Flowing electrons help ocean microbes gulp methane

Good communication is crucial to any relationship, especially when partners are separated by distance. This also holds true for microbes in the deep sea that need to work together to consume large amounts of methane released ...

Understanding how microbiota thrive in their human hosts

A research team lead by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, Germany, has now made substantial progress in understanding how gut bacteria succeed in their human hosts on a molecular level. They ...

How a bacterium feeds an entire flatworm

In the sandy bottom of warm coastal waters lives Paracatenula—a small worm that has neither mouth, nor gut. Nevertheless, it lacks nothing thanks to Riegeria, the bacterium that fills most of the body of the tiny worm. ...

How leaves talk to roots

New findings show that a micro RNA from the shoot keeps legume roots susceptible to symbiotic infection by downregulating a gene that would otherwise hinder root responses to symbiotic bacteria. These findings reveal what ...

Why communication is vital—even among plants and funghi

Plant scientists at the University of Cambridge have found a plant protein indispensable for communication early in the formation of symbiosis - the mutually beneficial relationship between plants and fungi. Symbiosis significantly ...

Ancient symbiosis points to possible whitefly controls

Uncovering the details of a 100 million-year-old symbiosis between bacteria and whiteflies opens the door for controlling an insect pest that is rated one of the top 10 invasive species on the planet.

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