TheTimes8April2020

the times | Wednesday April 8 2020 2GM 17

News

The intoxicating perfume of spring that

calls to mind feelings of hope and re-

newal is actually designed to attract

primitive insect-like creatures so they

can spread bacteria, scientists say.

It is not known why humans are so

sensitive to the odour of geosmin, a

chemical found in soil which is behind

the pungent scent redolent of a spring

shower. It is a smell the nose detects

more easily than a shark scents blood.

However, its purpose had remained a

mystery. Now researchers at the John

Innes Centre for excellence in plant

and microbial science in Norwich and

colleagues in Sweden have discovered a

link between the bacteria called strep-

tomyces and primitive, six-legged crea-

tures called springtails. The bacteria

produces geosmin.

Mark Buttner, of the John Innes

Centre, one of the authors of the study

published in Nature Microbiology, said:

“We suspected they were signalling to

something and the most obvious thing

would be some animal or insect that

might help distribute the streptomyces

spores.”

Researchers in Sweden laid out a

network of traps, some baited with

streptomyces and others with control

substances. The experiments revealed

that springtails were attracted to the

streptomyces bait.

The scientists then placed springtails

into a y-shaped tube to observe if they

Ah, the sweet smell of

geosmin is in the air

David Brown followed the scent of geosmin. They

also inserted electrodes into the anten-

nae of the springtails, which are 1.5m

long, to observe their responses to a

succession of molecules.

The experiments showed that the

springtails were powerfully drawn to

geosmin and to another earthy-smell-

ing compound produced by streptomy-

ces, called 2-methylisoborneol.

The pungent geosmin guide the

springtails to streptomyces as a “privi-

leged” food source whose antibiotics

kill rival organisms such as nematodes

and fruit flies but is detoxified by en-

zymes produced by springtails.

Electron microscope images also

showed that the bodies of springtails

were covered by streptomyces spores

which adhere to the waterproof layer of

wax that coats their bodies.

Professor Buttner said: “There is

mutual benefit. The springtails eat the

streptomyces, so the geosmin is

attracting them to a valuable food

source. The springtails distribute the

spores, both stuck on their bodies and

in their faeces.

“We used to believe streptomyces

spores were distributed by wind and

water but there is little room for wind or

water to do anything in the small air

compartments in the soil.

“So these small primitive animals

have become important in completing

the life cycle of the streptomyces, one of

the most important sources of anti-

biotics known to science.”

TMS

[email protected] | @timesdiary

Rebel with a

simple cause

When Sir Mark Sedwill studies the

faces on his virtual cabinet screen,

he may have the same thoughts that

Robin Butler, a predecessor as

cabinet secretary, has on looking at

his bookshelves. “Outlaw, Trouble,

Good, Bad, Dictator, Showman,” he

mutters, ticking them off, before

regretting the absence of Rebel. For

Sedwill that is Michael Gove, now in

isolation; for Lord Butler the gap is

far more important: William the

Rebel is the one volume missing from

his Just William collection. A huge

fan of Richmal Compton’s scamp,

Butler was delighted when his

daughter named his first grandson

William and he bought him a first

edition as a christening present. He

then tracked down rare copies of

others for himself, all save one.

Butler has now sought help to find it

in the Just William Society journal.

He promises “a very good dinner” as

a reward, though more apt would be

the free run of a sweetshop.

Anxious to cheer up her son, the

comedian Viv Groskop spent two

hours making brownies from a special

recipe that has 13 yummy ingredients.

“I’ve been promising him to make

to play no role in White House

crisis management now. “How

lucky am I that I got fired?” he told

the Political Party podcast. “I’d be

bald now working for this lunatic.”

But the combative Mooch is not all

that easy to live with himself. “I’ve

been served with divorce papers

twice in the last 23 days,” he says.

This column shared a page yesterday

with a news story about how smart

lavatories can detect cancer using a

camera in the bowl. Some might fear

this form of cisterns analysis takes

the surveillance state too far but I say

that in worrying times it is always

good to look up old friends.

call for coronaverses

I promised a new reader series after

ending school reports and Stephen

Gold has found one. With it being

the 250th anniversary of William

Wordsworth’s birth yesterday, he

offered this topical poem: “I

wandered lonely as a cloud/ That

floats on high, o’er vale and hill/

When all at once I saw a drone/

Controlled by Derbyshire’s Old

Bill./ I spied no folk. I had no

cough./ I did no harm that I could

see./ Yet still it blared, ‘Hey you!

Sod off!’/ So much for England

being free.” Send me your own

coronaverses and I’ll print the best.

y@ | @ y

patrick kidd

these for three years,” she tweeted. It

was not a success. “Forgot one key

ingredient: sugar,” she sighed. “Totally

inedible.” We can’t all be Mary Berry.

memories of a palace coup

It feels a lot more than five months

since we enjoyed those stories about

the Duke of York in Woking Pizza

Express. Reflecting on her Newsnight

interview in CityX magazine, Emily

Maitlis says that the duke had no

idea of how badly it had gone, taking

her on a post-interview tour of the

palace and talking about his ideas

for her next visit. The headlines

must have surprised him.

“Whenever the BBC does anything

with the Palace, somebody always

gets fired,” Maitlis reflects. “But I

didn’t expect it to be him.”

mooching about

Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 11

days as Donald Trump’s director of

communications in 2017, is relieved