Biology Net: Microbiology

Biology News Net - Microbiology

• Traveling microorganisms
  

  Every day, millions of microorganisms reach Spain from the Sahara Desert and the Sahel region – by flying. Louis Pasteur demonstrated back in 1861 that germs can move through the air, but it was only recently discovered that bacteria, funguses and viruses can travel thousands of kilometers stuck onto dust particles. Satellite images show clouds that come close to the size of the Iberian Peninsula. For the first time, the international team on the Ecosensor project, funded by the BBVA Foundation, have analyzed these traveling microorganisms using molecular biology techniques. As well as identifying the species, they have found that they colonize high-mountain lakes in the Sierra Nevada and the Pyrenees, and that the phenomenon is escalating with climate change.

  
  
  
• By 'putting a ring on it,' microparticles can be captured
  

  To trap and hold tiny microparticles, engineers at Harvard have "put a ring on it," using a silicon-based circular resonator to confine particles stably for up to several minutes.
  

  
  
  
• New virus may pose risk to wild salmon
  

  Farmed fish are an increasingly important food source, with a global harvest now at 110 million tons and growing at more than 8 percent a year. But epidemics of infectious disease threaten this vital industry, including one of its most popular products: farmed Atlantic salmon. Perhaps even more worrisome: these infections can spread to wild fish coming in close proximity to marine pens and fish escaping from them.

  
  
  
• Amid the murk of 'gut flora,' vitamin D receptor emerges as a key player
  

  Within the human digestive tract is a teeming mass of hundreds of types of bacteria, a potpourri of microbes numbering in the trillions that help us digest food and keep bad bacteria in check.

  
  
  
• A new opportunity for hepatitis C research
  

  The hepatitis C virus is highly specialised. We humans are its natural hosts. The only other living organisms that could be infected with the hepatitis C virus in the lab are chimpanzees. Nevertheless it is – from the viewpoint of the virus – highly successful: around 170 million people are chronically infected with the virus. And with the chronic infection the risk of developing liver cancer also increases.

  
  
  
• Discovery of a hepatitis C-related virus in bats may reduce outbreaks in humans
  

  Viral hepatitis affects more than 500 million people worldwide and is a cause of liver failure and liver cancer. While vaccines are available for hepatitis A and B, this is not the case for hepatitis C, which affects as much as two percent of the population in the U.S. Scientists today are reporting discovery of a virus related to hepatitis C in Asian bats, which may provide insights into the origins of the hepatitis C virus and into the mechanisms by which infectious diseases move from other species to humans.

  
  
  
• Nutrients, viruses and the biological carbon pump
  

  Adding nutrients to the sea could decrease viral infection rates among phytoplankton and enhance the efficiency of the biological pump, a means by which carbon is transferred from the atmosphere to the deep ocean, according to a new mathematical modelling study. The findings, published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, have implications for ocean geo-engineering schemes proposed for tackling global warming.

  
  
  
• Virus 'explorers' probe inner workings of the brain
  

  Imagine an exceedingly complex circuit board. Wires often split -- seemingly at random -- and connect in strange and unexpected ways.

  
  
  
• Bird flu: In the plumage the secret of virus spread success
  

  International team of Italy-US scientists reports discovery of a new mechanism of avian influenza virus circulation and transmission in nature

  
  
  
• New research into the deep ocean floor yields promising results for microbiologists
  

  Research by a small group of microbiologists is revealing how marine microbes live in a mysterious area of the Earth: the realm just beneath the deep ocean floor. The ocean crust may be the largest biological reservoir on our planet.