This Week in Microbiology: Recent Episodes
Vincent Racaniello
This Week in Microbiology is a podcast about unseen life on Earth hosted by Vincent Racaniello and friends. Following in the path of his successful shows 'This Week in Virology' (TWiV) and 'This Week in Parasitism' (TWiP), Racaniello and guests produce an informal yet informative conversation about microbes which is accessible to everyone, no matter what their science background.
TWiM explains major implications of the link between plastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance, and the discovery of a new organelle, the nitrogen-fixing nitroplast.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Plastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance (Appl Envir Micro) * The great Pacific garbage patch (YouTube) * Rumen microbiome (Nat Biotech) * Nitrogen-fixing organelle in marine alga (Science) * This cell just changed biology (YouTube) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how cannibalism shapes biofilm structure and composition in Bacillus subtilis, and the importance of manganese uptake in uropathogenic E. coli during urinary tract infection.
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Links for this episode:
- Cannibalism shapes biofilm structure (mBio)
- Manganese and uropathogenic E. coli (mBio)
- Regulation of Bacterial MntH Genes (NLM Bookshelf)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains the connection between inflammation caused by microbial glycogen in the gut and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and how disruption of cysteine metabolism leads to synthetic lethality and in vivo fitness impairment in Acinetobacter baumannii.
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Links for this episode:
- Myeloid cell gene prevents inflammatory response to microbial glycogen (Cell Rep)
- Cysteine metabolism and fitness impairment in Acinetobacter baumannii (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM visits Tufts University School of Medcine and are joined by John Coffin, Michael Malamy, and Verna Manni for a tribute to Elio Schaechter who was chair of Molecular Biology and Microbiology for 23 years.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Guests: John Coffin, Michael Malamy, and Verna Manni
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.
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TWiM explains how Streptococcus mitis bacteriocins drive contact-dependent lysis of S. pneumoniae facilitating transformation, and microbial dominance in diabetic foot osteomyelitis determined with nanopore sequencing.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
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Links for this episode * Streptococcus mitis bacteriocins drive contact-dependent lysis of S. pneumoniae (mBio) * Microbial dominance in diabetic foot osteomyelitis determined with nanopore sequencing (J Inf Dis) * Diabetic foot ulcer review (World J Clin Cases) * How nanopore sequencing works (YouTube)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.
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TWiM explains how an enhanced domestication method allows for growth of uncultured bacteria, and identification of the oncogene SLC35F2 as is a high-specificity transporter for the micronutrients queuine and queuosine.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson. Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Domestication method for uncultured bacteria (ISME Comm) * Transporter for the micronutrients queuine and queuosine (PNAS) * How diet and microbiome can impact your health (UF blog) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains a candidate signature of health in the gut microbial community, and how an intestinal bacterium exacerbates cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * A candidate signature of health in the gut microbiome (Cell Host Microbe) * 204,938 reference genomes from the human gut microbiome (Nat Biotech) * A human gut metagenome-assembled genome catalogue spanning 41 countries (Nat Micro) * A comprehensive ruminant microbial catalog (Gigascience) * Bacteroides acidifaciens exacerbates cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury (Cell Host Microbe) * The Great Ozempic Experiment (NY Times, paywall) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how to use microbes to enhance maize yield and reduce corn rootworm damage, and how the human microbiota modulates IgE-mediated reactions to foods through allergen metabolism.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin, and Michele Swanson.
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Harnessing Microbes for Crop Production (Phytobiome J) * Microbes take on corn rootworm (Science) * Microbial metabolism of food allergens (Cell Host Microbe) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals the archaeal roots of eukaryotic life, and a building a gut malabsorption biosensor with bacteria.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * The archaeal roots of eukaryotic life (PNAS) * Building a malabsorption biosensor (Cell) * Engineering gut biosensors with microbes (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM discusses the use of bacteriophage-loaded microneedle patches for targeted and minimally disruptive foodborne pathogen decontamination, and a conjugal gene drive-like system that efficiently suppresses antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
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Links for this episode:
- Bacteriophage-loaded microneedle patches for food (Sci Adv)
- Gene drive to suppress antibiotic resistance (npj antimicrob and resistance)
- CRISPR gene drives (Syntego)
- Bier laboratory
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Nancy and Maggie join TWiM to share how and why they created a freely available ebook of TWiM-based science literacy resources and classroom exercises that support teaching across key microbiology and molecular biology topics.
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Links for this episode:
- Podcast annotation and resources in microbiology (Iowa State U)
- Curriculum guidelines for undergraduate microbiology (ASM)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how mechano-bactericidal surfaces made from diverse materials and patterned with spikes kill bacteria on contact, and virus-host evolution is reshaped by microgravity aboard the International Space Station.
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Links for this episode:
- Mechano-Bactericidal Surfaces (Adv Sci)
- Piercing pathogens (ASM)
- Natural bactericidal surfaces (Small)
- Virus-host evolution in microgravity (PLoS Biol)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains the finding that owning a dog during adolescence alters the microbiota and improves mental health, and the molecular basis for multidrug efflux by an anaerobic-associated resistance-nodulation-cell division transporter.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Dog ownership and the microbiome during adolescence (iScience) * Molecular basis for multidrug efflux (Nat Comm) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how S. aureus pathogenicity is a dynamic, niche-specific choreography that constantly recalibrates in response to the host microenvironment, and short chain fatty acids produced by commensal microbiota reduces its competitive fitness.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin.
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Niche-specific fitness of S. aureus at the wound edge (Nat Comm)
- Commensal derived short chain fatty acids attenuate S. aureus (mBio)
- Ditch the term pathogen (Nature)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how competition for nutrients anticipates and potentially mitigate drug side effects on the gut microbiota, and metabolic control of porin permeability influences antibiotic resistance.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt and Petra Levin
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Nutrient competition predicts drug effects on microbiota (Cell)
- Metabolic control of porin permeability influences antibiotic resistance in E coli (Nat Micro)
- Santiago Cano-Muniz
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains a biological mechanism that links sulfur and iron cycling in anoxic environments, and "swashing," a form of surface movement in which bacteria migrate without active propulsion.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode * Sulfur and iron cycling in anoxic environments (Nature) * Bacterial surface migration by swashing (J Bacteriol)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals the bacteria, acids, and enzymes behind yogurt made with ants, and a defined set of microbes that reproduces attributes of fine flavor chocolate fermentation
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Making yogurt with ants (iScience)
- The Alchemist Restaurant
- How to make classic tuiles (MasterClass)
- Defined microbes for chocolate (Nat Micro)
- Microbial chocolatiers of fine flavour (Nat Micro)
- Blind taste every chocolate bar (YouTube)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores two different ways that bacteria defend against phages through the synthesis of cyclic nucleotides.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Decoy cyclic nucleotides in phage defense (Nature)
- CRISPR defense with nucleotides (Nature)
- A decoy defence molecule to set a trap for viruses (Nature)
- Cyclic oligonucleotide-based antiphage signaling system immunity (Curr Opin Immunol)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains studies that show that the oral bacterial and fungal microbiome are risk factors for pancreatic cancer, and the gut microbiome and pyruvate metabolism of older adults are a link between sleep quality and frailty.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Oral microbiome and pancreatic cancer risk (JAMA Oncol) * 2025 Cancer Facts & Figures (ACS) * Periodontal Disease: The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown (Front Cell Infect Micro) * Socransky’s disease complexes (Microorg) * Microbiome, pyruvate metabolism, sleep quality, and frailty (Cell Rep) * Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (pdf) * How to score the sleep quality index (pdf) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals a Vibrio as the causative agent of sea star wasting disease, and using microcolony-seq to uncover phenotypic inheritance from single cells.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Michele Swanson
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Agent of sea star wasting disease (Nat Ecol Evol)
- Sea star wasting mystery solved (Nat Ecol Evol)
- Phenotypic inheritance from single cells (Cell)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the varied and distinct microbiome of trees, and an array of biopesticidal metabolites against mosquito larvae isolated from a Mediterranean island.
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Links for this episode:
- Microbiome of trees (Nature)
- Biopesticides from a Mediterranean island (Appl Environ Micro)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM pays tribute to Elio Schaechter, former TWiM host, blogger, and microbiologist extraordinaire, then reviews the finding that Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria - a form of competition.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin.
Guest Mark O. Martin.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Elio Schaechter (Wikipedia) * Elio Schaechter Funeral Service (video) * Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria (PLoS Biol) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM discusses outbreak of Legionnaires disease in Harlem NY, an automated whole genome sequencing platform for bacterial strain typing in clinical microbiology laboratories, building E. coli with a 57-codon genetic code.
Links for this episode
- Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in NY (NY Health)
- Automated whole genome sequencing for clinical labs (J Clin Micro)
- Sequencing workflow for outbreaks (J Clin Micro)
- Rewriting code of life (NYTimes)
- E. coli with a 57-codon genetic code (Science)
- E. coli with one stop codon (TWiM 330)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
TWiM explains a study that examines pathogen presence in ancient humans and concludes that zoonoses emerged 6500 years ago with the domestication of livestock, and determination of universal rules that govern plasmid copy number.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Guests: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Human pathogens in ancient Eurasia (Nature)
- What once ailed us (NY Times)
- Rules of plasmid copy number (Nature Comm)
- Scaling laws of plasmids (Nature Comm)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the use of gas sensors and machine learning to identify microbes and antimicrobial resistance in clinical specimens, and how a harmful algal bloom species releases thiamin antivitamins to suppress competitors.
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Links for this episode:
- Microbial and antimicrobial resistance diagnostics (Cell Biomaterials)
- Thiamin antivitamins suppress algal competitors (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains two strategies for bacterial competition for resources: by laying down a slippery lipid and pushing away competitors, or by breaking open cells with a spike, liberating essential nutrients.
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Links for this episode:
- Secreting a slippery lipid (mBio)
- Lysing neighboring cells for nutrients (Science)
- Underwater hockey (YouTube
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM describes how microbiological analysis of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn has revealed an antimicrobial resistance reservoir and bioremediation potential, and fungicide resistance in Fusarium graminearum, the fungus recently smuggled into the US.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Microbiology of the Gowanus Canal (J. Appl. Micro) * Microbes clean up Gowanus (BrooklynPaper) * Fungicide resistance in Fusarium (Pathogens) * Couple smuggles fungal pathogen into US (NBC) * Fusarium and wheat-management strategies (Pathogens) * Laboratory Biosafety (pdf) * NIH Biosafety (NIH) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how a mutualistic model bacterium can become lethal in a non-symbiotic host, and engineering a kill switch into a tuberculosis vaccine for improved safety.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * When a mutualist becomes lethal (mBio) * A lasting symbiosis (Nat Rev Micro) * A kill switch for BCG (Nat Micro) * Engineering mycobacteria for vaccination (Nat Micro) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains a study of the unique and extreme microbial and chemical environment on the International Space Station, and the connection between the gut microbiome and pain in fibromyalgia.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * ISS chemical and microbial environment (Cell) * Gut microbiota and fibromyalgia pain (Neuron) * Gut pain eases after doses of gut microbes (Nature) * Skin innervation and fibromyalgia pain (Ann Neurol) * Altered microbiome in fibromyalgia (Pain) * Intestinal microbiome and fibromyalgia (Intl J Rheum Dis) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM describes isolation of a novel bacterial species isolated from the China Space Station, and how a chemical radar allows bacteria to detect and kill predators.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin.
Guest Mark O. Martin.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Niallia tiangongensis from the China Space Station (Int J Syst Evol Biol) * Bacterial chemical radar (Cell) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how to recode E. coli so it uses only one stop codon, and an exploration of the mechanisms of bacterial adhesion within dental plaque.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Engineering E. coli with one stop codon (Nature) * Bacterial adhesion in dental plaque (mBio) * Microbial complexes in subgingival plaque (J Clin Periodontol) * Bacterial clusters in periodontal and peri-implant diseases (Microorg) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains Pasteur’s relentless hunt for microbes in the air, and how bacteria hunt for prey by ixotrophy - using grappling hooks!
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Pasteur’s hunt for microbes in the air (NYTimes) * Bacterial predation by ixotrophy (Science) * Enter the pirates (STC) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM describes Shigella infection is facilitated by interaction of human enteric α-defensin 5 with a colonic epithelial receptor, and an amino acid change in RNA polymerase that leads to resistance to β-lactams by preventing dysregulation of amino acid and nucleotide metabolism
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * National Black HIV/AIDS awareness day (CDC) * Shigella infection and human enteric alpha-defensin 5 (Nature Microbio) * RNA polymerase amino acid change and resistance to beta-lactams (Cell Rep) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains the remarkable abilities of bacterial ice nucleating proteins to promote freezing of water, and cryoprotective proteins produced by worm microbiomes that prevent freezing.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Worm microbiomes produce crytoprotective proteins (Sci Adv) * Biological antifreeze in Antarctic fishes (Sciece) * Enhancement of bacterial ice nucleators (PNAS) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explores the discovery of microbial enzymes, PETases, that can degrade ubiquitous plastics, and how exogenous peptidoglycan is a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson.
Guest Mark O. Martin.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Discovery of PET depolymerases (Science) * Exogenous peptidoglycan triggers biofilm formation (Nat Micro) * What is a biofilm? (Vimeo) * Peptidoglycan as a PAMP/MAMP (Immunol Rev) * Light organ formation triggered by peptidoglycan (Science) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals that record high atmospheric methane growth has been driven by microbes, and the cecum as an adaptive niche for Salmonella typhi.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Why a potent greenhouse gas is rising (WaPo) * Microbial emissions drove record high atmospheric methane growth (PNAS) * Salmonella biofilm formation in the cecum (mBio) * Typhoid Mary (The Collector) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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From ASMCUE 2024, the conference on undergraduate education, TWiM speaks with Becky, Melanie, and Katriana about their careers and how they use TWiM in undergraduate microbiology education.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Mark O. Martin
Guests: Becky Seipel-Thiemann, Melanie Melendrez-Vallard, and Katriana Popichak
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM describes how to make concrete more ‘green’ by using microbes, and bacterial bioluminescence as an important regulator of multitrophic interactions in the soil.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and and Mark O. Martin.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Links for this episode * Construction nanobiotechnology for concrete (Appl Env Micro) * Self-healing concrete (Sci Tot Environ) * Microbe-inspired self-healing concrete (Front Struct Civil Eng) * Bacterial bioluminescence regulates multitrophic interactions in the soil (Cell Rep) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how ticagrelor alters the membrane of S. aureus and enhances the activity of vancomycin and daptomycin without eliciting cross-resistance, and the development of a novel continuous disinfectant technology that decreases healthcare-associated infections in ICUs by 70%.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Ticagrelor and S. aureus (mBio) * Novel disinfectant technology (Am J Inf Control) * UVC-LED to inactivate foodborne pathogens (Appl Envir Micro) * UV disinfection systems (ACS Photonics) * High-touch surfaces in specialized patient care area (CDC) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM focuses on recent foodborne outbreaks of bacterial infections, and how nanopore sequencing technology can be used to identify pathogenic microbes and antimicrobial resistance genes in food products.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Foodborne outbreaks (CDC) * Race to nourish a warming world (Gates Foundation) * Nanopore sequencing of foods (Food Microbiol) * How is Oxford Nanopore used? (YouTube) * Introduction to Nanopore sequencing (YouTube) * Methods for detecting foodborne pathogens (Appl Micro Biotech) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM travels to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to learn how research conducted at USAMRIID leads to vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and training programs that protect both warfighters and civilians.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson. Guests: Norman Kreiselmeir, Christopher K Coat, Keersten Ricks, and Eric Nguyen Links for this episode:
- U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
- Threading the NEIDL (TWiV 200)
- Unintentional importation of B. pseudomallei into US (Emerg Inf Dis)
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Links for this episode * Engineering the cow for less methane emissions (WaPo) * Precision microbiome editing (Audacious Project) * Giant viruses carry antibiotic resistance genes (Nat Commun) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains a project to engineer the cow microbiome to reduce emissions of methane, and the finding of antibiotic resistance genes in the genomes of giant viruses.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Engineering the cow for less methane emissions (WaPo) * Precision microbiome editing (Audacious Project) * Giant viruses carry antibiotic resistance genes (Nat Commun) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how bacterial community structure can be used to predict athletic performance in racehorses, and the idea that a tiny fraction of all species forms most of Nature.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Mark O. Martin.
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Links for this episode * Microbiome picks a winner (Sci Rep) * Picking a Winner by Reading the Form * Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen Jay Gould * How much does it cost to breed a horse? * Date of birth and purchase price as foals or yearlings and race performance * Rarity as a sticky state (PNAS) * How many species on Earth? (PLoS Biol) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains unique modifications in the energy conservation pathways linked to methanogenesis in an Archaeon, and mechanisms of white nose fungal invasion of cells from the Little Brown Bat.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Methyl-reducing methanogenesis (Nature) * Pathogenic strategies of Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Science) * Adaptive fungal invasion of bat cells (Science) * Little brown bat (Critter Catalog) * Nature Notes: Little Brown Bat (Harpswell) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM describes experiments to explore gut microbiota signatures of vulnerability to food addiction in mice and humans, and how a phage tail-like protein suppresses competitors in populations of bacteria of plants.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Gut microbiota and food addiction (Probiotics) * Blautia may have probiotic properties (Gut Microbes) * Blautia wexlerae ameliorates obesity and type 2 diabetes (Nat Commun) * Phage tail–like bacteriocin suppresses competitors (Science) * What is a bacteriocin? (Front Micro) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explores evolution and host adaptation of Pseudomonas infections of plants, and the impact of COVID-19 on ESBL-producing E. coli on urinary tract and blood infections.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt.
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Links for this episode * Evolution and host adaptation of Pseudomonas (Science) * Type III secretion system, infection by injection (Nat Comm) * Demographic inference with skyline plots (Peer J) * Skyline plots (Taming the Beast) * Panaroo, a bacterial genome analysis pipeline (Wellcome Sanger Inst) * Impact of COVID-19 on ESBL-producing E. coli infections (Antimicro Resist Inf Control) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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TWiM explores the deep-dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet, and the use of microbes in bioelectronics to manage inflammation.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Deep-dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet (NY Times) * Living bioelectronics resolve inflammation (Science) * Active biointegrated living electronics for managing inflammation (Science) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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Fungal kingdom frontiersman Dr. Arturo Casadevall, asks, What if Fungi Win? Michael Schmidt and Mark O. Martin discuss with Arturo, his new book and the beneficial roles of fungi along with their mischievous and deadly impacts and how committed experts are researching ways to save us and our food supplies.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Mark O. Martin
Guest: Dr. Arturo Casadevall
Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/nKJe5xNUocU
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Links for this episode * Recorded at ASM Microbe 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Join us at the next ASM Microbe by visiting us at asm.org/microbe. * Matters Microbial * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains a new mechanism for preventing lysogeny through temperate phage-antibiotic synergy, and Salmonella expansion in the murine gut dependency on aspartate derived from reactive oxygen species-mediated microbiota lysis.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Temperate phage-antibiotic synergy (mBio) * Salmonella expansion dependent on aspartate (Cell Host Micr) * Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Wiki) * A Genetic Switch by Mark Ptashne * Lysis timing and bacteriophage fitness (Genetics) * HK97 capsid assembly (Ad Exp Med Biol) * Mode of action of fluoroquinolones (Drugs) * Salmonella a foodborne pathogen (CDC) * Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program (HHMI) * Sam Kaplan - 30 years of Microbiology (McGovern Medical School) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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Today on this episode of TWiM we will learn how limate change may be increasing our risks to infectious disease and then how the Odyssey literally comes alive in our microbial world but fear not, unlike the Trojans, the bacteria are fighting back and have developed resistance to this novel class of newly developed antimicrobials.
TWiM explores the plasticity of the adult human small intestinal stoma microbiota, and survival and rapid resuscitation that permit limited productivity in desert microbial communities.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Plasticity of small intestinal stoma microbiome (Cell Host Micr) * Desert microbial communities (Nat Comm) * How soil microbes survive in the desert (Science Daily) * Negev Desert (WikiCommons) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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Today on TWiM, a charcuterie invasion, and how that acid in your stomach may protect from the invading hordes of microbes.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * 2024 Salmonella outbreak linked to charcuterie meats * Multitier regulation of the E. coli extreme acid stress response by CsrA * Commentary: Peeling the onion: additional layers of regulation in the acid stress response * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reviews a case of E. faecium bacteremia treated with combination bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy, and how dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance via microbial metabolites.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode * Matters Microbial * Distinct Fusobacterium dominates colorectal cancer (Nature) * Bacterial subspecies that might drive colon cancer (Nature) * A bacterial strain linked to colon cancer (Nature) * Spatial perspective on bacteria in tumors (Nature) * Colorectal cancer in the young (Yale Med) * Surface colonization by Flavobacterium johnsoniae promotes its survival (mBio) * THOR, a model microbiome (mBio) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reviews a case of E. faecium bacteremia treated with combination bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy, and how dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance via microbial metabolites.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Vincent’s interviews at SXSW * Bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy for E. faecium bacteremia (mBio) * Dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance (Nature) * CDC’s Reports of Selected E. coli Outbreak Investigations * Brett Finlay’s narrated EPEC animation * Colonization resistance by gut microbial metabolome (ACS Chem Biol) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM discusses the identification of natural products from reconstructed ancient bacterial genomes, and how plant mRNAs move into a fungal pathogen via extracellular vesicles to reduce infection.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin.
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Links for this episode * Natural products from ancient bacterial genomes (Science) * Plant mRNAs move into fungal pathogens (Cell Host Microb) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reviews the ongoing cholera outbreak in Africa, and research showing that gut complement induced by the microbiota blocks pathogens and spares commensal bacteria.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Cholera in Southern Africa (Africa CDC) * Deadly cholera outbreak in Africa (NY Times) * Pediatric cholera in sub-Saharan Africa (Curr Op Ped) * Gut complement spares commensals (Cell) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals a new population in the blue cheese-making fungus Penicillium roqueforti and identification of a quorum-sensing autoinducer and siderophore in uropathogenic Escherichia coli.
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Links for this episode * New blue cheese-making fungus (Evol Appl) * Threat to Camenbert cheese (Guardian) * French Cheese Under Threat (CNRS News) * Fungadapt project (YouTube) * Microbes Make the Cheese (ASM) * Yersiniabactin in uropathogenic Escherichia coli (mBio) * Public goods and cheating in microbes (Curr Biol) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals a database of genome sequences of thousands of Mycobaterium tuberculosis, allowing association with resistance phenotypes to 13 antibiotics, and microbe-derived uremic solutes that enhance thrombosis potential in the host.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * M. tuberculosis genomes and antimicrobial resistance (PLoS Biol) * The CRyPTIC consortium * BashTheBug * Zooniverse * Microbial solutes enhance thrombosis (mBio) * Can our microbiome break our heart? (mBio) * Pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (EJIFCC) * How Kidneys Work Video (Mayo Clinic) * What is a metaorganism? (Zoology) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM describes the mechanism for the S. aureus itch and scratch induced skin damage, and discovery of a novel class of antibiotics that targets the lipopolysaccharide transporter.
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Links:
- S. aureus drives itch and scratch behavior (Cell)
- Staph scratches its itch (Cell)
- A new class of antibiotics (Nature)
- A new type of antibiotic (Nature)
- Novel antibiotic targets LPS transporter (Nature)
- New antibiotic traps LPS (Nature)
- Macrocyclic peptide drugs (Science)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
A highly reduced TWiM team presents a study of the use of phage diversity in cell-free DNA to identify bacterial pathogens in human sepsis cases, and the evolution, persistence, and host adaptation of a gonococcal antimicrobial resistance plasmid that emerged in the pre-antibiotic era.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Petra Levin
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Links for this episode * Phages identify sepsis pathogens (Nat Micro) * Gonococcal AMR plasmid from pre-antibiotic era (PLoS Genetics) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.
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On the occasion of TWiM’s 300th episode, we discuss how two college students found a new antibiotic in soil, Barbara Iglewski’s passing, and Elio returns for an appearance.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson. Guest: Elio Schaechter
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Links for this episode * Barbara Iglewski dies * Antimicrobial activity of P. nicotinovorans (MicroPubl Biol) * 2 NWTC students found a new antibiotic in soil (Green Bay Press Gazette) * ESKAPE bacteria group (Clover) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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From ASM’s Conference for Undergraduate Educators 2023 in Phoenix, TWiM speaks with Amaya Garcia Costas and Gwendolyn Knapp about their approaches to undergraduate microbiology education, and how they use TWiM as part of their curricula.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson. Guest: Amaya Garcia Costas and Gwendolyn Knapp.
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Links for this episode * ASMCUE 2023 * Teaching in the time of COVID-19 (J Microbiol Biol Edu) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM provides thoughts on providing better training for a non-academic career, and help celebrate Black in Microbiology Week with a 2023 paper by Ari Kozik, a co-founder of Black Microbiologists Association and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin,
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Links for this episode * Better training for a non-academic career (Nat Micro) * Nature career site * ASM career site * Prosper - Unlocking postdoc career potential * Airway microbiota in obesity and asthma (J Allerg Clin Immunol) * A vision for human microbiome research (mSphere) * Microbes in Models (ASM) * Climate change and microbes (ASM) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reviews how a coating of lipoproteins provides a stabilizing environment on the inner membrane of Bacillus subtilis spores, and a miniaturized device that integrates genetically engineered probiotic biosensors with a custom-designed photodetector and readout chip to track mediators of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin, Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Lipoproteins stabilize germination apparatus (J Bacteriol) * A coating of liposomes (J Bacteriol) * Biosensor to detect inflammatory molecules in the gut (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM discusses a dispute about whether the mycobiome plays a role in the development of cancer, and the structure and function of channels that are delivered to plant cells by pathogenic bacteria.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Michael Schmidt.
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Links for this episode * Cancer microbes disputed (Carl Zimmer) * Fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature) * Revisiting fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature) * Bacteria deliver channels to plant cells (Nature) * Ice nucleation by bacteria (YouTube) * Gram-negative bacterial porins (Curr Protein Pept Sci) * Xenopus oocyte toolbox (Cold Spring Harb Protocols) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses, and discovery of a new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium that binds to an immutable target.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin,
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Links for this episode * Phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses (eLife) * Sea phages * Actinobacteriophage database * New antibiotic from uncultured bacterium (bioRxiv) * The age of infection (For Policy) * Killing bacteria by teixobactin (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals that the ice cream manufacturing environment harbors psychrotrophic bacteria, and identification of a deadly bacterial strain causing widespread deaths of newborns in Uganda.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, & Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Pyschrotrophic bacteria in ice cream plants (Appl Environ Micro) * Creamery pays fine for contaminated ice cream (US DOJ) * Paenibacillus infection of infants in Uganda (The Lancet) * Deadly bacterial strain identified (Yale SOM) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains personalized aerosilized phage therapy for a chronic lung infection, and using the combination of antibiotic and a DNA molecule that binds alpha-gal to reduce S. aureus infection in vivo.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt
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Links for this episode: * Aerosolized phage therapy (Nat Comm) * Alpha-gal aptamer and vancomycin for MRSA (Microorg) * Alpha-gal syndrome (Front Allergy) * Natural antibody protects against viral infection (virology blog)
Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.
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TWiM reveals that breast milk bioactives are essential for development of the infant microbiome and immunity, and how capsule mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae can affect bacterial pathogenesis.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin,
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Links for this episode * Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life (Science) * Human Milk: An Ideal Food (Front Ped) * Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (Ann NY Acad Sci) * Gut microbiome in early childhood (Nature) * Probiotics Infloran and Labinic * Cell envelope defects of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Mol Micro) * A cautionary tale (Mol Micro) * Global mortality associated with bacterial pathogens (Lancet) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin,
Guest: Mark O. Martin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Bacteria initiated plate tectonics (Geophys Res Lett) * Medea hypothesis (Sci Am) * Earth’s ferrous wheel (Nature) * The Great Dying (Nova) * The Great Oxidation Event (ASM) * Banded iron formations (EarthSphere) * S. sputigena and tooth decay (Nat Comm) * Acid tolerance mechanisms of S. mutans (Fut. Micro.) * Halitosis patients' tongue biofilm (Microbiol. Open) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees
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From ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston, TWiM speaks with Mimi Goldschmidt about her remarkable career in microbiology which included training astronauts to safely bring moon rocks back to Earth.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin.
Guest: Mimi Goldschmidt
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Links for this episode * Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia) * Dr. Millicent “Mimi” Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin.
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Links for this episode * Ubiquitin-like conjugation by bacterial cGAS (Nature) * Jumpin’ Jack Flash (TWiV 222) * Viral sponges inactivate anti-phage immunity (Trends Micro) * cGAS and CD-NTase enzymes (Curr Opin Struct Biol) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM describes a potential connection between a bacterial protein that damages DNA, and human cancers, and how to synthesize antimicrobial natural products from reconstructed bacterial genomes of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin.
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Links for this episode * Colorectal cancer and E. coli (Nature) * Natural products from ancient bacterial genomes (Science) * Underexplored bacteria reservoirs of antimicrobial lipopeptides (Front Chem) * Fries With That Mammoth Burger? (Mother Jones) * 25-40 million year old spores (Science) * 250 million year old bacterium from salt crystal (Nature) * 1918 influenza with Jeffery Taubenberger (TWiV 966) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM investigates the high variability in the rate and amount of current production from microbial fuel cells, and how bacteria link their growth rate to external nutrient conditions via a protein that functions as a cellular rheostat.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Variability in microbial fuel cells (Appl Environ Micro) * Electrodes for microbial fuel cells (Chemosphere) * Microbial | electrochemical CO2 reduction (Joule) * Growth rate and cell wall precursors (Nat Micro) * Bacterial growth physiology (Front Micro) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM investigates the high variability in the rate and amount of current production from microbial fuel cells, and how bacteria link their growth rate to external nutrient conditions via a protein that functions as a cellular rheostat.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Variability in microbial fuel cells (Appl Environ Micro) * Electrodes for microbial fuel cells (Chemosphere) * Microbial | electrochemical CO2 reduction (Joule) * Growth rate and cell wall precursors (Nat Micro) * Bacterial growth physiology (Front Micro) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
TWiM reveals a new type of satellite virus that requires only phage tails for producing infectious virus particles, and that highly virulent plague bacteria differs from its innocuous enteric predecessor by its resistance to lysis by human complement.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Viruses that steal bacteriophage tails (Cell Host Microbe) * Y. pestis not susceptible to human complement (Appl Environ Micro) * How Y. pestis got its pathogenic groove (Appl Environ Micro) * Risks of another pandemic (TedEd) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria.
Links for this episode * Housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant E. coli (Appl Micro Int) * Antibiotic use in farming (Nature) * Antimicrobial use in food producing animals (PLoS Glob Pub Health) * Reproductive organ linked to symbiotic bacteria (mBio) * Skype a Scientist * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
TWiM reveals quorum-sensing systems that regulate intestinal inflammation and permeability caused by P. aeruginosa, and how plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior through translational regulatory crosstalk.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin.
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Links for this episode * Quorum-sensing in the intestine (mBio) * Block quorum sensing, block biofilm (Antimicrob Agents Chemother) * Plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior (PLoS Biol) * Regulatory genes associated with integrative conjugative elements (J Bact) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
TWiM presents a protocol for evolving caffeine-tolerant yeast by high school students in the home, and how predator-prey dynamics change when multiple bacteria grow together in biofilms.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin. Guest: Mark O. Martin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Caffeine-tolerant yeast selected at home (microPub Biology) * yEvo Lab * Vision and change in undergraduate biology (NAS) * CURE in a box (JMBE) * EvolvingStem * EvolvingStem: Evolution-in-action curriculum (BMC) * Spatial ecology of predation (PNAS) * Predatory bacteria: From curiosity to curative (Trends Micro) * Combating antimicrobial resistance with predatory Bdellovibrio (YouTube) * Bdellovibrio attacking E.coli (YouTube) * From one, many (YouTube) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM explains the synthesis in bacteria of new energy-dense biofuels that can replace rocket and jet fuels, and the use of nanopore sequencing to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with serious infections.
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Links for this episode:
- Biosynthesis of high energy biofuels (Joule)
- Polyketide synthases in bacteria (PNAS)
- Sequencing for diagnosis of serious infections (mBio)
- Nanopore sequencing video (YouTube)
- Emerging human pathogen Kodamaea ohmeri (Front. Micro)
TWiM describes successful phage therapy against a mycobacterial lung infection, and how encapsulation of the cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from its major peptidoglycan hydrolase and host defenses.
Links for this episode:
- Phage therapy against M. abscessus lung infection (Cell)
- Encapsulation of the septal cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from host defenses (PLoS Path)
- Letters read on TWiM 279
TWiM explores the relationship between the gut microbiome and depressive symptoms, and how purine nucleotides act as adjuvants to antibiotics.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode: * Gut microbiota and depressive symptoms one and two (Nat Commun ) * Microbiome influences depression (Phys.org) * Gut bacteria and depression (Med Press) * Mice behaving badly (TWiM 131) * Gut microbiome in ASD (Front Cell Inf Micro) * Transferring the blues (J Psych Res) * Nucleotides as adjuvants to antibiotics (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
On this episode of TWiM, we reveal widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages that may regulate translation of lytic genes, and how Staphylococcus aureus inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Stop codon recoding in bacteriophages (Nat Micro) * How S. aureus inhibits P. aeruginosa growth (J Bact) * S. aureus small colony variants (Front Cell Infect Micro) * Ken Timmis retires as journal editor (YouTube) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM presents evidence that over half of human pathogenic diseases are impacted by climate change, and considers how a novel prokaryote discovered next to an underground stream illuminates the pathway to multicellularity.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Mark Martin.
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Links for this episode * Climate change and pathogenic diseases (Nat Climate Change) * Impacts of climate change on human diseases (MoraLAB) * Cave bacteria illuminate pathway to multicellularity (eLife) * Commentary on novel cave bacteria (eLife) * Karst landscapes (National Park Service) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals high rates of co-transformation of plasmids in E. coli overturns the clonality myth, and bacterial membrane vesicles as a novel strategy for extrusion of the antimicrobial bismuth in H. pylori.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin
Links for this episode * The myth of clonality (Sci Rep) * Bacterial membrane vesicles extrude bismuth (mBio) * Gastric acid levels must decrease (World J Gastroenterol) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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Mark Martin returns to TWiM to join the discussion of how to design a complex gut microbiome, and protection of protists from virus infection by intracellular bacterial symbionts.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
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Links for this episode * Design of a complex gut microbiome (Cell) * Defensive symbiosis against giant viruses (PNAS) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music by Ronald Jenkees.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin returns to TWiM to join the discussion of how to design a complex gut microbiome, and protection of protists from virus infection by intracellular bacterial symbionts.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Design of a complex gut microbiome (Cell) * Defensive symbiosis against giant viruses (PNAS) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music by Ronald Jenkees.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro) * Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health) * Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS) * Resistance to rifampicin (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
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TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro) * Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health) * Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS) * Resistance to rifampicin (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro) * Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health) * Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS) * Resistance to rifampicin (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro) * Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health) * Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS) * Resistance to rifampicin (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro) * Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health) * Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS) * Resistance to rifampicin (Nature) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
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Links for this episode * Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res) * Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res) * Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res) * Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res) * Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res) * Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM presents a novel mucosal COVID-19 vaccine based on a bacteriophage capsid, and potentiation of C. difficile infection severity by the gut bacterial community.
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Links for this episode:
- Bacteriophage based COVID-19 vaccine (mBio)
- Gut microbiome potentiates C. difficile disease (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM presents a novel mucosal COVID-19 vaccine based on a bacteriophage capsid, and potentiation of C. difficile infection severity by the gut bacterial community.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode:
- Bacteriophage based COVID-19 vaccine (mBio)
- Gut microbiome potentiates C. difficile disease (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Links for this episode * Improving plastics production by Archaea (Appl Environ Micro) * Biodegradability of PHA (Green Chem) * What does tesla mean for an MRI and its magnet? (GE) * Bacteria deplete nucleotides to block phages (Nat Micro) * Antiphage hotspots in bacteria (TWiM 265) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reviews discovery of a bacterium that is visible to the naked eye, and reversible resistance to bacteriophage by shedding of the bacterial cell wall.
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Links for this episode * A bacterium that is not a microbe (Science) * Overwhelming microbial greatness (TWiM 261) * Medical illustrator Kellie Holoski * Bacteriophage resistance by shedding cell wall (Open Biol) * Who came first, monderms or diderms? (Nat Ecol Evol) * Letters read on TWiM 269 * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM discusses citizen science surveillance of drug-resistant Aspergillus in garden soil, and the mechanism of action of a copper dependent antibiotic.
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Links for this episode * Fanny Hesse (Microbial Menagerie) * Citizen science surveillance of Aspergillus (App Envir Micro) * Aspergillum (Wikipedia) * DMDC, copper dependent antibiotic (Infect Immun) * National Summer Undergraduate Research Project * Letters read on TWiM 268 * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
From ASM Microbe 2022 in Washington, DC, Heran joins TWiM to discuss her career and her work on the agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Guest: Heran Darwin
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Links for this episode * Honey badger of pathogens (EMBO Rep) * Pup-proteasome system (PNAS) * Cytokinin signaling in M. tuberculosis (mBio) * Bandwagoning (EMBO Rep) * Take the TWiM Listener survey!
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how spindle-shaped Archaeal viruses evolved from rod-shaped ancestors to package a larger genome, and transcriptional recording by CRISPR acquisition from RNA.
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Links for this episode * From rods to spindles (Cell) * Spindle-shaped virus movie (Cell) * Bacteria that record (Science) * Transcriptional recording with CRISPR (Nature) * Letters read on TWiM 266 * TWiM Listener survey
TWiM explains the discovery of hotspots of genetic variation containing reservoirs of anti-phage systems in E. coli phages and their parasitic satellites, and pathogen desiccation tolerance promoted by hydrophilins.
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Links for this episode * Phage and satellite antiviral systems (Cell Host Micro) * Hydropilins promote desiccation tolerance (Cell Host Micro) * Letters read on TWiM 265 * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals that the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine promotes multiple antibiotic resistance in E. coli, and treatment with Bifidobacterium lactis probiotic benefits patients with coronary artery disease.
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Links for this episode:
- Antipsychotic promotes antimicrobial resistance (J Bact)
- Probiotic benefits patients with coronary artery disease (mSystems)
- B. lactis and Alzheimer’s in mice (Eur J Nutr)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains the use of lavender oil to disrupt Listeria biofilms, and how treatment of catheters with liquid silicone reduces associated urinary tract infections.
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Links for this episode * Lavender oil prevents biofilms (Lett Appl Micro) * Silicone-infused catheters reduce infection (eLife) * Viable but not culturable (TWiM 179) * Letters read on TWiM 263 * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM welcomes new host Petra, and explains how a small protein helps ensure that E. coli utilizes a preferred carbon source, and a screening strategy to identify inhibitors of the type IV secretion system that is essential for virulence of a variety of bacterial pathogens.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a Patron of TWiM!
Links for this episode: * A small protein regulates carbon utilization (PNAS) * Inhibitors of type IV secretion systems (mBio) * Letters read on TWiM 262
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Mark returns to TWiM to join in a discussion of soil microbiota as game-changers in restoration of degraded lands, and discovery of a centimeter-long bacterium, the biggest yet discovered.
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode:
- Game-changing soil microbiota (Science)
- A World Without Soil by Jo Handlesman
- A World Without Soil video (YouTube)
- Centimeter-long bacteria (bioRxiv)
- How large can a bacteria get? (YouTube)
- Giant bacteria (YouTube)
- Three faces of Thiomargarita (Small Things Considered)
- The microbe that could be seen (Small Things Considered)
- Energetics of the eukaryotic edge (Small Things Considered)
- A lakeside tale (Small Things Considered)
- Letters read on TWiM 261
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
In this food-centric TWiM, we reveal the microbiomes of carnivorous vulture bees and of Gala apples from all over the world.
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Links for this episode * Microbiome of vulture bees (mBio) * Bees previously in TWiM 245 * Microbiome of Gala apples (Envir Micro) * Apple flower microbiome (mBio) * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of the frightening global burden of bacterial antibiotic resistance, and a solution to the problem of daylight nitrogen fixation in a cyanobacterium, despite the incompatibility of nitrogenase with oxygen produced during photosynthesis.
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Links for this episode:
- Global bacterial antimicrobial resistance (Nat Micro)
- Cancer moon shot (NCI)
- When antibiotics don’t work (TED)
- Cyanobacterium buoyancy (Nat Micro)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how bacterial symbionts regulate tick blood feeding activity, and the reasons why antibiotics exist.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a Patron of TWiM!
Links for this episode:
- Symbionts help ticks to feed (Cell Host Microbe)
- Why do antibiotics exist? (mBio)
- Shorter is still better (J Hosp Med)
- Shorter vs longer antibiotic courses (J Hosp Med)
- Francis Tally and tigecycline (Clin Inf Dis)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
On this episode of TWiM, how phages prevent other phages from invading their hosts without blocking their own reproduction, and plastic-degrading potential of microbes across the Earth.
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Links for this episode:
- Prophages encode phage-defense systems with cognate self-immunity (Cell Host Microbe)
- Prophages self-destruct to eliminate competitors (Cell Host Microbe)
- Plastic-degrading potential across global microbiome (mBio)
- Plastics in our foods (ENV media)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM discusses antigenic variation within dengue virus serotypes, and an mRNA vaccine that induces antibodies against tick proteins and prevents transmission of the Lyme disease agent.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt and Michele Swanson
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
Links for this episode:
- Dengue virus antigenic variation (eLife)
- mRNA vaccine induces tick resistance (Sci Transl Med)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals a study showing that positive interactions among bacteria are far more common than previously thought, and how acquisition of a single gene enabled Yersinia pestis to expand the range of mammalian hosts that sustain flea-borne plague.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode:
- Positive interactions are common among bacteria (Sci Adv)
- Expansion of mammal hosts for flea-borne plague (PLoS Path)
- Hurling fleas (TWiM #80)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of the observation that Gram’s stain does not cross the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane, and suppression of gingival inflammation and bone loss through host modulation caused by episymbiotic Saccharibacteria.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt
Guest: Mark O. Martin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Gram’s stain does not cross cytoplasmic membrane (ACS Chem Biol) * Gram stain protocol (pdf) * Chemical mechanism of Gram’s stain (J Bact) * Episymbiotic Saccharibacteria suppress disease (Host Cell Microbe) * Microedu listserve * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Petra Levin joins TWiM to tell three stories from her laboratory: how starvation induces shrinkage of the bacterial cytoplasm; plasticity of E. coli cell wall and how it influences antibiotic resistance across different environments; and induction of antibiotic resistance by Triclosan.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt
Guest: Petra Levin
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Links for this episode * Starvation induces E. coli shrinkage (PNAS) * Plasticity of cell wall metabolism and antibiotic resistance (eLife) * Triclosan induces antibiotic resistance (Antimicro Agents Chemother) * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
On this episode of TWiM, using colicins to ferry DNA into cells through an iron transporter, and construction of highly efficient microbial fuel cells that produce more electrical current than previously observed.
Links for this episode:
- Colicins used to ferry DNA into cells (mBio)
- Highly efficient microbial fuel cells (Science)
- Silver assists fuel cells (Science)
- Biological transport goes the extra mile (PNAS)
- Long distance transport in cable bacteria (PNAS)
- Columbia U pledges fossil free buildings (Columbia U)
Become a patron of TWiM.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the role of biofilms in infection by coronaviruses, and development of a Shigella vaccine using outer membrane vesicles derived from Salmonella
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Links for this episode * Biofilms and coronaviruses (Appl Envir Micro) * Outer membrane vesicle vaccine (Appl Envir Micro) * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
On this episode, an electrochemical scaffold that delivers safe doses of hypochlorous acid to treat wound infections in humans, and a method for sampling and monitoring bacteria and viruses on surfaces using plain paper stickers.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt
Links:
- E-scaffolds on TWiM 143
- The EPS matrix (J Bact)
- Integrated HOCL-producing E-scaffold (AAM)
- Surface sampling bacteria with paper stickers (AEM)
- Surface sample viruses with paper stickers (Sci Rep)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals how temporal shifts in antibiotic resistance elements govern phage-pathogen conflicts, and the intracellular localization of toxin-antitoxin proteins in E. coli.
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Links for this episode:
- Phage-pathogen conflicts (Science)
- A ‘Trap-Door’ Strategy for Mobile Element Escape (Front Micro)
- Location of toxin-antitoxin proteins (mBio)
- Babel-Jerusalem Bookstore
- Letters read on TWiM 249
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin returns to TWiM to discuss ways to increase diversity in our field, and the discovery of Borgs, giant extrachromosomal elements with the potential to augment methane oxidation.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt
Guest: Mark O. Martin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a Patron of TWiM!
Links for this episode:
- Unacknowledged privilege (Mol Biol Cell)
- Black Microbiologists Association
- Beginner’s Guide to Minority Professor Hires
- (ASM)Academic Career Readiness Assessment (UCSF)
- Annual Biomed Res Conference for Minority Students
- Lessons from Plants by Beronda Montgomery
- Giant extrachromosomal BORGS (bioRxiv)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores whether ‘rewilding’ is a way to get back our missing gut microbes, and failure of bacteriophage therapy due to the production of neutralizing antibodies.
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Links for this episode * Gut microbiota through an evolutionary lens (Science) * You’re missing microbes (NY Times) * There is no ‘healthy’ microbiome (NY Times) * Antibody limits bacteriophage therapy (Nat) * Phage therapy on TWiEVO #44 * Graham Hatfull on TWiV #87 * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM folk explore disruption of a Burkholderia intracellular niche by a cell death program, and an increase in Brucella infectiousness after intracellular passage.
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Links for this episode:
- Disrupting intracellular niche (mBio)
- Intracellular passage increases infectiousness (Infect Immun)
- Type IV secretion systems (Front Micro)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
In this episode, how polysaccharides keep cyanobacteria afloat in the oceans so that they can carry out photosynthesis, and a symbiotic bacterium that protects honey bees from fungal infections.
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Links for this episode:
- Bacterial blooms and polysaccharides (eLife)
- Social life of cyanobacteria (eLife)
- Bacteria that protect bees from fungi (mBio)
- First 21 days of a bee’s life (YouTube)
- antiSMASH (Nucl Acids Res)
- Delaney Miller’s website
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Foodie TWiM reveals that bacteria in human saliva are major components of Ecuadorian indigenous beers, and an unusual E. coli that produces atypical light cream-colored colonies in chromogenic agar.
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Links for this episode:
- Saliva bacteria in indigenous beers (Peer J)
- Unusual behavior of E. coli ST59 (Appl Envir Micro)
- One Health (CDC)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM continues its food arc with an examination of the effect of peroxyacetic acid spray on the microbiome and sensory properties of beef, and explores asymmetry of the cell division machinery during sporulation.
Links for this episode:
- Effect of peroxyacetic acid on beef (Appl Envir Micro)
- Peracetic acid sterilization (CDC)
- Different cuts of beef (S. Clyde Weaver)
- Profiling the Poglianos (TWiM 115)
- Cell division machinery asymmetry in sporulation (eLife)
- Kamala Sohonie by Kanika Khanna
- India COVID SOS
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals the microbiome of sourdough starter cultures, and discovery of a novel family of prokaryotic nanocompartments involved in the metabolism of sulfur.
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Links for this episode * Sourdough starter microbiomes (eLife) * Prokaryotic nanocompartments (eLife) * TWiM Listener survey
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explains how Vibrio biofilms are dispersed by polyamine signals, and the induction of inappetence by respiratory virus infection which causes alteration of the gut microbiome.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Regulation of Vibrio biofilms by polyamines (eLife) * Cyclic di-GMP (pdf) * Respiratory virus infection induces inappetance (mBio) * Letters read on TWiM 241 * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reviews aspirin modulation of Fusobacterium nucleatum, a microbe that has been associated with colorectal cancer, and Elio tells us ‘What are vaccines’, a talk he recently gave to members of his community.
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Links for this episode:
- Elio’s What are Vaccines? (pdf)
- Jenner Museum
- Aspirin modulation of Fusobacterium (mBio)
- Fecal transplant for C. difficile (NEJM)
- Fecal microbiota transplantation (NEJM)
- Fecal microbiota transplant for dysbiosis (NEJM)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reviews how variants of P. aeruginosa survive antimicrobial treatment, and a decrease in the antimicrobial resistance of the gut microbiome in the presence of the fungus C. albicans.
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Links for this episode:
- Phoenix colony variants of P. aeruginosa (AAC)
- Candida and the gut microbiota (mSphere)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Elio reveals his thoughts on the big themes of modern microbiology, followed by an analysis of the gut microbiome in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
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Links for this episode:
- Parkinson’s disease gut microbiome (NPJ Parkinsons)
- Sequencing data as compositions (Bioinformatics)
- Gut microbiota in mouse Parkinson’s model (Cell)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
To celebrate ten years, TWiM asks former hosts and guests to provide their thoughts on how microbiology has contributed to our understanding of the microbial world.
Links for this episode:
- Neisseria LINES up: TWiM #1
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
In this episode, hiring and training expectations for future biomedical life sciences faculty, and the roles of bacterial symbionts in deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworms.
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Links for this episode:
- Expectations for life sciences faculty (Life Sci Edu)
- Academic career readiness assessment (UCSF)
- Tubeworm bacterial symbionts (eLife)
- Traveling on the Alvin (Dark Life II)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
In this episode, how DNA of giant viruses has contributed extensively to the genome of green algae, and inhibition of E. coli virulence by a metabolic product of arachidonic acid in the intestinal epithelium.
Links for this episode:
- Giant viral DNA shapes genomes of green algae (Nature)
- James Van Etten
- Darwin’s Radio
- Arachidonic acid and E. coli virulence (mBio)
- How a pathogenic E. coli infection begins
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reviews Salmonella colonization of three-dimensional miniature intestinal organs, and identification of a circadian clock in a non-photosynthetic prokaryote.
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Links for this episode:
- Salmonella colonization of enteroids (mBio)
- Circadian clock in nonphotosynthetic prokaryote (Science)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reviews the movie Jezebel, played against the background of the yellow fever epidemic of 1853 in New Orleans, and prokaryotic viperins, ancestors of the eukaryotic enzymes that synthesize antiviral molecules.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Links for this episode * Jezebel (Wikipedia) * Prokaryotic viperins (Nature) * A cell protein that synthesizes antivirals (virology blog) * Dr. Aude Bernheim’s training and gender equity contributions * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM explores the use of a bacterial protein to make highly conductive microbial nanowires, and how modulin proteins seed the formation of amyloid, a key component of S. aureus biofilms.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Amyloid formation for S. aureus biofilms (eLife) * Highly conductive microbial nanowires (Nat Chem Biol) * Uncovering Nature’s electronics (Nature) * Activating Nature’s electrical grid (Bioeng) * Bacteria that exhale electricity (SyFyWire) * Microbial transistors (TWiM 14) * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of a predatory bacterium appropriately named Vampirococcus lugosii, and Elio reveals how bacteria can be used on the International Space Station to efficiently extract rare earth elements in microgravity.
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Links for this episode:
- Space Station biomining (Nat Comm)
- Reductive evolution in a predatory bacterium (bioRxiv)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
In this episode of TWiM, control of Campylobacter in raw chicken by zinc oxide nanoparticles in packaging material, and Salmonella enterica genomes from a16th century epidemic in Mexico.
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Links for this episode:
- Zinc oxide nanoparticles in raw meat packing (Appl Env Micro)
- Campylobacter, an emerging foodborne pathogen (Emerg Inf Dis)
- Ancient bacterial DNA (Microb Genom)
- Salmonella enterica from 16th century outbreak (Nature)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
In this episode of TWiM, the hidden biochemical diversity in soil-dwelling Actinobacteria that could lead to a second Golden Era of antibiotic discovery, and structures of glideosome components reveals the mechanism of gliding in apicomplexan parasites.
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Links for this episode:
- Cryptic or silent? (mBio)
- The Streptomyces chromosome (Ann Rev Gen)
- Engineering Nature’s Medicines (pdf)
- Apicomplexan glideosome (Comm Biol)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Ninecia and Chelsey, two of the founders of Black in Microbiology, join TWiM to discuss the goals of the organization, then we reveal survival of Deinococcus bacteria for 3 years in space, an experiment that addresses the panspermia hypothesis for interplanetary transfer of life.
Guests: Ninecia Scott and Chelsey Spriggs
You can watch this episode at https://youtu.be/1o1hh0I4rio
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Links for this episode * Black in Microbiology * Deinococcus DNA damage in space (Front Micro) * Monthly myco-talks (Uni Exeter)
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TWiM presents an episode for mycophiles: how bacteria disarm mushroom pathogens, and the role of the CARD9 protein in protective immunity against pulmonary cryptococcosis.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt and Michele Swanson
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Links for this episode:
- Black in Microbiology
- How bacteria disarm mushroom pathogens (PNAS)
- A bacterial battleground (Science)
- CARD9 needed for fungal defense (mBio)
- OneHealth: Fungal pathogens (AAM)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM presents two unusual microorganisms, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, heard by Elio in an episode of Doc Martin, and Roseomonas mucosa, which is being used to treat atopic dermatitis.
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Links for this episode:
- Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae
- Treating atopic dermatitis with R. mucosa (Sci Trans Med)
- Overview of sphingolipid metabolism (Adv Exp Med Biol)
- Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections (MTM 118)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team explores how delivery of an enzyme into competitor cells leads to synthesis of (p)ppApp, depletion of ATP, deregulation of metabolic pathways, and cell death, and a refinement of our typical view of bacterial lag phase as a period of nonreplication.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt
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Links for this episode:
- Killing competitors by synthesis of (p)ppApp (Nature)
- Lag phase is a dynamic period (J Bact)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reveals the genetic mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls from sequencing of DNA, and 100 million year old living bacteria recovered from marine sediments.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
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Links for this episode:
- Elio’s Memoirs
- Genetic mysteries of Dead Sea Scrolls (Cell)
- 100 million year old bacteria under the sea (Nat Comm)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiMmers explore detection of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces in an ophthalmology examination room, the ability of stressed populations of Yersinia bacteria to survive antimicrobial treatment within host tissues, and how volatile organic chemicals produced by soil microbes attract arthropods which in turn disperse bacterial spores.
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Links for this episode * SARS-CoV-2 RNA in ophthalmology room (JAMA Ophth) * Stressed Yersinia survive doxycycline treatment (mBio) * Volatiles, a soil arthropod, and Streptomyces spore dispersal (Nature) * Image credit
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin joins TWiM to describe nano-sized parasitic bacteria that inhabit humans, and the construction of whole-cell biosensors for detecting arsenic in drinking water.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt
Guest: Mark O. Martin
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Links for this episode * Ultra-small parasitic bacteria in humans (Cell Rep) * Arsenic (WHO) * Arsenic and drinking water (CDC) * Arsenic biosensor in bacteria (Appl Envir Micro)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals a potential mucus-busting weapon for patients with cystic fibrosis, and bacteria in the intestinal tract that can oxidize cholesterol, leading to lower levels of the lipid in blood.
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Links for this episode * Biofilm eradication with nitric oxide release (ACS Inf Dis) * Pseudomonas quorum sensing network (Protein) * Cholesterol metabolism by gut bacteria (Cell Host Microbe) * Microbes might manage your cholesterol (Harvard Gazette) * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
TWiM reveals that methane-producing bacteria might survive beneath the surface of Mars, and identification of a cytopathogenic toxin in a bacterium associated with preterm birth.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
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Links for this episode:
- Archaea could make methane on Mars (Sci Rep)
- Cytopathogenic toxin in bacterium associated with preterm birth (J Bact)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiM discusses eradicating racism in academia and STEM, and a peptide from commensal bacteria that protects skin from damage caused by MRSA
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Links for this episode:
- Responsibility in academic research
- Improving equity in faculty hiring (MBoC)
-
ShutDownSTEM
- Peptide protects skin from microbial damage (AAC)
- Agr phase variants in S. aureus (mBio)
- S. aureus quorum sensing system (BMC Res Notes)
- COVID-19 joins pandemic legion (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiM team explains how breathing can transmit SARS-CoV-2, and how lack of breathing leads to loss of mitochondria in a multicellular parasitic animal.
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Links for this episode:
- Reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (Science)
- Why social distancing is important (NY Times)
- Parasite without mitochondria (PNAS)
- Letters read on TWiM 218
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team explains an experimental vaccine to prevent E. coli urinary tract infections, and the remarkable three-way symbiosis of narnaviruses, bacteria, and fungi.
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Links for this episode * Developing a vaccine for UTI (mBio) * Narnaviruses and bacteria-fungal symbioses (ISME J) * 20% off The Invisible ABCs for TWiM listeners! Use promo code: ABC20 at checkout. * TWiM Listener survey
The TWiM team discuses saliva as more sensitive for SARS-CoV-2 detection in COVID-19 patients than nasopharyngeal swab and how Mycobacterium tuberculosis sulfolipid-1 activates nociceptive neurons and induces cough.
Links for this episode:
- Preventing the next pandemic (NY Times)
- COVID-19 treatment guidelines (NIH)
- Saliva sensitive for SARS-CoV-2 detection (medRxiv)
- A mycobacterial molecule provokes cough (Cell)
- Letters read on TWiM 216
- 20% off The Invisible ABCs for TWiM listeners! Use promo code: ABC20 at checkout.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
A ferret model for infection by SARS-CoV-2, and how Neolithization lead to emergence of a human bacterial pathogen.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
Links for this episode:
- Infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets (Cell Host Micr)
- Neolithization led to emergence of Salmonella enterica (Nat Ecol Evol)
- Arnold Demain (Wikipedia)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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Vincent, Elio and Michael reveal the ASM COVID-19 summit, and how Salmonella injects a protein into the cell to drive suppression of the immune response.
- ASM COVID-19 Summit
- Value of SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing (mBio)
- How SARS-CoV-2 is changing (nextstrain)
- Contribute to COVID-19 data
- Salmonella effector suppresses inflammation (Cell Host Micr)
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Vincent, Elio and Michael discuss the stability of human coronaviruses on surfaces and in aerosols, and peptidoglycan production by a mosaic consisting of a bacterium within a bacterium within an insect.
Links for this episode:
- Human coronavirus 229E infectivity on common surfaces (mBio)
- Aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 (medRxiv)
- Peptidoglycan synthesis by a insect-bacteria mosaic (Cell)
- Letters read on TWiM 213
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiM team reviews the coronavirus outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, and the finding that an IRF deficiency underlies Whipple’s disease.
- 2019-nCoV case tracking (JHU)
- Clinical features of infection with 2019-nCoV (Lancet)
- Early transmission dynamics of 2019-nCoV (NEJM)
- Isolation of 2019-nCoV (NEJM)
- TLR4 defect in Whipple’s disease (eLife)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The Fellowship of the TWiM reveal that colorectal cancer-associated microbiota are associated with higher numbers of methylated genes in colonic mucosa, and identification of metabolites needed by the fire blight disease bacterium for virulence in apples.
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Links for this episode:
- Colorectal cancer and the gut microbiome (PNAS)
- Fire blight (YouTube)
- Fire blight spreads north (NY Times)
- E. amylovora auxotrophs (Appl Environ Micro)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The Microbial Comrades present the oldest osteosynthesis in history, and how a small molecule produced by stressed bacteria is a warning signal that repels healthy populations to promote their survival.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
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Links for this episode * P. aeruginosa PQS repels bacteria(J Bact) * PQS signaling(J Bact) * Letters read on TWiM 210 * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reveals how ribosome modification resuscitates bacterial persister cells, and explain how a phage tail fiber protein exploits rotation of flagella to move towards the cell membrane.
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Links for this episode:
- Ribosome modification resuscitates persister cells (Environ Micro)
- Flagellotrophic phage targets host with tail fiber (Mol Micro)
- Hydrodynamics of phage migration along flagella (Phys Rev Fluids)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
Guests: Deanna Beatty, Mark Hay, Gina Lewin, Frank Stewart, and Marvin Whiteley
At Georgia Tech, members and trainees of the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection discuss the identification of pathogen essential genes during coinfections, and how coral management can improve coral defenses against pathogens.
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Links for this episode:
- Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection
- Pathogen essential genes during coinfection (PNAS)
- Managing coral protects from pathogens (Sci Adv)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
From ASM Microbe 2019 in San Francisco, Vincent speaks with Victoria McGovern, Carl Nathan, and Dan Portnoy about advancing human health through innovative collaborations.
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Victoria McGovern, Carl Nathan, and Dan Portnoy
Links for this episode:
- Getting grants (Virulence)
- Nitric oxide synthase protects against tuberculosis (PNAS)
- Actin filaments and Listeria monocytogenes (J Cell Biol)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiM holobionts pay tribute to Stuart Levy, and reveal the remarkably diverse array of cyclic nucleotides synthesized by bacteria that likely mediate interactions with animal and plant hosts.
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Links for this episode:
- Stuart Levy, Antibiotic Resistance Researcher, Dies
- Resistance fighter (The Scientist)
- Stuart Levy on TWiM 16
- Stuart Levy on Meet the Scientist episode 17
- Segregation of R factors (Nature)
- Infectious drug resistance (Sci Am)
- Spread of antibiotic resistance chickens to humans (Nature)
- Costs of antimicrobial resistance (Clin Inf Dis)
- Bacteria synthesize diverse nucleotide signals (Nature)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The tetracoccal TWiM team visits Tardigrades on the Moon, and the twelve year quest to isolate an archaeon that provides insights into the emergence of the first eukaryotic cell.
Links for this episode:
- Tardigrades on the moon (Mashable)
- Meet the Tardigrade (WaPo)
- Archaeon at prokaryote-eukaryote interface (bioRxiv)
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Nicholas Arpaia and Tal Danino
Vincent meets up with Nick and Tal to explain how they engineered E. coli to lyse within tumors and deliver an antibody that causes tumor regression in mice.
Links for this episode:
- Programmable bacteria induce tumor immunity (Nat Med)
- Synchronized cycles of bacterial lysis (Nature)
- TWiM Listener survey
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reveals thousands of small novel genes in the human microbiome, and a mutualistic symbiosis between marine protists covered with magnetosome-containing bacteria.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
Links for this episode * Thousands of small novel genesin human microbiome (Cell) * A magnetotactic consortiumunder the sea (Nat Micro) * Image credit * Letters readon TWiM 203
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson and Michael Schmidt
Guest: Julie Wolf
Julie joins the TWiM team to reveal how microbiome and gut anatomy of a wood-feeding beetle promotes lignocellulose deconstruction, and bacteria that degrade PET plastic.
- How wood-feeding beetles deconstruct lignocellulose (PNAS)
- Meet the Microbiologist hosted by Julie Wolf
- Bacteria that degrade PET plastic (Micr Res Ann)
- Microbiology resource of the month (ASM)
- Morgan Vague’s TED talk
- Pacific garbage patch (Pacific Beach Coal)
- NOAA marine debris program
- National Geographic’s Planet or Plastic Campaign
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 202
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Mark Martin joins Vincent and Michael to present compelling papers suitable for teaching microbiology to undergraduate students.
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Links for this episode:
- Paradigm shifts, paradigm drifts (pdf)
- Introducing THOR (mBio)
- Engineering bacteriophages to treat mycobacterial infection (Nat Med)
- Biofilms by Colter (Int Microbiol)
- Life in a world without microbes (PLoS Biol)
- Reduction of cholera in Bangladeshi villages (PNAS)
- Placenta goes viral (PLoS Biol)
-
OMG (jpg)
-
OMG illustration by Sarah Adkins
- Microbe-Biologist button (jpg)
- Microbial Centricity button (jpg)
- Microbial Eyes button (jpg)
- Micronauts button (jpg)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Vincent, Michele, and Michael travel to San Diego to reminisce with Elio about his career, his work in microbiology, and his love for microbes and mushrooms.
VIDEO VERSION AVAILABLE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Menlo1YvPko
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Links for this episode * Elio’s profile * Elio’s memoirs * Elio’s first paper, 1952 (J Bact) * In the Company of Mushrooms * Small Things Considered * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
From ASM Microbe 2019, the Microbials meet up with Susanna L. Harris and Alex Politis to talk about mental health in graduate school and NIH peer review.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swansonand Michael Schmidt
Guests: Susanna L. Harrisand Alex Politis
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Links for this episode * PhD Balance * Susanna’s video(Vimeo) * NIH Center for Scientific Review * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team presents an extracellular bacterium associated with Paramecium, and induction of antiviral immunity by a bacteriophage that prevents bacterial clearance.
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- Bacteria on the outside of paramecia (ISME)
- Phage trigger antiviral immunity (Science)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 198
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The Microbials reveal how a chemosynthetic symbiont stores energy for its marine flatworm host, and extraction of nutrients from host cells by E. coli injectisome components.
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Links for this episode:
- Take the TWiM listener survey
- Bacteria store energy for gutless worms (PNAS)
- Paracatenula on TWiM #21
- E. coli extracts nutrients from host cells (Cell)
- Image credit
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The Microbials discuss how ambrosia beetles utilize ethanol to farm fungi, and how cleaved cochlin protein sequesters bacteria in the inner ear to preserve hearing function.
Links for this episode:
- Ambrosia beetles, ethanol, and farmed fungi (PNAS)
- Cleaved cochlin protects the inner ear (Cell Host Microbe)
- Importance of flossing (ADA)
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Michael and Vincent discuss the finding of immunity to Cas9 protein in humans, and a potential role for an oral bacterium in Alzheimer’s disease.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Immunity to Cas9 protein in humans (Nat Med) * P. gingivalis and Alzheimer’s disease (Science) * Clinical trial of COR388 in AD patients (clinicaltrials.gov) * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter
How a bacterium helps dengue virus replicate in the mosquito gut, and minicells as a damage disposal mechanism in E. coli.
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Links:
- Please take the TWiM listener survey
- Bacteria help dengue virus in mosquito gut (Cell Host Micr)
- Fungus helps dengue virus in mosquito gut (TWiV 479)
- Minicells for disposal of damaged goods (mSphere)
- TWiM Listener survey
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The TWiM team explore how Lactobacillus reuteri can rescue social deficits in three mouse models of autism spectrum disorder, and the role of Salmonella persisters in undermining host defenses during antibiotic treatment.
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- Please take the
- TWiM listener surveyBacteria alter behavior in mouse autism models (Neuron)
- Mice behaving badly (TWiM 131)
- Salmonella persisters undermine host immune defenses (Science)
- Persister cells (Ann Rev Microbiol)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiM team reveals an extremely low rate of mutation in a 2500 year old, 185 acre fungus in Michigan, and how a host-produced quorum sensing autoinducer controls the phage switch between lysis and lysogeny.
- Please take the TWiM listener survey
- Vote for NJ State Microbe
- Huge fungus is 2500 years old (Proc Roy Soc B)
- Humongous fungus (Wikipedia)
- Host-produced autoinducer controls phage (Cell)
- These bacteria are bugged (virology blog)
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode * Please take the TWiM listener survey * Vote for NJ State Microbe * Huge fungus is 2500 years old (Proc Roy Soc B) * Humongous fungus (Wikipedia) * Host-produced autoinducer controls phage (Cell) * These bacteria are bugged (virology blog)L
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reveals the oldest human plague from 4,900 years ago in Sweden, and engineering E. coli to become an endosymbiont in yeast, modeling the evolution of mitochondria.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode * Oldest human plague from 4,900 years ago (PNAS) * Engineering yeast endosymbionts (PNAS) * Letters read on TWiM 191 * TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to "mailto:twim@microbe.tv">twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM-opods consider two stories about exosomes, vesicles that are shed from cells: those that eliminate airway pathogens, and those from the plants we eat that shape our gut microbiome.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- Exosome swarms eliminate airway pathogens (J Aller Clin Immunol)
- Exosome release from Bacteria, Eukaryotes, Archaea (Infect Immun)
- Plant exosomes shape gut microbiome (Cell Host Microbe)
- Image credit
- Subscribe to MicrobeTV on YouTube
- TWiM Listener survey
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team considers the state of the world’s fungi as revealed by a report from the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, and how Salmonella loses motility to evade host defenses.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson
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Links for this episode:
- Subscribe to MicrobeTV on YouTube
- State of the World’s Fungi 2018
- Salmonella loses motility to avoid inflammasome activation (Cell Rep)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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The TWiM rock stars show how to modify gram-positive antibiotics so they can kill gram-negative cells, and bacteria that have both DNA and RNA in their genome.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt
Links for this episode
- Antibiotics for gram-positives that kill gram-negatives (J Med Chem)
- Sideromycin commentary (Am Council Sci Health)
- Bacterial genome with DNA and RNA (J Am Chem Soc)
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
The TWiM people reveal that phages must cooperate to overcome CRISPR-Cas defenses, and the effect of the herbicide glyphosate on the gut microbiome of honey bees.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode:
- Phages Cooperate to Overcome CRISPR-Cas Immunity (Cell)
- Glyphosate perturbs gut microbiota of honey bees (PNAS)
- Letters read on TWiM 187
The TWiM team describe the involvement of a microbiome in snail metamorphosis, and using Listeria to kill tumors.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.
Become a Patron of TWiM!
Links for this episode
- Infectious diseases after Florence (Med Inf Dis)
- Cryptic niche switching in gastropod (Proc Roy Soc B)
- Metamorphosis then no eating (NY Times)
- Listeria promotes tumor rejection (PNAS)
- Image credit
- LADD pathway (jpg)
- LADD (Aduro Biotech)
- Crawling cells and comet tails (YouTube)
- Letters read on TWiM 168
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team considers the increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols, and how the study of DNA in ancient dung reveals the diet and parasite burden of extinct New Zealand birds.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Episode Links:
- Hand sanitizer alert (Emerg Inf Dis)
- Bacteria becoming hand sanitizer tolerant (NPR)
- Increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols (Sci Transl Med)
- Coprolites and the Moa (PNAS)
- After Hurricane Florence, Significant Worry Over Infectious Diseases
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Sam Sternberg discusses his work on exploring and exploiting CRISPR-Cas immune systems, beginning as a graduate student with Jennifer Doudna, at a biotech start-up, and in his laboratory at Columbia University.
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Sam Sternberg
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Links for this episode * Sternberg Laboratory at Columbia * Mechanism of substrate selection by Cas9 (RNA) * DNA interrogation by Cas9 (Nature) * Conformational control of DNA target cleavage by Cas9 (Nature) * A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg * What if we could rewrite the human genome? (YouTube) * Sam Sternberg
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiMpeeps discuss two symbioses: a parasitoid bacterium of a heterotrophic protist, and fungal parasites in cicadas.
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Links for this episode:
- Parasitoid bacterium of protist (bioRxiv)
- Fungal symbiont recruitment in cicadas (PNAS)
- Fly by virus (TWiEVO 33)
- The Atlantic “How to Tame a Zombie Fungus” by Ed Yong
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 183
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM hosts reveal how to test antimicrobial susceptibility in less than 30 minutes, and a carbonate-sensitive phytotransferrin in diatoms that controls iron uptake.
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Links for this episode:
- Legionnaire’s Disease with Michele Swanson
- Antibiotic susceptibility in less than 30 min (PNAS)
- S. saprophyticus growing in microfluidic chip (movie, PNAS)
- Mother machine (Jun lab)
- E. coli growth in mother machine (YouTube)
- Diatom phytotransferrin (Nature)
- CRISPR tool kit (Nat Commun)
- A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg
- CRISPR/Cas9 for undergrads (BMBE)
- John Oliver on gene editing (YouTube)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 182
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent speaks with John Warhol about state microbes, the Periodic Table of the Microbes, and why microbiology is cooler than astrophysics, but they have better TV shows.
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guest: John Warhol
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- State Microbe (Wikipedia)
- Micro Minutes! (tumblr)
- Warhol Science on Etsy
- Periodic Table of Microbes (Amazon)
- Image credit
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent speaks with Mark O. Martin about microbial centricity, teaching undergraduates microbiology, lux art, painting with glowing bacteria, tardigrades and much more at ASM Microbe 2018.
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Mark O. Martin
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Microbial menagerie
- All creatures great and small
- Carski Award
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TwiModulators discuss aerosolization of bacteria and viruses in an ocean-atmosphere mesocosm, and how the common practice of decontaminating produce with chlorine produces viable but non-culturable pathogens.
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Links for this episode:
- Taxon-specific aerosolization of bacteria and viruses (Nat Commun)
- Chlorine produces viable but non-culturable bacteria (mBio)
- Chlorine washing fails bacteria test (Guardian)
- Foodborne illness in US: Major pathogens (CDC)
- Chlorine dilution calculator (Public Health Toronto)
Multistate foodborne outbreak investigations (CDC)
The TWiM team travels to ASM Microbe 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia to speak with Christina Kellogg about her career and her research on coral microbial ecology.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson
Guest: Christina Kellogg
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Links for this episode:
- Christina Kellogg on twitter
- Coral microbial ecology
- Coral reef ecosystem studies
- Connectivity of vulnerable reefs
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team discuss bacteriophage evolution in a dairy plant, and killing of less fit cells among social microbes.
Hosts:Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode
- A decade of phage evolution (Appl Env Micr)
- Animation of phage infection (Vimeo)
- Double agar assay for phage (Dairy Science)
- Sibling conflict among social bacteria (mBio)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent, Michael and Elio note the passing of Stanley Falkow, give E. coli an archaeal membrane, and show how the microbiome can make worms live longer.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Fecal transplants in the good old days (STC)
- Stanley Falkow, 84
- Loss of an old army buddy (STC)
- Giving E. coli an archaeal membrane (PNAS)
- Microbiome tunes host longevity (Cell)
- Letters read on TWiM 176
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team notes the passing of Allan Campbell, and explains how aminoglycoside antibiotics like neomycin enhance host resistance to viral infection.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode:
- Happy Birthday, Elio! (STC)
- Allan Campbell, 88 (Stanford News)
- Life in Science by Allan Campbell (Bacteriophage)
- Aminoglycosides inhibit viral infection (Nat Micro)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 175
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiMsters explain why untreatable typhoid fever might be on the way, and the evolution of fungal virulence in tropical frogs.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Extensively drug resistant Salmonella typhi (mBio)
- A Gathering Storm (mBio)
- Typhoid vaccine recommendations (CDC)
- Changes in dynamics of frog fungal disease (Science)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The Masters of the Microbiological Universe discuss the humongouest fungus, and a commensal bacterium that protects against skin neoplasia.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
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Links for this episode
- Fertile prototaxites (Proc Royal Soc B)
- The humongousest fungus (STC)
- Commensal Staphylococcus protects against skin cancer (Sci Adv)
- Letters read on TWiM 173
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiMmers discuss culture-independent discovery of malacidin antibiotics, and unfolding of relaxase during bacterial conjugation.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Malacidins from soils (Nat Micro)
- Excellent antibiotic resistance threat report (CDC, pdf)
- Jo Handelsman on Women’s History Month (CBS)
- Unfolding relaxase during bacterial conjugation (J Bact)
- Letters read on TWiM 172
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team explores a stingless bee that requires a fungal steroid to pupate, and colonic biofilms containing tumorigenic bacteria in patients with colorectal polyps.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Bee larvae require fungal steroid to pupate (Sci Rep)
- Biofilm refuge for tumorigenic bacteria (Science)
- Letters read on TWiM 171
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team reveals that spread of plague was likely by human ectoparasites, not rats, and deconstruct a durable, broadly protective protein nanoparticle influenza virus vaccine.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
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Links for this episode
- Ectoparasites and plague (PNAS)
- SIR model for spread of disease (MAA)
- Protein nanoparticle flu vaccines (Nat Commun)
- Food washing (USDA)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 170
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The cast of TWiM reveals how uropathogenic E. coli use a copper-binding protein to treat copper as a nutrient or a toxin, and Antarctic soil bacteria that survive on trace atmospheric gases.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
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Links for this episode
- Copper import in E. coli (Nat Chem Biol)
- Conversion of OD to cells/ml for E. coli
- Nutritional immunity with Jennifer Bomberger (TWiM#141)
- Microbes live on atmospheric trace gases in Antarctic soil (Nature)
- Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem (SciHub)
- Hypolith (Wikipedia)
- Breatharians (Broadly)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 169Letters read on TWiM 169
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Dickson joins the TWiM team to discuss the nasal microbiota of dairy farmers, and attenuation of bacterial virulence by quorum sensing in the maize weevil.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Guest: Dickson Despommier
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode:
- Nasal microbiota of dairy farmers (PLoS One)
- Measuring species richness, diversity, similarity (pdf one, pdf two)
- Quorum sensing attenuates virulence (Cell Host Micr)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
How pandemic influenza viruses suppress immunogenic cell death, and 3D printing of bacteria into functional materials.
Vincent and Elio discuss the reason for poor efficacy of one of the influenza virus vaccines, and using a hyperthermophilic anaerobe to produce hydrogen from fruit and vegetable wastes in seawater.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello and Elio Schaechter.
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Links for this episode
- Glycosylation site on influenza H3N2 viruses (PNAS)
- Biohydrogen production by Thermotoga (Waste Man)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 166
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team discusses the use of copper on exercise weights to reduce bacterial burden, and the mechanism of antigenic variation by which a fungus that causes severe pneumonia escapes the immune system.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
Links for this episode:
- Reducing bacteria on exercise weights with copper (Am J Inf Contr)
- Antigenic variation in Pneumocystis jirovecii (mBio)
- Letters read on TWiM 165
From Indiana University, Vincent speaks with Ankur, Julia, and Xindan about their careers and their work on horizontal gene transfer, quorum sensing, and chromosome organization in bacteria.
Guests: Ankur Dalia, Julia Van Kessel, and Xindan Wang
Watch the video version! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGCe-qfnA0
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Links for this episode:
- Dalia laboratory
- Van Kessel laboratory
- Wang laboratory
- Indiana U Dept of Biology
- Vibrio DNA uptake and chitin (Environ Micro)
- Activation of quorum-sensing genes (Mol Micro)
- Structural maintenance of chromosome complexes (Science)
This episode is all about saliva: how certain bacteria survive in it, and how swallowing saliva might cause intestinal inflammation.
Links for this episode:
- Genes for the Streptococcus pyogenes fitness in human saliva (mSphere)
- Swallowed bacteria drive colonic inflammation (Science)
- Intestinal inflammation induced by oral bacteria (Science)
- Human oral microbiome (J Bact)
- T cell subsets (Nat Rev Imm)
- Image credit
The TWiM hosts and associated microbiomes review a fungus destroying salamanders in Europe, and genes for flagella in intracellular bacteria.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- Fungus killing fire salamanders (Nature)
- Chlamydia with flagella (ISME J)
- Flagellar movement in rickettsia (PLoS One)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 162
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
This episode is brought to you by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department hosts the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to exchange information on the latest and most dynamic developments for countering chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Find out more at http://www.cbdstconference.com
From the TWiM team, a discussion of Hurricane Harvey microbiology, and a bacterial enzyme that induces eukaryotic mating.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- Tainted Houston floodwaters (NYTimes)
- Peter Hotez on TWiP 29
- FAQ: Microbiology of Built Environments, American Academy of Microbiology
- Microbiomes of the Built Environment: A Research Agenda for Indoor Microbiology, Human Health, and Buildings, The National Academies of Sciences
- Eukaryotic mating induced by bacterial enzyme (Cell)
- Image credit: Arielle Woznica
- Nicole King on TWiEVO 11
- Letters read on TWiM 161
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
This episode is brought to you by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department hosts the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to exchange information on the latest and most dynamic developments for countering chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Find out more at http://www.cbdstconference.com
The TWiM team provides an update on Zika virus, and reveals a plasmid on the road to becoming a virus.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- Regional Zika update, Americas (PAHO, WHO)
- FGCU, Zika (TWiV 454)
- CDC Graphic of US zika cases as of May 2017
- Archaeal plasmid travels cell to cell via vesicles (Nature Micro)
- Letters read on TWiM 160
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
This episode is brought to you by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department hosts the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to exchange information on the latest and most dynamic developments for countering chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Find out more at http://www.cbdstconference.com
The TWiM team pays a tribute to Chris Condayan, and investigates the synergy between virus and the innate immune system for clearing bacterial pneumonia by phage therapy.
The TWiM team considers a report on prokaryotic viral DNA in mammalian brain, and how diarrhea is beneficial, by clearing enteric pathogens.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- Prokaryotic viral sequence in the brain (PNAS)
- Diarrhea clears enteric pathogens (Cell Host Microbe)
- Tight junction biology (Turner Laboratory)
- Letters read on TWiM 158
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiMbionts explore the role of bacteria in the genesis of moonmilk, and how ancient host proteins can be used to engineer resistance to virus infection.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Role of Streptomyces in moonmilk (bioRxiv)
- TWiM 51: Cave science with Hazel Barton
- Moonmilk (Wikipedia)
- Ancient proteins for virus resistance (Cell Rep)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 157
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team explains the use of microbial genome mining to identify new drugs, and how a bacterial symbiont protects flies against parasitoid wasps.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- Molecular beacons identify gifted microbes (J Antibiot)
- Defensive symbiosis (PLoS Path)
- Letters read on TWiM 156
- Image
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Michele updates the TWiMers on Legionella in the Flint water supply, and Elio informs us about how horizontally acquired biosynthesis genes boost the physiology of Coxiella burnetii.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Legionella in Flint water (The Scientist)
- Q fever with Robert Heinzen (TWiM Special)
- Horizontally acquired genes boost C. burnetii (Front Cell Inf Micro)
- Image credit
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
At Microbe 2017 in New Orleans, the TWiM team speaks with Arturo Casadevall about his thoughts on the pathogenic potential of a microbe, rigorous science, funding by lottery, and moonshot science.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Watch the video version recorded live at ASM Microbe 2017!
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Pathogenic potential of a microbe (mSphere)
- Rigorous science (mBio)
- Funding by lottery (mBio)
- Moonshot science (mBio)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team ventures into preprint space with an analysis of type VI secretion across human gut microbiomes, and provide insight into urinary tract infection: how bladder exposure to a member of the vaginal microbiota triggers E. coli egress from latent reservoirs.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- ASM Microbe 2017
- TWiM Live from ASM Microbe 2017
- Landscape of type VI secretion (BioRxiv)
- Type VI secretion structure (jpg)
- Activation of dormant E. coli in urinary tract infection (PLoS Path)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiMmers get cozy with symbionts: the bacteria that allow a giant shipworm to oxidize sulfur, and algae that live within salamander cells.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- ASM Microbe 2017
- Chemoautotrophic symbiosis in giant shipworm (PNAS)
- There’s gold in them hills (TWiM 97)
- Vertebrate-algal symbiosis (eLife)
- Letters read on TWiM 152
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiMsters discuss potential new sources of antimicrobial compounds from unusual places: the skin of bats and the intestines of moths.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode
- JMBE science communication issue
- Bat sources of novel antifungals (AEM)
- White nose syndrome in US (jpg)
- White nose syndrome fact sheet (pdf)
- Symbiont-derived antimicrobials (Cell Chem Cell)
- Bacteriocins (Wikipedia)
- Letters read on TWiM 151
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
In recognition of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, Robin Patel speaks with the TWiM team about directing a clinical bacteriology laboratory, and how an observation made by a laboratory technologist lead to the finding that Ureaplasma species can cause a system metabolic disturbance, hyperammonemia.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson
Guest: Robin Patel
Links for this episode:
- National Laboratory Professionals Week
- Mayo Clinic Clinical Microbiology Laboratory
- Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Mayo Clinic
- Murine model of Ureaplasma hyperammonemia (Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis)
- Ureaplasma and human hyperammonemia (Sci Transl Med)
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The TWiM team speaks with Pat Schloss about assigning sequence data to operational taxonomic units, and his experience with mSphere Direct, a new way of submitting papers for publication.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Special guest: Pat Schloss
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Schloss Laboratory
- OptiClust (mSphere)
This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what’s on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent, Elio, and Michael reveal what Neanderthals ate from analysis of DNA in their teeth, and new CRISPR-Cas systems found in the genomes of uncultured microbes.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode
- Ancient DNA in Neanderthal teeth (Nature)
- New CRISPRs from metagenomics (Nature)
- CRISPR/cas explained (Wikipedia)
- ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 148
This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what’s on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM hosts reveal why phosphorus is essential for fungal brain disease, and how bacteria kill local competitors to favor the evolution of public goods cooperation.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Links for this episode * Phosphate needed for Cryptococcus brain disease (mSphere) * Type VI killing drives phase separation (Nat Rep) * Type VI secretion review (Phil Trans Roy Soc) * Microbial cooperation and conflict (TedX) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 147
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This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what’s on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free with your first purchase – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent, Elio and Michael discuss the finding of a prion in bacteria, and how communication between bacteria guides the decision between lysis and lysogeny.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
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Links for this episode * ASM 2017 Election is Open! VOTE HERE * Prions in bacteria (Science) * Communication guides lysis-lysogeny decisions (Nature)
This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what’s on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guest: Robert Heinzen
At the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana, Vincent speaks with Robert Heinzen about the work of his laboratory on Q fever and its causative microbe, Coxiella burneti.
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Links for this episode * Rocky Mountain Laboratory * Heinzen Laboratory * Small town, big science (TWiM 140)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent meets up with Catharine Bosio, Michael Merchlinsky, and Shilpa Gadwal at the ASM Biothreats meeting to talk about careers for scientists outside of the ivory tower.
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Links for this episode:
- ASM Biothreats 2017
- Rocky Mountain Laboratory
- BARDA
The TWiMers discuss how changes in domestic laundering affect the removal of microorganisms, and assembly of a nucleus-like structure during viral replication in bacteria.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Become a patron of TWiM.
Links for this episode * Laundry hygiene (J Appl Micro) * Nucleus-like structure in infected bacteria (Science) * Video of nucleus assembly in bacteria (YouTube) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 144
This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what’s on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim
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Vincent, Michael, and Michele explain the use of an electrochemical gradient to eliminate bacterial biofilms, and how phage susceptibility can be transferred by exchange of receptor proteins.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Right click to download TWiM#143 (32 MB .mp3, 66 minutes).
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Links for this episode
- Electrochemical scaffold to eliminate persistent biofilms (npj Biofilms Microbiomes)
- Experimental setup for electrochemical treatment of biofilm (pdf, from article)
- Acquisition of phage sensitivity by transfer of cell receptors (Cell)
- Image credit
- Letters read on TWiM 143
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
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Vincent, Elio and Michele wind up a year of microbial podcasts with a story about the lack of resistance to a crop antifungal compound, and how a bacterium uses a molecular caliper to measure membrane thickness.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Phenylpyrroles: Nearly no resistance (Front Micro) * Membrane-thickness caliper (J Bact) * Letters read on TWiM 142
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
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Jennifer joins Vincent, Elio, and Michael to talk about the work of her laboratory on how a respiratory virus enhances bacterial growth by dysregulating nutritional immunity.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt.
Guest: Jennifer Bomberger
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Virus dysregulation of nutritional immunity (PNAS) * Podcast article mentioned by Michael * Compromised defenses (PLoS Path)
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
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Host: Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Marie Antonioli, Bryan Hansen, Forrest Jessop, Kyle Shifflet and Jim Striebel
At the Hamilton, Montana Performing Arts Center, Vincent speaks with three local high school graduates and two high school teachers about how Rocky Mountain Laboratories influenced school science programs and opened up career opportunities.
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Links for this episode * Poster of this event (jpg) * Rocky Mountain Laboratories * Hamilton, MT high school * Video of this episode on YouTube
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team discusses microbial DNA found on ATM machines in New York City, and how hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, alters microbial ecosystems deep in the Earth.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Microbial DNA on ATM machines in NYC (mSphere) * NYC OpenData * Altering deep microbial ecosystems by fracking (Nat Micro) * Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory * Chemicals used for fracking (FracFocus) * Marcellus and Utica shale formation map * Consequences of fracking (GasBuddy) * Image credit
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
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Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team brings you a bacterium from a Colorado field site that grows on uranium, and copper resistance in the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.
Hosts:
Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Kavli Microbiome Ideas Challenge * Uranium-respiring bacterium from a field site (PLoS One) * Acid mine drainage (Wikipedia) * Copper resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii * ASM Grant Writing Online Course * TWiM #132: Bacteria learn long division * Image credit
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
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Highlights of the Recent Advances in Microbial Control meeting in San Diego, and expansion of a gut pathogen by virulence factors that stimulate aerobic respiration.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Links for this episode * Fred Neidhardt obituary * Recent Advances in Microbial Control * Science hero Bill Fenical * Virulence factors and aerobic respiration (Science) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 137
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Them TWiM team discusses the importance of neutrophils in microbial infections, and evidence that ancient bacteria had two cell walls.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Conquering neutrophils (PLoS Path) * Ancestral outer membrane in firmicutes (eLife ) * Were gram positive rods the first bacteria? (Cell) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 136
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Links for this episode * Dysbiosis of microbiome in critical illness (mSphere) * Consequences of sewage spill into aquatic environment (App Env Mic) * EPA recreational water guidelines (pdf) * VRE following sewage spill (Outbreak Radio) * FAQ: Human microbiome * American gut project * British gut project * Rob Knight on human microbiome (TED) * Rob Knight on TWiM * Image credit * TWiM 135 Letters
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Design of a synchronously lysing bacterium for delivery of anti-tumor molecules in mice, and hopanoids, the lipids that live forever, brought to you by the four Microbies of TWiM.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Bacterial lysis for in vivo delivery (Nature) * Coley’s toxins (Iowa Orthop J) * Hopanoids, stress tolerance, and nutrient storage (Geobiol) * Lipids that last forever (STC) * Fattening up microbial geological biomarkers (STC) * Money spreads infection (Fut Micro)
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Insight into the biology of rhinovirus C from cryo-electron microscopy, and a novel antibiotic from a commensal bacterium that grows in the human nose, from the doctors of TWiM.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Cryo-EM of viruses and vaccine design (PNAS) * Atomic structure of rhinovirus C (PNAS) * Opening windows into the cell (STC) * Human commensals produce novel antibiotic (Nature) * The nose knows (Nature) * Letters read on TWiM 133
Image in audio player: Molecular surface of a Human rhinovirus, showing protein spikes. By: Wiki user: Robin S
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Vincent, Elio, and Michele present cell division by longitudinal scission in an insect symbiont, and thermally activated charge transport in microbial nanowires.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Cell division by longitudinal scission (mBio) * Bacterium learns long division (STC) * Charge transport by microbial nanowires (Sci Rep) * Mechanism of nanowire conductance (Nat Comm) * Using nature to grow batteries (TED) * SEM of Y-shaped S. poulsonii (above) - Image credit * Extracellular electron transport (below) - image credit
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt
Michael and Vincent present Spotlights, brief reviews of classic papers in the Journal of Bacteriology, and explain how a single bacterial species can reverse autism-like social deficits in the offspring of obese mice.
Links for this episode * Protein secretion in E. coli (J Bacteriol) * Plague pathogenesis (J Bacteriol) * Reversal of diet induced social defects (Cell) * Letters read on TWiM 131
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv
Filmed live in Boston, MA at Microbe 2016, David S. Schneider and Vanessa Sperandio talk about their work on regulation of bacterial virulence in the gut by bacterial adrenergic sensors, and the physiological mechanisms that make us ill and that help us recover.
The arrival in the US of plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin antibiotics, a last line of defense against many gram-negative bacilli, and a quorum sensing system in a eukaryote are topics of this episode hosted by Vincent, Michael, and Michele.
Image: Etest used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration of an antibiotic for a particular bacterium.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * E. coli with mcr-1 on a plasmid in the US (AAC) * Emergence of plasmid mediated colistin resistance in China (The Lancet) * Major breach in last line of defense (The Lancet) * Resistance plasmid families in Enterobacteriaceae (AAC) * EUCAST MIC breakpoints (ClinCalc) * Role of ASM in microbial resistance one, two (bLogphase) * Quorum sensing in fungi (Cell Host Microbe) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 129
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
A eukaryote without a mitochondrion, and using a phage enzyme to eliminate intracellular bacteria are two topics discussed by the TWiMers on this episode.
Image (right): An entry in the ASM Agar Art Contest which bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the TWiM hosts.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Copper and Michael Schmidt in the news (The Scientist) * Fair Pay for Postdocs (Huff Post) * National Microbiome Initiative (White House) * The shrinking mitochondrion (The Scientist) * Eukaryote without a mitochondrion (Curr Biol) * Why have organelles retained genomes? (Cell Sys) * Bugs as drugs (Amer Acad Micro) * Phage encoded lysin eliminates intracellular bacteria (eLife)
This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
The TWiM team explores microbes in snowblower vents on the ocean floor, and cleavage of antibody molecules by a Mycoplasma protease.
Image (right): Photograph of the ‘Subway’ snowblower vent on the sea floor at Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge. Visible are white ‘snow’ in the vent and orange floc on the seafloor. Credit: Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility and the University of Washington
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Happy Birthday, Elio! * In the Company of Microbes * Snowblower vents (Front Micro) * Deep-sea snowblower vents video (YouTube) * Visions 11 cruise photos * Mycoplasma capture and cleave IgG (PNAS) * Snowblower image (large) * Letters read on TWiM 127
This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Grant Writing Course
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv
The microbiome of hibernating bears, and zebrafish as a model for bacterial sepsis feature in this animal-centric episode of TWiM hosted by Vincent, Michael, and Michele.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Microbiome of hibernating brown bear and energy metabolism (Cell Rep) * Ten animals that hibernate (Cons Inst) * Zebrafish model of sepsis (mSphere) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 126
This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.
A deep sequencing study of commercially available probiotics, and design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome are the topics tackled by Vincent, Michael, and Michele on this episode of TWiM.
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Links for this episode * Culture-independent surveillance of probiotics (mSphere) * Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome (Science) * J. Craig Venter Institute * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 125
This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.
Vincent, Michael, and Michele reveal how a fungal protease blunts the innate immune response and promotes pathogenicity.
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Links for this episode * Michele on Flint Legionella outbreak (Detroit News) * Fungal mimicry of a mammalian aminopeptidase (Cell Host Micr)
This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
Guest: Harris Wang
Harris joins Vincent, Elio, and Michael to describe multiplex automated genome engineering, a method for targeting many modifications in a population of bacterial cells.
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Links for this episode * MAGE - Multiplex automated genome engineering (Nature) * Genome-scale promoter engineering (Nat Methods) * Manipulating microbial communities in situ (Trends Genet) * Engineering human microbiomes (Meth Mol Biol) * Genome-scale engineering (Mol Syst Biol) * Economic framework of microbial trade (PLoS One) * Tardigrade t-shirt * Image credit
This episode is sponsored by Microbe Magazine Podcast and ASM Microbe 2016
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.
Vincent, Michele, and Michael reveal the discovery of a new species of the spirochaete that causes Lyme disease, and fecal microRNAs that shape the gut microbiome.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode Identification of a novel Borrelia species causing Lyme disease (Lancet Inf Dis)
Parasite wonders with Bobbi Pritt (TWiP 75)
Reported cases of Lyme disease (CDC)
Signs and symptoms of Lyme disease (CDC)
Multilocus sequence typing
Borrelia MLST database
American Academy of Microbiology FAQ Human microbiome
Host fecal microRNA shapes gut microbiota (Cell)
Image credit
C.U.R.E. the game
Live Tiny, Die Never - Tardigrade T-shirt
This episode is sponsored by Microbe Magazine Podcast and ASM Microbe 2016
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Host: Vincent Racaniello
Special guests: Rebekah Kading and Wyndham Lathem
From the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research meeting, Vincent speaks with Rebekah and Wyndham about their work on Rift Valley Fever virus and other vector-borne pathogens, and the evolution and pathogenesis of Yersinia pestis, the agent of plague.
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Links for this episode * Rift Valley fever virus risk (Emerg Micr Inf) * Predicting Rift Valley fever virus transmission (PLoS NTD) * Culex in New York City (BioOne) * Early emergence of Y. pestis (Nature Comm) * Pneumonic plague (Trends Micro)
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Elio Schaechter.
Vincent and Elio marvel in the finding that a phage tail-like structure from a marine bacterium stimulates tubeworm metamorphosis, and reveal Ophidiomyces as a cause of snake fungal disease.
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Links for this episode * Tubeworm metamorphosis by phage tail-like structures (Science) * Cell enzyme becomes viral capsid protein (virology blog) * Snake fungal disease in the laboratory (mBioi) * Snake fungal disease in cottonmouths (PLoS Biol) * Snake fungal disease (pdf) * Image credit
This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Institute Online Webinar and 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
The microbophiles investigate the ratio of bacterial to human cells in our bodies, and how placing solar panels on a bacterium enables it to carry out photosynthesis.
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Links for this episode * Revised estimates of human and bacterial cells in the body (biorxiv) * Power of ten (Small Things Considered) * Solar-to-chemical production in bacteria (Science) * Letters read on TWiM 119
This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Institute Online Webinar and 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.
Thumbnail image: Cell structure of a gram positive bacterium. This vector image is completely made by Ali Zifan - Own work; used information from Biology 10e Textbook (chapter 4, Pg: 63) by: Peter Raven, Kenneth Mason, Jonathan Losos, Susan Singer · McGraw-Hill Education.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson
On the last episode for 2015, Vincent, Elio, and Michele discuss how soil amoeba hunt nematodes in packs, and the role of mushrooms as rainmakers.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Pack hunting by a common soil amoeba on nematodes (Environ Micro) * Mushrooms as rainmakers (PLoS One) * Mushroom by Nicholas Money * In the Company of Mushrooms by Elio Schaechter * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 118
This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe 2016 and ASM Biodefense
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.
The TWiM team marvels over the finding of a completely nitrifying Nitrospira, and horizontal gene transfer from Wolbachia into an animal genome.
Links for this episode:
- Complete nitrification by Nitrospira bacteria (Nature one, two)
- Enigmatic comammox (PhysOrg)
- Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Ann Rev Micro)
- Tardigrade controversy (SciAlert)
- Horizontal gene transfer from Wolbachia to grasshopper (PeerJ)
- Thumbnail Image (nitrogen cycle) credit
- Letters read on TWiM 117
This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe 2016 and ASM Biodefense
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson
The TWiMeriti reveal a Brazilian social bee that must cultivate a fungus to survive, and diet-mediated reduction in gut colonization by Candida albicans.
Links for this episode * Bee cultivates fungus to survive (Curr Biol) * Diet reduces C. albicans gut colonization (mSphere) * mSphere, a new open-access ASM journal * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 116
This episode is sponsored by ASM Biodefense and the 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium.
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.
Vincent visits the laboratories of Kit and Joseph Pogliano on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, where he learns about their work on the bacterial cytoskeleton, sporulation, and the effects of antibiotics on bacterial cells.
Visit microbeworld.org/twim for complete shownotes including the special video version of this episode. Thanks for listening and watching!
Vincent, Elio, and Michele meet with Harry Mobley, Mary O’Riordan, and Vince Young at the University of Michigan, during the designation of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They discuss how the laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss faculty work on uropathogenic E. coli, induction of stress by bacterial infection, and the gut microbiome.
Visit microbeworld.org/twim for more including the special video version of this episode.
Vincent meets up with Romney and Duncan at the 79th annual meeting of the Southern California branch of the American Society for Microbiology, where they talk about emerging technologies for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and next generation sequencing and advanced molecular diagnostics.
Visit microbeworld.org/twim to watch the video version and for complete shownotes including links mentioned.
The TWiM team wonders why definitions in biology often change, and discuss how the small molecule terrein is important for the growth of a soil fungus.
Image: Lesion formation on banana surfaces infected with Aspergillus terreus. Source
Links mentioned:
- ASM Undergraduate Research Capstone Program
- ASM Undergraduate Fellowship Program
- Regulation of terrein production in Aspergillus terreus
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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.
The TWiMitos discuss the reconstruction of a 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy, and using gallium as an antimicrobial in the battle for iron.
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Links for this episode * 1,000 year old antimicrobial (mBio) * Siderophore quenching with gallium (Evol Med Pub Health) * Evolutionary dynamics of public goods (J Evol Biol) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 111
Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
The TWiM team focuses on the gut microbiome, from a single member, Akkermansia muciniphila, to the effect of antibiotics on its composition and colonization resistance against C. difficile.
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Links for this episode Agar art contest
Akkermansia muciniphilia and obesity (Gut)
A. muciniphilia genome (Biol Direct)
Alterations of gut microbiota and C. difficile colonization (mBio)
Science Delivered
Girls Who Code
F.E.M.M.E.S.
Association for Women in Science
UMich Host-Microbiome Initiative
UMich anaerobic chamber room (png)
The TWiM cohort discusses the use of antimicrobial peptides to target specific bacteria in the microbiome, and how the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia selectively kills male hosts.
Links for this episode:
- Antimicrobial peptides to modulate microbial ecology (PNAS)
- Targeting specific bacteria in the oral microbiome (Trends Micro)
- How Wolbachiakills male hosts (PLoS Biol)
- Wolbachia phage on TWiV 332
Image: Transmission electron micrograph of Wolbachia within an insect cell.
By: Scott O'Neill - Genome Sequence of the Intracellular Bacterium Wolbachia. PLoS Biol 2/3/2004: e76.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
The professors of TWiM discuss a University of Wisconsin plan for rescuing biomedical research in the US, and results of a clinical trial in Bangladesh of an oral cholera vaccine.
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Links for this episode * Rescuing biomedical research (eLife) * Rethinking graduate and postdoc education (iBiology) * Oral cholera vaccine trial (Lancet) * Inexpensive cholera vaccine (NYTimes) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 108
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt.
Vincent and Michael discuss the highly diverse microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians, and how the composition of human urine plays a role in the battle for iron.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians (Sci Adv) * Urinary composition controls siderocalin activity (J Biol Chem) * Urine acidity and UTI susceptibility (Infect Cont Today) * Image (from pdb file 3cmp) shows siderocalin (magenta) complexed * with iron (orange) and enterobactin (sticks)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Vincent and Michael speak with Katy Bosio about her research on pathogenesis, immunity, and vaccines against Franciscella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia.
The TWiM team reviews the microbiological safety of herbs in the United Kingdom, and how a peptide from the milkweek bug binds the ribosome and inhibits bacterial protein synthesis.
Links for this episode:
- Microbes in whole-leaf herbs (J Appl Micro)
- Antimicrobial peptide blocks ribosome (Nat Struct Mol Biol)
- Bacterial protein synthesis (Micro Mol Biol Rev)
- Antimicrobial peptides (Nature)
- The battle for tryptophan (Front Cell Infect Micro)
- Image credit
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
The TWiM team discusses how measles vaccination protects against other infectious diseases, and links between bacterial biofilms and colon cancer.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode Measles vaccination prevents all-cause infectious disease (Science)
Master of contagion (The Loom)
Video: Measles incidence to immunomodulation (Science)
FAQ: Adult vaccines
Metabolism links biofilms and colon cancer (Cell Metab)
Scripps Center for Metabolomics
Scripps metabolite database
Image credit
Sponsors for this episode: SciMedSolutions, ICAAC-ICC
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
The TWiM team is amazed by the ocelloid, and an evolutionary battle for iron between mammalian transferrin and bacterial transferrin-binding protein.
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Links for this episode * A unicellular camera-type eye structure (PLoS One) * Escape from iron piracy (Science) * Iron in infection and immunity (Cell Host Micr) * Nutritional immunity (Nat Rev Micro) * Evolutionary Path (Matthew Barber) * Image credit: Janet Iwasa * Sponsors for this episode: SciMedSolutions, ICAAC-ICC
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
The TWiM team discusses evidence that serotonin synthesis is regulated by spore-forming members of the gut microbiota.
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Links for this episode * When antibiotic resistance in vitro falls short (STC) * Gut microbiota control serotonin in mice (Cell) * Serotonin biosynthesis (Wikipedia) * Microbial endocrinology (STC) * Image credit * Sponsors for this episode: SciMedSolutions, Jmbe.asm.org, ICAAC-ICC
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Image: Serotonin temporary tattoo by flickr user: ChezShawna
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
The TWiMers discuss how aroma helps disperse yeast cells on insect vectors, and evidence that MRSA is transmitted within households.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Aroma promotes yeast dispersal on flies (Cell Rep) * MRSA is transmitted within households (mBio) * FAQ: The threat of MRSA (AAM) * Image credit * Letters read on TWiM 101
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Jo Handelsman.
The TWiM team celebrates 100 episodes with a Talmudic question, and discussion of how a single mutation alters bacterial host tropism.
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Links for this episode * A single mutation alters bacterial tropism (Nat Gen) * Talmudic question #104 (Small Things Considered) * Principles of Microbial Diversity (ASM Press) * Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education * Letters read on TWiM 100
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Image: Yellow colonies of S. aureus on a blood agar plate, note regions of clearing around colonies caused by lysis of red cells in the agar By: HansN. on wikimedia. From the study (Nat Gen) "...only a single naturally occurring nucleotide mutation was required and sufficient to convert a human-specific S. aureus strain into one that could infect rabbits."
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello
Guests: Maria Julia Marinissen, Edward H. You, and David R. Howell
Vincent meets up with Maria, Edward, and David at the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research meeting to talk about alternative careers for scientists.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
A video version of this episode is available at microbeworld.org/twim Links for this episode: * ASM Biodefense meeting * FBI Biological Countermeasures Unit * Office of Policy and Planning * Division of Medical Countermeasures Strategy and Requirements * Division of International Health Security
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
The TWiM crew ponders the question of how a bacterium finds its middle when dividing, then divulge the transfer of interbacterial antagonism genes to eukaryotes, where they may function in innate defense.
Links for this episode:
- Size independent symmetric division (Nat Commun)
- How does a bacterium find its middle? (Nat Struct Biol)
- Genes transferred from bacteria augment eukaryotic defenses (Cell)
- Antibacterial gene transfer (eLife)
- Letters read on TWiM #98 on TWiM 98
Visit microbeworld.org/twim for complete shownotes and more.
The TWiM team reveal how bacteria in a shipworm’s gills help digest wood in the gut, and an approach that identifies a new antibiotic from the soil.
Links for this episode:
- Gill bacteria enable a novel digestive strategy (PNAS)
- Killing bacteria without resistance (Nature)
- An irresistable newcomer (Nature)
- Peptidoglycan synthesis animation
- 10 x 20 initiative (IDSA)
- Longitude Prize
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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello.
Special guest: Rob Knight
Vincent meets up with Rob Knight to talk about the technology that has fueled his drive to sequence the Earth and its inhabitants.
Check out the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Microbes en masse (Nature) * Obesity alters gut microbial ecology (PNAS) * Sharing microbiome with dogs (eLife) * Earth microbiome project (BMC Biology) * Stability of gut micobiota (Science) * Gut microbes and the brain (J Neurosci)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello.
Special guest: Stanley Maloy
Vincent meets up with Stan Maloy on the campus of San Diego State University to talk about his career in microbiology and his work as Dean of Science.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app. Links for this episode: * Maloy lab * Salmonella.org * Microbial genetics course page * Typhoid Mary
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss a symbiosis between a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria and a single-celled eukaryotic alga.
Links for this episode:
- Unicellular cyanobacterium and alga symbiosis (Science)
- Diversity of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium and its host (Environ Micro)
- Talmudic Question #4 (answer)
- Talmudic Question #2
- Coccolithophore (Wikipedia)
Visit microbeworld.org/twim to view the complete shownotes and entire back catalog.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael reveal that a soil-dwelling nematode can recognize and respond to a bacterial quorum sensing molecule through a sensory neuron.
Vincent, Elio, Michael and Michele discuss the possible eradication of wild poliovirus type 3, and how microsporidian parasites prevent locust swarming behavior.
Vincent, Elio, and Michele review a study of the viruses and bacteria in commensal rats in New York City.
Visit microbeworld.org/twim for complete show notes. Thanks for listening!
Vincent meets up with Laurene and David at the Annual Meeting of the Southern California Branch of the American Society for Microbiology, where they discuss how the Los Angeles County Department of Health is preparing for an outbreak of Ebola virus infection, and Cepheid’s game-changing, modular PCR system for the diagnosis of infectious diseases.
Vincent, Michele, and Michael discuss how a gene from bacteria protects a tick from plant cyanide poisoning, and enhanced transmission of Streptococcus pneumoniae by influenza virus co-infection in mice.
Michele speaks with members of the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, on the occasion of its designation as a Milestones in Microbiology site, where they discuss how the department has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael explore the fossilization of archaeal lipids, and highlight the recent ICAAC in Washington, D.C.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele consider whether our eating behavior is manipulated by gastrointestinal microbiota, and an aphid gene of bacterial origin whose gene product encodes a protein that is transported to an obligate endosymbiont.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * National Biosafety Stewardship month * Aphid gene of bacterial origin (Curr Biol) * Eroding symbiont/organelle distinction (Curr Biol) * Is our eating manipulated by our microbiota? (Bioessays) * Road to microbial endocrinology (STC) * Microbial endocrinology (STC) * Letters read on TWiM 86
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele discuss the diel transcriptional rythmns of bacterioplankton communities in the ocean, and extensively drug resistant Pseudomonas in Ohio.
In Melbourne, Australia Vincent speaks with David, Melanie, and Adam about their work on group A Streptococcus, Helicobacter pylori, and infections of Koalas with Chlamydia.
Vincent, Michael, Elio and Michele review a new fluorogenic diagnostic test for tuberculosis bacteria, and the role of a metalloprotease in helping a fungus invade the central nervous system.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson.
Vincent, Michael, Elio and Michele discuss how an endosymbiont betrays its aphid host to alert plant defenses, and a new immunosuppressive cell that allows infection of neonates.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.
Links for this episode * Endosymbiont protein betrays aphid (PNAS) * Plant immune system (Nature) * Plant defenses against pathogens (Am Phyt Soc) * New neonatal defense against infection (Nature) * Marty Blaser and Bill Maher (YouTube) * Two days from any village (YouTube) * Letters read on TWiM 82
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Vincent, Michael, and Michele discuss how iron might disperse bacterial biofilms in carotid arterial plaques, and controlling Salmonella by modulating host iron homeostasis.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.
Vincent, Elio, and Michele discuss how to synthesize a designer yeast chromosome, and deciphering the genetic changes path that allowed Yersinia pestis to be transmitted by fleas.
Links for this episode: * Total synthesis of a yeast chromosome (Science) * Evolution of Y. pestis to flea-borne transmission (Cell Host Micr) * Proventricular valve (Wikipedia) * Image: flea with Y. pestis proventricular mass * Letters read on TWiM 80
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Vincent, Michael, and Michele review highlights of the 2014 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, MA.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael consider a fungal pathogen of insects that acquired a gene from its host that facilitates infection, and presence of gram-negative nosocomial pathogens on community surfaces near hospitals in Brooklyn.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michelle review how a pathogen promotes plant attractiveness to insect vectors, and activation of sensory neurons that modulate pain and inflammation by bacterial infection.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michelle discuss the use of bacteria to build a genetic sensor for heavy metals, and how host sugars help enteric pathogens to expand after antibiotic treatment.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michelle discuss a symbiosis between a bacterium and fungus that increases the virulence of oral biofilms, and the assembly of amyloid fibers, which are needed for biofilm formation.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss a huge 30,000 year old virus recovered from Siberia, and nested symbiosis facilitated by horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to insect.
Vincent, Michael, and Michele discuss how soil-dwelling bacteria induce the formation of root nodules on legumes via a protein called CYCLOPS.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele review how microbial virulence can be increased as a consequence of community surveillance and adaptation to macrophages.
Vincent, Michael, and Michele explain how the gut microbiome modulates colon tumorigenesis, and regulation of intestinal macrophage function by the microbial metabolite butyrate.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele discuss evidence that the acellular pertussis vaccine fails to prevent infection and transmission in nonhuman primates, and the use of bacterial cytological profiling to identify pathways targeted by antibiotics.
Vincent, Elio, Jo, and Michele review evidence for bacterial DNA integrated into the human genome, and control of the symbiont population in an insect midgut.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele discuss the amazingly high level of intergenera gene exchange among haloarchaea in an Antarctic lake, and the diversity of fungi on residential surfaces and the human forehead.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss how temperature triggers Neisseria menigitidis immune evasion, and protection of mice from ionizing radiation by feeding them black mushrooms.
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele discuss the curious outer membrane vesicles of Neisseria meningitides, and sources of Clostridium difficile infection revealed by genome sequencing.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michelle Swanson.
Vincent and Michelle reveal how the human gut microbiota can modulate obesity in mice.
Links for this episode: * Gut microbiota modulate metabolism (Science) * Fighting obesity with bacteria (Science) * Letters read on TWiM 065
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.
Vincent and Michael recorded this episode at the 53rd ICAAC in Denver, where they spoke with James Gern and James Johnson about rhinoviruses and extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli.
Vincent, Michael, and Michelle discuss how a Staphylococcus aureus superantigen is critical for pathogenesis in a rabbit model, and the relationship of body odor to the axilla microbiome.
Vincent and Michael discuss how infection with influenza A virus disperses Streptococcus pneumoniae biofilms leading to disease, and an amazing protein chainmail in a viral capsid
Vincent, Elio, and Michele review how horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to an insect genome enables a tripartite nested mealybug symbiosis, and how probiotic bacteria work by competing for iron in the intestine.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss how an error-prone reverse transcriptase produces enormous diversity in a Legionella protein, and using microbes to convert waste into bioelectricity and chemicals.
Vincent and Michael discuss the finding that bacteriophage might be part of the mucosal antimicrobial defense system.
Vincent, Elio and Michael review how underground mycelial networks carry signals that warn neighboring plants of aphid attack, and the presence of bacteria in the human brain.
Vincent, Elio and Michael discuss fungi that use pheromones to trap nematodes, and how genes obtained from marine bacteria help gut bacteria degrade algal carbohydrates.
Vincent, Elio and Michael recorded this episode before an audience at the 2013 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Denver, Colorado, where they spoke with Andrew, Ferric, Suzanne, and Michelle about their research on a phage system for evading innate immunity, retractions of research papers, bacterial infections of the eye, and cytoplasmic defenses against intracellular bacteria.
This episode was filmed live at ASM GM 2013 in Denver, CO. Visit www.microbeworld.org/asmlive to watch the full video archive of this episode as well as all the videos recorded during GM.
Vincent, Elio and Michael discuss the finding that copper surfaces reduce microbial burden and hospital-acquired infections in the intensive care unit.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how sex-dependent differences in the mouse microbiome regulate type I diabetes, and counterattack among bacteria.
Vincent, Laura, David, Kalin and Paul get together at the Society for General Microbiology meeting in Manchester, England to talk about next-generation approaches to antimicrobial therapy.
Vincent and Michael meet up with Ellen Jo Baron to talk about working in a clinical microbiology laboratory.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss the HIV co-receptor CCR5 as a receptor for S. aureus leukotoxin ED, and the vineyard yeast microbiome.
Vincent, Michael, and Jo discuss how subtle gender bias of science faculty favors male students, and the relationship of invasive infection and antibody orientation at bacterial surfaces.
Horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes on metal surfaces, and using bacteriophage to reverse antibiotic resistance.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio meet up with Jonathan Dworkin to discuss how bacteria form spores and how they return to vegetative growth.
Vincent, Michael, Elio review innate immune sensing of Listeria secreted bacterial nucleic acids, and how Wolbachia enhances egg production in Drosophila.
Vincent, Michael, Elio discuss the role of prophage excision in exit of Listeria from the phagosome, and analysis of bacterial communities in saliva.
Vincent, Michael, Elio review formation of caveolae in a bacterium, and the limited genetic diversity and broad killing activity of P. acnes bacteriophages.
Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Joe review highlights of the 15th International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections (ISSSI) in Lyon, France.
Vincent and Michael travel to San Francisco for the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), where they meet with Bill, John, and Victor to discuss tuberculosis, monitoring infectious disease outbreaks with online data, and outside-the-box approaches to antibacterial therapy.
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Vincent and Stanley meet with Waclaw Szybalski and John Kirby at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the occasion of its designation as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They reminisce about how the well known laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss John’s work on the soil dwelling, predatory myxobacteria.
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This video is also available for free at www.microbeworld.org in the TWiM section, epsiode #40.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio reviews chapters from Microbes and Evolution, a collection of short, personal essays by microbiologists.
Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio review an outbreak of pertussis in Washington, and how culturing can reveal rare members of the soil biosphere.
Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio discuss two examples of dynamic microbial symbioses that switch between mutualistic and pathogenic states.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio explore the origin of Mycoplasma pathogens of ruminants, and share their thoughts on the recent ASM General Meeting.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio review necrotizing fasciitis, and a link between surface remodeling in gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter
Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss changing populations of Emiliania huxleyi and their viruses in the North and Black Seas.
Right click to download TWiM #34 (50 MB .mp3, 69 minutes).
Links for this episode: * The protist wonderland (Microbe) * Emiliania huxleyi home page * DISCO in the North Sea (FEMS Microbiol Ecol) * 7000 years of Emiliania huxleyi in the Black Sea (Science) * Cheshire cat escape by Emiliania huxleyi (PNAS) * Letters read on TWiM 34
Vincent, Michael, and Ivo review the requirement for segmented, filamentous bacteria for the induction of a specific type of helper T cell in the gut.
Links for this episode: * Induction of Th17 cells by segmented filamentous bacteria (Cell) * Segmented filamentous bacteria take the stage (Nature) * Genome of segmented filamentous bacteria reveals auxotrophy (Cell) * Segmented filamentous bacteria and diabetes protection (PNAS)
Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv ,
Rosie Redfield talks about her evidence that a bacterium cannot grow on arsenic instead of phosphorus.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jo Handelsman, and Michael Schmidt
Vincent, Jo, and Michael discuss an archetypal protein transport system in bacterial outer membranes, and evidence that gut microbial enterotypes might not fall into defined groups.
Links for this episode:
- Discovery of a TAM, a new bacterial protein transport system (Nat Struct Mol Biol)
- Commentary on TAM discovery
- Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome (Nature)
- Gut enterotypes might be less clear-cut (Ed Yong)
- Letters read on TWiM #31
On episode #30 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how a toxin from Burkholderia pseudomallei inhibits protein synthesis, and the role of the gut microbiome in modulating insulin resistance in mice lacking an innate immune sensor.
On episode #29 of the podcast, Vincent and Stanley review how a phage pierces the cell membrane with an iron-loaded spike, and two programmed cell death systems in E. coli.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio review how competition within a host drives virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and the expanding universe of the bacterial cytoskeleton.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how inflammation allows Salmonella to compete with fermenting gut microbes, and a riboswitch in bacterial and Archeal species that is triggered by fluoride.
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss the finding of Sutterella species in the gut of autistic children, and methods for cultivating oral bacteria.
On episode #25 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review bacteria that use the earth’s magnetic field for navigation, and identification of totally drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Vincent, Jo, Elio, and Michael explain how a swarming bacterium helps disperse a non-motile fungus, and bacterial antibiotic tolerance mediated by hydrogen sulfide and starvation responses.
Vincent and Michael speak with Alfred Sacchetti, MD, Chief of Emergency Services at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, about microbial infections encountered in the emergency room.
Vincent and Elio discuss ancient symbiosis between Alphaproteobacteria and catenulid flatworms, and a toxin from Helicobacter pylori that engages the mitochondrial fission machinery to induce host cell death.
On episode #20 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Michael, and Elio follow up on the outbreaks of E. coli in Germany and cholera in Haiti, then discuss genes that confer self-identity to Proteus mirabilis.
Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Jo discuss the genome sequence of Y. pestis from victims of the Black Death, and the effect of diet on gut microbial enterotypes.
Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Stanley explain how to make the human intestinal commensal and benign laboratory bacterium Escherichia coli K-12 into an invasive organism, and the unearthing of century-old spores in New York City.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio focus on endosymbiosis: the rapid spread of Ricekttsia in whitefiles, and a metabolic patchwork in nested symbionts of mealybugs.
On episode #16 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Michael, Arturo, Stuart, and David converse about antimicrobial resistance and why most fungi do not cause disease at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).
On episode #15 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Michael and Jo review the number of species on Earth, evidence that the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak originated in Nepal, and how gut microbiota influence the immune response to influenza virus infection of the lung.
On episode #14 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Stanley, Margaret, Michael and Elio review how the fungus Cryptococcus escapes from macrophages, and electrical conductivity in nanowires formed by the bacterium Geobacter.
On episode #13 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Stanley, Jo, Michael and Elio discuss how colonic microbial ecology and risk for colitis are regulated by an inflammasome, and amelioration of intestinal inflammation in mice by delivery of a probiotic-derived soluble protein to the colon.
Vincent, Margaret, Michael and Elio review the use of photothermal nanoblades to dissect the Burkholderia intracellular life cycle, and manipulation of chromosomes in vivo for genome-wide codon replacement in E. coli.
Vincent, Margaret, Michael and Elio review the presence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase genes in chicken meat and in humans, and a beneficial effect of Helicobacter pylori colonization on the development of allergen-induced asthma.
On episode #10 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Margaret, Elio, Michael and Dickson discuss the symbiosis between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the luminous, gram-negative bacterium Vibrio fischeri.
Vincent, Michael, and Cliff review the outbreak of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in Germany caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O104:H4.
Vincent, Michael, and Stanley recorded TWiM #8 live at the 2011 ASM General Meeting in New Orleans, with guests Andreas Baümler, Nicole Dubilier, and Paul Rainey. They spoke about how pathogens benefit from disease, symbioses between chemosynthetic bacteria and marine invertebrates, and repetitive sequences in bacteria.
Vincent, Cliff, Elio, Margaret, and Michael discuss programmed cell death in E. coli, and the daily synthesis and degradation of enzymes needed for photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria.
Vincent, Cliff, Michael and Elio review the use of bacteriophages to manage infections, and the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in the bacteriophage from urban sewage and river water.
Vincent, Ron, Cliff, and Michael discuss the genome sequence of a mercury-methylating bacterium and the antimicrobial effects of nanoparticles.
Vincent, Cliff, Margaret, and Michael review foodborne bacterial illness in the context of outbreaks associated with cantaloupes and Lebanon bologna.
Vincent, Jo, Cliff, and Ron explore the genome analysis done in support of the Amerithrax investigation, and an insecticidal enterotoxin-deficient mutant of Bacillus thurigiensis.
Vincent, Cliff, and Michael review a fatal laboratory acquired Yersinia pestis infection, and how gut bacteria control body weight and metabolic activity.
On episode #1 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Cliff, Michael, and Stan discuss transfer of DNA from a human host to a bacterial pathogen, and the ability of dry copper to kill bacteria on contact.