The pork chops you buy in the supermarket neatly packaged in plastic and styrofoam may look completely sterile, but are, in fact, likely to be contaminated with disease-causing bacteria - and not with just any old bugs, but with hard-to-treat, antibiotic resistant strains. In a recently published study, researchers with the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System bought meat from a wide sampling of chain grocery stores across the country and analyzed the bacteria on the meat. Resistant microbes were found in 81% of ground turkey samples, 69% of pork chops, 55% of ground beef samples, and 39% of chicken parts.

Students learn the fundamentals of using microbes to treat wastewater. They discover how wastewater is generated and its primary constituents. Microbial metabolism, enzymes and bioreactors are explored to fully understand the primary processes occurring within organisms.

Submitted as part of the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) Phase 3 Digital Textbook Initiative (CA DTI3), CK-12 Foundation’s high school Biology FlexBook covers cell biology, genetics, evolution, ecology, botany, zoology, and physiology. This digital textbook was reviewed for its alignment with California content standards.

This online gallery of photos, illustrations, and videos provides a snapshot of deep sea vents and the ancient forms of life that can be found within them. Transcripts of the videos are provided, and the photos and illustrations are accompanied by explanatory texts.

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:

"Microbial interactions play a crucial role in the functioning and biogeochemical cycling of Earth's ecosystem. But these connections are highly dynamic and poorly understood. A clear picture of how microbes interact over time could help gain insight into processes that influence nutrient cycling, productivity, and the overall health of marine ecosystems. Researchers investigated microbial dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea on a monthly basis over 10 years. To pinpoint persistent, seasonal, and temporary microbial associations, the researchers identified a temporal network capturing the interactomes of each sample. This network followed an annual cycle that collapsed and reassembled with changes in water temperature. And microbial associations were more repeatable in colder versus warmer months. However, only 16 associations could be validated in the literature, underlining a serious knowledge gap in marine microbial ecological interactions..."

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

This class provides a general introduction to the diverse roles of microorganisms in natural and artificial environments. It will cover topics including: cellular architecture, energetics, and growth; evolution and gene flow; population and community dynamics; water and soil microbiology; biogeochemical cycling; and microorganisms in biodeterioration and bioremediation.

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 characteristics of the world around us vary from one location to the next. This is also true of aquatic environments, where bottom-dwelling microorganisms must cope with variation in temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients. Unfortunately, little is known about how these microbial communities and their functional genes respond to environmental changes. A team of researchers at Stockholm University recently set out to do just that by collecting samples of sediment at 59 sites spanning 1,145 km across the Baltic Sea. They characterized the environmental attributes and microbial community at each site using genetic sequencing and other laboratory techniques. The researchers found that salinity and dissolved oxygen content had the greatest effects on the microbes making up each community with the communities in oxygen-deficient “dead” zones being particularly dissimilar to those with higher dissolved oxygen content..."

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:

"The skin micro-environment varies across the body. But one thing that remains constant is the presence of microorganisms that affect skin health. In a recent study, researchers gathered more than 800 organisms from 3 body sites of 17 individuals. Analyses revealed 30+ bacterial genera and 14+ fungal genera, with the most prevalent being Staphylococcus and Micrococcus bacteria. Further tests showed that the collected microbes had the capacity to break down a variety of compounds. including amino acids, steroids, lipids, and sugars, as well as compounds derived from personal care products. This collection of micro-organisms represents a valuable resource for skin microbiome research, with the potential for developing novel therapeutics and for gaining insight into the metabolic activities of the skin microbiota..."

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

In this 6th grade Science class, students learn how to build a compost pile, learn about organisms needed for decomposition, and begin to understand the purpose of compost in the garden.

In this 6th grade Science class, students learn how to build a compost pile, learn about organisms needed for decomposition, and begin to understand the purpose of compost in the garden.

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:

"Underneath Earth’s surface, a layer of permafrost covers 25% of the Northern Hemisphere and 20% of Earth as a whole. This continuously frozen layer contains microorganisms that remain active in subzero temperatures, but although ancient permafrost contains both dead and living microbes, typical metagenomic sequencing does not discriminate between the two. In a new study combining DNA repair protocols with high-throughput sequencing, researchers constructed a total of 52 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from ancient microbial DNA entrapped in Siberian coastal permafrost. Comparing the MAGs to those obtained without prior DNA repair protocols, they found that the MAGs from the youngest area showed minimal DNA damage. Thus, they likely came from viable, active microbes, while MAGs from older and deeper sediment appeared to be related to past aerobic microbial populations that died upon freezing. In contrast to aerobic species, anaerobic microbes such as Asgard archaea exhibited minimal DNA damage..."

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:

"A plant’s microbiome is made up of all the microorganisms living on or in its tissues and can drive numerous aspects of its health and development. Scientists think it could be possible to harness these microbial communities to maximize crop health and productivity. To explore this possibility, a team of researchers examined the effects of glutamic acid, an important amino acid naturally produced by plants, on their microbiomes. Applying glutamic acid at 2-week intervals drastically altered the microbiome composition of strawberry and tomato plants, notably increasing the abundance of _Streptomyces globisporus_ SP6C4, a key microbe known to negatively affect pathogens that attack these species. This increase in _Streptomyces globisporus_ SP6C4 was also associated with reductions in diseases of both the leaves and roots, including gray mold and Fusarium wilt..."

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

In this lesson students will use information from articles about microorganisms and their prior knowledge to identify both the positive and negative aspects of microorganisms.

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:

"B-cells are a type of white blood cell that play an important role in the immune system, and some of these cells secrete a protein known as IL-35, which has been shown to regulate inflammation. Because the microorganisms living in the digestive system can have critical effects on the immune system of their host, scientists recently set out to uncover the link between these microbes and IL-35 production. The team found that certain microbes inhabiting the guts of mice, such as Lactobacillus bacteria, can promote the generation of IL-35-secreting B-cells and that they do this by producing 3-indoleacetic acid (IAA) in the presence of lipopolysaccharides. They also found that IL-35 may help prevent mice fed a high-fat diet from becoming obese and observed lower levels of IAA in obese mice than in nonobese mice..."

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:

"Giant clams are keystone species of coral reef ecosystems. Like coral, giant clams harbor a vibrant community of algae and bacteria. But unlike coral, little is known about how these microorganisms help giant clams thrive or cause them to perish. To find out, authors of a new study placed giant clams in aquariums with one or two species of coral. DNA profiling revealed that the clams were home to three distinct varieties of microbial communities, or “microbiotypes”. Interestingly, these microbiotypes weren’t altered by changes in water temperature or by the type of coral species placed near clams. But dying clams did show one trait in common—an overwhelming presence of bacteria from the vibrionaceae family, which in humans are usually associated with infection from eating undercooked seafood. What’s more, clams died most frequently around coral of the species Acropora cytherea. That suggests that Acropora cytherea could make giant clams susceptible to infection by vibrionaceae bacteria..."

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

The MIT Biology Department core courses, 7.012, 7.013, and 7.014, all cover the same core material, which includes the fundamental principles of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and cell biology. Biological function at the molecular level is particularly emphasized and covers the structure and regulation of genes, as well as, the structure and synthesis of proteins, how these molecules are integrated into cells, and how these cells are integrated into multicellular systems and organisms. In addition, each version of the subject has its own distinctive material.
7.014 focuses on the application of these fundamental principles, toward an understanding of microorganisms as geochemical agents responsible for the evolution and renewal of the biosphere and of their role in human health and disease.
Acknowledgements
The study materials, problem sets, and quiz materials used during Spring 2005 for 7.014 include contributions from past instructors, teaching assistants, and other members of the MIT Biology Department affiliated with course 7.014. Since the following works have evolved over a period of many years, no single source can be attributed.

In this lesson students will observe and read about microorganisms so that they can create an information book on microorganisms.

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 concept of trained immunity suggests that exposure to nonpathogenic microbes or their metabolites can enhance an organism’s immune response later in life. But while trained immunity has been addressed by many studies focusing on vertebrate animals, little is known about its role in invertebrates. A recent study showed that microorganism exposure early in development increased the survival of the Pacific oyster when challenged with infectious disease. Researchers cultured Pacific oysters in filtered and UV-treated seawater that had either been enriched with naturally occurring microbes or unmanipulated as a control. These oysters and their offspring were then exposed to the virus that causes Pacific oyster mortality syndrome, a disease that devastates oyster farms worldwide. The team found increased survival not only among the oysters directly exposed to the microbe-enriched seawater but also among their progeny..."

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

This course is designed to be an introduction to the biology of microorganism. The emphasis is on the

specific properties of microorganisms and their relation to disease.

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 activated sludge (AS) process is used to treat sewage or industrial wastewater. In this process, pollutants are removed by a diverse group of microorganisms. Because AS is a unique, controllable engineered ecosystem, its attributes make it attractive to ecologists studying microbial community assembly. A recent study reports a new machine learning approach that can distinguish metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of AS bacteria from those of other environments. Using this method, the researchers identified some functional features that are likely viral for AS bacteria to adapt to treatment bioreactors. They found that few microorganisms are shared between different wastewater treatment plants, although some AS MAGs may have been missed due to short sequencing read length or low sequencing depth..."

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