This Week in Microbiology

TWiM 132: Bacteria learn long division

August 6, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson

Vincent, Elio, and Michele present cell division by longitudinal scission in an insect symbiont, and thermally activated charge transport in microbial nanowires.

Right click to download TWiM#132 (42 MB .mp3, 57 minutes)

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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 131: Mice behaving badly

July 20, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

Michael and Vincent present Spotlights, brief reviews of classic papers in the Journal of Bacteriology, and explain how a single bacterial species can reverse autism-like social deficits in the offspring of obese mice.

Right click to download TWiM#131 (60 MB .mp3, 82 minutes)

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Links for this episode

Protein secretion in E. coli (J Bacteriol)
Plague pathogenesis (J Bacteriol)
Reversal of diet induced social defects (Cell)
Letters read on TWiM 131

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 130: Interkingdom interactions at ASM Microbe

June 23, 2016

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

Guests: David S. Schneider and Vanessa Sperandio

The TWiMers get together at ASM Microbe 2016 in Boston to speak with David and Vanessa to talk about their work on regulation of bacterial virulence in the gut by bacterial adrenergic sensors, and the physiological mechanisms that make us ill and that help us recover.

Right click to download TWiM#130 (36 MB .mp3, 77 minutes)

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Links for this episode

Bacterial adrenergic receptors in the gut (mBio)
What a dinner party! (mBio)
Mapping disease space (PLoS Biol)
What can vampires teach us about immunology? (Trends Immunol)
Letters read on TWiM 130

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 129: Dried and wrinkled, smooth and mucoid

June 6, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

The arrival in the US of plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin antibiotics, a last line of defense against many gram-negative bacilli, and a quorum sensing system in a eukaryote are topics of this episode hosted by Vincent, Michael, and Michele.

Right click to download TWiM#129 (51 MB .mp3, 71 minutes)

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Links for this episode

E. coli with mcr-1 on a plasmid in the US (AAC)
Emergence of plasmid mediated colistin resistance in China (The Lancet)
Major breach in last line of defense (The Lancet)
Resistance plasmid families in Enterobacteriaceae (AAC)
EUCAST MIC breakpoints (ClinCalc)
Role of ASM in microbial resistance one, two (bLogphase)
Quorum sensing in fungi (Cell Host Microbe)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiM 128

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 128: A moonlighting phage protein

May 21, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

A eukaryote without a mitochondrion, and using a phage enzyme to eliminate intracellular bacteria are two topics discussed by the TWiMers on this episode.

Right click to download TWiM#128 (38 MB .mp3, 78 minutes)

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Links for this episode

Copper and Michael Schmidt in the news (The Scientist)
Fair Pay for Postdocs (Huff Post)
National Microbiome Initiative (White House)
The shrinking mitochondrion (The Scientist)
Eukaryote without a mitochondrion (Curr Biol)
Why have organelles retained genomes? (Cell Sys)
Bugs as drugs (Amer Acad Micro)
Phage encoded lysin eliminates intracellular bacteria (eLife)
Letters read on TWiM 128

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 127: Subway Snowblowers and Men in Black

May 5, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

The TWiM team explores microbes in snowblower vents on the ocean floor, and cleavage of antibody molecules by a Mycoplasma protease.

Right click to download TWiM#127 (40 MB .mp3, 55 minutes)

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Links for this episode

Happy Birthday, Elio!
In the Company of Microbes
Snowblower vents (Front Micro)
Deep-sea snowblower vents (YouTube)
Visions 11 cruise photos
Mycoplasma capture and cleave IgG (PNAS)
Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility and the University of Washington
Letters read on TWiM 127

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiM 126: I’m not afraid of zebrafish and mice and bears (oh my!)

April 22, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

The microbiome of hibernating bears, and zebrafish as a model for bacterial sepsis feature in this animal-centric episode of TWiM hosted by Vincent, Michael, and Michele.

Right click to download TWiM#126 (49 MB .mp3, 67 minutes)

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Links for this episode

Microbiome of hibernating brown bear and energy metabolism (Cell Rep)
Ten animals that hibernate (Cons Inst)
Zebrafish model of sepsis (mSphere)
Elizabethkingia anophelis outbreak (ProMedMail)
Vincent on Instagram
Image credit
Letters read on TWiM 126

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiM 125: A minimal cell operating system

April 7, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

A deep sequencing study of commercially available probiotics, and design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome are the topics tackled by Vincent, Michael, and Michele on this episode of TWiM.

Right click to download TWiM#125 (42 MB .mp3, 58 minutes)

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Links for this episode

Culture-independent surveillance of probiotics (mSphere)
Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome (Science)
J. Craig Venter Institute
Image Credit
Letters read on TWiM 125

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016

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 124: Fungal pirates

March 24, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

Vincent, Michael, and Michele reveal how a fungal protease blunts the innate immune response and promotes pathogenicity.

Right click to download TWiM#124 (44 MB .mp3, 63 minutes)

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

Links for this episode

Michele on Flint Legionella outbreak (Detroit News)
Fungal mimicry of a mammalian aminopeptidase (Cell Host Micr)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiM 124

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Microbe 2016

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiM 123: A microbial MAGE

March 10, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt

Guest: Harris Wang

Harris joins Vincent, Elio, and Michael to describe multiplex automated genome engineering, a method for targeting many modifications in a population of bacterial cells.