This Week In Microbiology

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

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

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 , 

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

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

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.

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.

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

Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how inflammation allows Salmonella to compete with fermenting gut microbes, and a riboswitch in bacterial and Archeal species that is triggered by fluoride.

Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss the finding of Sutterella species in the gut of autistic children, and methods for cultivating oral bacteria. 

On episode #25 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review bacteria that use the earth’s magnetic field for navigation, and identification of totally drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Vincent, Michael, and Cliff review ten compelling microbiology stories from 2011.

Vincent, Jo, Elio, and Michael explain how a swarming bacterium helps disperse a non-motile fungus, and bacterial antibiotic tolerance mediated by hydrogen sulfide and starvation responses.

Vincent and Michael speak with Alfred Sacchetti, MD, Chief of Emergency Services at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, about microbial infections encountered in the emergency room.

Vincent and Elio discuss ancient symbiosis between Alphaproteobacteria and catenulid flatworms, and a toxin from Helicobacter pylori that engages the mitochondrial fission machinery to induce host cell death.

On episode #20 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Michael, and Elio follow up on the outbreaks of E. coli in Germany and cholera in Haiti, then discuss genes that confer self-identity to Proteus mirabilis.

Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Jo discuss the genome sequence of Y. pestis from victims of the Black Death, and the effect of diet on gut microbial enterotypes.

Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Stanley explain how to make the human intestinal commensal and benign laboratory bacterium Escherichia coli K-12 into an invasive organism, and the unearthing of century-old spores in New York City.

Vincent, Michael, and Elio focus on endosymbiosis: the rapid spread of Ricekttsia in whitefiles, and a metabolic patchwork in nested symbionts of mealybugs.

On episode #16 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Michael, Arturo, Stuart, and David converse about antimicrobial resistance and why most fungi do not cause disease at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).