Microbiology

White Grain Disorder: Fungi Discovered Behind Wheat Disease

Researchers have unraveled the mystery cause of the emerging wheat disease White Grain Disorder, by isolating three previously undiscovered fungi from infected wheat samples and sequenced their genomes. Australian wheat exports are worth more than $6 bill ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 27 2015 - 6:25am

Fish Oil Diet Versus Gut Microbes

Diets rich in fish oil versus diets rich in lard produce very different bacteria in the guts of mice, reports a study from Sahlgrenska Academy published in Cell Metabolism. The researchers transferred these microbes into other mice to see how they affecte ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 4 2015 - 7:00am

Path Toward A Vaccine Against MRSA

New research has uncovered why a particular strain of Staphylococcus aureus-- known as HA-MRSA-- becomes more deadly than other variations. These new findings open up possible new pathways to vaccine development against this bacterium, which the Centers f ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2015 - 8:00am

Flying? Have Your Lean Cuisine In The Latrine

Every now and then you get a 3-1, 86 mph fastball down the middle of the plate. You just have to swing. This exact pitch was thrown in Washington this week. Not the Nationals. By the Post.  They ran a superbly silly story this week entitled  " The di ...

Article - Josh Bloom - Sep 29 2015 - 3:05pm

Ebola Virus Mutations May Help It Evade Drug Treatment

Genetic mutations called "escape variants" in the deadly Ebola virus appear to block the ability of antibody-based treatments to ward off infection, according to a team of U.S. Army scientists and collaborators. ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2015 - 7:00am

β-glucan-enriched Pasta Boosts Good Gut Bacteria, Reduces Bad Cholesterol

People fed β-glucan-enriched pasta for two months showed increased populations of beneficial bacteria in their intestinal tracts, and reduced populations of non-beneficial bacteria. They also showed reduced LDL (bad) cholesterol. This work is part of a br ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 28 2015 - 8:00am

Pigpen's Cloud: Charlie Brown Fiction Becomes Science Fact

We each give off millions of bacteria from our human microbiome to the air around us every day, and that cloud of bacteria can be traced back to an individual. New research focused on the personal microbial cloud-- the airborne microbes we emit into the a ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 23 2015 - 4:16pm

Drug Disarms Deadly C. Difficile Bacteria Without Destroying Healthy Gut Flora

Scientists successfully defeated a dangerous intestinal pathogen, Clostridium difficile, with a drug targeting its toxins rather than its life. C. difficile is responsible for more than 250,000 hospitalizations and 15,000 deaths per year in the United Sta ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 29 2015 - 7:30am

Are Viruses Alive?

A new analysis leads the authors to advance the belief that viruses are living entities that share a long evolutionary history with cells, based on a method for tracing viral evolution back to a time when neither viruses nor cells existed in the forms rec ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 1 2015 - 8:30am

Root Microbiome Engineering Improves Plant Growth

Humans have been breeding crops until they're bigger and more nutritious since the early days of agriculture, but genetic manipulation isn't the only way to give plants a boost. In a review paper, two integrative biologists present how it is pos ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 1 2015 - 11:00am