This Week in Microbiology

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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

Vincent, Elio, and Michael reveal what Neanderthals ate from analysis of DNA in their teeth, and new CRISPR-Cas systems found in the genomes of uncultured microbes.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt.

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

• Ancient DNA in Neanderthal teeth (Nature)
• New CRISPRs from metagenomics (Nature)
• CRISPR/cas explained (Wikipedia)
• ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 148

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 

The TWiM hosts reveal why phosphorus is essential for fungal brain disease, and how bacteria kill local competitors to favor the evolution of public goods cooperation.

Hosts: 

Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

• Phosphate needed for Cryptococcus brain disease (mSphere)

• Type VI killing drives phase separation (Nat Rep)

• Type VI secretion review (Phil Trans Roy Soc)

• Microbial cooperation and conflict (TedX)

• Image credit

• Letters read on TWiM 147

Become a patron of TWiM.

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 your first purchase – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twim

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