Heather Maughan

When faced with a challenge, animals have the ability to physically move away. Plants are not so lucky. Their interactions with the soil prevent them from up-rooting and finding a better place. But this does not mean that plants don't fight back. Indeed, plants produce an astonishing diversity of chemicals to ward off invaders, such as the ubiquitous arthropod pests. Many of these naturally produced chemicals are analogous to manufactured pesticides, in that they provide a strong selective pr...
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Becoming a beekeeper can be overwhelming at times. One of the most difficult things for me is figuring out how and when to treat the hives to prevent pathogens and parasites from becoming too numerous. We have attended an Integrated Pest Management course but only walked away with a list of offenders and their chemical treatments, which we had already learned through online research. Why not just treat for all, as often as possible? I'd rather not dump these chemicals (several of which are an...
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The Ronin Institute is a group of scholars that are trying something different.  Recognizing that one need not work at a university to contribute to knowledge, scholars of the Ronin Institute will be conducting research independently, as they find time in between life's activities (e.g., kids, hobbies, other jobs).  This is a timely endeavor as many more PhDs are being obtained than faculty positions are available.  And for many of us, university jobs are becoming less attractive as hours inc...
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Probiotics are live bacteria, formulas of single or multiple species, provided to help establish a healthy gastrointestinal tract.  Probiotics are a hot topic these days, and a potent marketing tool. Despite their popularity, we often don't know if they really work to relieve intestinal problems.  And for those probiotics that do work, we almost never know their mechanism(s) of action.   

Olier and colleagues have taken us a step closer to understanding the mechanism of probiotic action.  They...
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Continuing on the subject of bacteriotherapy, there was a fascinating paper out last month in PLoS Pathogens by Lawley et al. As I said in the last post, C. difficile infection of the gut is bad news, and one of the best cures is fecal transplantation.  Lawley et al. describe experiments in a mouse model that closely approximates the situation in humans.  They showed that the epidemic strain of C. difficile 027/BI is much more of a terror than other strains, as the bug was highly contagious a...
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Warning: Here comes the icky diarrhea blog.  Because I primarily write about microbiota, this was only a matter of time as the literature is replete with gut microbiota studies.  This abundance is due to lots of money being poured into figuring out the role of the gut microbiota; they are likely to influence a plethora of diseases through their role in immune system development, and fecal samples are easy to obtain!

Fecal samples are also relatively easy to transplant.  This may sound gross be...
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Monday we made sure all of the objects in our yard were secure, to prevent the winds of Sandy from giving them flight.  We didn't know what to expect and didn't want to see our patio table jump through our window.  Luckily the winds didn't do any damage and we're all okay (and dry).

This got me thinking about bacterial dispersal, and how high winds like those in a hurricane really stir things up. Ocean water columns are mixed, ocean waters come ashore, terrestrial soil becomes airborne, tree l...
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Yesterday I attended a discussion forum for beekeepers in Ontario.  We (the beekeepers) were there to ask questions about bee deaths potentially caused by exposure to the pesticide Clothianidin.  Beekeepers in the US, Europe, and Canada (and probably other places too) have noticed massive bee die-offs that correspond closely to planting of corn.  Corn seeds are coated in pesticide prior to planting, and then shot into the soil using ...

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