Microbiology
Yogurt with probiotics are one of the latest health fads, but no one is sure they are doing anything at all and, if they are, that it is helping.
Probiotics are defined by marketing groups as "live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host, beyond the common nutritional effects." Proponents believe they facilitate fiber digestion, might boost the immune system and prevent or treat diarrhea. Dozens of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli are marketed in foods like yogurts and fermented milk products.
We have been consuming fermented foods…
Imagine being able to go from the hottest of hots to the coldest of colds, and endure both extreme droughts, where 97% of your body water is gone, and airless vacuums such as space.
The African midge, Polypedilum vanderplanki, can do all that and an international team deciphered the genetic mechanism that makes it invulnerable to these harsh conditions.
The midge is capable of anhydrobiosis, a unique state that allows an organism to survive after losing almost all of its body water, along with other severe conditions, such as extreme temperatures ranging from 90°C to -270°C,…
Tiny single-cell organisms living underground could help with the problem of nuclear waste disposal, according to a paper in the ISME (Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology) Journal.
This is good news for Americans, since the Obama administration has lost the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository application even more often than the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has lost the emails showing they targeted political opponents.
Bacteria with waste-eating properties have been discovered before, but in relatively pristine soils. This is the first time finding microbes that…
Soon to be grown for ornamental use only.Credit: Mark Nesbitt and Samuel Delwen, CC BY
By Luc Henry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
The past few decades have seen enormous progress being made in synthetic biology – the idea that simple biological parts can be tweaked to do our bidding. One of the main targets has been hacking the biological machinery that nature uses to produce chemicals. The hope is – once we understand enough – we might be able to design processes that convert cheap feedstock, such as sugar and amino acids, into drugs or fuels. These production lines can…
Immunotoxins are targeted antibodies that go after deadly toxins like ricin.
In the quest to find targeted therapies for cancer - that kill cancer but spare the surrounding tissue, immunotoxins make perfect sense. But they have not succeeded in part because cancer cells share many molecules with normal cells and because it can be challenging to unlock the deadly chemical only after the antibody has homed to the diseased tissue.
A new study finds that colon cancer's biological properties make it a perfect candidate for immunotoxins – an antibody that won't attach to normal cells and a…
In the search for enzymes that can break lignocellulose down into biofuel sugars under the extreme conditions of a refinery, researchers are investigating new ways to release plant sugars from lignin for the production of liquid transportation fuels. Sugars can be fermented into fuels once the woody matter comprised of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin is broken down, but lignocellulose is tough.
For various chemical reasons, all of which add up to cost-competitiveness, biorefineries could benefit if the production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass is carried out at temperatures…
By Patrik Jones, Imperial College London
Converting renewable energy into electricity is one thing; converting it into fuel is quite another. The vast majority of global energy demand is for fuel, and a renewable source could help us heat our houses and travel efficiently long into the future. It might even mean we could avoid the conflicts that will arise while competing for the last remaining fossil fuels.
Today, we are a step further towards this goal after engineering the gut bacteria E. coli, most famous for the strain of it that causes food poisoning, to make it generate renewable…
Human breast milk is nutrition for infants but it also contains a large number of bacterial species, including some opportunistic pathogens of humans.
The existence of milk microbiome is assumed to be the result of co-evolutionary and co-adaptive interactions between the microbiome and human host and the dynamic balance in human milk microbiome ecosystem could be fundamental for suppressing the opportunistic pathogens in the breast milk.
until very recently, the ecological analysis of milk microbiome has been limited to assessment of bacterial diversity such as species richness and…
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas that is also responsible for destroying the ozone layer.
INRA researchers in Dijon have shown that the ability of soils to eliminate N2O can mainly be explained by the diversity and abundance of a new group of micro-organisms that are capable of transforming it into atmospheric nitrogen (N2). The results underline the importance of microbial diversity to the functioning of soils and the services they deliver.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the principal greenhouse gases, alongside carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4); it is also…
Humans transport microbes around their environment. Image: Argonne National Laboratory
By Emma Saville, The Conversation and Penny Orbell, The Conversation
Microbial communities vary greatly between different households but are similar among members of the same household – including pets – according to research published in Science today.
Microbes are everywhere. They live on and inside us, and cover most things we come into contact with, including our personal belongings. We also know that microbes play a role in human health, and the destruction of our personal microbial community (known as…