Microbiology

Creating A Global Genome- The Metagenome Of Intestinal Microbiota

An international research team has developed a new method to analyze the global genome, or the metagenome of the intestinal microbiota. The intestinal microbiota is all the bacteria found in the digestive tract.  The metagenome corresponds to all the gene ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2014 - 8:39am

Fungus In Chobani Greek Yogurt Outbreak A Threat To Consumers

In September of 2013, customers of Chobani brand Greek yogurt complained of gastrointestinal problems after consuming products manufactured in the company's Idaho plant. The company issued a recall and claimed that the fungal contaminant Murcor circi ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 8 2014 - 9:34am

Volvox Carteri: What Transgender Algae Reveal About The Evolutionary Origin Of The Sexes

There is nothing more natural than sexes. Throughout evolution, living things have repeatedly developed physically distinct genders but how this happens has been a puzzle. A discovery in the multicellular green alga Volvox carteri may be the revelation of ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 4:30am

Is Ranavirus Behind Frog Population Declines?

In some parts of the world, amphibian numbers are in decline. Activists are quick to blame everything from fracking to pesticides for reduced numbers of some frogs, but scientists have linked it to an emerging fungal disease called chytridiomycosis. New r ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 12:35pm

Sometimes Good Gut Bacteria Get Sick

We all know what happens to us when we get sick, but at least we have a microbiota to protect us. What happens when those ecosystem bacteria colonizing our guts gets hit with infection? A new computational models showed how infection can affect bacteria t ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 11 2014 - 6:31pm

Personalized Antibiotics Could Leverage The Neat Trick Bacteria Play On Us

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is rightfully concerned that the U.S. faces “potentially catastrophic consequences” from the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant infections, which kill about 23,000 Americans a year. One solution is persona ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 14 2014 - 3:00am

What Disease Killed This 700-year-old Skeleton?

Using shotgun metagenomics to sequence DNA from a calcified nodule in the pelvic region of a 700-year-old middle-aged male skeleton excavated from the settlement of Geridu in Sardinia, European researchers have recovered a genome of the bacterium Brucella ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 15 2014 - 3:30am

The Three Important Bacteria And Fungi Living On Your Cheese

After studying 137 varieties of cheese collected in 10 different countries, systems biologists at Harvard University have been able to identify three general types of microbial communities that live on cheese, opening the door to using each as a "mod ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2014 - 4:00am

Newly Found Gut Virus CrAssphage In Half The World's Population

A newly discovered gut virus, crAssphage, probably isn't new at all, it was just discovered. But it's in half the world's population, according to estimates.  A new paper in Nature Communications says crAssphage infects one of the most comm ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 24 2014 - 10:01am

Not Just Wine: Sake Brewery Has Its Own Microbial Terroir

A sake brewery has its own microbial terroir, meaning the microbial populations found on surfaces in the facility resemble those found in the product and help create the final flavor. This is the first time investigators have taken a microbial census of a ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 24 2014 - 6:00pm