This episode: Bacteria living inside soil fungus produce toxins that can protect their host from tiny predators! Download Episode (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mycobacterium virus DLane Takeaways Soils have many different organisms cooperating and competing for resources. Some little worms called nematodes prey on fungi in the soil, while fungi may effectively defend themselves or strike back with toxins or traps that catch and kill the worms. On top of...

This episode: Certain nectar-dwelling bacteria can induce pollen to germinate to access their tasty proteins! Download Episode (6.0 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Clostridium oceanicum   News item   Takeaways Nectar in flowers seems like it would be a great place for microbes to live, since it has so much sugar, but it's actually somewhat difficult to thrive solely in and on nectar. The carbon in sugar is only one essential element for life, and there's...

This episode: Bacteria produce a compound that causes a phage lurking in the genome of a competing species to wake up and start killing that competitor! Download Episode (8.2 MB, 12.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Zaire ebolavirus   News item   Takeaways Some bacteriophages infect and immediately destroy their hosts in a burst of new viruses, while others can be stealthier, integrating their genome into the genome of the host and remaining there quietly even over...

This episode: A eukaryote has symbionts living in it: green algae and also purple bacteria, a combo never seen before! Download Episode (6.1 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Staphylococcus virus phiETA   News item   Takeaways Having bacteria as endosymbionts is fairly common in life on Earth: almost all eukaryotes have them in the form of mitochondria and sometimes chloroplasts. These former bacteria somehow got inside the ancestral eukaryote, either as...

This episode: Training a phage strain on bacteria can increase its ability to control those bacteria for much longer than an untrained phage! Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Pepper yellow leaf curl Indonesia virus   News item   Takeaways With resistance to antibiotics spreading more and more among deadly bacteria, finding alternatives to treat infections is becoming more important. One option is phage therapy, using viruses that infect...

This episode: A bacterial communication signal makes algae stop growing, which helps them survive virus attacks! Download Episode (5.3 MB, 7.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Veillonella parvula   Takeaways Many interesting interactions between microbes take place in the ocean. As single-celled organisms lacking complex sensory organs, many such interactions and communications are mediated by chemical signals. Some bacteria, for example, each produce small amounts of...

This episode: Transplanting microbes from some corals to others could help the corals survive high temperatures! Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces olivaceoviridis   News item   Takeaways The ever-rising temperatures of our modern world are putting more and more stress on various ecosystems. This is true even on the ocean floor: record-high temperatures damage reefs by causing coral bleaching, in which corals lose their...

This episode: Bacteria can resist the force of gravity in liquid culture by covering themselves with goopy sugar polymers like parachutes! Download Episode (10.4 MB, 15.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brevicoryne brassicae virus   Takeaways Put bacteria in a centrifuge, and most of the time you end up with a compact pellet of cells at the bottom of the tube, and mostly cell-free liquid above it. Bacteria do have ways to remain suspended in liquid, even without...

This episode: Newspapers report on scientific studies about microbiomes a fair amount, but certain kinds of studies are more likely than others to show up in the news! Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Cafeteriavirus-dependent mavirus   Takeaways Research into the human microbiome has generated a lot of interest, even among non-scientists. This is especially true since the beginning of the Human Microbiome Project in 2007. But sometimes...

This episode: A virus of archaea stops cells from dividing, so they just keep getting bigger and releasing more viruses! Download Episode (6.9 MB, 10.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces caelestis   Takeaways Viruses affect their hosts many different ways: instant hostile takeover of cellular machinery, lurking unseen in the genome for generations, inducing reduced cell division or excessive cell division, and more. Archaeal viruses are relatively unknown in...

This episode, in honor of World Ocean Day: Bacteria that may move between high and low pressure areas in the ocean use a particular molecule to protect their cells from being crushed! Download Episode (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Rickettsia rickettsii   News item   Takeaways Life in the ocean can have many challenges, depending on the organism and where it lives. Microbes can be found in almost every region, from the warmest to coldest, brightest to...

This episode: Spores of some bacteria latch onto the tails of other bacteria and ride along as they move around in the soil! Download Episode (5.5 MB, 8.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bohle iridovirus   News item   Takeaways The soil is a complex environment, and microbes that live in soil need complex lifestyles to thrive. There are many examples of cooperation, competition, and other adaptations to highly varied situations.   In this study, bacteria that grow...

This episode: Some bacteria produce antibiotics that can also help them gather more nutrients! Download Episode (5.0 MB, 7.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Diadromus pulchellus toursvirus   News item 1   Takeaways Antibiotics have saved a lot of lives since they were discovered and used to treat many previously untreatable bacterial infections. But bacteria themselves have been making antibiotics much longer than we have, to help compete in their environment....

This episode: Single-celled eukaryotes can thrive without oxygen with the help of bacterial endosymbionts that respire nitrate the way our mitochondria respire oxygen!   Thanks to Jon Graf for his contribution! Download Episode (12.4 MB, 18.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brenneria salicis   News item 1 / News item 2   Takeaways The combination of a bacterium and other microbe into the first eukaryote was a big advance in evolutionary history; it made possible the...

This episode: Despite being photosynthetic, some kinds of algae engage in predatory behavior, hunting and consuming live bacteria! Download Episode (4.9 MB, 7.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus 1   News item   Takeaways Although most of them are microscopic, algae perform a significant portion of the photosynthesis on the planet, because there are so many of them. But even though photosynthesis seems like a reliable way of acquiring...

This episode: Lighting in caves open to tourists supports the growth of unwanted photosynthetic bacteria! Download Episode (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Dill cryptic virus 2   Takeaways Caves can contain amazing beauty, intricate geological formations formed by minerals, water, and time. Some, such as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, have been fitted with instruments to allow tourists to pass through and see the wonders within; definitely a worthwhile...

This episode: Deep-sea bacteria can detoxify cadmium and convert it to light-capturing particles! Download Episode (5.8 MB, 8.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Arthrobacter virus Sonny   Takeaways Hydrothermal vents can have thriving communities, despite being too deep for much light to penetrate. Microbes can derive energy from chemicals coming out of the vent, and form the foundation of the food chain. But toxic heavy metals also come out of the vent, including lead,...

Finally found some good stories, so we're back! This episode: How slime molds encode and use memories built into their own bodies! Download Episode (4.6 MB, 6.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Aeromonas salmoncida News item   Takeaways Despite being single-celled organisms, slime molds have fairly complex behavior, including a basic form of memory. They often grow as a network of tubes of cytoplasm branching out from one place to find and exploit new sources of food...

This episode: Giant bacteria with many chromosomes in each cell carry extra genes to help them live in many different environments! Download Episode (8.7 MB, 12.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Propionibacterium virus SKKY News item   Takeaways We think of bacteria a certain way: too small to see and having mostly just a single large chromosome with all the genes they need for their lifestyle and not much more. And most bacteria are like that. But not all! Giant...

This episode: The biofilm that probiotic bacteria can leave behind on a titanium implant seems to help it integrate better with the existing skeleton, with less inflammation and risk of infection! Download Episode (5.5 MB, 7.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Methylobacterium organophilum News item   Takeaways Skeletal implants make it a lot easier for many people to stay mobile as they age, but the surgical procedure of implanting is risky. Its invasive nature puts...

This episode: Engineered bacteria encapsulated in little beads sense chemicals from landmines and give off light! Download Episode (6.4 MB, 9.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bifidobacterium pullorum Takeaways Landmines are a good way to take an enemy by surprise and do some damage. They're so good that some places in the world still aren't safe to go decades after a conflict, due to intact landmines hidden in the area. In order to detect them from a distance to aid...

This episode: An interesting bacterial genetic element protects against viruses in a unique way! Download Episode (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mongoose associated gemykibivirus 1 News item Takeaways Even single-celled, microscopic organisms such as bacteria have to deal with deadly viruses infecting them. And while they don't have an immune system with antibodies and macrophages like we do, they still have defenses against infection, mostly based on...

This episode: Certain gut microbes protect mice from harmful effects of high-energy radiation! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Solenopsis invicta virus-1 News item Takeaways High-energy radiation can be very dangerous. Besides a long-term increased risk of cancer due to DNA damage, a high enough dose of radiation can cause lethal damage to multiple systems in the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system. Finding...

This episode: Algae surviving impact that killed the dinosaurs seem to have consumed other organisms to make it through the dark times! Download Episode (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Chaetoceros tenuissimus RNA virus 01 News item Takeaways Being able to look through time and learn about what might have happened to creatures throughout Earth's history is what makes paleontology great. Everyone knows about dinosaurs and what happened to them at the end...

This episode: A fungus-infecting virus transforms the fungal foe into a friend of its host plant! Download Episode (6.1 MB, 8.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Hepacivirus J   News item Takeaways Viruses can be useful for treating various diseases, especially bacterial infections and cancer. Their ability to target certain cell types specifically makes them great at hunting down and killing disease-causing cells without harming the body's healthy tissue. And just as...