Microbes

Life

This marine alga is the first known eukaryote to pull nitrogen from air

An alga’s bacterial symbiote has evolved into an organelle that turns atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, making the alga unique among eukaryotes.

Agriculture

Mixing up root microbes can boost tea’s flavor

Inoculating tea plant roots with nitrogen-metabolizing bacteria enhances synthesis of theanine, an amino acid that gives tea its savoriness.

Planetary Science

Bacteria that can make humans sick could survive on Mars

Experiments suggest that common illness-causing microbes could not only survive on the Red Planet but also might be able to thrive.

Microbes

Bird flu viruses may pack tools that help them infect human cells

Bringing along their own ANP32 proteins may give avian flu viruses a jump-start on copying themselves to adapt to and infect humans and other animals.

Life

How disease-causing microbes load their tiny syringes to prep an attack

Tracking individual proteins in bacterial cells reveals a shuttle-bus system to load tiny syringes that inject our cells with havoc-wreaking proteins.

Life

Bacteria fossils hold the oldest signs of machinery needed for photosynthesis

Microfossils from Australia suggest that cyanobacteria evolved structures for oxygen-producing photosynthesis by 1.78 billion years ago.

Microbes

Evolutionary virologist Daniel Blanco-Melo seeks out ancient pathogens

Daniel Blanco-Melo has reconstructed two viral strains brought to the Americas with European colonizers in the 16th century.

Life

Human cancer cells might slurp up bacteria-killing viruses for energy

In the lab, human cancer cells show signs of cell growth after ingesting bacteria-killing viruses, a hint our cells might use bacteriophages as fuel.

Microbes

Watch: Recent microbial discoveries are changing our view of life on Earth

Videos capture the strange movements and predatory styles of protists — among the closest microbial cousins to multicellular life.

Health & Medicine

Mexican virologist Susana López Charretón uncovered rotaviruses’ secrets

Knowledge of the complex dance between virus and host cell has led to the development of life-saving vaccines.

Life

Young squash bugs seek out adults’ poop for an essential microbe

Squash bug nymphs don’t rely on their parents to pick up a bacterium they’d die without. They find it on their own.

Life

‘Polyester bees’ brew beer-scented baby food in plastic cribs

Ptiloglossa bees’ baby food gets its boozy fragrance from fermentation by mysteriously selected microbes.