by Mike Rust
Why have the bacterial signaling systems based on histidine and aspartate phosphorylation been abandoned (with some exceptions) in favor of serine/threonine and tyrosine phosphorylation in eukaryotes? Is this just a "frozen accident" or is there a deep biochemical reason?
by Barry Goldman — Almost all multicellular critters known (animals, plants, fungi, algae) go through a microbial stage in their life cycle – gamete or spore. Can you think of a multicellular species or higher taxon that has NEVER been caught going through the microbial stage?
by Elio — A little over 10 years ago, on Dec 1, 2006 to be precise, the first Talmudic Question made its appearance in these pages. Here is a dozen of some of my personal favorites of the 146 we have used so far.
by Elio — Maybe it's the lava fields in the Galapagos, maybe it's the giant tortoises, but something caused a bunch of microbiological luminaries to come out of their shells and write a bit about what they think and feel regarding evolution. A meeting held in those islands in 2009 — being Darwin's 200th…
Oligotrophs are organisms that thrive in nutrient scarce environment, as opposite to copiotrophs, who like it rich. Which of these two kinds of microbes do you think is most abundant on Earth?
by Hans H. Martin — In my retirement, one topic that continues to interest me is the 3D-structure of murein (i.e., peptidogylcan, as is now generally preferred in the literature). I participated in the isolation and description of the "murein sacculus," the "little sac" of E. coli B, under the directorship of...
by Christoph — Over the last twenty years, molecular biologists developed and refined a downright cute method to study bacterial chromosome organization in live cells. Briefly, a cluster of binding sites for a DNA-binding protein is introduced at a chosen locus of a bacterial chromosome via genetic engineering (=cloning). A plasmid is introduced with the gene...
interesting question? Maybe this is due to relative stability of the phosphate-hydroxyl bond?