Archaea for Me-a With Dr. Alexandre Bisson

Archaea are one of the three domains of life on earth, but these organisms are much more mysterious and less understood than either Bacteria or Eukaryotes.  Dr. Alex Bisson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Brandeis University. His laboratory studies Archaea, primarily focusing on Haloarchaea. Dr. Bisson discusses how Archaea are able to shape-shift from one cell shape to another, how Haloarchaea are able to grow at extremely high salt concentrations, how Archaea cope with being "squishy", how common polyploidy (multiple copies of chromosomes) is among Archaea, how Haloarchaea are able to desalinate soil to allow trees to grow, how Haloarchaea can lie dormant inside Himalayan Pink Salt, and how Boston is an intellectually stimulating place to do science. Dr. Salvador Almagro-Moreno joined microTalk on this episode, which was supported by Gordo Sheepsey's My Brave Little Autoclave. Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA). Alexandre Bisson, Ph.D. (Brandeis University) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA). Salvador Almagro-Moreno (University of Central Florida)