Microbiology

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Scientists Uncover Key Plant Metabolite to Block Biofilm Development

If your teeth have ever felt fuzzy after skipping a brushing, you've encountered biofilm-a slimy bacterial layer that clings to surfaces. In medical settings, biofilms make infections harder to treat when they form protective shields for bacteria on devices like catheters and implants.

13 Jan 2025

Fiber Consumption Linked to Reduced Risk of Harmful Gut Bacteria

The group of bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella, E.coli and others, is present at low levels as part of a healthy human gut microbiome.

13 Jan 2025

Study Reveals T Cells as Key Players in Complete Viral Infection Control

Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the Singapore General Hospital have discovered that T cells-white blood cells that can destroy harmful pathogens-can completely prevent viral infection, to an extent previously thought only possible due to neutralizing antibodies.

13 Jan 2025

Multi-Site Effort to Understand Viral Influences on Human Health

For more than ten years, researchers have been investigating the microbiome, the ecosystem of microorganisms that inhabit the body, and its impact on health and disease.

10 Jan 2025

Novel Targets for Modulating the Gut Microbiota and Human Health

Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg have discovered a protein and a class of small ribonucleic acids (sRNAs) in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron that control the metabolism of sugar.

10 Jan 2025

Identifying PRIMER Cells and their Role in Defense Signaling

A diverse population of immune cells that move from one organ to another and react to anything from cuts to colds to cancer is how human bodies protect themselves. However, this luxury is not available to plants.

9 Jan 2025

How Streptomyces Uses Iron to Target Competitor Bacteria

Researchers at Indiana University Bloomington have identified a new mechanism by which bacteria can eliminate their competitors within intricate microbial communities, highlighting innovative strategies to utilize viruses for targeting harmful bacteria.

9 Jan 2025

Zinc Stress Exposes Vulnerabilities in Drug-Resistant Bacteria

McMaster University researchers have identified zinc or the lack of it as a crucial weakness in drug-resistant bacteria.

7 Jan 2025

Bacteria in Lake Mendota Evolve with Changing Seasons

Like Bill Murray in the movie "Groundhog Day," bacteria species in a Wisconsin lake are in a kind of endless loop that they can't seem to shake. Except in this case, it's more like Groundhog Year.

6 Jan 2025

RNA on Plant Leaves May Shape Microbial Interactions

Biologists at Indiana University Bloomington have shown that the surfaces of plant leaves are coated with a diverse array of RNA molecules.

6 Jan 2025

Princeton Engineers Discover How Soil Bacteria Balance Plant Growth and Immunity

To stay healthy, plants balance the energy they put into growing with the amount they use to defend against harmful bacteria.

3 Jan 2025

Uncovering the Cellular Mechanisms of Brain Aging

Not all brain cell types age in the same way, according to new brain mapping research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

2 Jan 2025

New Model for Studying Ebola Virus Pathogenesis

Ebola is a fatal hemorrhagic disease caused by a virus that is found in parts of East-Central and West Africa. Most individuals are aware that the major mode of person-to-person transmission is through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.

2 Jan 2025

Bacterial Protein Enables 2D Culture of Organoids

The Organoid group’s researchers devised a novel method for growing organoids. Organoids are miniature organs that are created in a lab and resemble the original organ.

2 Jan 2025

New Studies Investigate Microbial Interactions and Nutrient Exchange in Soils

Communities of microbes (microbiomes), particularly in soils, can be startlingly diverse, with as many as 10,000 species in just a cup of material.

27 Dec 2024

AI-Designed Nanocages Mimic Intricate Structures of Viruses

Professor Sangmin Lee from POSTECH's Department of Chemical Engineering, in collaboration with 2024 Nobel Chemistry Laureate Professor David Baker from the University of Washington, has developed an innovative therapeutic platform by mimicking the intricate structures of viruses using artificial intelligence (AI).

26 Dec 2024

New Insights into Pseudomonas syringae Toxin’s Impact on Non-Flowering Plants

The capacity of bacteria to spread disease across the Plant Kingdom may be much more widespread than previously suspected, according to new analysis.

20 Dec 2024

Cellular RNA as a Key Modulator of Mitochondrial Antiviral Signaling

Scientists have uncovered a new role for a cell's own RNA in fending off attacks by RNA viruses. Some of the cell's RNA molecules, researchers found, help regulate antiviral signaling. These signals are part of the intricate coordination of immune responses against virus invasion.

20 Dec 2024

Engineering Yeast Promoters for Biologic Manufacturing

When introducing genes into yeast to make it produce drugs and other useful substances, it is also necessary to reliably switch the production on or off. A Kobe University team found three gene regulation design principles that provide a flexible guideline for the effective control of microbiological production.

19 Dec 2024

Subsurface Microbial Life Reveals Surprising Diversity in Extreme Environments

Which microbes thrive below us in darkness – in gold mines, in aquifers, in deep boreholes in the seafloor – and how do they compare to the microbiomes that envelop the Earth's surfaces, on land and sea?

19 Dec 2024