This Week in Microbiology

TWiM 46: Spore!

December 5, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello,Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Jonathan Dworkin

Vincent, Michael, and Elio meet up with Jonathan Dworkin to discuss how bacteria form spores and how they return to vegetative growth.

Download TWiM #46 (50 MB .mp3, 70 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Transcript of this episode (Thanks, Frank Shinneman!)

Recent progress in B. subtilis sporulation (FEMS Micro Rev)
Pulsed feedback defers cell differentiation (PLoS Biol)
Built-in timer defers differentiation (PLoS Biol)
Spore formation in B. subtilis (YouTube)
Letters read on TWiM 046

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

TWiM 45: Secreted nucleic acids RIG a STING

November 21, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter

Vincent, Michael, and Elio review innate immune sensing of Listeria secreted bacterial nucleic acids, and how Wolbachia enhances egg production in Drosophila.

Download TWiM #45 (52 MB .mp3, 71 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Rig-I detects Listeria by sensing secreted nucleic acids (EMBO J)
Wolbachia enchance Drosophila egg production (Science)
Using Wolbachia to control mosquito-borne infections (TWiV)
instructions for plague doctor Halloween mask.
Letters read on TWiM 045

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

TWiM 44: Phage interruptus

October 24, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter

Vincent, Michael, Elio discuss the role of prophage excision in exit of Listeria from the phagosome, and analysis of bacterial communities in saliva.

Download TWiM #44 (48 MB .mp3, 66 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Prophage excision promotes Listeria phagosomal escape (Cell)
Survey of salivary bacterial communities (Genome Res)
UniFrac (Bioinformatics)
Listeria image from Tilney and Portnov, 1989
Letters read on TWiM 044

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

TWiM 43: Bacterial caveolae and zapping acne with phages

October 10, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter

Vincent, Michael, Elio review formation of caveolae in a bacterium, and the limited genetic diversity and broad killing activity of P. acnes bacteriophages.

Download TWiM #43 (55 MB .mp3, 79 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Formation of caveolae in E. coli (Cell)
Phages of P. acnes (mBio)
Movie of bacteriophage infection (Vimeo)
Letters read on TWiM 043

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

TWiM 42: Staphylococcus, a three-star pathogen

September 26, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Joseph John, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter

Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Joe review highlights of the 15th International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections (ISSSI) in Lyon, France.

Download TWiM #42 (52 MB .mp3, 71 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

ISSI
A pathogen’s Swiss army knife (STC)
Novel therapeutic targets (pdf)
Our conterintelligence Staph (STC)
Staph and cholesterol (STC)
Reasons for S. aureus vaccine failures (Front Cell Inf Micro)
S. aureus riboswitch (PLoS Path)
Staph pathogenicity islands (PNAS)
A little help from their friends (STC)
Letters read on TWiM 042

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

TWiM 41: ICAAC live in San Francisco

September 13, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, William Bishai, John Brownstein, and Victor Nizet.

Vincent and Michael travel to San Francisco for the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), where they meet with Bill, John, and Victor to discuss tuberculosis, monitoring infectious disease outbreaks with online data, and outside-the-box approaches to antibacterial therapy.

Download TWiM #41 (48 MB .mp3, 103 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

M. tuberculosis virulence factor (PlosOne)
HealthMap
Social and news media in 2012 Haitian cholera outbreak (Am J Trop Med Hyg)
Flu near you
Hypoxia-inducing factor and neutriphil extracellular traps (Biochem J)

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

TWiM 40: A mecca for microbiology

August 29, 2012

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Stanley Maloy, Waclaw Szybalski, and John Kirby

Vincent and Stanley meet with Waclaw Szybalski and John Kirby at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the occasion of its designation as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They reminisce about how the well known laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss John’s work on the soil dwelling, predatory myxobacteria.