United we stand; divided we fall

In the July 15th issue of G&D, Dr. Roberto Kolter (Harvard Medical School) and colleagues make the unprecedented observation of paracrine signaling during Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation.

Mutant microbes test radiation resistance

Early Earth lacked an ozone layer to act as a shield against high-energy solar radiation, but microbes flourished by adapting to or finding other forms of protection from the higher ultraviolet radiation levels. Now researchers ...

Bacteria are wishing you a Merry Xmas

A bacterium has been used to wish people a Merry Xmas. Grown by Dr Munehiro Asally, an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick, the letters used to spell MERRY XMAS are made of Bacillus subtilis, a non-pathogenic ...

Flat bacteria in nanoslits

It appears that bacteria can squeeze through practically anything. In extremely small nanoslits they take on a completely new flat shape. Even in this squashed form they continue to grow and divide at normal speeds. This ...

Scientists discover new rules about 'runaway' transcription

On the evolutionary tree, humans diverged from yeast roughly 1 billion years ago. By comparison, two seemingly similar species of bacteria, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, have been evolving apart for roughly twice ...

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