Futurity.org » microorganism

‘Boring’ fungus finally gets a name

Nancy Ross-Flanigan-Michigan — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:33:41 +0000

U. MICHIGAN (US) — A fungus that’s been lurking underground for millions of years—known only through its DNA—has been cultured, photographed, named, and assigned a place on the tree of life.

Researchers say it represents an entirely new class of fungi: the Archaeorhizomycetes. The journal Science reports the team’s findings.

In biotic game, Pac-Man’s a living cell

Louis Bergeron-Stanford — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:33:28 +0000

STANFORD (US) — Your new favorite video game character could be a single-celled organism.

Researchers at Stanford University have developed the first video games in which a player’s actions influence the behavior of living microorganisms in real time—while the game is being played.

Final liftoff for space shuttle Atlantis

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:23:10 +0000

U. COLORADO (US)—The launch today from Kennedy Space Center is expected to be the last one for space shuttle Atlantis, marking the end of a career that includes 32 space missions—covering more than 115 million miles.

Atlantis and six astronauts are headed for the International Space Station to deliver research materials and conduct experiments on a 12-day mission.

Arctic snow reveals mercury’s ‘fingerprint’

Nancy Ross-Flanigan-Michigan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:40:35 +0000

In the Arctic, mercury remains in its benign gaseous form through the dark winter, because there’s no sunlight to drive oxidation and little bromine to catalyze the process. But in polar springtime, that all changes. As sea ice breaks up, water vapor rises in great clouds through the openings in the ice, bringing with it bromine from the sea water. (Courtesy: iStockphoto)

U. MICHIGAN (US)—Mercury deposited onto Arctic snow from the atmosphere takes on a life of its own as it is picked up by microorganisms that then build up in fish and animals that eat them.

“When released into the atmosphere in its reduced form, mercury is not very reactive,” explains Joel Blum the John D. MacArthur Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Michigan.

Encyclopedia of microbe genomes: Chapter 1

Andy Fell-UC Davis — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:20:41 +0000

There are estimated to be a nonillion—1 followed by 30 zeroes—prokaryotic microbes on the planet. About a thousand prokaryote genomes have been sequenced to date, most of them among the small number that cause disease, or that do interesting things such as producing biofuels. “That’s like making a map of the world and only mapping three cities,” says Jonathan Eisen.

UC DAVIS (US)—Genome scientists from the United States and Germany have assembled the first pages of a comprehensive encyclopedia of genomes of all the microbes on Earth.

The results, published Dec. 24 in the journal Nature, will help biologists find new genes and fill out the branches of the “Tree of Life.”

‘Hairy’ microbe spurs immune response

Dorie Klissas-NYU — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:37:32 +0000

The discovery of a little-known microbe that triggers an immune response in mice lays groundwork for exploring how microbes in the gut protect humans.

NYU (US)—Scientists have identified a bizarre-looking microbial species that can single-handedly kick start the production of specialized immune cells in mice. The finding could point to a similar phenomenon in humans, helping researchers understand how gut-dwelling bacteria protect us from pathogenic bacteria, such as virulent strains of E. coli.

The study, published in the Oct. 30 issue of Cell, also supports the idea that specific bacteria may act like neighborhood watchdogs at key locations within the small intestine, where they sense the local microbial community and sound the alarm if something seems amiss.

Avoiding chemo’s collateral damage

Kathy Lawhon-UC Irvine — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:03:37 +0000

Kenneth Longmuir, left, and Richard Robertson inserted the anticancer drug doxorubicin into liposomes (orange globules shown in background) and attached a protein that targets only the liver. (Credit: Daniel Anderson/UC Irvine)

UC IRVINE (US)—Researchers believe they have developed a way for chemotherapy drugs to reach specific tumors with increased precision, thereby limiting side effects.

In a study appearing online in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics, the University of California, Irvine researchers show that doxorubicin—commonly used to treat a number of cancers—can be directed almost entirely to a particular spot in the body with virtually no spread to other organs.

Big job for oceans’ tiny ammonia eaters

Bob Roseth-UW — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:42:14 +0000

Archaea were discovered only about 30 years ago and were first thought to exist only in extreme environments like hot springs, such as the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park pictured above. (Credit: Jim Peaco/National Park Service)

U. WASHINGTON (US)—It’s not every day you find clues to the planet’s inner workings in aquarium scum. But that’s what happened when researchers cultured a tiny organism from the bottom of a Seattle Aquarium tank and found it can digest ammonia.

Results, published in the journal Nature, show this minute organism and its relatives play a more central role in the planet’s ecology than previously suspected. These microorganisms, members of the ancient lineage called archaea, beat out all other marine life in the race for ammonia.