MicrobeWorld

The black salt marsh mosquito, Aedes taerniorhynchus, one of three species found in the Galapagos island, has evolved to drink the blood of reptiles which is now raising alarms in terms of spreading infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus to the mainland of Ecuador.

On the continent Aede... Read More

A new species of a malaria parasite that infects chimpanzees is closely related to a similar parasite Plasmodium falciparum that infects humans, according to research published in PLoS Pathogens.

Why should we care?

"Investigation of the nuclear genome of this new species will further th... Read More

Wanted (soon): observations from environment-minded citizens that will allow science to study biodiversity at a planetary level in a massive, comprehensive virtual observatory of historic importance.

The online information system for life on Earth, now under construction, will take its place ... Read More

Read More

In episode 34 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and guest Read More

Scientists say the symbiotic relationship between algae and corals is breaking down:

"Corals, it appears, have a genetic complexity that rivals that of humans, have sophisticated systems of biological communication that are being stressed by global change, and are only able to survive based o... Read More

Scientists are now be able to gain a reasonably accurate picture of the ocean's health and productivity about every week, all over the planet.

Researchers from Oregon State University, NASA and other organizations said today that they have succeeded for the first time in measuring the physiol... Read More

Julia A. Segre and her colleagues are on an expedition of sorts, collecting information about the diversity of species in an ecosystem.

But Dr. Segre isn’t off trapping insects in the woods somewhere or scooping up samples of plankton on an ocean voyage. The species she and her colleagues ar... Read More

Current tests to identify specific strains of infectious prions, which cause a range of transmissible diseases (such as mad cow) in animals and humans, can take anywhere from six months to a year to yield results – a time-lag that may put human populations at risk.

Now, a group of scientists... Read More

Pregnant women who are deficient in vitamin D may be at increased risk for developing bacterial vaginosis, a vaginal infection that may have harmful effects on the pregnancy, according to a report in The Journal of Nutrition.

Bacterial vaginosis is caused by an imbalance of the bacteria norma... Read More

Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) have been found in sewage sludge, a by-product of waste-water treatment frequently used as a fertilizer. Researchers writing in the open access journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica point out the danger of antibiotic resistance genes passing into the human ... Read More

The health of our skin — one of the body's first lines of defense against illness and injury — depends upon the delicate balance between our own cells and the millions of bacteria and other one-celled microbes that live on its surface. To better understand this balance, National Institutes of He... Read More

Intestinal permeability and an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine are both associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). These findings are revealed in a new study in the June issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Associati... Read More

Research has revealed a novel way to tinker with the life cycle of parasitic worms—suggesting new avenues to attack or prevent infections such as hookworm that plague an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide.

The findings, published May 25, 2009, in the Proceedings of the National Academy o... Read More

"Synthetic biology has already delivered engineered organisms that can churn out a malaria drug, cook up an ideal biofuel or act as biosensors, but questions remain about how such organisms can be eliminated from the environment after they have performed their task.

A team of US biotechnologi... Read More

From December 1, all manufacturers must test source water for the germs each week as is currently required for finished bottled water products. If tests prove positive for E. coli, companies must explain in writing how they eliminated the bacteria and retest samples before use.

According to a... Read More

This is an interesting story from RedOrbit on how geographic factors influence the genes of the acid loving extremophile Sulfolobus islandicus.

Sulfolobus islandicus, a microbe that can live in boiling acid, is offering up its secrets to researchers hardy enough to capture it from the volcani... Read More

In an article published in Science, teams from the Institut Pasteurand the University of Limoges, associated with the CNRS and Inserm, decipher for the first time the molecular mechanism that enables bacteria to acquire multi-resistance to antibiotics, and that even allows them to adapt this res... Read More

Imagine being able to detect in just a few minutes whether someone is infected with a virus. This has now become a reality, thanks to a new ultra-sensitive detector that has been developed by Ostendum, a spin-off company of the University of Twente.

The company has just completed the first pr... Read More

I am a sucker for all microbe-related food items. I have never had stinky tofu before. Apparently, it is made by marinating the tofu in a brine of fermented vegetables. Here's a description of it from Wierd Asia News:

"From a distance, it is said that rotting garbage is as close as one can co... Read More