Category Archives: microbiology

Gene expression shows how a plant and its mutualists are better together

Posted on 19 Oct, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

No living thing is an island, and many of the encounters between living things that happen every day are not antagonistic or even indifferent, but mutually beneficial. Two such mutualisms that could be among the most important on the planet … Continue reading →

Posted in microbiology, next generation sequencing, plants, RNAseq | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

It's not the size that counts: teeny tiny SAR11 bacteria play a big role in our oceans

Posted on 11 Oct, 2016 by Kelle Freel

Microbes account for a huge chunk of the diversity on this planet, are essential in all sorts of biogeochemical processes, and we are still figuring out how everything is related. Teeny tiny bacterial cells are abundant both on land as … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, evolution, metagenomics, microbiology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Respect the old but seek out the new: Direct 16S rRNA-seq from bacterial communities

Posted on 2 Sep, 2016 by Kelle Freel

I think it’s fair to say that it’s an ongoing struggle to figure out what the heck microbes are doing in their natural environments, and who those microbes are. Clearly, there is no silver bullet that gives us all the … Continue reading →

Posted in community ecology, microbiology, RNAseq | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Of microbes and men: Testing the neutral theory with the human microbiome

Posted on 22 Aug, 2016 by Kelle Freel

There is no doubt that one of the hottest current topics in microbiology revolves around the human microbiome. There have been a suite of recent studies we’ve highlighted, on organisms ranging from bees and mice, to humans. A quick google scholar search identifies … Continue reading →

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Microbes can rapidly evolve host-protective traits

Posted on 15 Aug, 2016 by Elin Videvall

One of the coolest studies I’ve come across so far this year is the fascinating story about microbe-mediated protection in worms by Kayla King et al. The bacterium Enterococcus faecalis normally causes mild disease in worms (Caenorhabditis elegans). After a week … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, microbiology, mutation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Understanding the pieces of all those meeces: characterizing mice gut microbiota

Posted on 12 Aug, 2016 by Kelle Freel

In an age where a tremendous amount of data is generated, this week has seen some moves towards providing open access to extensive data sets. These attempts have been in the realm of chemistry as well as microbiology, where in a … Continue reading →

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Are you my mother? Exploring the possible microbial ecology of LUCA

Posted on 28 Jul, 2016 by Kelle Freel

One persistent question has always been: where did it all begin? What was the origin of the complex life that we have today? What happened billions of years ago that resulted in beautiful giant manta rays, magnificent Sequoias, and even … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, microbiology | Tagged | 5 Comments

Who’s really riding the subway with you? Characterization of the microbial communities on Boston transport

Posted on 29 Jun, 2016 by Kelle Freel

(Figure modified from Hsu et al., 2016, Boston transport map and wikicommons image of Boston) Understanding the microbes around us is an important challenge to take on. There have been articles covering changes in microbial communities among rural and more … Continue reading →

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Microbes are going to infinity and beyond! Monitoring community changes on a simulated space station

Posted on 8 Jun, 2016 by Kelle Freel

As we’ve discussed previously here, understanding microbes in the natural and built environment around us, has implications related to human health and disease. It has turned out to be pretty tricky to clarify what is going on with our most … Continue reading →

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Data, data everywhere and another tool to use: Taxonomer, a web-tool for metagenomics data analysis

Posted on 26 May, 2016 by Kelle Freel

Because sequencing. With all the affordable genome and metagenome sequencing available, we’ve reached an unprecedented point at which we can profile microbial communities more accurately than ever before. For this reason, it’s essential to develop efficient methods for data analysis. … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, genomics, metagenomics, methods, microbiology, software | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment