Today, Dr. Roland Hatzenpichler of Montana State University joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the central importance of archaea to our knowledge of the microbial world, ranging from history of their study, misconceptions about archaea, the microbiological bounty of Yellowstone National Park, and how ancient archaea may be the Asgard like ancestors of us all.
Today, Dr. Geo Santiago-Martinez, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Microbiology at the University of Connecticut joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the mysteries of the archaeal world, and how one group of these organisms produce methane gas as a byproduct of metabolism. These methanogens are thus involved in climate, symbioses, biotechnology, and even astrobiology!
Today Dr. Ken Stedman, Professor of Biology at Portland State University, tells us about the strange and wonderful viruses of heat loving extremophilic archaea—truly viruses from Hell!