This Week in Evolution

TWiEVO 51: The starting point paradox

January 22, 2020

Nels and Vincent dive deep into evolution and consider how new proteins emerged billions of years ago, when there were no other proteins to serve as starting material.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Primordial emergence of a nucleic acid binding protein (bioRxiv) 7:48
Tawfik laboratory 11:03
Image credit
Letters read on TWiEVO 51 48:08
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:01:10

Nels – Universal principled review
Vincent – Hostile Planet by National Geographic

Listener Pick

Courtney – Nightwish Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Shudder Before The Beautiful

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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TWiEVO 50: I’m dreaming of a Y chromosome

December 23, 2019

Nels and Vincent discuss signatures of sex chromosome evolution revealed by assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome from 3-spined stickleback fish.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome (bioRxiv) 4:30
Image credit
Letters read on TWiEVO 50 1:09:21
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Genome from a 5,700-Year-Old Wad of Chewed Gum
Vincent – NJ Sea-Level Rise Reports

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

TWiEVO 49: A giant podcast on giant viruses

November 29, 2019

Rich joins Nels and Vincent for a debriefing on the 4th Ringberg Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Tegernsee, Germany.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Rich Condit

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Download TWiEVO 49 (68 MB .mp3, 113 min)
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Endless giant virus forms most beautiful (TWiV 575) 12:18
4th Ringberg Giant Virus Meeting Program (pdf) 4:50
Photographs by Matthias Fischer 5:15
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:42:56

Rich – Flightradar24
Nels – Deutsches Museum Munich
Vincent – Diversify Microbiology

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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TWiEVO 48: Flipping out with choanos on caffeine

October 30, 2019

Nels and Vincent reveal a new choanoflagellate that forms multicellular cup shaped colonies that respond to light to alternate between feeding and swimming behavior.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiEVO 48 (57 MB .mp3, 94 min)
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Microbial accomplices in multicellularity (TWiEVO 11) 3:00
Light regulated collective contractility (Science) 2:41
Image credit
Letters read on TWiEVO 48 1:09:29
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:24:00

Nels – How to write a great science paper by Cormac McCarthy
Vincent – Natural Selection Store

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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TWiEVO 47: On the origin of beer species

September 19, 2019

Nels and Vincent trace the origins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains used to make beer, and find that ales and lagers are made with yeasts that were derived from those used to make European grape wine and Asian rice wine.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Origins of beer yeasts (PLoS Biol) 7:48
Chateau Jiahu beer 19:19, 1:24:56
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:21:24

Nels – Population fluctuations in 10 biggest cities
Vincent – 1.7 million year old rhino tooth (original Nature paper)

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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TWiEVO 46: Can an old tumor teach us new tricks?

August 31, 2019

Nels and Vincent analyze the genomes of canine transmissible tumors to provide insight into the worldwide spread of the disease from its origin in a single dog 4000-8500 years ago, and its diversity, mutation, and evolution.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Evolution and mutation of canine transmissible cancer (Science) 9:22
Clam cancers (TWiEVO 17) 10:49
Sixth modality of infectious disease (PLoS Path) 1:00:37
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:21:48

Nels – Vasa Museum in Stockholm
Vincent – Nobel Museum in Stockholm

Listener Pick

Irene – @EndlessForms and #PlantScienceFascinatesMe #plantsday

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TWiEVO 45: Microbial secrets of mouse-ear cress

July 29, 2019

At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Talia Karasov who reveals that in contrast to agriculture, wild plants are colonized by multiple lineages of pathogenic bacteria.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Talia Karasov

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Talia Karasov in the Weigel lab 2:08
Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudomonas (Cell Host Micr) 14:09
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

TWiEVO 44: The enemy of my enemy is my phage

June 27, 2019

At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Paul Turner to talk about evolutionary considerations in using bacteriophages to treat infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Paul Turner

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Download TWiEVO 44 (39 MB .mp3, 65 min)
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Turner Lab at Yale 1:17
Phage therapy: A renewed approach (Cell Host Microbe) 20:57
Phage treatment of aortic graft (Evol Med Pub Health) 33:22, 37:06
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 57:19

Nels – Science Glass

Vincent – Phage therapy for disseminated Mycobacterial infection

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

TWiEVO 43: Social evolution with a side of shrimp

May 25, 2019

Dustin Rubinstein joins Nels and Vincent to discuss coevolution of genome architecture and social behavior, and studying social transitions in sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Dustin Rubinstein

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Download TWiEVO 43 (49 MB .mp3, 81 min)
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Co-evolution of genome architecture and social behavior (Trend Ecol Evol) 22:05, 31:12
Social transitions in snapping shrimp (Curr Op Insect Sci) 49:13, 41:01
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!