454: Hitchhiking Horticultural Helpers

BacterioFiles

This episode: Spores of some bacteria latch onto the tails of other bacteria and ride along as they move around in the soil!

Download Episode (5.5 MB, 8.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bohle iridovirus

News item Takeaways The soil is a complex environment, and microbes that live in soil need complex lifestyles to thrive. There are many examples of cooperation, competition, and other adaptations to highly varied situations. In this study, bacteria that grow like filamentous fungi don't have the mechanisms to move autonomously, but their spores can hitch rides on other kinds of bacteria that swarm through the soil using their propeller-like tails called flagella to push themselves toward the plant roots they prefer to grow near. Journal Paper: Muok AR, Claessen D, Briegel A. 2021. Microbial hitchhiking: how Streptomyces spores are transported by motile soil bacteria. ISME J.

Other interesting stories:

• "How microbes in permafrost could trigger a massive carbon bomb"

Email questions or comments to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, or RSS. Support the show at Patreon, or check out the show at Twitter or Facebook.