The southern shield limpet, Lottia pelta (S), is a generalist species that can be found on the feather boa kelp, Egregia menziesii, at particular sites in southern California. When L. pelta (S) inhabits the kelp its phenotype is similar to the special . . .

The western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, is a venomous spider that is widely distributed throughout the western United States. Despite species prevalence, research on the black widow spider is sparse. Although notorious for her mating rit . . .

The nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti forms a symbiosis with the legume plant Medicago sativa (alfalfa), enabling the plant to grow in nitrogen poor conditions. The S. meliloti ExoS/ChvI signaling pathway is a two-component system that . . .

Phagosome maturation is a complex, evolutionarily conserved process that allows white blood cells of the immune system to destroy microbes engulfed by phagocytosis. Despite the tremendous medical relevance of phagosome maturation, the functions of onl . . .

In late 2009, the Catalina Island Conservancy began using fertility control as a means of replacing periodic removals to manage an introduced population of American bison (Bison bison). Through the application of the immunocontraceptive vaccine porcin . . .

Erythrobacter sp. strain SD-21 is a marine bacterium that expresses a unique enzyme, the Mn(II)-oxidizing protein (MopA), that catalyzes the oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(III/IV). Truncated MopA (HP10) containing the catalytic heme peroxidase domain was c . . .

Stromatolites, laminated accretionary structures, can provide evidence of early microbial life, allowing insight into bacterial interactions with sediment and the environment on early Earth. Modern cyanobacterial mats have shown cone-forming capabilit . . .

Sinorhizobium meliloti is a gram-negative alpha-proteobacterium that uses a twocomponent regulatory system, ExoS/ChvI, to help form a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with legume host plants. This symbiosis is a model for studying the mechanisms used by inva . . .

The use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections is increasingly ineffective worldwide. Genes disseminated by bacteria such as aac(6')-Ib, render aminoglycoside antibiotics ineffective, requiring discovery of new antibiotics or alternatives strate . . .