November 2008 - Bugs on bugs

Microbes are found to inhabit every niche on our planet, affecting the lives of people, animals and plants. This issue takes a look at some of the relationships that micro-organisms share with insects, nematodes and other micro-organisms.

Microbial diseases of bees
Bees are important contributors to the economies of many countries, but as Travis R. Glare and Maureen O'Callaghan discuss, they are many threats to the survival on the humble bee, including the risk of disease from micro-organisms.

Ancient fungal farmers of the insect world
Unbelievable as it sounds, leaf-cutter ants developed the secret of agriculture over 50 million years ago. Garret Suen and Cameron R. Currie describe how freshly-cut leaves are incorporated into gardens for the growth of a specialized fungus that the ants use for food.

Bacterial sequences in an invertebrate genome
There are many descriptions of bacterial genes that have been found within nematode and arthropod chromosomes. Julie C. Dunning Hotopp and Jason Rasgon explain how they got there.

Photorhabdus: shedding light on symbioses
Unlike the marine environment, bioluminescence in terrestrial bacteria is not yet understood. Susan A. Joyce and David J. Clarke describe the complex association between Photorhabdus, its nematode host and their insect prey.

An inside job: Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus
Some bacteria are predators, rather than parasites, as they do not rely on a host for survival, as Liz Sockett and her research group explain.

Bacteriophages: nature's most successful experiment
Huge numbers, as well as variety, of phages exist on our planet. Graham F. Hatfull describes this massive reservoir of unidentified genetic information.

1983: a vintage year for pathogen discovery
It has been 25 years since the independent discoveries of three extremely important human pathogens. SGM President, Robin Weiss, takes a look at the brief histories of these pioneering breakthroughs.

Comment: Scotoma in contemporary microbiology
It is often stated that over 95% of bacteria living in nature are unculturable. Howard Gest considers this and explores what he considers the 'myth'.

Schoolzone
Fungi have developed a number of ways of using nematodes as a source of food. Dariel Burdass describes both the parasitic and predatory adaptations that these fungi utilize to get their lunch.

Gradline
This issue looks at support for researchers' career development and Jane Westwell caught up with three students who undertook SGM Vacation Studentships in the summer of 2007.

Going Public
Informing people about microbiology is important, and talking to journalists is one way to do this. Lucy Goodchild describes the latest media training scheme run by the Society to help scientist be confident about talking to the media about their research.

Hot off the Press highlights some new developments in microbiological research published in the Society's journals - Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology and Journal of Medical Microbiology. Topics covered include:

• Getting into shape
• Bugs and colon cancer
• Novel bone disease mycobacterium
• HIV by numbers

Last updated 10 February 2009