This Week in Microbiology

TWiM 320: Rockstars of USAMRIID

November 1, 2024

TWiM travels to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to learn how research conducted at USAMRIID leads to vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and training programs that protect both warfighters and civilians.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

Guests: Norman Kreiselmeir, Christopher K Coat, Keersten Ricks, and Eric Nguyen

Right click to download TWiM #320 (108 MB .mp3, 75 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
Threading the NEIDL (TWiV 200)
Unintentional importation of B. pseudomallei into US (Emerg Inf Dis)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM 319: The dark side of the rumen

October 14, 2024

TWiM explains a project to engineer the cow microbiome to reduce emissions of methane, and the finding of antibiotic resistance genes in the genomes of giant viruses.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

Right click to download TWiM #319 (39 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Engineering the cow for less methane emissions (WaPo)
Precision microbiome editing (Audacious Project)
Giant viruses carry antibiotic resistance genes (Nat Commun)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 318: How to pick a winner

September 28, 2024

TWiM explains how bacterial community structure can be used to predict athletic performance in racehorses, and the idea that a tiny fraction of all species forms most of Nature.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin, and Mark O. Martin

Right click to download TWiM #318 (39 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Microbiome picks a winner (Sci Rep)
Picking a Winner by Reading the Form
Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen Jay Gould
How much does it cost to breed a horse?
Date of birth and purchase price as foals or yearlings and race performance
Rarity as a sticky state (PNAS)
How many species on Earth? (PLoS Biol)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 317: Bat white-nose syndrome

September 14, 2024

TWiM explains unique modifications in the energy conservation pathways linked to methanogenesis in an Archaeon, and mechanisms of white nose fungal invasion of cells from the Little Brown Bat.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin

Right click to download TWiM #317 (39 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Methyl-reducing methanogenesis (Nature)
Pathogenic strategies of Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Science)
Adaptive fungal invasion of bat cells (Science)
Little brown bat (Critter Catalog)
Nature Notes: Little Brown Bat (Harpswell)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 316: Food addiction and the gut microbiome

August 23, 2024

TWiM describes experiments to explore gut microbiota signatures of vulnerability to food addiction in mice and humans, and how a phage tail-like protein suppresses competitors in populations of bacteria of plants.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin

Right click to download TWiM #316 (39 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Gut microbiota and food addiction (Probiotics)
Blautia may have probiotic properties (Gut Microbes)
Blautia wexlerae ameliorates obesity and type 2 diabetes (Nat Commun)
Phage tail–like bacteriocin suppresses competitors (Science)
What is a bacteriocin? (Front Micro)
Talia Karasov on TWiEVO 45

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 315: How Pseudomonas became a global pathogen

August 10, 2024

TWiM explores evolution and host adaptation of Pseudomonas infections of plants, and the impact of COVID-19 on ESBL-producing E. coli on urinary tract and blood infections.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

Right click to download TWiM #315 (39 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Evolution and host adaptation of Pseudomonas (Science)
Type III secretion system, infection by injection (Nat Comm)
Demographic inference with skyline plots (Peer J)
Skyline plots (Taming the Beast)
Panaroo, a bacterial genome analysis pipeline (Wellcome Sanger Inst)
Impact of COVID-19 on ESBL-producing E. coli infections (Antimicro Resist Inf Control)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 314: Microbes sculpt our planet and manage inflammation

July 29, 2024

TWiM explores the deep-dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet, and the use of microbes in bioelectronics to manage inflammation.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin

Right click to download TWiM #314 (39 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Deep-dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet (NY Times)
Living bioelectronics resolve inflammation (Science)
Active biointegrated living electronics for managing inflammation (Science)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 313: Could fungal pathogens outsmart us?

July 14, 2024

From ASM Microbe in Atlanta, Georgia, Arturo joins TWiM to reveal the threats that fungi pose to human health, including the notorious Candida auris and many more.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Mark O. Martin

Guest: Arturo Casadevall

Right click to download TWiM #313 (32 MB .mp3, 44 minutes)

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

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Links for this episode:

Temperate phage-antibiotic synergy (mBio)
Salmonella expansion dependent on aspartate (Cell Host Micr)
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Wiki)
A Genetic Switch by Mark Ptashne
Lysis timing and bacteriophage fitness (Genetics)
HK97 capsid assembly (Ad Exp Med Biol)
Mode of action of fluoroquinolones (Drugs)
Salmonella a foodborne pathogen (CDC)
Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program (HHMI)
Sam Kaplan – 30 years of Microbiology (McGovern Medical School)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 312: Cry havoc! and let slip the phages of healing

June 28, 2024

TWiM explains a new mechanism for preventing lysogeny through temperate phage-antibiotic synergy, and Salmonella expansion in the murine gut dependency on aspartate derived from reactive oxygen species-mediated microbiota lysis.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

Right click to download TWiM #312 (32 MB .mp3, 44 minutes)

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

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode:

Temperate phage-antibiotic synergy (mBio)
Salmonella expansion dependent on aspartate (Cell Host Micr)
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Wiki)
A Genetic Switch by Mark Ptashne
Lysis timing and bacteriophage fitness (Genetics)
HK97 capsid assembly (Ad Exp Med Biol)
Mode of action of fluoroquinolones (Drugs)
Salmonella a foodborne pathogen (CDC)
Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program (HHMI)
Sam Kaplan – 30 years of Microbiology (McGovern Medical School)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM 311: Bacteria, beware of siderophore-antibiotic hybrids

June 14, 2024

TWiM explores the plasticity of the adult human small intestinal stoma microbiota, and survival and rapid resuscitation that permit limited productivity in desert microbial communities.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Michele Swanson

Right click to download TWiM #311 (32 MB .mp3, 44 minutes)

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

Become a Patron of TWiM!