This Week in Microbiology

Latest Episodes:

TWiM #37: Microbial Jekyll and Hyde Jul 18, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio discuss two examples of dynamic microbial symbioses that switch between mutualistic and pathogenic states.

TWiM #36: Domesticating a pathogen Jul 04, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Michael, and Elio explore the origin of Mycoplasma pathogens of ruminants, and share their thoughts on the recent ASM General Meeting.

TWiM #35: Ohne hauch Jun 21, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Michael, and Elio review necrotizing fasciitis, and a link between surface remodeling in gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

TWiM #34: Doing the DISCO with Emiliania Jun 04, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter

Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss changing populations of Emiliania huxleyi and their viruses in the North and Black Seas.

Right click to download TWiM #34 (50 MB .mp3, 69 minutes).

Links for this episode:

The protist wonderland (Microbe)
Emiliania huxleyi home page
DISCO in the North Sea (FEMS Microbiol Ecol)
7000 years of Emiliania huxleyi in the Black Sea (Science)
Cheshire cat escape by Emiliania huxleyi (PNAS)
Letters read on TWiM 34

TWiM #33: Tuning the immune organ May 16, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Michael, and Ivo review the requirement for segmented, filamentous bacteria for the induction of a specific type of helper T cell in the gut.

Links for this episode:

Induction of Th17 cells by segmented filamentous bacteria (Cell)
Segmented filamentous bacteria take the stage (Nature)
Genome of segmented filamentous bacteria reveals auxotrophy (Cell)
Segmented filamentous bacteria and diabetes protection (PNAS)

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

TWiM #32: Not the shadow biosphere May 02, 2012

Show notes

Rosie Redfield talks about her evidence that a bacterium cannot grow on arsenic instead of phosphorus.

TWiM 31: Screen door on a submarine Apr 18, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jo Handelsman, and Michael Schmidt

Vincent, Jo, and Michael discuss an archetypal protein transport system in bacterial outer membranes, and evidence that gut microbial enterotypes might not fall into defined groups.

Links for this episode:

Discovery of a TAM, a new bacterial protein transport system (Nat Struct Mol Biol)
Commentary on TAM discovery
Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome (Nature)
Gut enterotypes might be less clear-cut (Ed Yong)
Letters read on TWiM #31

TWiM #30: Unraveling melioidosis and insulin resistance Apr 04, 2012

Show notes

On episode #30 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how a toxin from Burkholderia pseudomallei inhibits protein synthesis, and the role of the gut microbiome in modulating insulin resistance in mice lacking an innate immune sensor.

TWiM #29: Death and an iron-loaded spike Mar 21, 2012

Show notes

On episode #29 of the podcast, Vincent and Stanley review how a phage pierces the cell membrane with an iron-loaded spike, and two programmed cell death systems in E. coli.

TWiM #28: Not unorganized bags of enzymes Mar 07, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Michael, and Elio review how competition within a host drives virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and the expanding universe of the bacterial cytoskeleton.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected