Questions tagged [microbiology]
Microbiology is the study of extremely small organisms. This includes organisms like bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses.
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What does T and the numbers mean in T coliphages?
I have searched a number of websites and articles relating to nomenclatures or phages but never found anything explaining what T in T-4,5,6.. Phages mean in the Coliphages. Also, what does the number ...
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What disease / parasite / fungi has affected the mango in the picture?
The mango is found to have some kind of fungi / worm on it's surface . This has affected a huge number of mangoes in the same tree . It can be described as white and fibrous / weblike structure near ...
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Soil microbiology reference
I am after some good reference on Soil Microbe Ecology and Biology. I am a biophysicist, and have read the very gentle approach of "Life in the Soil" (James Nardi). Another book I have been ...
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Alternative dyes for Gram staining
In the Gram stain, is there any replacement for primary stain, secondary stain, decolourizer and mordant? What results will the replacements produce?
I found that crystal violet can be replaced with ...
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Is there a favoured mathematical model of bacterial growth?
One of the most regularly measured phenotypes in bacterial synthetic biology is growth. Anyone who does wet lab microbiology or synthetic biology will have performed a growth curve measurement. ...
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Recommendations for a haemocytometer (phase-contrast)
I'm looking for recommendations for a haemocytometer that can be used with a phase-contrast microscope. I want to use it to quantify the vegetative and spore fraction in my samples. Can I use any ...
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How long would you expect a designed plasmid to remain in a population of E. coli after transformation?
When transforming E. coli with a genetically-modified plasmid, how quickly/often is this plasmid "lost" because of mutation, or horizontal-transfer, or "dilution" over reproduction ...
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Is publication an important criteria to get a post doc in microbial ecology?
I am a researcher in microbial ecology , currently searching for post doc in European countries. I have publication less than 1 impact factor. Will this hinder my chances of getting selected . Please ...
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Why do huskies have markings above their eyes
[1. Dogs in Antarctica pulling sleds
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Why can't certain nucleoside analogs be used to label bacterial RNA?
A 2020 publication in Nucleic Acids Research 1 includes the following passage:
A variety of nucleoside analogs have been developed for metabolic RNA labeling in various eukaryotic cells (9–16). Among ...
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Skeletisation in space
A space pod containing an astronaut drifts out to space and cannot be rescued. The space pod contains no insects, and the only bacteria present are those originally brought in by the astronaut. There ...
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Need help designing an enzyme immunoassay (EIA)
I have a FITC-labelled DNA sequence and an anti-FITC antibody, however this antibody is not conjugated with HRP or any other enzyme. I work in a lab with limited finances, so is there a way I could ...
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If silver nanoparticles kill bacteria by penetrating the cell membrane, why don't they also kill human cells on contact?
Apparently, the silver from the nanoparticles can penetrate the cell wall of bacteria and kill them from the inside. Why, then, doesn't the same happen to human cells, e.g. the skin on my foot when I ...
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How is SARS-CoV-2 'deactivated' for some Covid vaccines (for example Covaxin)? [closed]
Some Covid vaccines like Covaxin employ a 'Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell'.
How is the virion 'deactivated' for the vaccine?
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Reliable recipe to make DIY yeast slants
Does anyone have any good ideas on a reliable way to activate basic grocery store yeast?
I realize this is a total beginner's question. I've built a small yeast ranch at home with my kid, and we're ...
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When should I use cryofixation and chemical fixation?
We know that the technique used in TEM sample preparation involves multiple steps, one of the most important of them is fixation.
Fixation can be of two types:
Cryofixation, that suggests that the ...
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What material is permeable for plant roots, but "impermeable" for fungi & bacteria?
I'm designing an experiment where the roots of the plant will grow in a sterile environment while the shoot will grow in a non-sterile grow room. For this reason the environments of the shoot and the ...
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What tests are available to detect C. Botulinum/Botulinum Toxin in fermented meats?
I am interested in the preparation of fermented dry-sausages (salamis, summer-sausages, etc) where due to the humid anaerobic atmosphere inside the salami. It is a good environment for C.Botulinum ...
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Can anyone ID this microorganism?
I found this microorganism in a wet moss sample taken from my backyard in Richmond, Virginia (USA). I took some pictures of it at 40x, 100x, and 250x. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think it'...
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Creating a phylogenetic tree from my selected publicly-available sequences (WGS) in NCBI
I'm currently writing a paper on the comparison of virulence genes for a group of bacteria. I got my data from publicly-available whole genome sequences in NCBI. Now, I want to create a phylogenetic ...
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Are there any organisms that are made of more than one (~5-12) cell?
Prokaryotes and eukaryotes are unicellular, made of one cell. Great. Eukaryotes are unicellular or multicellular. But the typical examples of multicellular eukaryotes we have are made of, often, ...
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Winogradsky column and hydrogen sulfide
For a science experiment for school, I have set up 15 Winogradsky columns, and will be looking at the microbial growth inside the columns over a period of 25 days.
I have read that, due to gas ...
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Eukaryotic cell lysate-based protein expression efficiency
What is average efficiency of eukaryotic cell lysate-based protein expression systems in terms of (mg of protein expressed) / (mg of lysate) ?
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Are the y-axis values informative when performing biolayer interferometry?
I am currently reading an this article by Alexandra C. Walls et. al.
I would like to ask a question about a graph that is being used in the article and I wanted to know if my analysis was correct.
I ...
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Can Euchromatin convert into Heterochromatin?
I know that Heterochromatin can convert into Euchromatin but is the reverse possible? If yes, then How?
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What keeps mitochondria from multiplying out of control?
What keeps mitochondria from multiplying out of control and killing the cell?
According to endosymbiotic theory, mitochondria were once free-living bacteria that got ingested but not metabolized by ...
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Can bacteria be killed by purely physical trauma?
In a question over on Skeptics Stack Exchange, I half-jokingly listed "blunt force trauma" as a means by which a bacterium could be killed. That makes me wonder if it really is only a joke ...
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Can a bacterium infect another bacterium?
I researched about it by searching on Google and reading some bacteriological articles, but I did not get any answer. I also asked some of my teachers, and they were also a bit confused. Some said ...
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circular pattern of mold on quince
Could someone explain why mold on my quinces grows in well separated circles around a center? To make clear, what I mean I post the picture
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bunsen vs meker for best sterile field [closed]
I need one bunsen and i have a friend that sells me a bunsen-meker burner.
I see that bunsen-meker burners have more flame diameter, so should have more diameter of sterile field, but i dont know XD
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Are plasmids found in eukaryotes? [closed]
There are some who says plasmids are found in some eukaryotes but is it like scientifically proven?
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Low-cost simple water testing for faecal contamination
I live in Indonesia and there are lots of sewage pipes discharging directly from homes/restaurants/etc directly into the river. It's also common to wash clothes and so on, so there is likely detergent ...
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Can viruses be deformed?
Viruses are created in their fully-formed state and do not grow. But one thing has been bugging me lately:
can a virus be deformed, e.g. in order to fit into an opening slightly smaller than itself? ...
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What is the adjective for PHAGE? [closed]
if the adjective of the noun BACTERIUM is 'bacterial' and that of VIRUS is 'viral', what is the adjective for (BACTERIO)PHAGE? Is 'phagial' accepted?
Thank you
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What types of cells HPV can infect? [closed]
I am wondering if there is any new information on which cells HPV is able to infect. Is it still limited to squamous cells or are there other cells such as columnar cells it is able to infect?
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Can anyone identify this microorganism?
I was examining some rainwater from my backyard in Richmond, VA, and found this microorganism. I took some pictures of it at 400x and 1000x (see below). The microorganism is attached to some moss and ...
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Can a second mass extinction by microbes happen?
Science Daily reports that the mass extinction at the end of Permian period happened by the Methanosarcina archaea wiping out 90% of species:
Methane-producing microbes may be responsible for the ...
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What is the difference among these compounds?
I'll preface this question by making clear that I'm not not well versed in biology.
Anyway, within the context of biocides/antimicrobial products using them as active substances, what is the ...
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types of cells in a pharyngeal specimen
I would like to ask what type of cells should someone expect in a pharyngeal smear, in a person, who is infected with a viral infection. Thank you a lot!
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Will obligate aerobic bacteria die if placed in a buffer solution even in the presence of oxygen?
The electron transport chain in aerobic bacteria functions by pumping H+ out of the cell to establish a concentration gradient.
So if the bacteria are placed in a buffer solution having pH equal to ...
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How do microbes spread from a small place to a very large place?
Bacteria are very small, so they cannot move very far on their own. Viruses cannot move themselves at all. So how does a specific type of bacteria or virus spread from a small place to a very large ...
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Is there such a thing as an autotroph that doesn't use photosynthesis?
I've heard of photoautotrophs, which are just autotrophs that use photosynthesis. What I'm wondering is if there's any other way for an organism to make its own food that doesn't involve it using ...
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Does thimerosal have some of the same mechanism of action as sodium benzoate?
I noticed that thimerosal's molecular structure is basically just sodium benzoate with an attached chain that includes a mercury atom.
Sodium Benzoate
Thimerosal
The Wikipedia article for thimerosal ...
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How does the DNA cross through bacterial cell wall during electroporation?
There exists a lot of literature on electroporation of Gram-positive and negative bacteria. Most of it gives an explanation that electroporation works by creating transient pores in cell membranes of ...
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Quantification of various amino acids from bacteria?
I would like to characterise how much of various (uncommon) cytosolic amino acids are produced in bacteria, and was wondering if there are good suggestions of how to go about doing this. I know that ...
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Why Vibrio Cholera produce its toxins?
I was wondering, why V. Cholera synthesize toxins which induce in humans diarrhea? I know that diarrhea is protective mechanism for humans, to get rid of bacteria. But why V. Cholera just stop ...
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Why does an autoclave need to pressurize steam?
I've looked this up on other sites and they say that an autoclave needs high pressure in order to raise the boiling point of water so that you can achieve steam of a higher temperature.
If you look ...
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Examining antibody - target interactions in PyMOL
I'm a student currently looking at antibody responses against a viral target protein of interest.
I have my own, annotated PyMOL session of my protein and I also have .pdbs of crystallised antibody ...
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Can human pathogens present on plants become plant pathogens?
Since human pathogens sometimes live on the surface of plant leaves(read here and and here), and there are plant-pathogen microbes also living on leaf surfaces, is it possible for plant virulence ...
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What's this parasite?
Any microbiologists or parasitologists recognize this? It's from my pet bearded dragon in the eastern US and the vet's never seen it before.