This Week in Microbiology

Latest Episodes:

236: Gossamer wings and symbionts on the sea bottom Feb 20, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, hiring and training expectations for future biomedical life sciences faculty, and the roles of bacterial symbionts in deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworms.

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Links for this episode:

Expectations for life sciences faculty (Life Sci Edu)
Academic career readiness assessment (UCSF)
Tubeworm bacterial symbionts (eLife)
Traveling on the Alvin (Dark Life II)
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

235: Green algae and fatty acids Feb 05, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, how DNA of giant viruses has contributed extensively to the genome of green algae, and inhibition of E. coli virulence by a metabolic product of arachidonic acid in the intestinal epithelium.

Links for this episode:

Giant viral DNA shapes genomes of green algae (Nature)
James Van Etten
Darwin's Radio
Arachidonic acid and E. coli virulence (mBio)
How a pathogenic E. coli infection begins

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

234: Corkscrewing through snot Jan 21, 2021

Show notes

The TWiM team reviews Salmonella colonization of three-dimensional miniature intestinal organs, and identification of a circadian clock in a non-photosynthetic prokaryote.

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Links for this episode:

Salmonella colonization of enteroids (mBio)
Circadian clock in nonphotosynthetic prokaryote (Science)
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

233: Antivirals made by bacteria Jan 08, 2021

Show notes

The TWiM team reviews the movie Jezebel, played against the background of the yellow fever epidemic of 1853 in New Orleans, and prokaryotic viperins, ancestors of the eukaryotic enzymes that synthesize antiviral molecules.

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Links for this episode

Jezebel (Wikipedia)
Prokaryotic viperins (Nature)
A cell protein that synthesizes antivirals (virology blog)
Dr. Aude Bernheim's training and gender equity contributions
TWiM Listener survey

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

232: Microbial nanowires Dec 24, 2020

Show notes

TWiM explores the use of a bacterial protein to make highly conductive microbial nanowires, and how modulin proteins seed the formation of amyloid, a key component of S. aureus biofilms.

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Links for this episode

Amyloid formation for S. aureus biofilms (eLife)
Highly conductive microbial nanowires (Nat Chem Biol)
Uncovering Nature's electronics (Nature)
Activating Nature's electrical grid (Bioeng)
Bacteria that exhale electricity (SyFyWire)
Microbial transistors (TWiM 14)
TWiM Listener survey

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

231: It's a microbe-eat-microbe world Dec 10, 2020

Show notes

Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of a predatory bacterium appropriately named Vampirococcus lugosii, and Elio reveals how bacteria can be used on the International Space Station to efficiently extract rare earth elements in microgravity.

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Links for this episode:

Space Station biomining (Nat Comm)
Reductive evolution in a predatory bacterium (bioRxiv)

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

230: Ancient bacterial DNA Nov 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of TWiM, control of Campylobacter in raw chicken by zinc oxide nanoparticles in packaging material, and Salmonella enterica genomes from a16th century epidemic in Mexico.

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Links for this episode:

Zinc oxide nanoparticles in raw meat packing (Appl Env Micro)
Campylobacter, an emerging foodborne pathogen (Emerg Inf Dis)
Ancient bacterial DNA (Microb Genom)
Salmonella enterica from 16th century outbreak (Nature)

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

229: Dirt is not simple Nov 05, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of TWiM, the hidden biochemical diversity in soil-dwelling Actinobacteria that could lead to a second Golden Era of antibiotic discovery, and structures of glideosome components reveals the mechanism of gliding in apicomplexan parasites.

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Links for this episode:

Cryptic or silent? (mBio)
The Streptomyces chromosome (Ann Rev Gen)
Engineering Nature's Medicines (pdf)
Apicomplexan glideosome (Comm Biol)

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

228: Black in Microbiology with Ninecia Scott and Chelsey Spriggs Oct 23, 2020

Show notes

Ninecia and Chelsey, two of the founders of Black in Microbiology, join TWiM to discuss the goals of the organization, then we reveal survival of Deinococcus bacteria for 3 years in space, an experiment that addresses the panspermia hypothesis for interplanetary transfer of life.

Guests: Ninecia Scott and Chelsey Spriggs

You can watch this episode at https://youtu.be/1o1hh0I4rio

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Links for this episode

Black in Microbiology
Deinococcus DNA damage in space (Front Micro)
Monthly myco-talks (Uni Exeter)

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

227: The light and dark sides of the fungal world Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

TWiM presents an episode for mycophiles: how bacteria disarm mushroom pathogens, and the role of the CARD9 protein in protective immunity against pulmonary cryptococcosis.

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

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Links for this episode: