Talmudic Question #160
Why are obligate endosymbionts of insects (for example, Buchnera ) more often mutualistic but those of vertebrates (for example, Rickettsia ) more often parasitic?
Other Posts
Talmudic Question #198
Biologists are often criticized because they do not have a watertight definition of 'life.' Is that really so bad? Does that make biology a 'lesser' science?
Talmudic Question #68
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?
Talmudic Question #37
by Rob Edwards — What's the lowest temperature at which microbes can grow? Clearly it is below 0°C and above −273°C, so we have a range.
Talmudic Question #9
Given that spores are so effective in ensuring survival of bacteria, why don't all species make them?
Talmudic Question #76
Do you think that our species is exempt from "kill-the-winner" predator-prey dynamics? (KTW is the colloquial term for the cyclical dynamic by which phages promote community evenness by reducing the numbers of the most abundant bacterial strains.)
Talmudic Question #196
The establishment of an oxygen-respiring bacterium in the cytoplasm of an archeon might have given rise to the eukaryotes. What was the first adaptive trait...
