This Week in Microbiology

TWiM reviews the ongoing cholera outbreak in Africa, and research showing that gut complement induced by the microbiota blocks pathogens and spares commensal bacteria.

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

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• Cholera in Southern Africa (Africa CDC)
• Deadly cholera outbreak in Africa (NY Times)
• Pediatric cholera in sub-Saharan Africa (Curr Op Ped)
• Gut complement spares commensals (Cell)
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TWiM reveals a new population in the blue cheese-making fungus Penicillium roqueforti and identification of a quorum-sensing autoinducer and siderophore in uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

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• New blue cheese-making fungus (Evol Appl)
• Threat to Camenbert cheese (Guardian)
• French Cheese Under Threat (CNRS News)
• Fungadapt project (YouTube)
• Microbes Make the Cheese (ASM)
• Yersiniabactin in uropathogenic Escherichia coli (mBio)
• Public goods and cheating in microbes (Curr Biol)
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TWiM reveals a database of genome sequences of thousands of Mycobaterium tuberculosis, allowing association with resistance phenotypes to 13 antibiotics, and microbe-derived uremic solutes that enhance thrombosis potential in the host.

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

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• M. tuberculosis genomes and antimicrobial resistance (PLoS Biol)
• The CRyPTIC consortium
• BashTheBug
• Zooniverse
• Microbial solutes enhance thrombosis (mBio)
• Can our microbiome break our heart? (mBio)
• Pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (EJIFCC)
• How Kidneys Work Video (Mayo Clinic)
• What is a metaorganism? (Zoology)
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TWiM describes the mechanism for the S. aureus itch and scratch induced skin damage, and discovery of a novel class of antibiotics that targets the lipopolysaccharide transporter.

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Links:

• S. aureus drives itch and scratch behavior (Cell)

• Staph scratches its itch (Cell)

• A new class of antibiotics (Nature)

• A new type of antibiotic (Nature)

• Novel antibiotic targets LPS transporter (Nature)

• New antibiotic traps LPS (Nature)

• Macrocyclic peptide drugs (Science)

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

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A highly reduced TWiM team presents a study of the use of phage diversity in cell-free DNA to identify bacterial pathogens in human sepsis cases, and the evolution, persistence, and host adaptation of a gonococcal antimicrobial resistance plasmid that emerged in the pre-antibiotic era.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Petra Levin

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• Phages identify sepsis pathogens (Nat Micro)
• Gonococcal AMR plasmid from pre-antibiotic era (PLoS Genetics)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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On the occasion of TWiM's 300th episode, we discuss how two college students found a new antibiotic in soil, Barbara Iglewski's passing, and Elio returns for an appearance.

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

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• Barbara Iglewski dies
• Antimicrobial activity of P. nicotinovorans (MicroPubl Biol)
• 2 NWTC students found a new antibiotic in soil (Green Bay Press Gazette)
• ESKAPE bacteria group (Clover)
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From ASM's Conference for Undergraduate Educators 2023 in Phoenix, TWiM speaks with Amaya Garcia Costas and Gwendolyn Knapp about their approaches to undergraduate microbiology education, and how they use TWiM as part of their curricula.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson. Guest: Amaya Garcia Costas and Gwendolyn Knapp.

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• ASMCUE 2023
• Teaching in the time of COVID-19 (J Microbiol Biol Edu)
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TWiM provides thoughts on providing better training for a non-academic career, and help celebrate Black in Microbiology Week with a 2023 paper by Ari Kozik, a co-founder of Black Microbiologists Association and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan

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

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• Better training for a non-academic career (Nat Micro)
• Nature career site
• ASM career site
• Prosper - Unlocking postdoc career potential
• Airway microbiota in obesity and asthma (J Allerg Clin Immunol)
• A vision for human microbiome research (mSphere)
• Microbes in Models (ASM)
• Climate change and microbes (ASM)
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TWiM reviews how a coating of lipoproteins provides a stabilizing environment on the inner membrane of Bacillus subtilis spores, and a miniaturized device that integrates genetically engineered probiotic biosensors with a custom-designed photodetector and readout chip to track mediators of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin, Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Lipoproteins stabilize germination apparatus (J Bacteriol)
• A coating of liposomes (J Bacteriol)
• Biosensor to detect inflammatory molecules in the gut (Nature)
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TWiM discusses a dispute about whether the mycobiome plays a role in the development of cancer, and the structure and function of channels that are delivered to plant cells by pathogenic bacteria.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Michael Schmidt.

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• Cancer microbes disputed (Carl Zimmer)
• Fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature)
• Revisiting fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature)
• Bacteria deliver channels to plant cells (Nature)
• Ice nucleation by bacteria (YouTube)
• Gram-negative bacterial porins (Curr Protein Pept Sci)
• Xenopus oocyte toolbox (Cold Spring Harb Protocols)
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TWiM explains how phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses, and discovery of a new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium that binds to an immutable target.

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

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• Phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses (eLife)
• Sea phages
• Actinobacteriophage database
• New antibiotic from uncultured bacterium (bioRxiv)
• The age of infection (For Policy)
• Killing bacteria by teixobactin (Nature)
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TWiM reveals that the ice cream manufacturing environment harbors psychrotrophic bacteria, and identification of a deadly bacterial strain causing widespread deaths of newborns in Uganda.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, & Michele Swanson.

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• Pyschrotrophic bacteria in ice cream plants (Appl Environ Micro)
• Creamery pays fine for contaminated ice cream (US DOJ)
• Paenibacillus infection of infants in Uganda (The Lancet)
• Deadly bacterial strain identified (Yale SOM)
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TWiM explains personalized aerosilized phage therapy for a chronic lung infection, and using the combination of antibiotic and a DNA molecule that binds alpha-gal to reduce S. aureus infection in vivo.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

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• Aerosolized phage therapy (Nat Comm)
• Alpha-gal aptamer and vancomycin for MRSA (Microorg)
• Alpha-gal syndrome (Front Allergy)
• Natural antibody protects against viral infection (virology blog)
• Oil pulling for improving oral health (Healthcare)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals that breast milk bioactives are essential for development of the infant microbiome and immunity, and how capsule mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae can affect bacterial pathogenesis.

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

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• Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life (Science)
• Human Milk: An Ideal Food (Front Ped)
• Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (Ann NY Acad Sci)
• Gut microbiome in early childhood (Nature)
• Probiotics Infloran and Labinic
• Cell envelope defects of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Mol Micro)
• A cautionary tale (Mol Micro)
• Global mortality associated with bacterial pathogens (Lancet)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin, Guest: Mark O. Martin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Bacteria initiated plate tectonics (Geophys Res Lett)
• Medea hypothesis (Sci Am)
• Earth's ferrous wheel (Nature)
• The Great Dying (Nova)
• The Great Oxidation Event (ASM)
• Banded iron formations (EarthSphere)
• S. sputigena and tooth decay (Nat Comm)
• Acid tolerance mechanisms of S. mutans (Fut. Micro.)
• Halitosis patients' tongue biofilm (Microbiol. Open)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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From ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston, TWiM speaks with Mimi Goldschmidt about her remarkable career in microbiology which included training astronauts to safely bring moon rocks back to Earth.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin. Guest: Mimi Goldschmidt

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• Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia)
• Dr. Millicent "Mimi" Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity.

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

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• Ubiquitin-like conjugation by bacterial cGAS (Nature)
• Jumpin' Jack Flash (TWiV 222)
• Viral sponges inactivate anti-phage immunity (Trends Micro)
• cGAS and CD-NTase enzymes (Curr Opin Struct Biol)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM describes a potential connection between a bacterial protein that damages DNA, and human cancers, and how to synthesize antimicrobial natural products from reconstructed bacterial genomes of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

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

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• Colorectal cancer and E. coli (Nature)
• Natural products from ancient bacterial genomes (Science)
• Underexplored bacteria reservoirs of antimicrobial lipopeptides (Front Chem)
• Fries With That Mammoth Burger? (Mother Jones)
• 25-40 million year old spores (Science)
• 250 million year old bacterium from salt crystal (Nature)
• 1918 influenza with Jeffery Taubenberger (TWiV 966)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM investigates the high variability in the rate and amount of current production from microbial fuel cells, and how bacteria link their growth rate to external nutrient conditions via a protein that functions as a cellular rheostat.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Variability in microbial fuel cells (Appl Environ Micro)
• Electrodes for microbial fuel cells (Chemosphere)
• Microbial | electrochemical CO2 reduction (Joule)
• Growth rate and cell wall precursors (Nat Micro)
• Bacterial growth physiology (Front Micro)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals environmental integrons, bacterial genetic elements notorious for their role in spreading antibiotic resistance, and how Salmonella invasion is controlled by competition among intestinal chemical signals.

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

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• Environmental integrons (Trends Micro)
• Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution (Nat Rev Micro)
• Rethinking microbial infallibility in the metagenomics era (Fems Micro

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals a new type of satellite virus that requires only phage tails for producing infectious virus particles, and that highly virulent plague bacteria differs from its innocuous enteric predecessor by its resistance to lysis by human complement.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Viruses that steal bacteriophage tails (Cell Host Microbe)
• Y. pestis not susceptible to human complement (Appl Environ Micro)
• How Y. pestis got its pathogenic groove (Appl Environ Micro)
• Risks of another pandemic (TedEd)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria.

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• Housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant E. coli (Appl Micro Int)
• Antibiotic use in farming (Nature)
• Antimicrobial use in food producing animals (PLoS Glob Pub Health)
• Reproductive organ linked to symbiotic bacteria (mBio)
• Skype a Scientist
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM reveals quorum-sensing systems that regulate intestinal inflammation and permeability caused by P. aeruginosa, and how plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior through translational regulatory crosstalk.

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

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• Quorum-sensing in the intestine (mBio)
• Block quorum sensing, block biofilm (Antimicrob Agents Chemother)
• Plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior (PLoS Biol)
• Regulatory genes associated with integrative conjugative elements (J Bact)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM presents a protocol for evolving caffeine-tolerant yeast by high school students in the home, and how predator-prey dynamics change when multiple bacteria grow together in biofilms.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin. Guest: Mark O. Martin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Caffeine-tolerant yeast selected at home (microPub Biology)
• yEvo Lab
• Vision and change in undergraduate biology (NAS)
• CURE in a box (JMBE)
• EvolvingStem
• EvolvingStem: Evolution-in-action curriculum (BMC)
• Spatial ecology of predation (PNAS)
• Predatory bacteria: From curiosity to curative (Trends Micro)
• Combating antimicrobial resistance with predatory Bdellovibrio (YouTube)
• Bdellovibrio attacking E.coli (YouTube)
• From one, many (YouTube)
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TWiM explains the synthesis in bacteria of new energy-dense biofuels that can replace rocket and jet fuels, and the use of nanopore sequencing to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with serious infections.

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Links for this episode:

• Biosynthesis of high energy biofuels (Joule)

• Polyketide synthases in bacteria (PNAS)

• Sequencing for diagnosis of serious infections (mBio)

• Nanopore sequencing video (YouTube)

• Emerging human pathogen Kodamaea ohmeri (Front. Micro)

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

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TWiM explains how magnesium modulates cell division frequency of a soil bacillus, and killing of fungi by Acinetobacter baumannii via a Type VI DNase Effector.

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

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•Magnesium modulates cell division frequency (J Bacteriol) •A. baumannii kills fungi (mBio)

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

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TWiM describes successful phage therapy against a mycobacterial lung infection, and how encapsulation of the cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from its major peptidoglycan hydrolase and host defenses.

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Links for this episode:

• Phage therapy against M. abscessus lung infection (Cell)
• Encapsulation of the septal cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from host defenses (PLoS Path)
• Letters read on TWiM 279

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM explores the relationship between the gut microbiome and depressive symptoms, and how purine nucleotides act as adjuvants to antibiotics.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

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• Gut microbiota and depressive symptoms one and two (Nat Commun )
• Microbiome influences depression (Phys.org)
• Gut bacteria and depression (Med Press)
• Mice behaving badly (TWiM 131)
• Gut microbiome in ASD (Front Cell Inf Micro)
• Transferring the blues (J Psych Res)
• Nucleotides as adjuvants to antibiotics (mBio)

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

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On this episode of TWiM, we reveal widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages that may regulate translation of lytic genes, and how Staphylococcus aureus inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth.

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

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• Stop codon recoding in bacteriophages (Nat Micro)
• How S. aureus inhibits P. aeruginosa growth (J Bact)
• S. aureus small colony variants (Front Cell Infect Micro)
• Ken Timmis retires as journal editor (YouTube)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission

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TWiM presents evidence that over half of human pathogenic diseases are impacted by climate change, and considers how a novel prokaryote discovered next to an underground stream illuminates the pathway to multicellularity.

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

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• Climate change and pathogenic diseases (Nat Climate Change)
• Impacts of climate change on human diseases (MoraLAB)
• Cave bacteria illuminate pathway to multicellularity (eLife)
• Commentary on novel cave bacteria (eLife)
• Karst landscapes (National Park Service)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM reveals high rates of co-transformation of plasmids in E. coli overturns the clonality myth, and bacterial membrane vesicles as a novel strategy for extrusion of the antimicrobial bismuth in H. pylori.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin

• The myth of clonality (Sci Rep)
• Bacterial membrane vesicles extrude bismuth (mBio)
• Gastric acid levels must decrease (World J Gastroenterol)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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Mark Martin returns to TWiM to join the discussion of how to design a complex gut microbiome, and protection of protists from virus infection by intracellular bacterial symbionts.

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

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• Design of a complex gut microbiome (Cell)
• Defensive symbiosis against giant viruses (PNAS)
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Music by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro)
• Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health)
• Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS)
• Resistance to rifampicin (Nature)
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Music by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

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• Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res)
• Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM presents a novel mucosal COVID-19 vaccine based on a bacteriophage capsid, and potentiation of C. difficile infection severity by the gut bacterial community.

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Links for this episode:

• Bacteriophage based COVID-19 vaccine (mBio)
• Gut microbiome potentiates C. difficile disease (mBio)
• Letters read on TWiM 271

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

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TWiM explores the use of Archaea to produce plastics from molasses wastewater, and a bacterial defense against bacteriophage infection that involves depletion of deoxynucleotides.

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• Improving plastics production by Archaea (Appl Environ Micro)
• Biodegradability of PHA (Green Chem)
• What does tesla mean for an MRI and its magnet? (GE)
• Bacteria deplete nucleotides to block phages (Nat Micro)
• Antiphage hotspots in bacteria (TWiM 265)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM reviews discovery of a bacterium that is visible to the naked eye, and reversible resistance to bacteriophage by shedding of the bacterial cell wall.

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• A bacterium that is not a microbe (Science)
• Overwhelming microbial greatness (TWiM 261)
• Medical illustrator Kellie Holoski
• Bacteriophage resistance by shedding cell wall (Open Biol)
• Who came first, monderms or diderms? (Nat Ecol Evol)
• Letters read on TWiM 269
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM discusses citizen science surveillance of drug-resistant Aspergillus in garden soil, and the mechanism of action of a copper dependent antibiotic.

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• Fanny Hesse (Microbial Menagerie)
• Citizen science surveillance of Aspergillus (App Envir Micro)
• Aspergillum (Wikipedia)
• DMDC, copper dependent antibiotic (Infect Immun)
• National Summer Undergraduate Research Project
• Letters read on TWiM 268
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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From ASM Microbe 2022 in Washington, DC, Heran joins TWiM to discuss her career and her work on the agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson Guest: Heran Darwin

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• Honey badger of pathogens (EMBO Rep)
• Pup-proteasome system (PNAS)
• Cytokinin signaling in M. tuberculosis (mBio)
• Bandwagoning (EMBO Rep)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM explains how spindle-shaped Archaeal viruses evolved from rod-shaped ancestors to package a larger genome, and transcriptional recording by CRISPR acquisition from RNA.

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• From rods to spindles (Cell)
• Spindle-shaped virus movie (Cell)
• Bacteria that record (Science)
• Transcriptional recording with CRISPR (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiM 266
• TWiM Listener survey

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

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TWiM explains the discovery of hotspots of genetic variation containing reservoirs of anti-phage systems in E. coli phages and their parasitic satellites, and pathogen desiccation tolerance promoted by hydrophilins.

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• Phage and satellite antiviral systems (Cell Host Micro)
• Hydropilins promote desiccation tolerance (Cell Host Micro)
• Letters read on TWiM 265
• TWiM Listener survey

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

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TWiM reveals that the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine promotes multiple antibiotic resistance in E. coli, and treatment with Bifidobacterium lactis probiotic benefits patients with coronary artery disease.

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Links for this episode:

• Antipsychotic promotes antimicrobial resistance (J Bact)
• Probiotic benefits patients with coronary artery disease (mSystems)
• B. lactis and Alzheimer's in mice (Eur J Nutr)

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

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TWiM explains the use of lavender oil to disrupt Listeria biofilms, and how treatment of catheters with liquid silicone reduces associated urinary tract infections.

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• Lavender oil prevents biofilms (Lett Appl Micro)
• Silicone-infused catheters reduce infection (eLife)
• Viable but not culturable (TWiM 179)
• Letters read on TWiM 263
• TWiM Listener survey

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

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TWiM welcomes new host Petra, and explains how a small protein helps ensure that E. coli utilizes a preferred carbon source, and a screening strategy to identify inhibitors of the type IV secretion system that is essential for virulence of a variety of bacterial pathogens.

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

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• A small protein regulates carbon utilization (PNAS)
• Inhibitors of type IV secretion systems (mBio)
• Letters read on TWiM 262

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

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Mark returns to TWiM to join in a discussion of soil microbiota as game-changers in restoration of degraded lands, and discovery of a centimeter-long bacterium, the biggest yet discovered.

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Game-changing soil microbiota (Science)
• A World Without Soil by Jo Handlesman
• A World Without Soil video (YouTube)
• Centimeter-long bacteria (bioRxiv)
• How large can a bacteria get? (YouTube)
• Giant bacteria (YouTube)
• Three faces of Thiomargarita (Small Things Considered)
• The microbe that could be seen (Small Things Considered)
• Energetics of the eukaryotic edge (Small Things Considered)
• A lakeside tale (Small Things Considered)
• Letters read on TWiM 261

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

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

In this food-centric TWiM, we reveal the microbiomes of carnivorous vulture bees and of Gala apples from all over the world.

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• Microbiome of vulture bees (mBio)
• Bees previously in TWiM 245
• Microbiome of Gala apples (Envir Micro)
• Apple flower microbiome (mBio)
• TWiM Listener survey

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of the frightening global burden of bacterial antibiotic resistance, and a solution to the problem of daylight nitrogen fixation in a cyanobacterium, despite the incompatibility of nitrogenase with oxygen produced during photosynthesis.

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Links for this episode:

• Global bacterial antimicrobial resistance (Nat Micro)
• Cancer moon shot (NCI)
• When antibiotics don't work (TED)
• Cyanobacterium buoyancy (Nat Micro)

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

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

TWiM explains how bacterial symbionts regulate tick blood feeding activity, and the reasons why antibiotics exist.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt

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

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Links for this episode:

• Symbionts help ticks to feed (Cell Host Microbe)
• Why do antibiotics exist? (mBio)
• Shorter is still better (J Hosp Med)
• Shorter vs longer antibiotic courses (J Hosp Med)
• Francis Tally and tigecycline (Clin Inf Dis)

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

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

On this episode of TWiM, how phages prevent other phages from invading their hosts without blocking their own reproduction, and plastic-degrading potential of microbes across the Earth.

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Links for this episode:

• Prophages encode phage-defense systems with cognate self-immunity (Cell Host Microbe)
• Prophages self-destruct to eliminate competitors (Cell Host Microbe)
• Plastic-degrading potential across global microbiome (mBio)
• Plastics in our foods (ENV media)

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

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

TWiM discusses antigenic variation within dengue virus serotypes, and an mRNA vaccine that induces antibodies against tick proteins and prevents transmission of the Lyme disease agent.

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

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

Links for this episode:

• Dengue virus antigenic variation (eLife)
• mRNA vaccine induces tick resistance (Sci Transl Med)

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

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