This is scientific American 60 second science.

I'm Christopher in D'Artata. Got a minute?

The human microbiome is the community of tiny organisms that live on us and inside us.

These critters play vital roles in our health.

They calibrate our immune systems, ward off pathogenic bacteria,

even affect our weight.

But if we stop the naval gazing,

literally because some scientists are actually

measuring belly button bacteria,

there's a whole lot to be found in the microbiiooms of other organisms too.

Take the pesky mosquito.

A few years back, scientists found a soil microbe called chromobacterium CSPP,

living in the guts of mosquitoes in Panama.

Upon further study, the researchers say this mosquito

occupant could be a remarkably versatile weapon to fight malaria and dengue

fever.

Because chromobacterium shortens the lifespan of disease-transmitting

mosquito species that harbor it, and kills their larvae outright.

It also reduces mosquito's ability to catch the dengue virus, or the malarial parasite, and it kills both pathogens

in the lab.

Those findings are in the journal Ploss Pathogens.

The researchers say this chromobacterium strain could someday guide the development of new drugs,

...