Fortifies Fly Food

This episode: Fruit flies have microbes that help them get more nutrition out of low-quality food!

Download Episode (8.4 MB, 9.1 minutes)

Show notes:
News item/Journal Paper

Other interesting stories:

Strategies for treating infections without antibiotics

Increased interest in microbes for agriculture

Our genetics seem to affect our gut microbiota

Algae farm over highway consumes CO₂ from cars

Fly bacteria engineered to prevent sleeping sickness tranmission (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 Special - ASM2015

Here's my summary of ASM2015, an exciting weekend full of science.

Download Episode (11.5 MB, 12.5 minutes)

The convention center in NOLA

Bird in a bayou

Not solid ground

Your host

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

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