Soil Microbes and Ecosystem Recovery

Bauxite mining in south-western Australia requires that large areas of vegetation and topsoil be completely removed. Once the ore has been mined these areas are then rehabilitated through landscaping, adding in topsoil, and reseeding the area with native plants. New research published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology by Dr. Natasha Banning and colleagues, used Second [...]

Bacterial Protection for Plants

In ground-breaking research published online today in the journal Science, Dr. Rodrigo Mendes and colleagues describe which bacteria are responsible for protecting crops from the soil-borne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. The phenomenon of disease-suppressive soil has been observed for some time. Until now little was known about what elements of the soil protected plants from fungal [...]

Roundup of Recent Microbiomics Advances

Already in 2011 a steady stream of microbial ecology papers have kept our entire field curious to answer the question “What else is affected by microbial communities”.  Below are four recent papers and brief descriptions from various fields of microbiology that show the utility of monitoring the microbiome.   BIOFUELS Since microbial community digestion in [...]

Subsurface Uranium Sequestration

University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa announce PhyloChip™ assay findings of proteobacterial flux in uranium bioremediation.  They co-announed the discovery with collaborators from University of Oklahoma, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Georgia Institute of Technology in Seattle at  ISME 13.  Below is a description adapted from their abstract: Microbial Phosphatase Activity Involved in Subsurface Uranium Sequestration Authors: Martinez, R; Beazley, [...]

Lignocellulose Decomposition

Kristen DeAngelis and colleagues announce PhyloChip™ assay results of microbial community dynamics in biofuel production. Below is a description adapted from their abstract presented at ISME 13: Analysis of Anaerobic Lignocellulose Decomposing Consortia From Puerto Rico Tropical Forest Soils Authors: DeAngelis, K; Allgaier, M; D’haeseleer, P; Fortney, J; Hugenholtz, P; Simmons, B; Hazen,T Tropical forest [...]