Articles tagged Microbes
(15 results)

In the early 1940s, many biologists doubted bacteria had genes. After all, they seemed to play by their own genetic rules: they appeared to lack chromosomes, meiosis, mitosis, sex, and all the other trappings of Mendelian inheritance. They even seemed to show a kind of Lamarckian inheritance, in which an individual could pass on traits acquired…

Versatile and ubiquitous, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the busybodies of eukaryotic signaling. This diverse group of stimulus-sensing membrane proteins are involved in countless aspects of growth, development, immunity, metabolism, and response to environmental conditions. In the latest issue of G3, Cabrera et al. report phenotypic and gene expression data for more than 80% of…

Compared to a human, a tree, or a jellyfish, the single-celled yeast might seem like a loner. Multicellular organisms like plants and animals are complex co-operative structures made of many specialized cell types, while a single yeast cell can survive and proliferate without the help of others. But although you might think of yeast as…

Amphibians around the world have been devastated by the spread of the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). But although many populations have been decimated, others have survived the same threat. One reason for such different outcomes is variation in virulence between Bd isolates. In the latest issue of G3, Refsnider and Poorten et al. investigate…