This Week In Microbiology

Vincent, Michael, Elio review innate immune sensing of Listeria secreted bacterial nucleic acids, and how Wolbachia enhances egg production in Drosophila.

Vincent, Michael, Elio discuss the role of prophage excision in exit of Listeria from the phagosome, and analysis of bacterial communities in saliva.

Vincent, Michael, Elio review formation of caveolae in a bacterium, and the limited genetic diversity and broad killing activity of P. acnes bacteriophages.

Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Joe review highlights of the 15th International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections (ISSSI) in Lyon, France.

Vincent and Michael travel to San Francisco for the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), where they meet with Bill, John, and Victor to discuss tuberculosis, monitoring infectious disease outbreaks with online data, and outside-the-box approaches to antibacterial therapy.

**MicrobeWorld app users, click the "e" symbol in the bottom right corner of this description to watch a bonus video version of this episode!** Vincent and Stanley meet with Waclaw Szybalski and John Kirby at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the occasion of its designation as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They reminisce about how the well known laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss John’s work on the soil dwelling, predatory myxobacteria. If you don't have the app, please visit www.microbeworld.org/app to get more information about downloading the app for your iOS or Android device. This video is also available for free at www.microbeworld.org in the TWiM section, epsiode #40.

Vincent, Michael, and Elio reviews chapters from Microbes and Evolution, a collection of short, personal essays by microbiologists.

Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio review an outbreak of pertussis in Washington, and how culturing can reveal rare members of the soil biosphere.

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

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

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.