May 18, 2020 12:25:00

A new species of bacteria is discovered by chance on Twitter, the scientific name comes from Twitter

Researchers at the Museum of Natural History of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen discovered a new species of bacteria based on the images they saw on Twitter. It is extremely rare for a new strain of bacteria to be discovered on Twitter, and the discovered bacteria was given a scientific name that is related to Twitter.

The first Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniomycetes) from an American millipede, discovered through social media

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Ana Sofia Levoreira , a biologist at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Copenhagen, caught his eyes on a single photo posted by Virginia Tech Entomologist Derek Hennen on Twitter.

Image below has been tweet Mr. Hen'nen, reflected in're inhabits in North America millipede is, which is a kind of Cambala annulata. Revolaira noticed the small spots in the two red circles at the top of the image and thought it was a new species.

Millipedes mainly live in moist environments, have adult

generation overlaps , and have large and stable populations, making them an excellent habitat for fungi. As a result, millipedes often have a Laboulbeniales fungus, known to infest insects, on their surface. In particular, it is said that there are many Laboulbeniales fungi around the gonads of millipedes because they are infected by contact by mating.

To see if the small spots found in Hennen's image really represent a new species, Levoreila, along with his colleague Henrik Engov, checked a sample of Cambala annulata in the museum. Then, a new species of Laboulbeniales was discovered in multiple specimens.

Bacteria for which the following images were discovered. The scientific name 'Toglomyces twitteri' was named after Twitter was discovered.

It is said that Laboulbeniales fungi are difficult to be studied unless they are familiar with both entomology and myciology, and little research has progressed due to the technical problem that DNA isolation is difficult.

'To my knowledge, this is the first time a new strain of bacterium has been discovered on Twitter,' said Revoleira, 'the platform is important for achieving new results by sharing research. First, I want researchers to be able to share more data through social media, especially after many researchers were unable to go to the lab because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection. I will. '