This Week in Microbiology

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296: Bacterial Channels in Plant Cells Oct 07, 2023

Show notes

TWiM discusses a dispute about whether the mycobiome plays a role in the development of cancer, and the structure and function of channels that are delivered to plant cells by pathogenic bacteria.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Michael Schmidt.

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Links for this episode

Cancer microbes disputed (Carl Zimmer)
Fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature)
Revisiting fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature)
Bacteria deliver channels to plant cells (Nature)
Ice nucleation by bacteria (YouTube)
Gram-negative bacterial porins (Curr Protein Pept Sci)
Xenopus oocyte toolbox (Cold Spring Harb Protocols)
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295: Uncultured and Unmutable Sep 22, 2023

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TWiM explains how phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses, and discovery of a new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium that binds to an immutable target.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin,

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Links for this episode

Phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses (eLife)
Sea phages
Actinobacteriophage database
New antibiotic from uncultured bacterium (bioRxiv)
The age of infection (For Policy)
Killing bacteria by teixobactin (Nature)
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294: You'll Scream After Ice Cream Sep 08, 2023

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TWiM reveals that the ice cream manufacturing environment harbors psychrotrophic bacteria, and identification of a deadly bacterial strain causing widespread deaths of newborns in Uganda.

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

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Links for this episode

Pyschrotrophic bacteria in ice cream plants (Appl Environ Micro)
Creamery pays fine for contaminated ice cream (US DOJ)
Paenibacillus infection of infants in Uganda (The Lancet)
Deadly bacterial strain identified (Yale SOM)
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293: Aerosol phage therapy, alpha-gal aptamers for MRSA Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

TWiM explains personalized aerosilized phage therapy for a chronic lung infection, and using the combination of antibiotic and a DNA molecule that binds alpha-gal to reduce S. aureus infection in vivo.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

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Links for this episode:

Aerosolized phage therapy (Nat Comm)
Alpha-gal aptamer and vancomycin for MRSA (Microorg)
Alpha-gal syndrome (Front Allergy)
Natural antibody protects against viral infection (virology blog)
Oil pulling for improving oral health (Healthcare)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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292: Breast Milk Bioactives Aug 11, 2023

Show notes

TWiM reveals that breast milk bioactives are essential for development of the infant microbiome and immunity, and how capsule mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae can affect bacterial pathogenesis.

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

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Links for this episode

Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life (Science)
Human Milk: An Ideal Food (Front Ped)
Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (Ann NY Acad Sci)
Gut microbiome in early childhood (Nature)
Probiotics Infloran and Labinic
Cell envelope defects of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Mol Micro)
A cautionary tale (Mol Micro)
Global mortality associated with bacterial pathogens (Lancet)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees

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291: Biogeography of Tectonics and Teeth Jul 29, 2023

Show notes

TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay.

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

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Links for this episode

Bacteria initiated plate tectonics (Geophys Res Lett)
Medea hypothesis (Sci Am)
Earth's ferrous wheel (Nature)
The Great Dying (Nova)
The Great Oxidation Event (ASM)
Banded iron formations (EarthSphere)
S. sputigena and tooth decay (Nat Comm)
Acid tolerance mechanisms of S. mutans (Fut. Micro.)
Halitosis patients' tongue biofilm (Microbiol. Open)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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290: Houston, We Have Mimi Goldschmidt Jul 14, 2023

Show notes

From ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston, TWiM speaks with Mimi Goldschmidt about her remarkable career in microbiology which included training astronauts to safely bring moon rocks back to Earth.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin. Guest: Mimi Goldschmidt

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Links for this episode

Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia)
Dr. Millicent "Mimi" Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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289: Viral Defense and Counter-Defense Jun 30, 2023

Show notes

TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity.

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

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Links for this episode

Ubiquitin-like conjugation by bacterial cGAS (Nature)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (TWiV 222)
Viral sponges inactivate anti-phage immunity (Trends Micro)
cGAS and CD-NTase enzymes (Curr Opin Struct Biol)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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288: Cancer and E. coli Jun 09, 2023

Show notes

TWiM describes a potential connection between a bacterial protein that damages DNA, and human cancers, and how to synthesize antimicrobial natural products from reconstructed bacterial genomes of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

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

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Links for this episode

Colorectal cancer and E. coli (Nature)
Natural products from ancient bacterial genomes (Science)
Underexplored bacteria reservoirs of antimicrobial lipopeptides (Front Chem)
Fries With That Mammoth Burger? (Mother Jones)
25-40 million year old spores (Science)
250 million year old bacterium from salt crystal (Nature)
1918 influenza with Jeffery Taubenberger (TWiV 966)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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287: When Replicas Do Not Replicate May 20, 2023

Show notes

TWiM investigates the high variability in the rate and amount of current production from microbial fuel cells, and how bacteria link their growth rate to external nutrient conditions via a protein that functions as a cellular rheostat.

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

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Links for this episode

Variability in microbial fuel cells (Appl Environ Micro)
Electrodes for microbial fuel cells (Chemosphere)
Microbial | electrochemical CO2 reduction (Joule)
Growth rate and cell wall precursors (Nat Micro)
Bacterial growth physiology (Front Micro)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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