Stronger Plants, Stronger Science, and Stronger Communication
Do you like Honeycrisp apples, and have you ever wondered what it takes to breed delicious fruits like that? Well in April, UW-Madison was paid a visit by Jim Luby from the University of Minnesota, the apple (and wine grape) breeder who released the Honeycrisp apple. After his seminar, I got a chance to sit…
For a more recent updated post on this topic go here. Kat Holt, the super-geek pathological-genome breaker at U. Melbourne (who works upstairs from the Pundit, in a room full of expensive computers and a lovely view of sheep) is at it again. She’s found gene rearrangements in the German EAEC outbreak germ. She reports her work…
In 1975 right at the start of the genetic engineering era, all of the genetic behaviour of gut germs that explains the evolution of the HUS German outbreak strain of E. coli was well established [by about 1957, years before genetic engineering in laboratories was ever used]. Evolution of new virulence capabilities in bacteria were clearly…
STEC/EHEC outbreak – horizontally transferred genes « bacpathgenomics: “STEC/EHEC outbreak – horizontally transferred genes” Kat Holt has produced a fantastic visual presentation of the family tree of the German disease causing E. coli EHEC/EAEC/STEC germ. The Pundit won’t spoil her story with too much comment: In the German outbreak bacteria, as in most E. coli,…
Updated 9/06/2011 The mists of uncertainty are starting to clear in Germany, after much waxing and waning over the last few days. To find the culprit good detective work on what people eat and where they eat has been essential. Sprouts have been added to the lists of suspect foods which included cucumbers and tomatoes….
Did you hear the news this week about the new hottest pepper in the world* – the Infinity pepper? Want to try your hand at breeding something better? Well just in time, I have the next video in my pollination methods series of videos available for you to watch: Yes, peppers. The pepper genus, Capsicum…
The genetic modification of bacteria in French science classes has sparked concern.Nature Magazine News 31 January 2011 A row has broken out in France over whether 15- and 16-year-olds should be allowed to create transgenic Escherichia coli bacteria in the classroom. Practical experiments in which students learn how to use plasmids to alter the DNA…
Taking a page from the modern creationist movements that seek to weaken high school education in evolutionary biology, a French group is looking to do the same to biology classes – but now it’s genetic engineering that is the target. Nature News reports in Transgenic bacterium sparks row in French schools, that CRIIGEN, led by…
Gene ‘Relocation’ Key to Most Evolutionary Change in Bacteria ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2011) — In a new study, scientists at the University of Maryland and the Institut Pasteur show that bacteria evolve new abilities, such as antibiotic resistance, predominantly by acquiring genes from other bacteria.The researchers new insights into the evolution of bacteria partly contradict…
