This episode: Vaccinating mice with heat-killed soil bacteria reduced their stressed behavior and inflammation!

Download Episode (9.8 MB, 10.7 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Reber SO, Siebler PH, Donner NC, Morton JT, Smith DG, Kopelman JM, Lowe KR, Wheeler KJ, Fox JH, Hassell JE, Greenwood BN, Jansch C, Lechner A, Schmidt D, Uschold-Schmidt N, Füchsl AM, Langgartner D, Walker FR, Hale MW, Perez GL, Treuren WV, González A, Halweg-Edwards AL, Fleshner M, Raison CL, Rook GA, Peddada SD, Knight R, Lowry CA. 2016. Immunization with a heat-killed preparation of the environmental bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae promotes stress resilience in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113:E3130–E3139.

Other interesting stories:

• Art with glowing bacteria
• Making good bacterial tumor killers (paper)
• It's worth considering plants' microbes in addition to their genes (review)
• Virus affects how bees are attracted to plants
• Finding new biofuels algae in wastewater (paper)

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Vaccinating mice with heat-killed soil bacteria reduced their stressed behavior and inflammation!

Download Episode (9.8 MB, 10.7 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Reber SO, Siebler PH, Donner NC, Morton JT, Smith DG, Kopelman JM, Lowe KR, Wheeler KJ, Fox JH, Hassell JE, Greenwood BN, Jansch C, Lechner A, Schmidt D, Uschold-Schmidt N, Füchsl AM, Langgartner D, Walker FR, Hale MW, Perez GL, Treuren WV, González A, Halweg-Edwards AL, Fleshner M, Raison CL, Rook GA, Peddada SD, Knight R, Lowry CA. 2016. Immunization with a heat-killed preparation of the environmental bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae promotes stress resilience in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113:E3130–E3139.

Other interesting stories:

• Art with glowing bacteria
• Making good bacterial tumor killers (paper)
• It's worth considering plants' microbes in addition to their genes (review)
• Virus affects how bees are attracted to plants
• Finding new biofuels algae in wastewater (paper)

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Microbes with complementary abilities help each other grow and produce useful stuff from the air!

Download Episode (12 MB, 13.2 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Smith MJ, Francis MB. 2016. A designed A. vinelandii-S. elongatus coculture for chemical photoproduction from air, water, phosphate and trace metals. ACS Synth Biol 5:955–961.

Other interesting stories:

• Bypass surgery might fix diabetes by modifying gut community
• Using bacteria to make wrinkly graphene with different properties
• Figuring out what controls where microbes live in plants
• Gut bacteria maybe related to rheumatoid arthritis
• Gut bacteria maybe related to multiple sclerosis

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Microbes with complementary abilities help each other grow and produce useful stuff from the air!

Download Episode (12 MB, 13.2 minutes)

Show notes:
Journal Paper:
Smith MJ, Francis MB. 2016. A designed A. vinelandii-S. elongatus coculture for chemical photoproduction from air, water, phosphate and trace metals. ACS Synth Biol 5:955–961.

Other interesting stories:

• Bypass surgery might fix diabetes by modifying gut community
• Using bacteria to make wrinkly graphene with different properties
• Figuring out what controls where microbes live in plants
• Gut bacteria maybe related to rheumatoid arthritis
• Gut bacteria maybe related to multiple sclerosis

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Microbes in tight spaces grow so much they can build up pressure and burst out!

Download Episode (5.5 MB, 6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Video: cells expanding walls of chamber
Video: cells squished together
Video: cells bursting out of chamber

Journal Paper:
Delarue M, Hartung J, Schreck C, Gniewek P, Hu L, Herminghaus S, Hallatschek O. 2016. Self-driven jamming in growing microbial populations. Nat Phys 12:762–766.

Other interesting stories:

• Fungi can infect and kill mosquito larvae
• Buildings could enhance our encountering beneficial microbes
• Bacteria could generate micro amounts of power
• Microbes could help improve food supply (paper)
• Modified E. coli can produce more useful fuels, chemicals

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Microbes in tight spaces grow so much they can build up pressure and burst out!

Download Episode (5.5 MB, 6 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Video: cells expanding walls of chamber
Video: cells squished together
Video: cells bursting out of chamber

Journal Paper:
Delarue M, Hartung J, Schreck C, Gniewek P, Hu L, Herminghaus S, Hallatschek O. 2016. Self-driven jamming in growing microbial populations. Nat Phys 12:762–766.

Other interesting stories:

• Fungi can infect and kill mosquito larvae
• Buildings could enhance our encountering beneficial microbes
• Bacteria could generate micro amounts of power
• Microbes could help improve food supply (paper)
• Modified E. coli can produce more useful fuels, chemicals

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Fungi control their cell's growth and division with a protein from a virus, unlike all other kinds of eukaryote!

Download Episode (8.9 MB, 9.75 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Medina EM, Turner JJ, Gordân R, Skotheim JM, Buchler NE. 2016. Punctuated evolution and transitional hybrid network in an ancestral cell cycle of fungi. eLife 5:e09492.

Other interesting stories:

• Certain starch may help improve gut community
• Gut bacteria could control insect pests
• Pathogen produces anti-microbial compounds (paper)
• Phage feeds on host bacterium's RNA
• Studying tiny archaea from Yellowstone

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Fungi control their cell's growth and division with a protein from a virus, unlike all other kinds of eukaryote!

Download Episode (8.9 MB, 9.75 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Medina EM, Turner JJ, Gordân R, Skotheim JM, Buchler NE. 2016. Punctuated evolution and transitional hybrid network in an ancestral cell cycle of fungi. eLife 5:e09492.

Other interesting stories:

• Certain starch may help improve gut community
• Gut bacteria could control insect pests
• Pathogen produces anti-microbial compounds (paper)
• Phage feeds on host bacterium's RNA
• Studying tiny archaea from Yellowstone

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Some fungi change from making plants sick to being helpful to plants! How do plants react to them?

Download Episode (8.1 MB, 8.8 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Hacquard S, Kracher B, Hiruma K, Münch PC, Garrido-Oter R, Thon MR, Weimann A, Damm U, Dallery J-F, Hainaut M, Henrissat B, Lespinet O, Sacristán S, Themaat EVL van, Kemen E, McHardy AC, Schulze-Lefert P, O’Connell RJ. 2016. Survival trade-offs in plant roots during colonization by closely related beneficial and pathogenic fungi. Nat Commun 7:11362.

Other interesting stories:

• New E. coli can tolerate different stages of biofuel production
• Microbes can protect each other from toxins such as antibiotics
• Even grains can benefit from nitrogen-fixing bacteria (paper)
• Ninja star bacterial disposable battery
• Evolving E. coli to fix CO2 (when given very rich food source)

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook

This episode: Some fungi change from making plants sick to being helpful to plants! How do plants react to them?

Download Episode (8.1 MB, 8.8 minutes)

Show notes:
News item

Journal Paper:
Hacquard S, Kracher B, Hiruma K, Münch PC, Garrido-Oter R, Thon MR, Weimann A, Damm U, Dallery J-F, Hainaut M, Henrissat B, Lespinet O, Sacristán S, Themaat EVL van, Kemen E, McHardy AC, Schulze-Lefert P, O’Connell RJ. 2016. Survival trade-offs in plant roots during colonization by closely related beneficial and pathogenic fungi. Nat Commun 7:11362.

Other interesting stories:

• New E. coli can tolerate different stages of biofuel production
• Microbes can protect each other from toxins such as antibiotics
• Even grains can benefit from nitrogen-fixing bacteria (paper)
• Ninja star bacterial disposable battery
• Evolving E. coli to fix CO2 (when given very rich food source)

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

Subscribe at iTunes or Google Play, support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook