This Week in Microbiology

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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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• 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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• ASMCUE 2023
• Teaching in the time of COVID-19 (J Microbiol Biol Edu)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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)
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Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• 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)
• Oil pulling for improving oral health (Healthcare)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia)
• Dr. Millicent “Mimi” Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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, and Petra Levin

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• 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!

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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, and Petra Levin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• 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!

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiM reveals environmental integrons, bacterial genetic elements notorious for their role in spreading antibiotic resistance, and how Salmonella invasion is controlled by competition among intestinal chemical signals.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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• Environmental integrons (Trends Micro)
• Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution (Nat Rev Micro)
• Rethinking microbial infallibility in the metagenomics era (Fems Micro

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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 and Michael Schmidt. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria.

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• 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!

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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)

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiM explains how magnesium modulates cell division frequency of a soil bacillus, and killing of fungi by Acinetobacter baumannii via a Type VI DNase Effector.

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.

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•Magnesium modulates cell division frequency (J Bacteriol) •A. baumannii kills fungi (mBio)

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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.

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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

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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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• 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!

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 [email protected]

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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• 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!

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 [email protected]

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

• 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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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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• 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!

Music by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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)
• Letters read on TWiM 271

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiM explores the use of Archaea to produce plastics from molasses wastewater, and a bacterial defense against bacteriophage infection that involves depletion of deoxynucleotides.

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• 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!

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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

From ASM Microbe 2022 in Washington, DC, Heran joins TWiM to discuss her career and her work on the agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson Guest: Heran Darwin

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• Honey badger of pathogens (EMBO Rep)
• Pup-proteasome system (PNAS)
• Cytokinin signaling in M. tuberculosis (mBio)
• Bandwagoning (EMBO Rep)
• 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 [email protected]

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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• 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

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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.

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• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

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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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

TWiM explores the role of biofilms in infection by coronaviruses, and development of a Shigella vaccine using outer membrane vesicles derived from Salmonella

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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. 

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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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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.

• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• Black in Microbiology
• Deinococcus DNA damage in space (Front Micro)
• Monthly myco-talks (Uni Exeter)

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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 [email protected]

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

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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 [email protected]

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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Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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 [email protected]

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 Become a patron of TWiM.

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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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 [email protected]

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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

Become a patron of TWiM.

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)

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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

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 [email protected]

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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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)

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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

• 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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

Become a Patron of TWiM!

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

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 [email protected]

Mark Martin joins Vincent and Michael to present compelling papers suitable for teaching microbiology to undergraduate students.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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)

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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• 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 [email protected]

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

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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• 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 [email protected]

The TWiM team presents an extracellular bacterium associated with Paramecium, and induction of antiviral immunity by a bacteriophage that prevents bacterial clearance.

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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• 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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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.

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 [email protected]

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.

• 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 [email protected]

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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Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. 

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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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

• 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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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:[email protected]">[email protected]

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.

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

• 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 [email protected]

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

Take our listener survey. Thanks! asm.org/twimpoll

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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.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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

 Become a Patron of TWiM!

• 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 [email protected]

The TWiMpeeps discuss two symbioses: a parasitoid bacterium of a heterotrophic protist, and fungal parasites in cicadas.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Microbial menagerie

• All creatures great and small

• Carski Award

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

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

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, 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:

• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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.

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

• 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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

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

• 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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the ASM Podcast app.

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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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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