Matters Microbial #67: Chemical Communication in Microbe Symbioses

Today, Dr. Marcy Balunas, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, as well as part of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how her group investigates the chemical signals—the language—between host and microbe symbioses.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Marcy Balunas

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• An article on bacterial colonial variation during domestication, by Dr. Roberto Kolter and colleagues.
• The Tiny Earth Project to crowdsource new bacterial sources of antibiotic compounds.
• An overview of chemical ecology.
• Description of how analytical chemistry is used to investigate symbioses.
• A description of how MALDI is used to identify compounds.
• A description of how LC M/S is used to identify compounds.
• A description of some work done on tunicate-microbe associations by the Balunas lab.
• Dr. Jonathan Klassen collaboration.
• An article on ant based fungal farming.
• Dr. Spencer Nyholm collaboration.
• An article on the squid nidamental gland.
• Dr. Irene Newton collaboration.
• An article on bee associated microbes that protect against fungal infection.
• A video describing some of the work done by the Balunas laboratory on ant fungus farming with Dr. Klassen.
• Dr. Balunas faculty website.
• Balunas laboratory website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to mattersmicrobial@gmail.com