This Week in Microbiology

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316: Food Addiction and the Gut Microbiome Aug 23, 2024

Show notes

TWiM describes experiments to explore gut microbiota signatures of vulnerability to food addiction in mice and humans, and how a phage tail-like protein suppresses competitors in populations of bacteria of plants.

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

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Links for this episode

Gut microbiota and food addiction (Probiotics)
Blautia may have probiotic properties (Gut Microbes)
Blautia wexlerae ameliorates obesity and type 2 diabetes (Nat Commun)
Phage tail–like bacteriocin suppresses competitors (Science)
What is a bacteriocin? (Front Micro)
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315: How Pseudomonas Became A Global Pathogen Aug 09, 2024

Show notes

TWiM explores evolution and host adaptation of Pseudomonas infections of plants, and the impact of COVID-19 on ESBL-producing E. coli on urinary tract and blood infections.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt.

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Links for this episode

Evolution and host adaptation of Pseudomonas (Science)
Type III secretion system, infection by injection (Nat Comm)
Demographic inference with skyline plots (Peer J)
Skyline plots (Taming the Beast)
Panaroo, a bacterial genome analysis pipeline (Wellcome Sanger Inst)
Impact of COVID-19 on ESBL-producing E. coli infections (Antimicro Resist Inf Control)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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314: Microbes Sculpt Our Planet and Manage Inflammation Jul 27, 2024

Show notes

TWiM explores the deep-dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet, and the use of microbes in bioelectronics to manage inflammation.

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

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Links for this episode

Deep-dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet (NY Times)
Living bioelectronics resolve inflammation (Science)
Active biointegrated living electronics for managing inflammation (Science)
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313: Could Fungal Pathogens Outsmart US? Jul 11, 2024

Show notes

From ASM Microbe in Atlanta, Georgia, Arturo joins TWiM to reveal the threats that fungi pose to human health, including the notorious Candida auris and many more and how committed experts are researching ways to save us and our food supplies.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Mark O. Martin

Guest: Arturo Casadevall

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/nKJe5xNUocU

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Links for this episode

Disaster mycology (Biomedica)
Emergence of C. auris (mBio)
What if fungi win? (JHU Press)
Thinking about Science: Good Science, Bad Science, and How to Make It Better (Amazon)
Recorded at ASM Microbe 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Join us at the next ASM Microbe by visiting us at asm.org/microbe
Matters Microbial
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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312: Cry Havoc!, and Let Slip the Phages of Healing Jun 28, 2024

Show notes

TWiM explains a new mechanism for preventing lysogeny through temperate phage-antibiotic synergy, and Salmonella expansion in the murine gut dependency on aspartate derived from reactive oxygen species-mediated microbiota lysis.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.

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Links for this episode

Temperate phage-antibiotic synergy (mBio)
Salmonella expansion dependent on aspartate (Cell Host Micr)
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Wiki)
A Genetic Switch by Mark Ptashne
Lysis timing and bacteriophage fitness (Genetics)
HK97 capsid assembly (Ad Exp Med Biol)
Mode of action of fluoroquinolones (Drugs)
Salmonella a foodborne pathogen (CDC)
Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program (HHMI)
Sam Kaplan - 30 years of Microbiology (McGovern Medical School)
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311: Bacteria, beware of siderophore-antibiotic hybrids Jun 13, 2024

Show notes

TWiM explores how climate change may be increasing our risks to infectious disease and then how the Odyssey literally comes alive in our microbial world but fear not, unlike the Trojans, the bacteria are fighting back and have developed resistance to this novel class of newly developed antimicrobials.

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Links for this episode:

Environmental changes fueling diseases (NY Times)
Global change drivers and risk of infectious diseases (Nature)
First reported cefiderocol-resistant E. coli in Canada (Clin Micro)
E. coli cells explode (YouTube)

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

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310: Starvation vs Dehydration: Who Loses, Who Wins? May 12, 2024

Show notes

TWiM explores the plasticity of the adult human small intestinal stoma microbiota, and survival and rapid resuscitation that permit limited productivity in desert microbial communities.

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

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Links for this episode

Plasticity of small intestinal stoma microbiome (Cell Host Micr)
Desert microbial communities (Nat Comm)
How soil microbes survive in the desert (Science Daily)
Negev Desert (WikiCommons)
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309: Stomach Acid Can Be Your Friend Apr 26, 2024

Show notes

Today on TWiM, a charcuterie invasion, and how that acid in your stomach may protect from the invading hordes of microbes.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.

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Links for this episode

2024 Salmonella outbreak linked to charcuterie meats
Multitier regulation of the E. coli extreme acid stress response by CsrA
Commentary: Peeling the onion: additional layers of regulation in the acid stress response
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308: Living in a Community World Apr 13, 2024

Show notes

TWiM reviews a case of E. faecium bacteremia treated with combination bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy, and how dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance via microbial metabolites.

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

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode

Matters Microbial
Distinct Fusobacterium dominates colorectal cancer (Nature)
Bacterial subspecies that might drive colon cancer (Nature)
A bacterial strain linked to colon cancer (Nature)
Spatial perspective on bacteria in tumors (Nature)
Colorectal cancer in the young (Yale Med)
Surface colonization by Flavobacterium johnsoniae promotes its survival (mBio)
THOR, a model microbiome (mBio)
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307: Attaching and Effacing on a Pedestal Mar 30, 2024

Show notes

TWiM reviews a case of E. faecium bacteremia treated with combination bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy, and how dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance via microbial metabolites.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.

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Links for this episode

Vincent's interviews at SXSW
Bacteriophage and antibiotic therapy for E. faecium bacteremia (mBio)
Dopamine receptor D2 confers colonization resistance (Nature)
CDC's Reports of Selected E. coli Outbreak Investigations
Brett Finlay's narrated EPEC animation
Colonization resistance by gut microbial metabolome (ACS Chem Biol)
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