Unlocking the biochemical treasure chest within microbes

Secondary metabolites—the compounds produced by microbes to mediate internal and external messaging, self-defense, and chemical warfare—are the basis for hundreds of invaluable agricultural, industrial, and medical products. ...

Understanding the personalities of bacteria

Bacteria are as individual as people, according to new research by Professor Peter Young and his team in the Department of Biology at the University of York. Bacteria are essential to health, agriculture and the environment, ...

Stolen genes allow parasitic control of behavior of host

A team led by Tappei Mishina at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) has discovered that parasites manipulate their hosts using stolen genes that they likely acquired through a phenomenon called horizontal ...

Protein could put antibiotic-resistant bugs in handcuffs

Staph infections that become resistant to multiple antibiotics don't happen because the bacteria themselves adapt to the drugs, but because of a kind of genetic parasite they carry called a plasmid that helps its host survive ...

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