In a process called quorum sensing (QS), the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses small diffusible signals to coordinate cooperative behaviors via secreted “public goods”. Under QS-dependent growth conditions, social cheaters arise with mutations in lasR, the gene for the primary QS signal receptor. These cheaters do not produce public goods....
Social behavior leading to the production of common goods is prone to exploitation. One such behavior in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is quorum sensing (QS), by which the bacteria produce signals to regulate extracellular common goods. Exploitation comes in the form of cheaters which have a mutation in the central quorum sensing...
With the loss of field burning the amount of crop residue that remains in perennial ryegrass fields has increased. As the amount of crop residue remaining in the field increases so does annual bluegrass. This has resulted in the increased use of herbicides to control annual bluegrass. However, this increased...
The leaf surface is a stark environment for bacterial colonists with limited
availability of nutrients, water and protected niches. Despite these limitations, a
plethora of bacteria appear to have adapted ways to survive and flourish on leaf
surfaces. One mechanism of survival is the formation of biofilms. Biofilms are a...
Bacterial contamination of food poses a great risk to human health worldwide. A
chromatophore cell-based biosensor, utilizing B. splendens erythrophore cells, is an
emerging technology that has shown potential to detect bacterial toxicity based on
function-dependent mechanisms. Previous studies have investigated the response of
erythrophore cells to foodborne pathogens, pesticides,...
Aquifers are an important storage location and source of fresh groundwater. They may become polluted by a number of contaminants including mobile divalent radionuclides such as strontium-90 which is a byproduct of uranium fission. A method for remediating such divalent radionuclides is sequestration through co-precipitation into calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate...
Oceanic carbon cycling plays a major role in determining global atmospheric CO₂. A better understanding of dissolved organic matter and its constituents in the water column and how it affects marine carbon cycling is sought after. This study successfully measured osmolytes, low molecular zwitterionic compounds derived from amino acids, in...
This study examines the interactions between the scientific communities of the
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(SLAC) in the discovery of the tau lepton by physicist Martin Perl between 1973-
1977. Perl became interested in searching for heavy leptons through positron-electron
collision experiments using the...
Streptococcus pneumoniae and Influenza A Virus both primarily infect the upper respiratory tract, with more severe disease occurring during coinfection than would be caused by either pathogen independently. Until recently, characterization of the interactions between these two pathogens has occurred exclusively in the context of a host or using host-derived...