Microbiology

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Engineering a phage's DNA by introducing modified CRISPR-Cas machinery genes

Bacteriophages (or phages) are viruses that infect bacteria. They are the most abundant biological entity, and they can be found wherever bacteria live. To propagate themselves, phages inject their DNA into their bacterial hosts.

13 Feb 2023

New models provide better understanding of how life originated

The first signs of life emerged on Earth in the form of microbes about four billion years ago. While scientists are still determining exactly when and how these microbes appeared, it's clear that the emergence of life is intricately intertwined with the chemical and physical characteristics of early Earth.

13 Feb 2023

Specific types of gut fungi play a role in infant weight gain and growth

Researchers in the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) at the University of Calgary in collaboration with the Canadian CHILD Study have found a link between the diversity, or number, of fungal species in the infant gut and the body-mass index (BMI) of infants.

10 Feb 2023

Differences in the gut microbiomes of people with ME/CFS revealed

Discrepancies in the gut microbiomes of people having myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) than those of healthy controls have been disclosed by newly performed research.

9 Feb 2023

Licorice leaf extract: A potential plant protectant for traditional and organic farming

Pesticides are successful in defending crop yield against plant infections, but the ecological damage to nontarget organisms has led to a struggle between conventional and organic farming methods.

9 Feb 2023

New arsenal in the fight against superbugs

RMIT scientists have created a new type of antibiotic that can be rapidly re-engineered to avoid resistance by dangerous superbugs.

8 Feb 2023

Epigenetic editing to improve crops

One of the most significant crops in the tropics, cassava, provides food for 500 million people in more than 80 countries. The destructive disease known as cassava bacterial blight (CBB) results in crop losses all across the world.

8 Feb 2023

Understanding how tiny organisms thrive after wildfires

UC Riverside researchers have identified tiny organisms that not only survive but thrive during the first year after a wildfire. The findings could help bring land back to life after fires that are increasing in both size and severity.

8 Feb 2023

Analyzing the evolution of model organisms

A model organism used in laboratories for the past 100 years has evolved so extensively that it may no longer be fit for purpose.

8 Feb 2023

Protein that facilitates cancer-causing viruses dodge the immune system

Numerous cancers have been related to the viruses Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). For the first time, UNC School of Medicine researchers have shown that these viruses elude the innate immune response by using a human protein called barrier-to-autointegration factor 1, or BAF, which enables the viruses to propagate and cause disease.

7 Feb 2023

Researchers decipher how common environmental bacterium can digest complex waste

A common environmental bacterium, Comamonas testosteroni, could someday become nature's plastic recycling center.

7 Feb 2023

Chemosynthesis fuels ocean microbes in the darkest depths

A world first study reverses the idea that the bulk of life in the ocean is fuelled by photosynthesis via sunshine, revealing that many ocean microbes in fact get their energy from hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

7 Feb 2023

Keanumycins: An alternative in the fight against resistant fungi

Pseudomonas bacteria produce a potent antimicrobial natural product, according to scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI).

7 Feb 2023

Countering climate change with nanowires produced by bacteria

Rapid climate change poses a serious and immediate threat to life on Earth. As atmospheric methane traps heat 30 times more effectively than CO2, temperatures are rising as a result.

3 Feb 2023

Non-immunosuppressive strategy mitigates immune-mediated intestinal diseases

The severity of immune-mediated intestinal diseases like graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) or inflammatory bowel disease is known to be associated with changes in the gut microbiome, but what causes such disruption in the microbial community is unknown.

3 Feb 2023

Microbiome therapeutic linked to quality of life improvement in patients with recurrent C. diff infection

Kevin Garey, professor of pharmacy practice and translational research at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy is reporting the first well-controlled study to demonstrate that a microbiome therapeutic, SER-109, is associated with significant quality of life improvement in patients with the debilitating recurrent infection and disease caused by Clostridium difficile (or C. diff).

1 Feb 2023