Bacteria on Mars for improve soil and crop production

New research for adapt bacteria for life on Mars and modify soil in order to enhance crop production.

Could be a great technique for Mars terraformation.

Sources:

http://www.mars-one.com/news/press-releases/can-bacteria-survive-in-mars-soil-and-thus-enhance-crop-production

https://community.mars-one.com/blog/category/wieger-wamelink

The importance of subterranean microbes

Here we apply terabase-scale cultivation-independent metagenomics to aquifer sediments and groundwater, and reconstruct 2,540 draft-quality, near-complete and complete strain-resolved genomes that represent the majority of known bacterial phyla as well as 47 newly discovered phylum-level lineages. Metabolic analyses spanning this vast phylogenetic diversity and representing up to 36% of organisms detected in the system are used to document the distribution of pathways in coexisting organisms.

Sources:

Thousands of microbial genomes shed light on interconnected biogeochemical processes in an aquifer system : Nature Communications

The first form of live in planet earth

 The origin of life on planet earth could be a bacteria that fix C02 and H2...

The concept of a last universal common ancestor of all cells (LUCA, or the progenote) is central to the study of early evolution and life's origin, yet information about how and where LUCA lived is lacking. 

LUCA inhabited a geochemically active environment rich in H2, CO2 and iron. The data support the theory of an autotrophic origin of life involving the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway in a hydrothermal setting. 

Sources:

The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor : Nature Microbiology

Ocean biomass with human pathogens increases

Some dangerous form of life are increasing in the world oceans. The reason seems that are related to global climate change.

Climate change is having a dramatic impact on marine animal and plant communities but little is known of its influence on marine prokaryotes, which represent the largest living biomass in the world oceans and play a fundamental role in maintaining life on our planet.

Sources:

Climate influence on Vibrio and associated human diseases during the past half-century in the coastal North Atlantic

Understanding the basic principles of life...

The simplest form of live has been developed inside a laboratory and has only 473 genes...

Not all the 'code' used is already understood...

... Improved transposon mutagenesis methods revealed a class of quasi-essential genes that are needed for robust growth, explaining the failure of our initial design. Three cycles of design, synthesis, and testing, with retention of quasi-essential genes, produced JCVI-syn3.0 (531 kilobase pairs, 473 genes), which has a genome smaller than that of any autonomously replicating cell found in nature. JCVI-syn3.0 retains almost all genes involved in the synthesis and processing of macromolecules. Unexpectedly, it also contains 149 genes with unknown biological functions. JCVI-syn3.0 is a versatile platform for investigating the core functions of life and for exploring whole-genome design.

Sources:

Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome | Science

Bacteria 'eats' plastic

The plastic is one of the new materials that humans use extensively worldwide... Is no really 'compatible' with nature but there is a 'bacteria' (Ideonella Sakaiensis) that seems to put this new material into the biodegradation scheme...

It could be a viable remediation or recycling strategy.

Bacteria isolated from outside a bottle-recycling facility can break down and metabolize plastic. The proliferation of plastics in consumer products, from bottles to clothing, has resulted in the release of countless tons of plastics into the environment.

Sources:

A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate) | Science

Micropia

Another type of zoo...

Asmterdam has created a new museum-zoo of microbes.

Sources:

Home - Micropia

Design and hack synthetic biology

Make fun programming bacteria DNA.
Accessible biotech allows biology education and practice to the community.

Sources:

Synthetic biology