Matters Microbial #10: Bacterial fight club

Today Dr. David Baltrus, Associate Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona, talks with us about how his laboratory studies bacteria that battle one another; the first rule of this fight club is that EVERYONE talks about Microbial Fight Club.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: David Baltrus

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• Here is a wonderful and easy to read essay about bacterial predators, including Bdellovibrio, from Scientific American.
• “2001:  A Space Odyssey” remains an important motion picture.
• The animated movie “The Iron Giant” is entertaining and has important messages. 
• Kaitlin Kariko, Drew Weissman, and the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
• Jo Handelsman’s wonderful “Tiny Earth” program, helping students to search for new antibiotic producing bacteria.  
• Elio Schaechter’s absolutely essential guide/view of the changing microbial landscape in terms of organizing our knowledge.
• A nice introductory review of tailocins.
• A more exhaustive review of talocins.
• A really interesting article on this topic—and how tailocins might be used in agriculture— from Dr. Baltrus’ laboratory.
• Dr. Baltrus’ laboratory website can be found here.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to mattersmicrobial@gmail.com