Microbe Magazine

Cover ImageCover: Light micrograph of living phytoplankton specimens, anoptral contrast illumination (magnification, ×80 at 35 mm). Researchers say that phytoplankton will adapt to major sea temperature changes up to 10 times more quickly than previously thought. (Image © M. I. Walker/Science Source.)

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FEATURES

Rethinking the Tree of Life

Author: W. Ford Doolittle

Two decades ago, rumors began to spread that something was seriously wrong with the universal Tree of Life (TOL). Since the middle 1960s, evolutionists had been comparing molecular sequences—first proteins, then ribosomal RNAs, then protein-coding genes, and later genomes—to reconstruct evolution... More...

Applying the Restaurant Hypothesis to Intestinal Microbiota

Authors: Tyrrell Conway, and Paul S. Cohen

As in other ecosystems, competition for resources drives the microbial community structure within the intestine. For so many species to coexist within the intestine, each uses at least one limiting nutrient better than all others, according to the late Rolf Freter of the University of Michigan an... More...

Developing Research-Based Undergraduate Microbiology Curricula

Authors: Rachel E. A. Horak, Susan Merkel, and Amy L. Chang

Despite being an important part of the mission for colleges and universities, teaching is often given short shrift. Designing courses is particularly challenging for new faculty members, who often get little training as graduate students or postdoctoral fellows on how to design or teach courses. ... More...

CURRENT TOPICS

Undersea “Autoendoliths” Take Sulfate and Methane, To Make Rocks from CO2

Author: Carol Potera

Recently uncovered microbes that live beneath and along the sea floor consume methane and sulfate ions, while generating bicarbonate that they use to build limestone rocks and then entomb themselves in those pores and crevices, according to geobiologists Victoria Orphan and Jeffrey Marlow at the ... More...

Modelers Beware: Phytoplankton Adapt Quickly to Climate Change

Author: Barry E. DiGregorio

Despite widely held views suggesting that phytoplankton could take a century to adapt to climate change, direct measurements indicate that they are perhaps 10 times faster when reacting to changes in sea temperatures and incident light, according to Andrew Irwin of Mount Allison University in Sac... More...

Minitopics:Microbiology Policy Bulletin Board

Recent national and international developments involving microbiology and related science policy matters include:

Reflecting a continuing concern over antibiotic resistance issues, the Obama administration in June invited representatives from mo...

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Multifactorial Resurgence of Pertussis Is, in Part, Vaccine Driven

Author: Jeffrey L. Fox

Pertussis is regaining momentum, even within populations in which vaccines are widely used. That resurgence is “real and multifactorial” and, at least in part, is “vaccine-driven,” says Maria Tondella of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga. She spoke during the sym... More...

Genes of Deep-Sea Archaea Suggest Two- Instead of Three-Domain Tree of Life

Author: Marcia Stone

A deep-sea archaeon, named Lokiarchaeum for the underwater volcano between Greenland and Norway near where it was found, might be related to the last common ancestor of eukaryotes, according to Thijs Ettema of Uppsala University in Sweden and his collaborators. “The shape-shifting deity ‘Loki’ is... More...

ASM NEWS

ASM to Launch Two New Open-Access Journals, mSphereTM and mSystemsTM

ASM has officially announced plans to launch two new interdisciplinary open-access journals, mSphere™ and mSystems™, in early 2016. Both journals will provide streamlined decisions along with short publication times, to ensure important findings are available to the scientific commu... More...

The Rockefeller University—a Milestone in Microbiology

The Rockefeller University was officially named a “Milestones in Microbiology” site by ASM in a ceremony at Rockefeller University on 8 April 2015, during which ASM Past President Stanley Maloy presented a commemorative plaque to Rockefeller President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. The Milestones designat... More...

Reflections on Rockefeller University Contributions to Microbiology—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Author: Stanley Maloy

When the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded in 1901, infectious diseases were the most serious threat to human health—typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and diphtheria killed many people around the world, primarily poorer people but not sparing the affluent. In fact, the death of Jo... More...

Rockefeller University's Role in the Development of the First Vaccines Against Meningococcal Meningitis

Author: Wynne Parry

Shortly after laboratories opened at the newly founded Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City, meningococcal meningitis spread through the city. About 4,000 cases of this disease, which frequently killed or severely disabled its victims, were documented in 1904 and 1905. At t... More...

ASM Public Affairs:Federal Funding Opportunities Breakfast at asm2015

During asm2015 in New Orleans, the Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB) sponsored the Federal Funding Opportunities Breakfast, which allowed attendees to learn about funding opportunities available to microbiologists from several federal agencies that support biomedical, environmental, and ... More...

Education Board:Education Board Activities at asm2015

During each General Meeting of the Society, the ASM Education Board sponsors several professional development events for members. At asm2015 in New Orleans, the following Board activities helped deepen the meeting experience for conference attendees.

Branches: ASM Activity at the Local Level:Dinner and a Show? The Eastern Pennsylvania Branch

Authors: Mike Schmidt, Betsy Kleba, Kathryn Hanley, and Dan Wall

One of the great pleasures of my job as Chair of the Branch Organization Committee is talking and writing about all the innovative and provocative programming opportunities that Branches continue to provide to our membership. This month's column focuses on the very active Eastern Pennsylvani... More...

Microbe Mentor

Author: Paul Dunman

How do I prepare myself for a position in microbiology with a different focus than what I was trained in? For example, I would like to do work in industry, but my thesis work has been in very basic research.

NEW FROM ASM

In Leaving Africa Centuries ago, Green Monkeys Lost Viruses

Author: David C. Holzman

After African green monkeys (AGMs) were shipped to the Caribbean during the 17th century—a species introduction that stemmed from the slave trade—two of three blood-borne viruses that these animals carried were lost from this transplanted primate population, according to Eric Delwart of the Blood... More...

New Research Demonstrates How Iron Surfaces Could Be Engineered To Be Self-Sanitizing

Copper or copper alloy surfaces rapidly kill bacteria. Although the killing mechanism is not fully understood, it is clear that copper ions released from the metal surface play a key role. Iron does not cause this “contact” killing, despite having redox and solubility properties similar to copper... More...

Prebiotic Boosts Broiler Chicken Feed Conversion

In broiler chickens, feed additives, including prebiotics, are widely used to improve gut health and food conversion. Now Celine De Maesschalck of Ghent University, Belgium, et al. show that xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) increase meat production per calorie, and improve intestinal morphology, inclu... More...

P450 Enzymes Can Interfere with Antifungal; PPIs Dampen This Effect

Cytochrome P450 enzymes metabolize the antifungal, voriconazole. Some people have P450 enzymes that metabolize voriconazole too quickly, interfering with its efficacy. Certain drugs, such as rifampin and some seizure medications can do likewise, by boosting the quantity of cytochrome P450 enzymes... More...

Superior Whole-Genome Sequencing for Serotyping E. coli

“The accessibility of whole genome sequencing (WGS) presents the opportunity for national reference laboratories to provide a state-of-the-art public health surveillance service,” Claire Jenkins, of Public Health England, London, writes in a review article. “The replacement of traditional serolog... More...

MALDI-TOF Demonstrates Speed, Accuracy, in Blinded Trial

In the case of a release of highly pathogenic bacteria (HBP), fast, accurate, reliable diagnostics are urgently needed. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry is demonstrating its competence and relatively low expense in this regard. Daniela Jacob of the Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens, ... More...

MAbs Show High Neutralizing Activity Towards H7N9

Influenza A virus H7N9 is an emerging global health concern, causing around 35% mortality in humans. Jianmin Wang of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China, et al. have characterized two human monoclonal antibodies, which they show possess high ne... More...

DEPARTMENTS

Extracellular Enzymes in Soils

Author: Richard P. Dick

I found the recent article in Microbe (April 2015, p. 178) in the Small Things Considered section (“Microbe, Enzyme or Mineral? a Riddle in the Soil”) interesting and appreciated the focus on extracellular enzymes in soils. However, the presentation leaves the reader with the impression th... More...

Grounds for Suspicion

Author: Bernard Dixon

I have never met Jack Harmon of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, but I'm grateful to him for sending me, some years ago, a list of rules he compiled as guidelines for being suspicious about alleged breakthroughs in science. Bothered by glamorous claims in medicine and science tha... More...

Reviews and Resources:The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution and the Origins of Complex Life

Author: Franklin M. Harold

If I were a rich man, I would buy up the print run of this book and give a copy to every science undergraduate ahead of his or her first course in cell biology. It would serve nicely as an antidote to the standard textbooks, crammed to the gills with chewy factual detail, that have grown too heav... More...

Application Deadlines

Fellowship Opportunity for Undergraduate STEM Faculty Early-Career (and future) undergraduate STEM educators are encouraged to apply for a 2015 ASM-LINK Undergraduate Faculty Research Initiative (UFRI) Fellowship. This new professional development resource trains STEM facul... More...

ASM Meetings Calendar

8–12 September 2015.

Employment:POSITIONS AVAILABLE

Small Things Considered

Author: Jamie Henzy

The line between viruses and parasitic elements of the genome is thin and del-icate, and probably often crossed. Para-sitic elements that acquire the means to escape the host cell become viruses and, conversely, viruses can lose this ability and return to a more limited lifestyle as transposable ... More...

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