This episode: In this partnership between fungus and algae, the algae eventually take up residence inside their partner! Download Episode (8.4 MB, 12.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Erwinia tracheiphila News item / Summary article Takeaways Partnerships and cooperation between otherwise free-living organisms is common in the natural world. Partnering with a photosynthetic organism is a smart approach, allowing the partner to get its energy from the sun and making gathering nutrien...
Nov 04, 2019•12 min•Ep. 401
This episode: Figuring out how gut communities change with changes in diet! Download Episode (6.1 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Hepacivirus A News item Takeaways Diet can play a big role in our health. It's not a magic pill that can cure or prevent anything, but a good diet can significantly reduce many health risks for the average person, compared with a bad diet. Diet also has a big effect on the community of microbes in our gut, and this may play a role in the health ef...
Oct 21, 2019•9 min•Ep. 400
This episode: Bacteria can aide the production of the useful material graphene, using their ability to add electrons to external surfaces! Download Episode (7.7 MB, 11.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brevibacterium frigoritolerans News item Takeaways Advanced materials often take advanced techniques to create, but they offer numerous benefits: increased strength and flexibility, smaller size, more options. One such material is graphene, which is basically a sheet of carbon atoms l...
Oct 14, 2019•11 min•Ep. 399
This episode: Bacteria found in the guts of serious athletes help mice exercise longer by transforming their metabolic waste! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Aggregatibacter ( Actinobacillus ) actinomycetemcomitans News item Takeaways Our gut microbes affect many aspects of health, and many aspects of how we live affect our microbes. One such aspect is physical exertion, which has been associated with enrichment of various microbes in the guts of athle...
Oct 07, 2019•11 min•Ep. 398
This episode: Plants stimulate their root bacteria to compete better, and these bacteria help the plants resist disease! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bacillus circulans Takeaways In some ways, plants' roots are like our gut. They both absorb nutrients, and they both have complex communities of microbes living alongside the host cells. These microbes can assist their hosts in various ways, and get fed in return. In this study, one species of root bac...
Sep 30, 2019•11 min•Ep. 397
This episode: Bacterial enzymes could convert donated blood to be compatible with more people in need! Download Episode (8.0 MB, 11.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Cucumber leaf spot virus News item Takeaways Blood transfusions using donated blood save many lives. Unfortunately, most donations can't be given to just anyone that needs blood; there must be a match in blood type between donor and recipient, or else a life-threatening reaction could occur in the recipient's body. So t...
Sep 23, 2019•12 min•Ep. 396
This episode: Five different ways of thinking about our relationship with our microbes! Download Episode (20.4 MB, 29.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Tuhoko rubulavirus 3 News item Takeaways The microbiome by itself is an amazingly complicated community of many different species, with different lifestyles and metabolisms, all living together in competition and cooperation. On top of that, interactions between the microbiome and our body and our lifestyle multiply the complexity ev...
Sep 16, 2019•30 min•Ep. 395
This episode: Not as simple as it sounds—how rod-shaped bacteria maintain their shape! Thanks to Dr. Ethan Garner for his contribution! Download Episode (6.3 MB, 9.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Erwinia virus M7 News item Takeaways Microbes seem like they should be a lot simpler than large multicellular organisms, but even what seems like it should be a simple system in microbes can be surprisingly complex. In this case, the system bacteria maintaining their particular cell shape...
Aug 26, 2019•9 min•Ep. 394
This episode: Bacterial symbionts of amoebas help them survive bacterial infection, and prevent pathogens from spreading to others as much! Download Episode (7.5 MB, 8.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Eubacterium dolichum News item Takeaways Amoebas are free-living, single-celled organisms, but they have some things in common with some cells of our immune system (macrophages). For example, certain bacterial pathogens can infect both in similar ways. So it can be useful to study the...
Aug 12, 2019•8 min•Ep. 393
This episode: A marine protist can orient itself along magnetic fields thanks to bacterial symbionts on its surface that make magnetic nanoparticles! Download Episode (7.2 MB, 7.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Chlorocebus pygerythrus polyomavirus 3 Takeaways Various kinds of bacteria can orient their movement along a magnetic field. These are called magnetotactic, and they use this ability to swim toward or away from the surface of their aquatic habitat, to adjust their oxygen exp...
Aug 05, 2019•8 min•Ep. 392
