Matters Microbial #95: Bacteria and Aphids — A Symbiotic Story June 12, 2025

Today, Dr. Tory Hendry, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Cornell University, joins the #QualityQuorum to tell us about the relationship between plant munching aphids and fluorescent Pseudomonas . . . and why we should care.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guests: Tory Hendry

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Links for this episode

• An overview of siderophores in microorganisms.
• An essay about aphid life cycle and characteristics.
• An article describing parthenogenesis in aphids.
• An essay describing aphids and color vision.
• The agricultural costs of aphids as pests.
• An article describing aphids and one type of bacterial symbiont.
• An overview of microbes of the phyllosphere.
• An overview of quorum sensing.
• An overview of pyoverdin, a fluorescent siderophore. 
• An old essay I wrote for the Small Things Considered blog about semiochemicals, bacterial, and insect predation.
• A nice description of the work Dr. Hendry talked about during today’s podcast. 
• The actual article by Dr. Hendry and collaborators.
• A preprint by Dr. Hendry’s research group, following up on the above research. 
• Dr. Hendry’s faculty website.
• Dr. Hendry’s research group website (with SO MANY cool projects to think about, including the topic discussed today).

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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