Author Archives: Kelle Freel

Analysis of the human microbiome reveals you are (at least related to) what you eat, in a manner of speaking

Posted on 29 Apr, 2016 by Kelle Freel

Understanding microbial symbioses, and more specifically how the human microbiome affects our health, is currently a hot topic in the land of microbiology and metagenomics. The most recent special edition of Science focuses on reviews and articles centered on understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, medicine, microbiology, next generation sequencing, population genetics | Leave a comment

One of these things is not like the other……

Posted on 22 Apr, 2016 by Kelle Freel

While we know that bacteria are pretty scandalous with their DNA, not minding horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and such (which can be pretty confounding when trying to discuss species concepts), and although it’s clear that this kind of genetic material … Continue reading →

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, genomics, horizontal gene transfer | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

New branches on the tree of life

Posted on 12 Apr, 2016 by Kelle Freel

(Trees from Darwin (1837), Haeckel (1866), and Woese (1990)) We’ve come quite a long way since Darwin sketched out his tree in 1837 connecting, with branch tips representing animals and microbes currently in existence and branches and trunks their ancestors. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, evolution, genomics, metagenomics, microbiology, phylogenetics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The dangers of not thinking about the relics

Posted on 31 Mar, 2016 by Kelle Freel

No, I’m not talking about Saint Erik’s skull from his beheading in 1160, which (as it turns out) might just be real. A hot topic in microbiology is a different kind of relic. Amazing developments in microbial ecology in recent years … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, metagenomics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

When times are good or bad, happy or sad, viral quasispecies like to stay together

Posted on 15 Mar, 2016 by Kelle Freel

We’ve known for a long time that symbioses are important across all walks of life. Clownfish and sea anemones are obligate symbionts, and bacteria found in legume root nodules help fix nitrogen. In a nice review published recently in Evolutionary … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How urbanization might affect the five-second rule

Posted on 24 Feb, 2016 by Kelle Freel

At this point, we know that microbes are everywhere and make up complex communities found all over the place ranging from oceanic hydrothermal vents to lakes, soils, and, yes of course, all over you. It has also become apparent that … Continue reading →

Posted in community ecology, microbiology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments