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.
The TWiMpeeps discuss two symbioses: a parasitoid bacterium of a heterotrophic protist, and fungal parasites in cicadas.
The TWiMsters explain why untreatable typhoid fever might be on the way, and the evolution of fungal virulence in tropical frogs.
The Masters of the Microbiological Universe discuss the humongouest fungus, and a commensal bacterium that protects against skin neoplasia.
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.
The TWiM hosts and associated microbiomes review a fungus destroying salamanders in Europe, and genes for flagella in intracellular bacteria.
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.
Vincent, Michael, and Michele reveal how a fungal protease blunts the innate immune response and promotes pathogenicity.
Vincent and Elio marvel in the finding that a phage tail-like structure from a marine bacterium stimulates tubeworm metamorphosis, and reveal Ophidiomyces as a cause of snake fungal disease.
The TWiM team wonders why definitions in biology often change, and discuss how the small molecule terrein is important for the growth of a soil fungus.