Archive for the ‘Microbiology’ Category
Bacteria have developed different systems to secrete proteins into the surrounding fluid or into other cells. Some bacteria, for example, have external structures comparable to a syringe, which can be nailed in other cells to inject them to certain proteins.
Another system, called type VI secretion system, is present at about one quarter of all bacteria that have two membranes. Despite being common, scientists have not determined how it works. Now a team of specialists has figured out how exactly the system structure of type VI secretion and has concluded that it acts as a kind of spring crossbow that shoots poison darts.
The nanoarms, spanning a distance no greater than about 80 atoms in a row, is a tube shrinks rapidly firing a dart or internal knife through the cell membranes, to the surrounding medium, and possibly inwardly of another cell. The tube can then be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere in the cell, ready to fire another dart molecular. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the biggest challenges in terms of public health and microbiological quality control is the ability to count and identify, quickly and simultaneously, the bacteria that inhabit a particular environment.
An innovative and reliable method has been developed recently by a team from the Institute of Microbiology of the Mediterranean (CNRS / University Aix-Marseille) and the Institute of Molecular Chemistry and Materials at Orsay (CNRS/University Paris-Sud).
The technique developed by these scientists makes it possible to detect live gram-negative bacteria, which include pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Legionella pneumophila. Read the rest of this entry »
The dispute about recent research in the U.S. and Netherlands on the avian flu virus, in which mutations have been identified necessary to acquire a high ability to infect humans, continues.
On the one hand, make them public can help speed worldwide scientific research aimed at finding ways to combat this dangerous strain if the mutations that lead to its emergence just produced.
But on the other hand, made public beyond a select group of scientists such mutations may also facilitate the work of any bioterrorist who are working towards the goal of turning a deadly bird flu biological weapon for terrorist attacks achieve as many possible loss of life in history, only surpassed by the typical and dreaded nuclear bomb attack. Read the rest of this entry »
The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria live there without difficulties especially severe. An investigation has allowed finding out how they do it and how they get nutrients. Comparable microorganisms could live on Mars today.
Bacteria (Chryseobacterium and Paenisporosarcina) were collected in two locations glaciers at the base of the eastern ice sheet of Antarctica. The study was carried out by the team of microbiologist Corien Bakermans of Penn State University and the geologist Mark Skidmore of Montana State University.
The bacteria showed signs of breathing in an atmosphere of ice created in the laboratory that was designed to mimic as closely as possible the temperature and nutrient content found in the bottom of glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctica. Read the rest of this entry »
New strains of the influenza virus constantly appear. As a result, the World Health Organization mobilizes experts from around the world, in order to find time strains all possible and include the objectives of the seasonal flu vaccine, which is reformulated each year.
If you get the flu vaccine and then infected with the virus, your body quickly starts an immune response that prevents disease.
However, the pressure of the immune system against viruses, promoted by the vaccine, can cause mute, adopting a slightly different form the previous one and it can sometimes be more infectious. A new study conducted at MIT reveals the mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Read the rest of this entry »
It has been discovered that certain bacteria are able to live in environmental conditions comparable to the subsurface of Mars. These microbes have been found in a lava tube on Earth. Tolerate temperatures near freezing and low oxygen levels, growing even in the absence of organic nutrients.
Under these conditions, your metabolism is driven by the oxidation of iron from the olivine, a mineral common in volcanic rocks of the tube. These microbes, such as the study’s authors argue, would be able to live in the subsurface of Mars and that of some other stars.
In a controlled environment at room temperature and normal oxygen levels, the team of Amy Smith and Martin Fisk (Oregon State University) and Radu Popa (Portland State University) demonstrated that microbes can consume organic matter (sugar in this case). Read the rest of this entry »
An international team of scientists announced a breakthrough in the fight against malaria, paving the way for the development of new drugs for treating this dangerous disease, capable of killing.
According to the World Health Organization, malaria currently infects over 225 million people worldwide and is responsible for about 800,000 deaths per year. Most deaths occur in children living in Africa, where a child dies from malaria every 45 seconds, and where the disease accounts for about 20 percent of all child deaths. Read the rest of this entry »
Hundred trillion microbes live in each one of us. Thousand trillion live in the oceans. Noting further the air, plants, soil and animals, the number of organisms becomes almost unimaginable.
An initiative called Earth Microbiome Project, directed by Jack Gilbert at the Argonne National Laboratory, U.S., and includes scientists from around the world are facing the daunting task of cataloging the DNA of the species all these microbes.
Microbes play an important role in human health, but what we know about them is just a bit of the tip of the iceberg. They are also responsible for 99 percent of the cycles of nutrients and gases in the world. These cycles are of vital importance to the planet and, by extension, for our food, industry and economy. Read the rest of this entry »
The collective behavior of bacteria, including making critical decisions, allow them to thrive and spread efficiently even in difficult environments. Now researchers have developed a digital model that best explains how bacteria move in “swarms”. And this model can be applied to technologies developed by the human being, such as computers, robotics, and artificial intelligence in general.
Researcher Adi Shklarsh with the collaboration of Eshel Ben-Jacob, both from the University of Tel Aviv, Gil Ariel of the Bar Ilan University and Elad Schneidman of the Weizmann Institute of Science, the three institutions in Israel, Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most comprehensive to date on the ancient history of insect-borne diseases has confirmed that malaria (or malaria) and existed long before the emergence of humans, and that the disease evolved through birds and monkeys. The conclusion is based on the results of analysis of specimens of insects preserved in amber.
The study, carried out by the team of the zoologist George Poinar (Oregon State University), one of the leading world experts in the study of fossils in amber, reconstructs some key aspects of the evolution of several human diseases, including malaria, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. Read the rest of this entry »