Bacteria

Wound healing: Genetically engineered cheese bacteria may help chronic wounds to heal

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Lactococcus lactis bacteria have been engineered to produce skin-healing proteins and could be useful for treating diabetic ulcers Health 15 March 2022 By Alice Klein Lactococcus lactis bacteria seen in a scanning electron microscope image STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Cheese-making bacteria have been engineered to produce skin repair proteins that promote rapid healing when applied … Read more

A Man Had a Stroke. Three Months Later His Tongue Turned ‘Hairy’ And Dark

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A man in his 50s presented to doctors in India a black, hairy tongue after suffering a stroke, according to a report by JAMA Dermatology. The man had left-sided weakness from a stroke three months prior and was put on a pureed diet, doctors said in the report published Wednesday. A thick, black coating had covered most … Read more

Lake Hillier: Pink Australian lake gets its colour from red and purple microbes

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DNA sequencing has revealed that a bright pink lake on an island off Western Australia gets its colour from a mix of salt-loving bacteria and algae Earth 10 March 2022 By Alice Klein Aerial view of Lake Hillier, Australia Tourism Western Australia The unusual bubblegum pink colour of a remote lake in Western Australia has … Read more

Plants may have first been able to grow on land due to bacterial genes

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When aquatic plants first transitioned onto land, their success may have been due to genes they got from bacteria and fungi that let them take up nutrients from soil Life 1 March 2022 By Jake Buehler Plants may have taken root on land thanks to genes from bacteria Shutterstock/daniilphotos Around 500 million years ago, aquatic … Read more

Air pollution may make some bacteria in our nose and throat turn nasty

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The superbug MRSA is potentially even more harmful if it is exposed to air pollution, some studies using mice and human cells suggest Health 28 February 2022 By Michael Le Page Air pollution from smoke stacks at an oil refinery Susan Santa Maria/Shutterstock Air pollution from fossil fuels and wood burning can directly affect the … Read more

Nanotechnology: Particles can translate chemical signals from bacteria to yeast

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Particles that facilitate communication from one type of cell to another could have applications in medicine and agriculture Life 28 February 2022 By Jason Arunn Murugesu Electron microscope image of an E. coli cell dividing CNRI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Specially designed nanoparticles have been used to let bacteria communicate with yeast cells by “translating” chemical messages … Read more

Antibiotic resistance: C. difficile superbug has protective protein coat like chain mail

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The outer coat of the antibiotic-resistant bacterium Clostridium difficile has a structure similar to chain mail that stops drugs and immune system cells from killing it Health 25 February 2022 By Carissa Wong The outer proteins of Clostridium difficile form a structure like chain mail Newcastle University A bacterium called Clostridium difficile is known as … Read more

Engineered bacteria produce chemicals with negative carbon emissions

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Bacteria have been modified to produce chemicals found in paint remover and hand sanitiser from carbon dioxide in the air, meaning they have negative emissions compared with traditional industrial methods Environment 21 February 2022 By Chen Ly Bacteria can produce a range of chemicals Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into … Read more

A Mysterious Desert Bacterium Has Evolved Its Own, Unique Ability to Photosynthesize

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Photosynthesis quite literally changed our world. Plants ‘eating’ sunlight and ‘breathing out’ oxygen transformed Earth’s entire atmosphere into the one we now breathe, and fuel our ecosystems with energy.   Now researchers have caught a cunning species of bacteria with stolen photosynthesizing technology. And their molecular, light-eating device is unlike any we’ve ever seen. “The … Read more

Fat Cells in Our Skin Could Be Key to Fighting Acne, Scientists Discover

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The cells in our skin that fabricate fatty acids could play an unappreciated role in acne breakouts. Recent experiments on human acne and mouse skin have found pimples and lesions are closely regulated by fat-producing fibroblasts.   Fibroblasts are the most common type of connective tissue cell we have in our bodies; they produce and … Read more