10 min listen
404: Phages Force Food Finding
FromBacterioFiles
ratings:
Length:
9 minutes
Released:
Nov 25, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
This episode: Another climate-related story: Cyanobacteria infected by viruses continue taking up nutrients from their environment, using it to make more viruses than would otherwise be possible! Download Episode (6.3 MB, 9.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Microcystis virus Ma-LMM01 News item Takeaways Though global warming is a global problem, accurate models for predicting where things are headed need to incorporate the activity of even the smallest organisms, if they're numerous enough. Photosynthesis and other activities of microbes in the oceans are a big sink for carbon, but cycles of other nutrients and also viruses can affect the carbon cycle. In this study, phages infecting photosynthetic ocean bacteria were able to continue their host's uptake of nitrogen from the environment even after mostly shutting down the host's own protein production and growth. This has implications for how viruses affect carbon cycling by cyanobacteria and how quickly populations of these bacteria may grow or die off. Journal Paper: Waldbauer JR, Coleman ML, Rizzo AI, Campbell KL, Lotus J, Zhang L. 2019. Nitrogen sourcing during viral infection of marine cyanobacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci 116:15590–15595. Other interesting stories: Transplants of gut microbes help koalas eat wider range of food Skin bacteria can help attract (or repulse) mosquitoes (paper) Email questions or comments to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, or RSS. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.
Released:
Nov 25, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (97)
417: Bacteriophage Blocks Bacterial Bouncers: This episode: A phage defends its genome against bacterial host defenses by building a wall to keep them out! (7.0 MB, 10.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Myroides odoratus and M. odoratimimus Takeaways Parasites and their... by BacterioFiles