This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Plants evolved in a world dominated by prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes. Underneath the surface, plant roots interact with microbes in the soil – the rhizosphere microbiome. But although bacteria and fungi are well-studied in the rhizosphere, other components, including viruses and protists, are less well understood. To better understand the extent to which biological and environmental factors shape protist communities, researchers analyzed protist communities associated with the rhizosphere and bulk soil of switchgrass plants in different developmental stages. They found that the diversity of protists was lower in the rhizosphere than in the bulk soil and that the composition of protist communities changed through the different phenological stages of the plant..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue is the gold standard for pathology tissue storage, making FFPE tissue libraries rich repositories for identifying and analyzing the bacterial microbiomes that stretch across the human body. Unfortunately, various facets of the FFPE process can compromise the integrity of tissue for this type of analysis. including DNA damage, susceptibility to contamination, and the lack of suitable DNA extraction methods. A new study proposes a system called Protoblock for standardizing and optimizing FFPE tissue-based research. A Protoblock is generated by embedding a known number of fixed cells in a molded agar matrix. After the agar solidifies, the block is processed following routine FFPE protocols and verified by microscopy. Experiments confirmed the quality and condition of DNA purified from Protoblocks, revealing important calibration information, such as how DNA damage evolves over fixation time. and how host DNA and sample prep method might bias bacterial analysis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Short quiz on CCSS.RI.9-10.4. The text is from Brendan Buhler's essay, "The Teeming Metropolis of You". The Dale-Chall text-difficulty level is 11-12, the Flesch-Kincaid level is 9.9.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The relationship between mother and child is special, even down to the microbiome level. Microorganisms that support development and strong immunity are passed to the fetus through the womb and birth canal. But what happens in egg-laying animals? Among birds, close contact after birth appears to be the key to microbiome inheritance. A new study shows that early parental care might even determine chicks' resistance to disease. Researchers compared the gut microbiomes of chicks reared by adult hens and chicks reared separately, as is commonly done in commercial hatcheries. The diversity of gut microbes was higher in hen-reared chicks (HR) than in separately reared chicks (SR), and when exposed to the avian flu virus H9N2, hen-reared chicks (HR) showed shorter durations of viral infection and more stable gut microbiotas after infection..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Science has now provided an excuse for those of us used to being chided by our dentists for not brushing often enough: blame your cavities on the Industrial Revolution. New research suggests that the dietary changes associated with the Industrial Revolution 150 years ago (and with the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago) caused an epidemic of tooth decay and gum disease. The culprits are oral bacteria. The human mouth is the native home of a wide variety of microbes, some helpful species and some harmful. Over the course of human history, eating more starch and sugar seems to have tipped the balance in favor of the disease-causing bacteria. Even without ultrasonic toothbrushes and mouthwashes, our ancestors may have had healthier teeth than we do!

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Fixing carbon through biological methanation is a promising technology for generating renewable energy. It remains unclear, however, how microbial species interact to generate biogas. To find out, researchers explored the community dynamics of microbes found in biofilms from four biogas reactors. Metagenomics revealed 59 species of microbes with five accounting for more than 70% of total abundance in the four reactors under investigation. Experiments showed that Firmicutes spp. GSMM966 and GSMM974 and Limnochordia sp. GSMM975 played a central role in biofilm formation. And metabolic reconstruction indicated complex metabolisms for the two dominant species M. wolfeii GSMM957 and Limnochordia sp. GSMM975. Simulations of the core biofilm community showed that these same species exhibit the highest increases in growth rate with increasing uptake. And cross-feeding interactions, not easily measured in vivo, were visualized..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbes are widely known to spread disease, but could they also help prevent it? A look inside in the mosquito gut reveals a community of microbes fit for the job. Mosquitoes are well-known vectors of disease, transmitting West Nile and Zika virus and the pathogens that cause malaria and dengue fever. Unfortunately, traditional control methods have led to insecticide resistance and negative impacts on other organisms, but mosquitoes, like other animals, also host non-disease-causing microbes in their gut. These benign microorganisms can directly interact with the deadly pathogens harbored by these insects. They can also affect mosquito traits influencing pathogen transmission, such as their population density, development, biting rate, and survival. For example, certain bacterial strains can reduce female fertility and the egg-hatching rate, while others can protect mosquitoes from environmental stress..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Oil spills have devastating effects on the environment, and thousands, of varying size, occur each year. Spilled oil can be removed from the environment in numerous ways, such as with the use of dispersants to break up oil slicks on the water surface. But while oil spills themselves pose well-known threats to marine life, the methods used for oil cleanup can also have unintended consequences. To examine these effects, researchers recently investigated how treatment of oil with dispersants produced synthetically (Finasol) and by bacteria (rhamnolipid) impact microbial communities and their ability to break down oil from the subarctic Atlantic Ocean. They found that cold-loving bacteria initially dominated the bacterial communities when both dispersants were used, but some key species of bacteria that specialize in breaking down aromatic hydrocarbons, which are the major and most toxic components of crude oil, became abundant over time in only the presence of rhamnolipid..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"At the roots of plants, there is more than meets the eye. The rhizosphere – the soil in contact with plant roots – is home to a rich community of microbes that are tightly associated with plant roots. Microbes can benefit plants by increasing nutrient availability, producing plant growth hormones, and protecting against pathogens, while in contrast, soilborne pathogens can reduce plant growth and cause yield loss. A recent study sought to better understand how plants influence their associated root bacteria. Using a multi-selection system and infection by the soilborne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG8, researchers found that successive plantings enhanced disease suppression in wheat cultivars. Distinct bacterial community profiles assembled over successive plantings, and the cluster of bacterial communities in AG8-infected plants was different from those in uninfected plants. In infected plants, bacteria that act as antagonists to AG8 and promote plant growth were enriched..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Designer rootstocks enable fruit trees to thrive under otherwise unbearable conditions, providing strong anchorage and defending against biological and nonbiological stressors. But what role does the root microbiome play in this assistive act? To find out, researchers used 16S rRNA sequencing to examine the rootstocks of Valencia orange trees in Florida. Results showed that the genetic makeup of different rootstocks determined how the root microbiome responded to compost treatment. The aspects of the root microbiome that were rootstock- specific included bacterial abundance, diversity, and community composition. These findings suggest that specific bacteria drive changes in nutrient concentrations accessed by different rootstocks. Understanding this intimate relationship is important to supporting overall plant health and could inspire research into how root microbes might affect other parts of trees..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this activity, learners explore how different deodorants work. Learners treat agar plates with different types of deodorants and compare the bacteria growth on the plates to the control sample.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Disruption of the gut microbiome composition is associated with many metabolic, inflammatory, and infectious diseases in humans. Accurately profiling microbiomes at the strain level is important for gaining a clear understanding of the microbiome’s role in disease. However, the existing tools can’t reliably classify microbes at strain resolution, making it difficult to detect composition changes. A new bioinformatic tool, SameStr, addresses this difficulty by identifying strains that are shared between metagenomes according to the similarity of single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in certain species-specific marker genes. In validation studies, SameStr was more sensitive than other tools in identifying shared strains among mock populations, while remaining robust against false-positives..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Student teams practice water quality analysis through turbidity measurement and coliform bacteria counts. They use information about water treatment processes to design prototype small-scale water treatment systems and test the influent (incoming) and effluent (outgoing) water to assess how well their prototypes produce safe water to prevent water-borne illnesses.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest nonpolar desert on Earth. The almost complete lack of precipitation means that it can support very little life, especially in its hyperarid core. But this core region harbors expansive fields of ancient boulders that scientists think could shelter unique microbes from the extreme desert environment. To find out, researchers used DNA sequencing techniques to compare the microbes inhabiting the soil directly beneath the Atacama Desert boulders and in the open areas beside them. They found a substantial difference in these microbial communities, with significantly more archaea occupying the soil below the boulders than beside them. Remarkably, the team also discovered that many of these archaea belong to a completely new genus of Thaumarchaeota archaea, which they named Candidatus Nitrosodeserticola. These archaea harbor genes involved in ammonia oxidation, carbon fixation, acetate metabolism, and the ability to tolerate extreme environmental conditions..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Maintaining mental health during future deep-space exploration is a serious and complicated problem. Such exploration will require people to remain in closed environments for incredibly long periods. But connections between our gut microbes, the gut itself, and our brain could hold new solutions. Research has suggested that influences can travel along this microbiota-gut-brain axis. So, to identify potential mood-boosting microbes in an enclosed environment, researchers turned to the Lunar Palace 365 experiment, where the Lunar Palace 1, a closed bioregenerative life support facility, housed people for a year. The researchers identified four potential “psychobiotics” that corresponded with mental well-being, as well as three possible mechanisms for the improved mood. First, these microbes may be fermenting dietary fibers to produce short-chain fatty acids. Second, they may regulate amino acid metabolism pathways, including the one that converts tryptophan to serotonin..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Obtaining sufficient nutrients is a fundamental challenge for most animals. The availability and nutritional content of food can vary in response to changes in climate and geography, and nutritional demands can vary during life events such as growth and reproduction. Of the many ways that animals have evolved to cope with these demands, one has gained increasing attention. The gut microbiome helps to break down and ferment plant carbohydrates, making it a potentially important player in nutrient availability. A new study sought to evaluate the environmental drivers of gut microbial diversity by generating the largest wild nonhuman primate gut microbiome dataset. Using 758 samples from wild Ethiopian geladas, which live in an extreme environment with limited food quality, researchers tested how proxies of food availability (rainfall) and thermoregulatory stress (temperature) affected the gut microbiome..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"One-third of the Earth’s fresh water comes from groundwater repositories. These terrestrial subsurface aquifers are an important source of our drinking water. Understanding the geochemistry and ecology of groundwater – including its microbial communities – is critical for keeping our water safe. A recent study sought to further understand a newly discovered superphylum – Patescibacteria. Patescibacteria is a very large superphylum, with more than 20 candidate phyla defined since 2015. This newly discovered class of bacteria is prevalent in groundwater environments and has limited genetic material. With such little genetic information to work from, the researchers wondered how these bacteria were able to adapt to changes and thrive in their aquatic environment. Using genome-resolved metagenomics, they evaluated sequence data from groundwater-residing Patescibacteria..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Learn how they dealt with the threat of Moon germs from Apollo 11 rescue diver Clancy Hatleberg, then see how you can fight germs!

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Plants frequently produce toxic chemicals to defend themselves against hungry insects, meaning that insects must often counteract these defenses if they want to obtain a meal. The Camellia weevil is one such insect that enlists the help of microorganisms living in its gut to neutralize toxins in the tea-oil camellia plant. Given the unique life cycle of this weevil, researchers were interested in finding out how its specialized gut microbiome is acquired. The team used genetic sequencing techniques to identify the microbes in samples taken from weevil guts, tea-oil camellia fruits, and the surrounding soil. They found that bacteria from the soil were primarily responsible for the toxin-degrading activity of the weevil gut microbiome. In particular, Acinetobacter sp. strain AS23 can migrate into the weevil gut and degrade the toxin saponin, thereby allowing the weevils to inhabit and feed on the tea-oil camellia fruits..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Rising sea levels are the catastrophic image of global warming But the threat of melting ice at high latitudes goes much deeper Locked within the frozen soil in these regions are vast pools of prehistoric carbon Once freed, this carbon has the potential to accelerate the current rate at which the earth is heating up thanks in large part to microbes in the soil A new study shows that 5 years’ worth of warming is enough to seriously alter communities of bacteria priming them to convert newly thawed carbon into greenhouse gases like methane Experiments in Alaska revealed dramatic changes to the composition and functional structure of microbial communities which suggested an evolving sensitivity to warming over time The findings contrast those obtained from a similar experiment conducted over only 1..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.