by Elio — We recently posted a piece on Brucella abortus becoming more virulent when grown in the light, a puzzling finding if there ever was one. Like many other forms of life, B. abortus has a flavin-binding light-sensitive protein domain called LOV that is responsible for this phenomenon. So far, not many other functions can be attributed...
by Jennifer Gutierrez, Sabrina Perrino, Kalyn Stern, Mark Thever — As first year graduate students in microbiology, we are accustomed to microbial surprises, learning again and again how different and exciting bacteria can be. However, it is fair to say that we were not entirely prepared for the Planctomycetes─ bacteria that divide by budding, have no peptidoglycan, and possess a unique and perplexing body plan.
