MicrobeWorld

Many prokaryotes move actively in liquid (swim) or on moist solid surfaces (swarm and glide) toward or away from a stimulus, such as a nutrient, light, or oxygen. Not surprisingly, prokaryotes have evolved numerous means of locomotion built around distinct molecular mechanisms.

How distinct? ... Read More

I approached several physicists-some turned-biologists-to ask them for a brief comment on the topic: "In the long run, what will the discovery of the Higgs boson do for biology?" Their answers span the extremes from “nothing” to “everything.”

Comments from:

Joe Incandela, Dept. of Physics,... Read More

A bacterial protein in common house dust may worsen allergic responses to indoor allergens, according to research conducted by the National Institutes of Health and Duke University. The finding is the first to document the presence of the protein flagellin in house dust, bolstering the link betw... Read More

New research shows that human herpesviruses (HHV)-6B and HHV-7, commonly know as roseola virus), account for one third of febrile status epilepticus (FSE) cases. Results of the FEBSTAT prospective study now available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Internati... Read More

The United States has reported the first known death caused by the H3N2 variant virus, the new swine flu that has been jumping from pigs to people there.
And in another development that underscores how dynamic the intersection is between pigs, people and influenza viruses, health authorities in... Read More

Carl Woese, a biophysicist and evolutionary microbiologist whose discovery 35 years ago of a “third domain” of life in the vast realm of micro-organisms altered scientific understanding of evolution, died on Sunday at his home in Urbana, Ill. He was 84.

His death was announced by the Universi... Read More

The World Health Organization is keeping a close eye on a disease outbreak in Saudi Arabia caused by a virus in the same family as the one that caused SARS.

There have been two confirmed infections with the new coronavirus and tests results are pending on a third suspected case, according to ... Read More

Every different life form on earth can probably be infected with at least one type of virus, if not many more. Most of these viruses have not yet been discovered: just over 2,000 viral species are recognized. While the majority of the known viruses infect bacteria and eukaryotes, there are only ... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit,  Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and ... Read More

Little attention has been paid to the use of antibiotics in the aquaculture industry as one reason for the increase in bacteria resistant to antibiotics and the spread of such resistance to other bacteria.

Since the antibiotics that are used in veterinary medicine and aquaculture belong to t... Read More

Although as recently as 1980 measles was estimated to cause 2.6 million deaths globally, due to highly effective and safe vaccines, measles elimination has been achieved in a number of countries globally as well as in the region of the Americas. Expansion of measles control strategies and activi... Read More

Humans and chimpanzees have much in common, biologically speaking, and that may now include certain communities -- or ecosystems -- of gut bacteria, a new study finds.

Gut bacteria play a crucial role in collecting nutrients from food, helping the immune system and protecting people against d... Read More

Every year as the days grow warmer, the Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) reemerges along the eastern coast of the United States, where it causes devastating disease in horses and, more rarely, humans. Scientists have long wondered how the virus, which is transmitted by the bite of an inf... Read More

Acid-loving bacteria thrive in sour, acidic places and can help to dissolve metal. Therefore they are often used for industrial metal extraction. In her doctoral thesis "Growth and Survival of Acidithiobacilli in Acidic, Metal Rich Environments" Stefanie Mangold, Umeå University, has explored ba... Read More

This episode: Each kind of animal needs its own specific microbes!

Downloa... Read More

Current influenza vaccines are limited because they can only stimulate immunity to specific strains of the virus, which is constantly evolving. This means a new vaccine must be developed every year to target the strains public health officials believe will be most prevalent that season. If an un... Read More

As far as bacteria are concerned, other living creatures are just another niche to exploit, which means that pretty much every animal and plant has a set of bacterial pathogens that come along with it. These bacteria have made the animal in question their speciality, and are highly adapted to li... Read More

Thousands of German schoolchildren have fallen ill with a vomiting and diarrhea bug. Officials are still awaiting laboratory results, but the norovirus has been found in some cases.

More than 8,300 preschoolers and schoolchildren in eastern Germany, as well as a few teachers, have fallen ill ... Read More

New research suggests that just one or two individual herpes virus particles attack a skin cell in the first stage of an outbreak, resulting in a bottleneck in which the infection may be vulnerable to medical treatment.

Unlike most viruses that spread to new cells by bombarding them with mill... Read More