Microbe Magazine

Male fruit flies infected with the bacterium Wolbachia are less aggressive than are uninfected hosts, according to Jeremy Brownlie of Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and his collaborators. He says that this is the first time bacteria were observed influe... More...

Enzymes from microorganisms such as Methanococcus maripaludis and Sporomusa sphaeroides can interact directly with nearby solid surfaces, taking up electrons and forming intermediates that the cells quickly consume, according to Jörg D... More...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces a messenger molecule that encourages the bacteria to colonize catheters in the bladders of laboratory mice, where they form biofilms, according to Stephanie Cole and Vincent T. Lee of the University of Maryland, Colleg... More...

Jeffery Taubenberger et al. of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health show that a universal influenza vaccine might provide broad protection against numerous influenza strains, in lieu of annual development of new vaccines targeted at specific str... More...

Cystic fibrosis causes thickened mucus in the airways, leaving sufferers susceptible to chronic lung infection. Now Wiebke Ziebis of the University of Southern California and Dianne K. Newman of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, et al. show that microbes contributing to cystic fib... More...

In contrast to the low diversity of the honeybee gut microbiome, the hive is home to diverse species, including many lactic acid bacteria. Irene L. G. Newton and colleagues of Indiana University, Bloomington, sampled lactic acid bacteria communities found across hive environments, and identified ... More...

Continuous culture under elevated pressures is an important technique for exploring microbial growth and survival in extreme environments associated with the deep biosphere. Now, in a pilot experiment, Dionysis I. Foustoukos and Ileana Pérez-RodrÍguez of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.... More...

Prions are misfolded pathogenic proteins that cause neurodegeneration in humans and animals. Transmissible prion diseases exhibit a spectrum of disease phenotypes. The basis of this diversity is encoded in the structure of the pathogenic prion protein and propagated by an epigenetic mechanism. Ri... More...