Skin bacteria regulate the immune response

25 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria, Disease, Mammals

Tags

Bacteria, biology, Complement system, Health, Immune system, microbes, microbiome, Mouse, Popular science, science

The skin is one of our body’s first lines of defense, but it’s also home to a rich community of microbes — the skin microbiome. These bacteria are important in protecting us from pathogens; changes in the skin microbiome are linked with conditions ranging from dermatitis to psoriasis. In a paper published this month in the journal PNAS, a team of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania showed that these bacteria don’t just live on our skin, but also play a role in regulating our immune response. Continue reading →

Sex, hormones, and the microbiome

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria, Development, Mammals

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Autoimmune disease, Bacteria, biology, Diabetes mellitus type 1, Gut flora, Health, microbes, microbiome, Popular science, science

The microbiome — the kilogram of microbes that each of us carries around — has been shown to be involved in everything from obesity and type 2 diabetes to behaviour and sexual preferences. The composition and effects of the microbiome are very active areas of research, producing results which have challenged the way we think about the evolution and interactions of organisms, including ourselves. In a paper recently published in the journal Science, researchers showed for the first time that the make up of the microbiome differs between the sexes, linking these differences to changes in hormone levels and disease resistance.
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Skybugs: ecosystems above and below

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

biology, Caribbean Sea, Cloud, ecosystem, hurricanes, microbes, Popular science, science

I’ve already written several times about the bacteria in the clouds and what they do up there; now, a new study from the Georgia Institue of Technology in Atlanta has described the communities formed by the bugs in the sky. In a paper published in the journal PNAS, the researchers detailed the communities of skybugs and how their composition is affected by storms, giving us a better understanding of life in the sky. Not only might this help us better understand atmospheric chemistry, but it may also shed further light on how microbes spread, which could impact the dynamics of everything from ecosystems to diseases.
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Flying bacteria: the chemists of the clouds

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria, Climate

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Bacteria, biology, Chemistry, climate, clouds, Hydrogen peroxide, micro organisms, microbes, Microorganism, Popular science, science, Ultraviolet

A while ago I wrote about how bacteria make their way into clouds, where they act as seeds around which raindrops condense. Now, a team of scientists in France has shown that the microbes floating around in the clouds do more than just make it rain to bring them back down to the surface; they also carry out chemistry while they’re up there.
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The viruses that infect the bacteria that live in your gut

26 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria, Humans

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bacteria, bacteriophage, biology, gut bacteria, Gut flora, Human, microbes, microbiome, phage, Popular science, Prophage, science, virus

Your body has ten times more bacterial cells than human cells containing 150 times as much genetic material. I’ve written several posts about how our gut bacteria, the microbiome, can influence the development of allergies, obesity and type-2 diabetes. We’ve only recently started studying the microbiome and there’s still a lot to learn; it’s quite an active area of research. For example, just last year scientists discovered that individuals could be divided into three groups based on the composition of their microbiome, but new research has cast doubt on that idea. And yet, like a matryoshka doll, our biology has still another surprise in store for us: wherever bacteria are found, there are viruses which infect them. As we learn more about the microbiome and its implications, some scientists have turned their attention to the the viral microbiome, the viruses that prey on our gut bacteria and shape their community. Continue reading →

Gut bacteria and diabetes: the saga continues

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria, Genetics, Humans

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bacteria, biology, diabetes, Diabetes mellitus type 2, Gut flora, Health, metagenome, Metagenomics, Popular science, science, sequence

Type 2 diabetes is a serious global epidemic, having grown from 30 million cases to nearly 300 million over the past three decades. Although several recent studies have shown a link between type 2 diabetes and our gut bacteria, we’re still only at the dawn of learning about the microbiome. There’s a great deal we don’t yet know, including what kinds of bacteria live in our gut and how they go about making a living there. In a paper published in the September issue of Nature, a team of scientists from China and Denmark used whole genome sequencing technologies to overcome these gaps in our knowledge and get some more clues about the relationship between our gut bacteria and this disease. Continue reading →