Plants defend against insects by inducing 'leaky gut syndrome'

Plants may induce "leaky gut syndrome"—permeability of the gut lining—in insects as part of a multipronged strategy for protecting themselves from being eaten, according to researchers at Penn State. By improving our ...

Bats don't rely on gut bacteria the way humans do

Right now, there are trillions of bacteria living in your gut, making up about one percent of your body weight. They're supposed to be there—we need them to help us digest food and fight off diseases. The same is true for ...

Bacteria with recording function capture gut health status

Researchers from ETH Zurich, University Hospital of Bern and the University of Bern have equipped gut bacteria with data logger functionality as a way of monitoring which genes are active in the bacteria. These microorganisms ...

A fecal diet keeps bumblebees healthy

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science shows that a diet of bumble feces at the start of a bumblebee’s adult life is essential for the protection against parasites.

How viruses infect bacteria: A tale of a tail

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Using state-of-the-art tools, EPFL scientists have described a million-atom "tail" that bacteriophages use to breach bacterial surfaces. The breakthrough has major implications ...

Microbes help beetles defeat plant defenses

Some symbiotic bacteria living inside Colorado potato beetles can trick plants into reacting to a microbial attack rather than that of a chewing herbivore, according to a team of Penn State researchers who found that the ...

Microbiome diversity is influenced by chance encounters

Within the human digestive tract, there are trillions of bacteria, and these communities contain hundreds or even thousands of species. The makeup of those populations can vary greatly from one person to another, depending ...

page 7 from 28