BacterioFiles 257 - Phage Fibers Fight Phyllosphere Foes

Bacteria-killing tail fibers
Hockett et al. 2015

This episode: Bacteria have repeatedly captured and used the tails of phages to fight each other!
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Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Hockett KL, Renner T, Baltrus DA. 2015. Independent Co-Option of a Tailed Bacteriophage into a Killing Complex in Pseudomonas. mBio 6:e00452-15.

Other interesting stories:

Bacterial immune system can make plants resistant to viruses

Viruses are (usually) tiny but interesting

Gut microbes may have surprising effects on our behavior

Engineering viruses to use quantum effects for better solar cells

Probiotic bacteria could help with Type 2 diabetes (paper)

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BacterioFiles 256 - Virus Versus Virus

This episode: Viruses can cause host cells to inhibit other viruses!
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Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Chiba S, Suzuki N. 2015. Highly activated RNA silencing via strong induction of dicer by one virus can interfere with the replication of an unrelated virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112:E4911–E4918.

Other interesting stories:

Rotating crops helps maintain healthy soil microbe communities

Phages can control contamination in biofuel fermentation (paper)

Bacteria actually living in wheat plants affect sourdough bread (paper)

Fecal transplants of communities can overcome most drug-resistant infections

Finding bacteria that can help plants grow (paper)

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BacterioFiles 255 - Colonizer Controls Carrier Cultivation

Amoeba spores with bacteria inside
DiSalvo et al. 2015

This episode: Some bacteria seem to cause slime mold amoebas to carry around other bacteria for food!
Download Episode (12.4 MB, 13.5 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
DiSalvo S, Haselkorn TS, Bashir U, Jimenez D, Brock DA, Queller DC, Strassmann JE. 2015. Burkholderia bacteria infectiously induce the proto-farming symbiosis of Dictyostelium amoebae and food bacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112:E5029–E5037.

Other interesting stories:

Fish oil vs. lard affect gut microbes differently

Engineered mix of engineered bacteria produce controlled oscillations

Mutation and selection makes better biomass-degrading enzymes

Antibodies can be produced inside bacteria (paper)

Fungus can be used to kill mosquitoes (paper)

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BacterioFiles 254 - Clostridium Consolidates Combustibles Conversion

This episode: Engineering bacteria to convert cellulose directly into useful biofuels and chemicals can be tricky!
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Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Lin PP, Mi L, Morioka AH, Yoshino KM, Konishi S, Xu SC, Papanek BA, Riley LA, Guss AM, Liao JC. 2015. Consolidated bioprocessing of cellulose to isobutanol using Clostridium thermocellum. Metab Eng 31:44–52.

Other interesting stories:

Cute photosynthetic protist could do interesting metabolic processes

Using advanced technique to link antibiotic production to specific beewolf microbes

Termite gut protist has bacterial symbiont that fixes carbon and nitrogen (paper)

Geography and household members influence fungi and bacteria of home dust

Probiotic ineffective at preventing colonization by drug-resistant pathogens

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

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BacterioFiles 253 - Probiotics Promote Protective Pathway

This episode: In mice and fruit flies, Lactobacillus species induce gut cells to protect themselves from reactive oxygen compounds!

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Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Jones, R. M. et al. Lactobacilli Modulate Epithelial Cytoprotection through the Nrf2 Pathway. Cell Reports 12, 1217–1225 (2015).

Other interesting stories:

Gut microbes in mice help prevent development of diabetes

Bacteria could degrade nicotine to help people quit smoking

Even dead probiotic bacteria protect nematodes against pathogens (paper)

Discovery of TNT-degrading yeast for bioremediation

Engineered yeast can produce opioids

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

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BacterioFiles 252 - Small Cells Supervise Circadian Cycles

This episode: In mice, high-fat diets affect their gut microbes, which in turn disrupts their circadian cycles and metabolic health!

Download Episode (8.6 MB, 9.35 minutes)

Show notes:
News item
Journal Paper:
Leone, V. et al. Effects of Diurnal Variation of Gut Microbes and High-Fat Feeding on Host Circadian Clock Function and Metabolism. Cell Host and Microbe 17, 681–689 (2015).

Other related news item/paper

Other interesting stories:

Fungi could help clean up lead pollution (paper)

Fungi growing on rocks in driest desert (paper)

Probiotic bacterium inhibited pathogenic bacteria in chickens (paper)

Bacteria survive just from very small amounts of hydrogen

Developing ways to monitor microbial catalysts

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

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BacterioFiles 251 - Mycophagous Myrmicinae Mutualist Microbes

This episode: Gut bacteria seem to help ants with very restrictive diets flourish more!

Download Episode (10.6 MB, 11.5 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Sapountzis, P. et al. Acromyrmex Leaf-Cutting Ants Have Simple Gut Microbiota with Nitrogen-Fixing Potential. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 81, 5527–5537 (2015).

Other interesting stories:

Engineering yeast to talk to each other chemically

Root bacteria could protect cocoa plants from pathogen (paper)

Microbes important for stress response when mice separated from mother (paper)

Bacteria produce antibiotics to compete with rivals in soil

Insect pests of cabbage have detoxifying gut microbes too (paper)

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

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