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Category: Microbial Physiology

What is a Microbe? Why “Microbe” Is Difficult to Define

Posted on August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 by Jennifer Tsang

What is a microbe? On the surface, it seems easy to define. Many would say a microbe is an organism that is microscopic, one that is invisible to the naked eye. Many also include bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses, protists, and even prions in the realm of microbiology. But, there are numerous nuances that challenge the…

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The double-edged sword called oxygen

Posted on November 2, 2018May 9, 2021 by Jennifer Tsang

By Ananya Sen If you were to enter a time machine and go back to about 3.8 billion years ago, what would you find? Volcanoes spewing carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane into the atmosphere, some water, and no oxygen, which means that you would be dead in about six minutes. So how did humans, who…

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mRNA translation, ribosome, protein synthesis

Protein Translation Can Initiate From 17 Start Codons

Posted on August 1, 2018July 4, 2022 by Jennifer Tsang

In the realm of biology, we are always finding exceptions to the rule. And now, we have just added another exception to the central dogma of genetics. But first, let’s review what the central dogma is. The central dogma states that that the flow of genetic information goes from DNA to mRNA to protein. In…

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Giant Genes for Tiny Organisms

Posted on February 4, 2018July 7, 2022 by Jennifer Tsang

How big can a gene be? Ten years ago in the early days of genome sequencing, researchers scoured the genomes of 580 bacterial and archaeal species for large genes. They found that 0.2% of all genes identified are longer than 5,000 bases and 80 of them are “giant genes,” those larger than 15,000 bases. To…

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Timeshares Are for Bacteria Too: Neighboring Biofilms Share Resources

Posted on April 16, 2017August 6, 2022 by Jennifer Tsang

Bacteria were once thought of as solitary individual organisms. We are finding out more and more that they behave quite contrary to this long-time perception. Bacteria form complex three-dimensional communities called biofilms. In biofilms, cells stick to each other and are encased in a sticky, slimy matrix proteins and sugars. It has been known for…

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