Pseudomonas bacteria and their special killer weapons on Bacterialworld

Creating the colours of the rainbow: Bacteria and the vibrant world of pigments

Our world as well as the bacterial world are full of vibrant colours. These colours exist thanks to biopigments; molecules able to capture light and reflect the corresponding colour. Many organisms, as well as bacteria, learned to use biopigments to harvest energy from sunlight, fight foes and adapt to new and challenging environments. Read on to learn what makes the bacterial world so colourful and why biopigments are the Earth’s life savers.

Bacterial killer weapons as biocontrol to protect plants

To feed the growing population on our planet, we need to improve our agriculture for plants to stay healthy and produce crops efficiently. One way to protect plants from diseases is to use biocontrol bacteria that actively kill intruding pathogens. Hence, by increasing our food supply, bacteria can help us save this planet.

How plant-pathogenic bacteria understand plant language and make them sick

Bacteria learned to live on all sorts of surfaces and in different environments. This also includes plants. Unfortunately, some bacteria can also make plants sick. These have special mechanisms with which they speak the language of plants with the goal to enter them.

Microbes in biofilms filter out and remove pathogens to clean drinking water in slow sand filtration systems

How Microbes Clean our Drinking Water

Pathogens and dirty particles contaminate our water supply. But helpful microbes can remove harmful bacteria and pollutants and thus clean our drinking water.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae uses their bacterial pili to attach to human gut cells.

About twitching bacteria and their pili

Some bacteria have special hair-like structures to connect to surfaces or other organisms. These bacterial pili help them move along that surface or pull themselves closer to a prey or host. Read about why bacteria need those pili when they are out hunting or infecting us.

Microbes as biofertilizers

Microbes produce nutrients and help promote plant growth to produce more bountiful crops and sustainable agriculture.

Bacteria produce colourful antibiotics to protect frogs

A deadly fungus kills many exotic amphibians. Luckily, some bacteria antibiotics to kill the fungal intruder and thus protect the animal. With this colourful strategy, the right microbial community might even save whole species from extinction.

Microbial bioremediation: microbes cleaning-up our toxic messes

We have created a lot of toxin pollution. Now we need microbe’s help to degrade and remove toxic materials from our environment to make our planet greener.

Bacteria use the type 6 secretion system (T6SS) to kill other bacteria with a crossbow and arrow.

Bacteria fire powerful and lethal arrows to kill their competitors

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 produce green bio-plastics

Producing plastics requires a lot of energy, which is a massive burden for the environment. Fortunately, bacteria already know how to make sustainable versions of plastics which we can use in our everyday life. Learn why bacteria produce natural plastics and why these molecules can help us save this planet.

Bacteria can degrade plastics and help us with the plastic pollution in the environment

Plastic Degrading Microbes For a Cleaner Future

Throughout your day, you’re likely using several pieces of plastics. All this plastic waste takes up space in our landfills and overflows into rivers and oceans. Luckily, some bacteria can eat and degrade plastic to help us get rid of all this clutter. Read on to learn how plastic-degrading bacteria may be the key to a greener and healthier planet.

Phages form nets around bacteria to separate them from the environment and protect from toxic compounds.

Love thy host: Phages protect bacteria from antibiotics

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 incredible superpowers of bacteria: unveiling nature’s tiny heroes

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.

Haem binds at the outside of a bacterium and is transported inside by a barrel like transporter

Thanks to iron, bacteria know where they are

Bacteria can sense the iron concentration of their environment thanks to special iron transporters, of which they produce multiple.

The bacterial cycle of biofilm formation

Bacteria building houses

Bacteria can be major problems for human health. One of the reasons for that is because they have the ability to hide in their own houses. Such a house is called a bacterial biofilm which protect bacteria from harsh environments, toxic chemicals and to form a community within the biofilm.

Tiny Biological Needles: How Some Bacteria Are Able to Infect Their Targets

Some pathogenic bacteria use a weapon which is called type 3 secretion system to infect their host targets.

A bacterial nanoweapon called the type 6 secretion system

Bacterial killing is happening everywhere where bacteria fight for space and nutrients. Some bacteria have highly efficient weapons to kill other microbes. These killer bacteria can survive in the rarest and driest environmental niches. Just by killing other bacteria.
What kind of fantastic nanoweapon is that?

Bacteria from the Pseudomonas genus