To grow biofilms in water, bacteria need to properly glue themselves to a given surface. The bacterium Caulobacter crescentus produces a bacterial glue that is super strong so that the bacteria will not get washed away. Thanks to this glue, Caulobacter can settle down on almost any surface to build biofilms in water.
Bacteria are constantly attacked by other microbes like viruses. But also bacteria developed mechanisms that make them immune to viral intruders. Read on to find out how bacteria fight off viruses to protect themselves and the whole bacterial community.
As a solution to our electronic waste problem, yet again bacteria come to the rescue! They can produce nanowires that one day we could use in our electronic devices. Plus, they are green and biodegradable!
When bacteria fight competitors with their type 6 secretion system nanoweapons, they shoot deadly arrows. These arrows are made of specific parts that interact with each other in unique ways for each arrow. Here, we will look at these different parts: the tip, the spike and the toxin.
Bacteria swim through liquids with their flagella. Some bacteria even have two flagella at opposite ends that help them to swim through mucus and slime. This movement helps bacteria to infect the human body. Now, researchers start to better understand how these flagella work together to move the bacterium forward.
In bacterial battles, there is more than just direct killing. Some bacteria even fight by destroying the houses of their opponents. We could learn a lot from these bacterial wars for our own fights against bacterial superbugs.
To fight nasty microorganisms, researchers need to come up with new strategies to develop vaccines. Turns out bacteria are extremely helpful to researchers, since they provide valuable tools.
Learn how researchers use bacteria to find new vaccines.
For a bacterium to understand what is going on in the environment, it needs some sophisticated mechanisms. One of these includes destroying proteins. Here, we will look at why bacteria destroy proteins and how it helps them to survive.
To overcome the medical problem of how drugs can reach a specific target within the body, researchers try to use new approaches. These are often based on bacteria or their products. Here, we will explore drug transport mechanisms for which we could use bacteria and their amazing superpowers.
When we eat plant products, we cannot always digest all their components. Instead, our gut bacteria love plant ploymers and start degrading and digesting them. And they share the leftover food with other bacteria, so that all of them together produce some very healthy molecules for us.
Scientists have found bacteria in our guts that degrade cholesterol. These bacteria can reduce our overall cholesterol levels and might have health benefits for us.
When thinking of bacteria, you might have the picture of a single cell in your mind. But interestingly, some bacteria come as multicellular organisms with advanced functions. Here, we will learn what multicellular bacteria are and why bacteria form multicellular organisms. We will then look at some colourful examples of multicellular bacteria.
Magnetotactic bacteria have magnetosomes with which they can sense magnetic field lines. This allows magnetotactic bacteria to swim towards North or South to find the perfect location in the deep and dark water.
When a bacterial cell grows, it needs to increase both the cell content and the cell envelope. To grow their outer membranes, bacteria transport lipids with ferries, bridges and tunnels from one side to the other. These transport means allow the whole bacterium to expand and thrive.
The microbial world is super colorful and diverse.
Even though, we sometimes hear too many negative news articles about certain players of the microbial world, we should not forget about all the other interesting and helpful microbes.
To remind you that the microbial world consists of so many more players, we assembled this list of common and interesting microbes.
Bacteria produce many different molecules with unique tastes and smells. We and animals can react in specific ways to the bacterial molecules, however it is not always clear how these molecules actually help the bacteria. A new study focused on one such molecules and revealed that bacteria produce geosmin to attract small animals to use them to hitchhike.
Bacteria use nanoweapons to kill other bacteria. For long, it was unclear how toxins stick to the arrow of these nanoweapons. Now, a new study visualised the type 6 secretion system spike and showed how bacteria glue the toxin to the arrow.
The players in the microbial world always interact with each other driving ecology and evolution forward. Bacteriophages thank their bacterial hosts for their production in a very special way: They protect bacteria from antibiotic attacks by forming shielding walls around the cells. While the microbial world gets more and more complex with such mechanisms, it also represents another strategy for antimicrobial resistances.
The bacteria and fungi living on cocoa beans degrade the sugars in the fruit. With this fermentation, the so-called cocobiota produces metabolites that give chocolate its delicious taste. Read about the microbes that are part of the cocobiota and why chocolate tastes the way it does.
Microbes and bacteria touch every aspect of our lives. They have so many superpowers that impact the environment, food production, bioremediation and even the climate. Here, we will look at 20 of the most fascinating bacterial superpowers and tell you where you might encounter them throughout your day. But don’t forget, there are plenty more.
