This Week In Microbiology

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 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: 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. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the ASM Podcast app. Become a patron of TWiM. 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 Become a patron of TWiM. 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 biologica

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 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 o

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  

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. 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 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! 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 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. 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 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. 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 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. 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 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) Become a patron of TWiM.  

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 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 Schloss Laboratory OptiClust (mSphere) 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