This Week in Microbiology

Michele updates the TWiMers on Legionella in the Flint water supply, and Elio informs us about how horizontally acquired biosynthesis genes boost the physiology of Coxiella burnetii.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• Legionella in Flint water (The Scientist)

• Q fever with Robert Heinzen (TWiM Special)

• Horizontally acquired genes boost C. burnetii (Front Cell Inf Micro)

• Image credit

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

At Microbe 2017 in New Orleans, the TWiM team speaks with Arturo Casadevall about his thoughts on the pathogenic potential of a microbe, rigorous science, funding by lottery, and moonshot science.

Hosts:

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

Watch the video version recorded live at ASM Microbe 2017!

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Links for this episode

• Pathogenic potential of a microbe (mSphere)

• Rigorous science (mBio)

• Funding by lottery (mBio)

• Moonshot science (mBio)

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

The TWiM team ventures into preprint space with an analysis of type VI secretion across human gut microbiomes, and provide insight into urinary tract infection: how bladder exposure to a member of the vaginal microbiota triggers E. coli egress from latent reservoirs.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• ASM Microbe 2017

• TWiM Live from ASM Microbe 2017

• Landscape of type VI secretion (BioRxiv)

• Type VI secretion structure (jpg)

• Activation of dormant E. coli in urinary tract infection (PLoS Path)

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

The TWiMmers get cozy with symbionts: the bacteria that allow a giant shipworm to oxidize sulfur, and algae that live within salamander cells.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

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Links for this episode

• ASM Microbe 2017

• Chemoautotrophic symbiosis in giant shipworm (PNAS)

• There's gold in them hills (TWiM 97)

• Vertebrate-algal symbiosis (eLife)

• Letters read on TWiM 152

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

The TWiMsters discuss potential new sources of antimicrobial compounds from unusual places: the skin of bats and the intestines of moths.

Hosts:

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

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Links for this episode

• JMBE science communication issue

• Bat sources of novel antifungals (AEM)

• White nose syndrome in US (jpg)

• White nose syndrome fact sheet (pdf)

• Symbiont-derived antimicrobials (Cell Chem Cell)

• Bacteriocins (Wikipedia)

• Letters read on TWiM 151

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

In recognition of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, Robin Patel speaks with the TWiM team about directing a clinical bacteriology laboratory, and how an observation made by a laboratory technologist lead to the finding that Ureaplasma species can cause a system metabolic disturbance, hyperammonemia.

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

Guest: Robin Patel

Links for this episode:

• National Laboratory Professionals Week
• Mayo Clinic Clinical Microbiology Laboratory
• Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Mayo Clinic
• Murine model of Ureaplasma hyperammonemia (Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis)
• Ureaplasma and human hyperammonemia (Sci Transl Med)

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The TWiM team speaks with Pat Schloss about assigning sequence data to operational taxonomic units, and his experience with mSphere Direct, a new way of submitting papers for publication.

Hosts:

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

Special guest: Pat Schloss

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Links for this episode

• Schloss Laboratory

• OptiClust (mSphere)

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Vincent, Elio, and Michael reveal what Neanderthals ate from analysis of DNA in their teeth, and new CRISPR-Cas systems found in the genomes of uncultured microbes.

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

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Links for this episode

• Ancient DNA in Neanderthal teeth (Nature)
• New CRISPRs from metagenomics (Nature)
• CRISPR/cas explained (Wikipedia)
• ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 148

This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what's on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim

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

The TWiM hosts reveal why phosphorus is essential for fungal brain disease, and how bacteria kill local competitors to favor the evolution of public goods cooperation.

Hosts:

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

• Phosphate needed for Cryptococcus brain disease (mSphere)

• Type VI killing drives phase separation (Nat Rep)

• Type VI secretion review (Phil Trans Roy Soc)

• Microbial cooperation and conflict (TedX)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 147

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Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Vincent, Elio and Michael discuss the finding of a prion in bacteria, and how communication between bacteria guides the decision between lysis and lysogeny.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

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• ASM 2017 Election is Open! VOTE HERE
• Prions in bacteria (Science)
• Communication guides lysis-lysogeny decisions (Nature)

This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what's on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Robert Heinzen

At the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana, Vincent speaks with Robert Heinzen about the work of his laboratory on Q fever and its causative microbe, Coxiella burneti.

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• Rocky Mountain Laboratory
• Heinzen Laboratory
• Small town, big science (TWiM 140)

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 meets up with Catharine Bosio, Michael Merchlinsky, and Shilpa Gadwal at the ASM Biothreats meeting to talk about careers for scientists outside of the ivory tower.

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Links for this episode:

• ASM Biothreats 2017
• Rocky Mountain Laboratory
• BARDA

The TWiMers discuss how changes in domestic laundering affect the removal of microorganisms, and assembly of a nucleus-like structure during viral replication in bacteria.

Hosts:

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

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• Laundry hygiene (J Appl Micro)
• Nucleus-like structure in infected bacteria (Science)
• Video of nucleus assembly in bacteria (YouTube)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 144

This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what's on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Vincent, Michael, and Michele explain the use of an electrochemical gradient to eliminate bacterial biofilms, and how phage susceptibility can be transferred by exchange of receptor proteins.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

Right click to download TWiM#143 (32 MB .mp3, 66 minutes).

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Links for this episode

• Electrochemical scaffold to eliminate persistent biofilms (npj Biofilms Microbiomes)

• Experimental setup for electrochemical treatment of biofilm (pdf, from article)

• Acquisition of phage sensitivity by transfer of cell receptors (Cell)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 143

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

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

Vincent, Elio and Michele wind up a year of microbial podcasts with a story about the lack of resistance to a crop antifungal compound, and how a bacterium uses a molecular caliper to measure membrane thickness.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson.

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

• Phenylpyrroles: Nearly no resistance (Front Micro)

• Membrane-thickness caliper (J Bact)

• Letters read on TWiM 142

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

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

Jennifer joins Vincent, Elio, and Michael to talk about the work of her laboratory on how a respiratory virus enhances bacterial growth by dysregulating nutritional immunity.

Hosts:

Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt.

Guest: Jennifer Bomberger

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

• Virus dysregulation of nutritional immunity (PNAS)

• Podcast article mentioned by Michael

• Compromised defenses (PLoS Path)

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

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Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Marie Antonioli, Bryan Hansen, Forrest Jessop, Kyle Shifflet and Jim Striebel

At the Hamilton, Montana Performing Arts Center, Vincent speaks with three local high school graduates and two high school teachers about how Rocky Mountain Laboratories influenced school science programs and opened up career opportunities.

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• Poster of this event (jpg)
• Rocky Mountain Laboratories
• Hamilton, MT high school
• Video of this episode on YouTube

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

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 discusses microbial DNA found on ATM machines in New York City, and how hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, alters microbial ecosystems deep in the Earth.

Hosts:

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

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

• Microbial DNA on ATM machines in NYC (mSphere)
• NYC OpenData
• Altering deep microbial ecosystems by fracking (Nat Micro)
• Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory
• Chemicals used for fracking (FracFocus)
• Marcellus and Utica shale formation map
• Consequences of fracking (GasBuddy)
• Image credit

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

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Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

The TWiM team brings you a bacterium from a Colorado field site that grows on uranium, and copper resistance in the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.

Hosts:

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

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

• Kavli Microbiome Ideas Challenge
• Uranium-respiring bacterium from a field site (PLoS One)
• Acid mine drainage (Wikipedia)
• Copper resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii
• ASM Grant Writing Online Course
• TWiM #132: Bacteria learn long division
• Image credit

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Highlights of the Recent Advances in Microbial Control meeting in San Diego, and expansion of a gut pathogen by virulence factors that stimulate aerobic respiration.

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

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• Fred Neidhardt obituary
• Recent Advances in Microbial Control
• Science hero Bill Fenical
• Virulence factors and aerobic respiration (Science)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 137

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Them TWiM team discusses the importance of neutrophils in microbial infections, and evidence that ancient bacteria had two cell walls.

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

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

• Conquering neutrophils (PLoS Path)
• Ancestral outer membrane in firmicutes (eLife )
• Were gram positive rods the first bacteria? (Cell)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 136

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

• Dysbiosis of microbiome in critical illness (mSphere)
• Consequences of sewage spill into aquatic environment (App Env Mic)
• EPA recreational water guidelines (pdf)
• VRE following sewage spill (Outbreak Radio)
• FAQ: Human microbiome
• American gut project
• British gut project
• Rob Knight on human microbiome (TED)
• Rob Knight on TWiM
• Image credit
• TWiM 135 Letters

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Design of a synchronously lysing bacterium for delivery of anti-tumor molecules in mice, and hopanoids, the lipids that live forever, brought to you by the four Microbies of TWiM.

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

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

• Bacterial lysis for in vivo delivery (Nature)
• Coley's toxins (Iowa Orthop J)
• Hopanoids, stress tolerance, and nutrient storage (Geobiol)
• Lipids that last forever (STC)
• Fattening up microbial geological biomarkers (STC)
• Money spreads infection (Fut Micro)

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

Insight into the biology of rhinovirus C from cryo-electron microscopy, and a novel antibiotic from a commensal bacterium that grows in the human nose, from the doctors of TWiM.

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

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

• Cryo-EM of viruses and vaccine design (PNAS)
• Atomic structure of rhinovirus C (PNAS)
• Opening windows into the cell (STC)
• Human commensals produce novel antibiotic (Nature)
• The nose knows (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiM 133

Image in audio player: Molecular surface of a Human rhinovirus, showing protein spikes. By: Wiki user: Robin S

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

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

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter.

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

• Cell division by longitudinal scission (mBio)
• Bacterium learns long division (STC)
• Charge transport by microbial nanowires (Sci Rep)
• Mechanism of nanowire conductance (Nat Comm)
• Using nature to grow batteries (TED)
• SEM of Y-shaped S. poulsonii (above) - Image credit
• Extracellular electron transport (below) - image credit

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

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.

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

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

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

Filmed live in Boston, MA at Microbe 2016, David S. Schneider and Vanessa Sperandio 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.

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.

Image: Etest used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration of an antibiotic for a particular bacterium.

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

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

• 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 129

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

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

Image (right): An entry in the ASM Agar Art Contest which bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the TWiM hosts.

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

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

• 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)

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

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

Image (right): Photograph of the 'Subway' snowblower vent on the sea floor at Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge. Visible are white 'snow' in the vent and orange floc on the seafloor. Credit: Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility and the University of Washington

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

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

• Happy Birthday, Elio!
• In the Company of Microbes
• Snowblower vents (Front Micro)
• Deep-sea snowblower vents video (YouTube)
• Visions 11 cruise photos
• Mycoplasma capture and cleave IgG (PNAS)
• Snowblower image (large)
• Letters read on TWiM 127

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Grant Writing Course

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv

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.

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

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

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

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

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

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.

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

• 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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

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

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

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

• Michele on Flint Legionella outbreak (Detroit News)
• Fungal mimicry of a mammalian aminopeptidase (Cell Host Micr)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

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

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.

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

• MAGE - Multiplex automated genome engineering (Nature)
• Genome-scale promoter engineering (Nat Methods)
• Manipulating microbial communities in situ (Trends Genet)
• Engineering human microbiomes (Meth Mol Biol)
• Genome-scale engineering (Mol Syst Biol)
• Economic framework of microbial trade (PLoS One)
• Tardigrade t-shirt
• Image credit

This episode is sponsored by Microbe Magazine Podcast 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 (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

Vincent, Michele, and Michael reveal the discovery of a new species of the spirochaete that causes Lyme disease, and fecal microRNAs that shape the gut microbiome.

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

Identification of a novel Borrelia species causing Lyme disease (Lancet Inf Dis)

Parasite wonders with Bobbi Pritt (TWiP 75)

Reported cases of Lyme disease (CDC)

Signs and symptoms of Lyme disease (CDC)

Multilocus sequence typing

Borrelia MLST database

American Academy of Microbiology FAQ Human microbiome

Host fecal microRNA shapes gut microbiota (Cell)

Image credit

C.U.R.E. the game

Live Tiny, Die Never - Tardigrade T-shirt

This episode is sponsored by Microbe Magazine Podcast and ASM Microbe 2016

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Special guests: Rebekah Kading and Wyndham Lathem

From the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research meeting, Vincent speaks with Rebekah and Wyndham about their work on Rift Valley Fever virus and other vector-borne pathogens, and the evolution and pathogenesis of Yersinia pestis, the agent of plague.

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

• Rift Valley fever virus risk (Emerg Micr Inf)
• Predicting Rift Valley fever virus transmission (PLoS NTD)
• Culex in New York City (BioOne)
• Early emergence of Y. pestis (Nature Comm)
• Pneumonic plague (Trends Micro)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Elio Schaechter.

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.

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

• Tubeworm metamorphosis by phage tail-like structures (Science)
• Cell enzyme becomes viral capsid protein (virology blog)
• Snake fungal disease in the laboratory (mBioi)
• Snake fungal disease in cottonmouths (PLoS Biol)
• Snake fungal disease (pdf)
• Image credit

This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Institute Online Webinar and 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

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

The microbophiles investigate the ratio of bacterial to human cells in our bodies, and how placing solar panels on a bacterium enables it to carry out photosynthesis.

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

• Revised estimates of human and bacterial cells in the body (biorxiv)
• Power of ten (Small Things Considered)
• Solar-to-chemical production in bacteria (Science)
• Letters read on TWiM 119

This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Institute Online Webinar and 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

Thumbnail image: Cell structure of a gram positive bacterium. This vector image is completely made by Ali Zifan - Own work; used information from Biology 10e Textbook (chapter 4, Pg: 63) by: Peter Raven, Kenneth Mason, Jonathan Losos, Susan Singer · McGraw-Hill Education.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson

On the last episode for 2015, Vincent, Elio, and Michele discuss how soil amoeba hunt nematodes in packs, and the role of mushrooms as rainmakers.

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

• Pack hunting by a common soil amoeba on nematodes (Environ Micro)
• Mushrooms as rainmakers (PLoS One)
• Mushroom by Nicholas Money
• In the Company of Mushrooms by Elio Schaechter
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 118

This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe 2016 and ASM Biodefense

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

The TWiM team marvels over the finding of a completely nitrifying Nitrospira, and horizontal gene transfer from Wolbachia into an animal genome.

Links for this episode:

• Complete nitrification by Nitrospira bacteria (Nature one, two)
• Enigmatic comammox (PhysOrg)
• Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Ann Rev Micro)
• Tardigrade controversy (SciAlert)
• Horizontal gene transfer from Wolbachia to grasshopper (PeerJ)
• Thumbnail Image (nitrogen cycle) credit
• Letters read on TWiM 117

This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe 2016 and ASM Biodefense

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson

The TWiMeriti reveal a Brazilian social bee that must cultivate a fungus to survive, and diet-mediated reduction in gut colonization by Candida albicans.

• Bee cultivates fungus to survive (Curr Biol)
• Diet reduces C. albicans gut colonization (mSphere)
• mSphere, a new open-access ASM journal
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 116

This episode is sponsored by ASM Biodefense and the 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium.

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

Vincent visits the laboratories of Kit and Joseph Pogliano on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, where he learns about their work on the bacterial cytoskeleton, sporulation, and the effects of antibiotics on bacterial cells.

Visit microbeworld.org/twim for complete shownotes including the special video version of this episode. Thanks for listening and watching!

Vincent, Elio, and Michele meet with Harry Mobley, Mary O’Riordan, and Vince Young at the University of Michigan, during the designation of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They discuss how the laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss faculty work on uropathogenic E. coli, induction of stress by bacterial infection, and the gut microbiome.

Visit microbeworld.org/twim for more including the special video version of this episode.

Vincent meets up with Romney and Duncan at the 79th annual meeting of the Southern California branch of the American Society for Microbiology, where they talk about emerging technologies for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and next generation sequencing and advanced molecular diagnostics.

Visit microbeworld.org/twim to watch the video version and for complete shownotes including links mentioned.

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.

Image: Lesion formation on banana surfaces infected with Aspergillus terreus. Source

Links mentioned:

• ASM Undergraduate Research Capstone Program
• ASM Undergraduate Fellowship Program
• Regulation of terrein production in Aspergillus terreus

Visit microbeworld.org/twim for more.

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

The TWiMitos discuss the reconstruction of a 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy, and using gallium as an antimicrobial in the battle for iron.

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

• 1,000 year old antimicrobial (mBio)
• Siderophore quenching with gallium (Evol Med Pub Health)
• Evolutionary dynamics of public goods (J Evol Biol)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 111

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

The TWiM team focuses on the gut microbiome, from a single member, Akkermansia muciniphila, to the effect of antibiotics on its composition and colonization resistance against C. difficile.

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

Agar art contest

Akkermansia muciniphilia and obesity (Gut)

A. muciniphilia genome (Biol Direct)

Alterations of gut microbiota and C. difficile colonization (mBio)

Science Delivered

Girls Who Code

F.E.M.M.E.S.

Association for Women in Science

UMich Host-Microbiome Initiative

UMich anaerobic chamber room (png)

The TWiM cohort discusses the use of antimicrobial peptides to target specific bacteria in the microbiome, and how the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia selectively kills male hosts.

Links for this episode:

• Antimicrobial peptides to modulate microbial ecology (PNAS)

• Targeting specific bacteria in the oral microbiome (Trends Micro)

• How Wolbachiakills male hosts (PLoS Biol)

• Wolbachia phage on TWiV 332

Image: Transmission electron micrograph of Wolbachia within an insect cell.

By: Scott O'Neill - Genome Sequence of the Intracellular Bacterium Wolbachia. PLoS Biol 2/3/2004: e76.

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

The professors of TWiM discuss a University of Wisconsin plan for rescuing biomedical research in the US, and results of a clinical trial in Bangladesh of an oral cholera vaccine.

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

• Rescuing biomedical research (eLife)
• Rethinking graduate and postdoc education (iBiology)
• Oral cholera vaccine trial (Lancet)
• Inexpensive cholera vaccine (NYTimes)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 108

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt.

Vincent and Michael discuss the highly diverse microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians, and how the composition of human urine plays a role in the battle for iron.

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

• Microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians (Sci Adv)
• Urinary composition controls siderocalin activity (J Biol Chem)
• Urine acidity and UTI susceptibility (Infect Cont Today)
• Image (from pdb file 3cmp) shows siderocalin (magenta) complexed
• with iron (orange) and enterobactin (sticks)

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.