This Week In Microbiology

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. Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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 Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a Patron of TWiM! 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) Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees. Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

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, Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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. Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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 Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia) Dr. Millicent “Mimi” Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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. Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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, Petra Levin. Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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, Petra Levin. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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, Michele Swanson. Become a patron of TWiM. 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) Take the TWiM Listener survey!

TWiM reveals a new type of satellite virus that requires only phage tails for producing infectious virus particles, and that highly virulent plague bacteria differs from its innocuous enteric predecessor by its resistance to lysis by human complement. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Viruses that steal bacteriophage tails (Cell Host Microbe) Y. pestis not susceptible to human complement (Appl Environ Micro) How Y. pestis got its pathogenic groove (Appl Environ Micro) Risks of another pandemic (TedEd) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria. Links for this episode Housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant E. coli (Appl Micro Int) Antibiotic use in farming (Nature) Antimicrobial use in food producing animals (PLoS Glob Pub Health) Reproductive organ linked to symbiotic bacteria (mBio) Skype a Scientist Take the TWiM Listener survey!

TWiM reveals quorum-sensing systems that regulate intestinal inflammation and permeability caused by P. aeruginosa, and how plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior through translational regulatory crosstalk. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Quorum-sensing in the intestine (mBio) Block quorum sensing, block biofilm (Antimicrob Agents Chemother) Plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior (PLoS Biol) Regulatory genes associated with integrative conjugative elements (J Bact) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM presents a protocol for evolving caffeine-tolerant yeast by high school students in the home, and how predator-prey dynamics change when multiple bacteria grow together in biofilms. 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. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Caffeine-tolerant yeast selected at home (microPub Biology) yEvo Lab Vision and change in undergraduate biology (NAS) CURE in a box (JMBE) EvolvingStem EvolvingStem: Evolution-in-action curriculum (BMC) Spatial ecology of predation (PNAS) Predatory bacteria: From curiosity to curative (Trends Micro) Combating antimicrobial resistance with predatory Bdellovibrio (YouTube) Bdellovibrio attacking E.coli (YouTube) From one, many (YouTube) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM explains the synthesis in bacteria of new energy-dense biofuels that can replace rocket and jet fuels, and the use of nanopore sequencing to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with serious infections.   Become a patron of TWiM.   Links for this episode:   Biosynthesis of high energy biofuels (Joule) Polyketide synthases in bacteria (PNAS) Sequencing for diagnosis of serious infections (mBio) Nanopore sequencing video (YouTube) Emerging human pathogen Kodamaea ohmeri (Front. Micro)

TWiM explains how magnesium modulates cell division frequency of a soil bacillus, and killing of fungi by Acinetobacter baumannii via a Type VI DNase Effector. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a Patron of TWiM! Links for this episode: •Magnesium modulates cell division frequency (J Bacteriol) •A. baumannii kills fungi (mBio) Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission. Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM describes successful phage therapy against a mycobacterial lung infection, and how encapsulation of the cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from its major peptidoglycan hydrolase and host defenses. Links for this episode: Phage therapy against M. abscessus lung infection (Cell) Encapsulation of the septal cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from host defenses (PLoS Path) Letters read on TWiM 279

TWiM explores the relationship between the gut microbiome and depressive symptoms, and how purine nucleotides act as adjuvants to antibiotics. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a Patron of TWiM! Links for this episode: Gut microbiota and depressive symptoms one and two (Nat Commun ) Microbiome influences depression (Phys.org) Gut bacteria and depression (Med Press) Mice behaving badly (TWiM 131) Gut microbiome in ASD (Front Cell Inf Micro) Transferring the blues (J Psych Res) Nucleotides as adjuvants to antibiotics (mBio) Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission. Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

On this episode of TWiM, we reveal widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages that may regulate translation of lytic genes, and how Staphylococcus aureus inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Stop codon recoding in bacteriophages (Nat Micro) How S. aureus inhibits P. aeruginosa growth (J Bact) S. aureus small colony variants (Front Cell Infect Micro) Ken Timmis retires as journal editor (YouTube) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM presents evidence that over half of human pathogenic diseases are impacted by climate change, and considers how a novel prokaryote discovered next to an underground stream illuminates the pathway to multicellularity. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Mark Martin. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Climate change and pathogenic diseases (Nat Climate Change) Impacts of climate change on human diseases (MoraLAB) Cave bacteria illuminate pathway to multicellularity (eLife) Commentary on novel cave bacteria (eLife) Karst landscapes (National Park Service) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM reveals high rates of co-transformation of plasmids in E. coli overturns the clonality myth, and bacterial membrane vesicles as a novel strategy for extrusion of the antimicrobial bismuth in H. pylori. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin Links for this episode The myth of clonality (Sci Rep) Bacterial membrane vesicles extrude bismuth (mBio) Gastric acid levels must decrease (World J Gastroenterol) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Become a patron of TWiM. Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission. Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv