This Week in Microbiology

The tetracoccal TWiM team visits Tardigrades on the Moon, and the twelve year quest to isolate an archaeon that provides insights into the emergence of the first eukaryotic cell.

Links for this episode:

• Tardigrades on the moon (Mashable)
• Meet the Tardigrade (WaPo)
• Archaeon at prokaryote-eukaryote interface (bioRxiv)

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

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Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Nicholas Arpaia and Tal Danino

Vincent meets up with Nick and Tal to explain how they engineered E. coli to lyse within tumors and deliver an antibody that causes tumor regression in mice.

Links for this episode:

• Programmable bacteria induce tumor immunity (Nat Med)
• Synchronized cycles of bacterial lysis (Nature)
• TWiM Listener survey

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

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The TWiM team reveals thousands of small novel genes in the human microbiome, and a mutualistic symbiosis between marine protists covered with magnetosome-containing bacteria.

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

• Thousands of small novel genesin human microbiome (Cell)
• A magnetotactic consortiumunder the sea (Nat Micro)
• Image credit
• Letters readon TWiM 203

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

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

Guest: Julie Wolf

Julie joins the TWiM team to reveal how microbiome and gut anatomy of a wood-feeding beetle promotes lignocellulose deconstruction, and bacteria that degrade PET plastic.

• How wood-feeding beetles deconstruct lignocellulose (PNAS)
• Meet the Microbiologist hosted by Julie Wolf
• Bacteria that degrade PET plastic (Micr Res Ann)
• Microbiology resource of the month (ASM)
• Morgan Vague's TED talk
• Pacific garbage patch (Pacific Beach Coal)
• NOAA marine debris program
• National Geographic's Planet or Plastic Campaign
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 202

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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 joins Vincent and Michael to present compelling papers suitable for teaching microbiology to undergraduate students.

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Links for this episode:

• Paradigm shifts, paradigm drifts (pdf)
• Introducing THOR (mBio)
• Engineering bacteriophages to treat mycobacterial infection (Nat Med)
• Biofilms by Colter (Int Microbiol)
• Life in a world without microbes (PLoS Biol)
• Reduction of cholera in Bangladeshi villages (PNAS)
• Placenta goes viral (PLoS Biol)
• #OMG (jpg)
• #OMG illustration by Sarah Adkins
• Microbe-Biologist button (jpg)
• Microbial Centricity button (jpg)
• Microbial Eyes button (jpg)
• Micronauts button (jpg)

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

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

Vincent, Michele, and Michael travel to San Diego to reminisce with Elio about his career, his work in microbiology, and his love for microbes and mushrooms.

VIDEO VERSION AVAILABLE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Menlo1YvPko

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• Elio's profile
• Elio's memoirs
• Elio's first paper, 1952 (J Bact)
• In the Company of Mushrooms
• Small Things Considered
• TWiM Listener survey

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

From ASM Microbe 2019, the Microbials meet up with Susanna L. Harris and Alex Politis to talk about mental health in graduate school and NIH peer review.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swansonand Michael Schmidt

Guests: Susanna L. Harrisand Alex Politis

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• PhD Balance
• Susanna's video(Vimeo)
• NIH Center for Scientific Review
• TWiM Listener survey

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The TWiM team presents an extracellular bacterium associated with Paramecium, and induction of antiviral immunity by a bacteriophage that prevents bacterial clearance.

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• Bacteria on the outside of paramecia (ISME)
• Phage trigger antiviral immunity (Science)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 198

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

The Microbials reveal how a chemosynthetic symbiont stores energy for its marine flatworm host, and extraction of nutrients from host cells by E. coli injectisome components.

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Links for this episode:

• Take the TWiM listener survey
• Bacteria store energy for gutless worms (PNAS)
• Paracatenula on TWiM #21
• E. coli extracts nutrients from host cells (Cell)
• Image credit

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

The Microbials discuss how ambrosia beetles utilize ethanol to farm fungi, and how cleaved cochlin protein sequesters bacteria in the inner ear to preserve hearing function.

Links for this episode:

• Ambrosia beetles, ethanol, and farmed fungi (PNAS)
• Cleaved cochlin protects the inner ear (Cell Host Microbe)
• Importance of flossing (ADA)

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

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Michael and Vincent discuss the finding of immunity to Cas9 protein in humans, and a potential role for an oral bacterium in Alzheimer's disease.

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• Immunity to Cas9 protein in humans (Nat Med)
• P. gingivalis and Alzheimer's disease (Science)
• Clinical trial of COR388 in AD patients (clinicaltrials.gov)
• TWiM Listener survey

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

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter

How a bacterium helps dengue virus replicate in the mosquito gut, and minicells as a damage disposal mechanism in E. coli.

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Links:

• Please take the TWiM listener survey
• Bacteria help dengue virus in mosquito gut (Cell Host Micr)
• Fungus helps dengue virus in mosquito gut (TWiV 479)
• Minicells for disposal of damaged goods (mSphere)
• TWiM Listener survey

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The TWiM team explore how Lactobacillus reuteri can rescue social deficits in three mouse models of autism spectrum disorder, and the role of Salmonella persisters in undermining host defenses during antibiotic treatment.

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• Please take the
• TWiM listener surveyBacteria alter behavior in mouse autism models (Neuron)
• Mice behaving badly (TWiM 131)
• Salmonella persisters undermine host immune defenses (Science)
• Persister cells (Ann Rev Microbiol)

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

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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.

• Please take the TWiM listener survey
• Vote for NJ State Microbe
• Huge fungus is 2500 years old (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Humongous fungus (Wikipedia)
• Host-produced autoinducer controls phage (Cell)
• These bacteria are bugged (virology blog)

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• Please take the TWiM listener survey
• Vote for NJ State Microbe
• Huge fungus is 2500 years old (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Humongous fungus (Wikipedia)
• Host-produced autoinducer controls phage (Cell)
• These bacteria are bugged (virology blog)L

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

The TWiM team reveals the oldest human plague from 4,900 years ago in Sweden, and engineering E. coli to become an endosymbiont in yeast, modeling the evolution of mitochondria.

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

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• Oldest human plague from 4,900 years ago (PNAS)
• Engineering yeast endosymbionts (PNAS)
• Letters read on TWiM 191
• TWiM Listener survey

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

The TWiM-opods consider two stories about exosomes, vesicles that are shed from cells: those that eliminate airway pathogens, and those from the plants we eat that shape our gut microbiome.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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Links for this episode

• Exosome swarms eliminate airway pathogens (J Aller Clin Immunol)
• Exosome release from Bacteria, Eukaryotes, Archaea (Infect Immun)
• Plant exosomes shape gut microbiome (Cell Host Microbe)
• Image credit
• Subscribe to MicrobeTV on YouTube
• TWiM Listener survey

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

The TWiM team considers the state of the world's fungi as revealed by a report from the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, and how Salmonella loses motility to evade host defenses.

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

Take our listener survey. Thanks! asm.org/twimpoll

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Links for this episode:

• Subscribe to MicrobeTV on YouTube
• State of the World's Fungi 2018
• Salmonella loses motility to avoid inflammasome activation (Cell Rep)

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

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The TWiM rock stars show how to modify gram-positive antibiotics so they can kill gram-negative cells, and bacteria that have both DNA and RNA in their genome.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

Links for this episode

• Antibiotics for gram-positives that kill gram-negatives (J Med Chem)
• Sideromycin commentary (Am Council Sci Health)
• Bacterial genome with DNA and RNA (J Am Chem Soc)

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The TWiM people reveal that phages must cooperate to overcome CRISPR-Cas defenses, and the effect of the herbicide glyphosate on the gut microbiome of honey bees.

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

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Links for this episode:

• Phages Cooperate to Overcome CRISPR-Cas Immunity (Cell)
• Glyphosate perturbs gut microbiota of honey bees (PNAS)
• Letters read on TWiM 187

The TWiM team describe the involvement of a microbiome in snail metamorphosis, and using Listeria to kill tumors.

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

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

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Links for this episode

• Infectious diseases after Florence (Med Inf Dis)
• Cryptic niche switching in gastropod (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Metamorphosis then no eating (NY Times)
• Listeria promotes tumor rejection (PNAS)
• Image credit
• LADD pathway (jpg)
• LADD (Aduro Biotech)
• Crawling cells and comet tails (YouTube)
• Letters read on TWiM 168

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

The TWiM team considers the increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols, and how the study of DNA in ancient dung reveals the diet and parasite burden of extinct New Zealand birds.

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Episode Links:

• Hand sanitizer alert (Emerg Inf Dis)
• Bacteria becoming hand sanitizer tolerant (NPR)
• Increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols (Sci Transl Med)
• Coprolites and the Moa (PNAS)
• After Hurricane Florence, Significant Worry Over Infectious Diseases

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

Sam Sternberg discusses his work on exploring and exploiting CRISPR-Cas immune systems, beginning as a graduate student with Jennifer Doudna, at a biotech start-up, and in his laboratory at Columbia University.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Sam Sternberg

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• Sternberg Laboratory at Columbia
• Mechanism of substrate selection by Cas9 (RNA)
• DNA interrogation by Cas9 (Nature)
• Conformational control of DNA target cleavage by Cas9 (Nature)
• A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg
• What if we could rewrite the human genome? (YouTube)
• Sam Sternberg

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

The TWiMpeeps discuss two symbioses: a parasitoid bacterium of a heterotrophic protist, and fungal parasites in cicadas.

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Links for this episode:

• Parasitoid bacterium of protist (bioRxiv)
• Fungal symbiont recruitment in cicadas (PNAS)
• Fly by virus (TWiEVO 33)
• The Atlantic "How to Tame a Zombie Fungus" by Ed Yong
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 183

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

The TWiM hosts reveal how to test antimicrobial susceptibility in less than 30 minutes, and a carbonate-sensitive phytotransferrin in diatoms that controls iron uptake.

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Links for this episode:

• Legionnaire's Disease with Michele Swanson
• Antibiotic susceptibility in less than 30 min (PNAS)
• S. saprophyticus growing in microfluidic chip (movie, PNAS)
• Mother machine (Jun lab)
• E. coli growth in mother machine (YouTube)
• Diatom phytotransferrin (Nature)
• CRISPR tool kit (Nat Commun)
• A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg
• CRISPR/Cas9 for undergrads (BMBE)
• John Oliver on gene editing (YouTube)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 182

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

Vincent speaks with John Warhol about state microbes, the Periodic Table of the Microbes, and why microbiology is cooler than astrophysics, but they have better TV shows.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: John Warhol

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Links for this episode

• State Microbe (Wikipedia)

• Micro Minutes! (tumblr)

• Warhol Science on Etsy

• Periodic Table of Microbes (Amazon)

• Image credit

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

Vincent speaks with Mark O. Martin about microbial centricity, teaching undergraduates microbiology, lux art, painting with glowing bacteria, tardigrades and much more at ASM Microbe 2018.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode

• Microbial menagerie

• All creatures great and small

• Carski Award

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

The TwiModulators discuss aerosolization of bacteria and viruses in an ocean-atmosphere mesocosm, and how the common practice of decontaminating produce with chlorine produces viable but non-culturable pathogens.

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Links for this episode:

• Taxon-specific aerosolization of bacteria and viruses (Nat Commun)
• Chlorine produces viable but non-culturable bacteria (mBio)
• Chlorine washing fails bacteria test (Guardian)
• Foodborne illness in US: Major pathogens (CDC)
• Chlorine dilution calculator (Public Health Toronto)

Multistate foodborne outbreak investigations (CDC)

The TWiM team travels to ASM Microbe 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia to speak with Christina Kellogg about her career and her research on coral microbial ecology.

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

Guest: Christina Kellogg

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Links for this episode:

• Christina Kellogg on twitter
• Coral microbial ecology
• Coral reef ecosystem studies
• Connectivity of vulnerable reefs

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

The TWiM team discuss bacteriophage evolution in a dairy plant, and killing of less fit cells among social microbes.

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

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

Links for this episode

• A decade of phage evolution (Appl Env Micr)
• Animation of phage infection (Vimeo)
• Double agar assay for phage (Dairy Science)
• Sibling conflict among social bacteria (mBio)

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

Vincent, Michael and Elio note the passing of Stanley Falkow, give E. coli an archaeal membrane, and show how the microbiome can make worms live longer.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

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Links for this episode

• Fecal transplants in the good old days (STC)
• Stanley Falkow, 84
• Loss of an old army buddy (STC)
• Giving E. coli an archaeal membrane (PNAS)
• Microbiome tunes host longevity (Cell)
• Letters read on TWiM 176

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

The TWiM team notes the passing of Allan Campbell, and explains how aminoglycoside antibiotics like neomycin enhance host resistance to viral infection.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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Links for this episode:

• Happy Birthday, Elio! (STC)
• Allan Campbell, 88 (Stanford News)
• Life in Science by Allan Campbell (Bacteriophage)
• Aminoglycosides inhibit viral infection (Nat Micro)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 175

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

The TWiMsters explain why untreatable typhoid fever might be on the way, and the evolution of fungal virulence in tropical frogs.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

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Links for this episode

• Extensively drug resistant Salmonella typhi (mBio)

• A Gathering Storm (mBio)

• Typhoid vaccine recommendations (CDC)

• Changes in dynamics of frog fungal disease (Science)

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

The Masters of the Microbiological Universe discuss the humongouest fungus, and a commensal bacterium that protects against skin neoplasia.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• Fertile prototaxites (Proc Royal Soc B)

• The humongousest fungus (STC)

• Commensal Staphylococcus protects against skin cancer (Sci Adv)

• Letters read on TWiM 173

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

The TWiMmers discuss culture-independent discovery of malacidin antibiotics, and unfolding of relaxase during bacterial conjugation.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• Malacidins from soils (Nat Micro)

• Excellent antibiotic resistance threat report (CDC, pdf)

• Jo Handelsman on Women's History Month (CBS)

• Unfolding relaxase during bacterial conjugation (J Bact)

• Letters read on TWiM 172

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

The TWiM team explores a stingless bee that requires a fungal steroid to pupate, and colonic biofilms containing tumorigenic bacteria in patients with colorectal polyps.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

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Links for this episode

• Bee larvae require fungal steroid to pupate (Sci Rep)

• Biofilm refuge for tumorigenic bacteria (Science)

• Letters read on TWiM 171

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

The TWiM team reveals that spread of plague was likely by human ectoparasites, not rats, and deconstruct a durable, broadly protective protein nanoparticle influenza virus vaccine.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• Ectoparasites and plague (PNAS)

• SIR model for spread of disease (MAA)

• Protein nanoparticle flu vaccines (Nat Commun)

• Food washing (USDA)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 170

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

The cast of TWiM reveals how uropathogenic E. coli use a copper-binding protein to treat copper as a nutrient or a toxin, and Antarctic soil bacteria that survive on trace atmospheric gases.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• Copper import in E. coli (Nat Chem Biol)

• Conversion of OD to cells/ml for E. coli

• Nutritional immunity with Jennifer Bomberger (TWiM#141)

• Microbes live on atmospheric trace gases in Antarctic soil (Nature)

• Antarctic terrestrial ecosystem (SciHub)

• Hypolith (Wikipedia)

• Breatharians (Broadly)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 169Letters read on TWiM 169

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

Dickson joins the TWiM team to discuss the nasal microbiota of dairy farmers, and attenuation of bacterial virulence by quorum sensing in the maize weevil.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

Guest: Dickson Despommier

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Links for this episode:

• Nasal microbiota of dairy farmers (PLoS One)

• Measuring species richness, diversity, similarity (pdf one, pdf two)

• Quorum sensing attenuates virulence (Cell Host Micr)

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

How pandemic influenza viruses suppress immunogenic cell death, and 3D printing of bacteria into functional materials.

Vincent and Elio discuss the reason for poor efficacy of one of the influenza virus vaccines, and using a hyperthermophilic anaerobe to produce hydrogen from fruit and vegetable wastes in seawater.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello and Elio Schaechter.

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Links for this episode

• Glycosylation site on influenza H3N2 viruses (PNAS)

• Biohydrogen production by Thermotoga (Waste Man)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 166

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

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.

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

Links for this episode:

• Reducing bacteria on exercise weights with copper (Am J Inf Contr)
• Antigenic variation in Pneumocystis jirovecii (mBio)
• Letters read on TWiM 165

From Indiana University, Vincent speaks with Ankur, Julia, and Xindan about their careers and their work on horizontal gene transfer, quorum sensing, and chromosome organization in bacteria.

Guests: Ankur Dalia, Julia Van Kessel, and Xindan Wang

Watch the video version! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGCe-qfnA0

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Links for this episode:

• Dalia laboratory
• Van Kessel laboratory
• Wang laboratory
• Indiana U Dept of Biology
• Vibrio DNA uptake and chitin (Environ Micro)
• Activation of quorum-sensing genes (Mol Micro)
• Structural maintenance of chromosome complexes (Science)

This episode is all about saliva: how certain bacteria survive in it, and how swallowing saliva might cause intestinal inflammation.

Links for this episode:

• Genes for the Streptococcus pyogenes fitness in human saliva (mSphere)
• Swallowed bacteria drive colonic inflammation (Science)
• Intestinal inflammation induced by oral bacteria (Science)
• Human oral microbiome (J Bact)
• T cell subsets (Nat Rev Imm)
• Image credit

The TWiM hosts and associated microbiomes review a fungus destroying salamanders in Europe, and genes for flagella in intracellular bacteria.

Hosts:

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

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Fungus killing fire salamanders (Nature)

• Chlamydia with flagella (ISME J)

• Flagellar movement in rickettsia (PLoS One)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 162

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

This episode is brought to you by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department hosts the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to exchange information on the latest and most dynamic developments for countering chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Find out more at http://www.cbdstconference.com

From the TWiM team, a discussion of Hurricane Harvey microbiology, and a bacterial enzyme that induces eukaryotic mating.

Hosts:

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

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Tainted Houston floodwaters (NYTimes)

• Peter Hotez on TWiP 29

• FAQ: Microbiology of Built Environments, American Academy of Microbiology

• Microbiomes of the Built Environment: A Research Agenda for Indoor Microbiology, Human Health, and Buildings, The National Academies of Sciences

• Eukaryotic mating induced by bacterial enzyme (Cell)

• Image credit: Arielle Woznica

• Nicole King on TWiEVO 11

• Letters read on TWiM 161

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

This episode is brought to you by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department hosts the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to exchange information on the latest and most dynamic developments for countering chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Find out more at http://www.cbdstconference.com

The TWiM team provides an update on Zika virus, and reveals a plasmid on the road to becoming a virus.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Regional Zika update, Americas (PAHO, WHO)

• FGCU, Zika (TWiV 454)

• CDC Graphic of US zika cases as of May 2017

• Archaeal plasmid travels cell to cell via vesicles (Nature Micro)

• Letters read on TWiM 160

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

This episode is brought to you by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department hosts the 2017 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference to exchange information on the latest and most dynamic developments for countering chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Find out more at http://www.cbdstconference.com

The TWiM team pays a tribute to Chris Condayan, and investigates the synergy between virus and the innate immune system for clearing bacterial pneumonia by phage therapy.

The TWiM team considers a report on prokaryotic viral DNA in mammalian brain, and how diarrhea is beneficial, by clearing enteric pathogens.

Hosts:

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

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Prokaryotic viral sequence in the brain (PNAS)

• Diarrhea clears enteric pathogens (Cell Host Microbe)

• Tight junction biology (Turner Laboratory)

• Letters read on TWiM 158

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

The TWiMbionts explore the role of bacteria in the genesis of moonmilk, and how ancient host proteins can be used to engineer resistance to virus infection.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Role of Streptomyces in moonmilk (bioRxiv)

• TWiM 51: Cave science with Hazel Barton

• Moonmilk (Wikipedia)

• Ancient proteins for virus resistance (Cell Rep)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 157

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

The TWiM team explains the use of microbial genome mining to identify new drugs, and how a bacterial symbiont protects flies against parasitoid wasps.

Hosts:

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

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Molecular beacons identify gifted microbes (J Antibiot)

• Defensive symbiosis (PLoS Path)

• Letters read on TWiM 156

• Image

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