Eva Garmendia has always been interested in the small and invisible since she can remember. According to Eva, she was “[amazed] that there is a universe we couldn’t see and yet, we could study and understand it.” As an undergraduate at the University of Granada, she found genetics calling her name and spent her time outside of class in a genetics lab. During that time, she became interested in evolution. While studying abroad at Uppsala University in Sweden, she began her research in microbiology and was hooked. Eva noted that her interest was sparked by “the fact that microbes were alone ruling the earth for so long before multicellularity developed.” She completed a six-month project on the role of RNases in Salmonella Typhimurium. Eva saw how microbiology could help her study evolution citing “their power of rapid replication.” (more…)
Author: Jennifer Tsang
The underground social network between trees
When I picked up Peter Wohlleben's book The Hidden Life of Trees, I expected to read about interactions between fungi and plant life. And indeed, the fascinating relationships between these diverse life forms were discussed at great depths. Together, tree roots and fungi form the mycorrhiza which some have referred to as the Wood Wide Web. Fungi are fundamental to the underground social networks that trees use to communicate to one another, to warm others of danger, and to transport nutrients and water.
This symbiotic Wood Wide Web provides nutrients to the tree and the fungi. Trees that cooperate with fungi take in about twice as much nitrogen and phosphorus than plants that tap the soil alone. Fungi also filter out heavy metals and guard the tree against destructive bacteria or fungi. For their help, the fungi get something in return. Nearly a third of the tree's total food production is shuttled to the fungi. (more…)
Mosquito-borne illnesses may increase due to global warming
Mosquito bites are such a nuisance. They itch intensely for days, you can't help but scratch them, and you are left with a scar to remember them by. For much of the world, this is the aftermath of a mosquito bite. But in warm tropical climates, mosquitos are carriers of a variety of microbes pathogenic to humans. Dengue, malaria, West Nile, yellow fever, and Zika are all examples mosquito-borne illnesses. (more…)
A year of microbes
Of course there are way too many microbiology stories than I can blog about. Here are some other fascinating finds throughout the year:
A bacteria that eats plastic:
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a component of many plastic products that have accumulated in large quantities in the environment. Researchers have isolated a bacterium that uses PET as its main energy and carbon source. This bacterium can be further developed to efficiently degrade or ferment PET waste products. (more…)
Eaten alive from the inside: predatory bacteria kill pathogenic bacteria from the inside out
When it comes to predators, we naturally think of large, agile, and powerful animals on the prowl. But we often don’t think about the most abundant predators on our planet, predators of the microscopic world. In the depths of the microbial universe, predatory bacteria (those that feast upon other bacteria) have emerged. These bacteria are now ubiquitous in terrestrial and marine environments. Predatory bacteria penetrate the outer membrane of bacterial prey and ingest their prized nutrients, killing the prey. (more…)