Today, Dr. Rosie ’Anolani Alegado of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa  joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how weather, climate, and human intervention impact the microbiota to be found in human related seascapes around Hawai’i.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Rosie ’Anolani Alegado

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• An overview of how Hawai’i was settled from Polynesia.
• An essay describing indigenous Hawai’ian culture and its collaborative relationship to the land and sea.
• A must read book “Coral Reefs in a Microbial Sea,” by the late Merry Youle, Forest Rohwer, and Derek Vosten.
• Here are several links related to the work of Dr. Isabella Abbott, including this one from Pacific Science.  Again, well worth your reading.
• An overview of the field of ethnobotany, championed by Dr. Abbott.
• Dr. Alegado’s previous research was with the fascinating choanoflagellates, which can tell us about the evolution of complex life.  Here is a video about these ancient relatives of us all.  Here is a article from Dr. Alegado describing a bacterial role in the development of this fascinating organism.
• An overview of the “One Health” concept linking human interactions, animals, plants, the land, and the ocean.
• A focus of Dr. Alegado’s group research involving the indigenous Hawai’ian  fishponds.
• An overview of community restoration of these ancient structures.
• The role of taro in ethnobotany.
• A fine description of indigenous Hawai’ian mariculture.
• The concept of dysbiosis.
• Tropical storm Wali, which impacted the Hawai’ian Islands.
• An overview of alpha diversity and beta diversity in microbiome studies.
• A fine book about Dr. Barbara McClintock, “A Feeling for the Organism.”
• Here is a wonderful video in which Dr. Alegado describes the work of her research group and her interests in the fishponds of Hawai’i.
• Dr. Alegado’s faculty website.
• Dr. Alegado’s very interesting research group website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Rachel Poretsky, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how examining wastewater (and related water) can give insights into the presence of pathogen antimicrobial resistance genes and even microbial ecology.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Rachel Poretsky

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• A link to demonstrate the wonders of the Marine Biological Laboratories’ Microbial Diversity course, which I know for a fact is life changing.
• Recommended by David Ranada, an article about water bottles and microbes.  
• An essay about the Chicago River and cholera, which led to the necessity of effective waste water treatment.
• An overview of the complexities of waste water treatment.  Here is a video on that topic.  
• An essay by Carl Zimmer about the microbial ecology of lakes…and human beings.
• How “recreational water quality” is determined.
• An article describing the microbiota associated with human biological waste with an amusing name (scroll down).
• How qPCR can be used to determine the prevalence of specific microbes.
• A recent article from Dr. Poretsky’s research group, investigating how antimicrobial resistance genes can move through a hospital waste water system.
• A link to the Bacterial-Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center, for which Dr. Poretsky is a Principle Investigator.
• The Illinois state wastewater surveillance dashboard.  Fascinating!
• A Discovery Channel documentary on virus hunting and surveillance that includes Dr. Poretsky.
• Dr. Poretsky’s faculty webpage.
• Dr. Poretsky’s webpage for her research group.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Karen Ottemann, Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology at the University of California Santa Cruz joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the fascinating strategies of Helicobacter pylori, which can cause gastric ulcers and even stomach cancer in people.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Karen Ottemann

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• An overview of Helicobacter pylori and its relationship to gastric ulcers and gastric cancer.
• A video on the relationship between Helicobacteri pylori and gastric diseases.
• The story of how Helicobacter pylori was finally demonstrated to be responsible for gastric ulcers and gastric cancer.
• The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori world wide.
• When Helicobacter pylori does not cause disease:  a possible theory.
• The mechanism by which Helicobacter pylori causes gastric ulcers.
• The mechanism by which Helicobacter pylori causes gastric cancer.
• An overview of gastric cancer.
• An overview of inflammation and cancer.
• One of the articles from Dr. Ottemann’s research group discussed in this episode:  “Bacterial flagella hijack type IV pili proteins to control motility.”
• Another of the articles from Dr. Ottemann’s research group discussed in this episode:  “Helicobacter pylori cheV1 mutants recover semisolid agar migration due to loss of a previously uncharacterized Type IV filament membrane alignment complex homolog.”
• Dr. Ottemann’s faculty website.
• Dr. Ottemann’s research website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, the impressive Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University returns to the podcast to discuss how fungal disease is a looming threat on our warming planet, and how these organisms can use pigmentation to adapt to human-associated environments . . . and increase their chances of causing disease.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Arturo Casadevall

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• A video overview of the understudied world of fungi.
• A CDC overview of fungal diseases.
• A hopeful study:  fungi, frogs, and purple bacteria.  A less scholarly but highly recommended essay is here.
• Dr. Casadevall’s earlier visit to #MattersMicrobial.
• The story of Alexander Fleming, a stray fungal spore, and penicillin.
• The story of fungi and cyclosporins, which help with organ transplantation in humans.
• A recent New York Times article on fungal networks.
• An article about mass extinctions and “fungal overgrowth.”
• A review of the structure and function of melanin.
• An overview of how melanin can be used to turn various forms of radiation into energy.
• A review of high body temperatures versus fungal infections.
• One of the articles discussed today, from Dr. Casadevall’s group:  “Impact of Yeast Pigmentation on Heat Capture and Latitudinal Distribution.”
• Another article from Dr. Casadevall’s group discussed today:  “The hypothermic nature of fungi.”
• A really fascinating preprint from Dr. Casadevall’s group discussed today:  “Thermal and pigment characterization of environmental fungi in the urban heat island of Baltimore City”
• Dr. Casadevall’s faculty website.
• The research website for Dr. Casadevall’s group.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Brianne Barker, Associate Professor of the Biology Department at Drew University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how her undergraduate research group studies how innate immune mechanisms of cells recognize viral invasion.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Brianne Barker

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• A video describing the immune system, both innate and adaptive.
• More of a focus on mechanisms of innate immunity, the focus for today.
• A description of basic immune cells.
• An introductory video describing the viral reproductive cycle in general.
• A description of PRRs (pattern recognition receptors) and MAMPs (microbially associated molecular patterns)
• An overview of interferons and disease.
• An introductory video overview of programmed cell death, called apoptosis.
• The role that retroviruses play in producing blue eggs in chickens.  Here is a very introductory summary.  
• The role that retroviruses play in placental mammals, including humans.
• How do cells recognize invading DNA during viral infection?
• A research paper by Dr. Barker’s research group.
• Dr. Barker on This Week in Virology.
• Dr. Barker’s faculty website.
• Dr. Barker’s research group website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Marc Chevrette, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how his research group can study novel metabolites and even interactions via study of microbial genomes! Dr. Chevrette reminds us all that microbes are the best chemists!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Marc Chevrette

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•  An overview of how quickly the field of microbial genomics has advanced.
• How secondary metabolites can be important to antibiosis, cell signaling, and even communication.
• An overview of genome mining, along with another review.
• The program antiSMASH that analyzes genomes for genes involved with secondary metabolites.
• A video describing how antiSMASH can be used to search for possible biosynthetic gene clusters.
• An essay about Dr. Julian Davies.
• An article by Dr. Davies’ group suggesting that antibiotics can serve as chemical signals between microbes.
• The idea of “parvomics,” studying the role of small molecules in how microbes communicate and interact.
• A great article from Dr. Chevrette and colleagues about how to look for biosynthetic diversity using genome mining.
• An article by Dr. Chevrette and colleagues exploring how groups of microbes can interact in remarkable ways.
• Dr. Chevrette’s faculty website.
• Dr. Chevrette’s research website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Angela Oliverio, Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Syracuse University, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss what her research group has been learning about extremophilic single-celled eukaryotes!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Angela Oliverio

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• An overview of protists.  
• A wondrous video of the types of protists to be found seemingly everywhere.
• A video about amoebae and how YOU can find them.  
• A video about the testate amoebae mentioned in this podcast.
• An essay about the testate amoebae.
• A very old article on temperature limits to eukaryotic life.
• A more modern article on this topic.
• An article from Dr. Oliverio’s group on the temperature limits to eukaryotic life.
• The Mullin laboratory at UCSF does remarkable visualization.
• Genomics and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
• How mycoplasma move, with remarkable videos.
• A member of Dr. Oliverio’s lab creates beautiful glass art at this Etsy shop.
• A wonderful local news report on Dr. Oliverio and coworker’s research.
• A nice overview of Dr. Oliverio’s research interest in extremophilic protists.
• An article from Dr. Oliverio’s group explaining why we should all care about extremophilic eukaryotes.
• Dr. Oliverio’s research website (and SO worth your time)
• Dr. Oliverio’s faculty website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr Ariane Briegel, Professor and head of the Integrative Structural Cell Biology research unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss some of the exciting findings of her research group studying how bacteria and the ever-popular Hawaiian bobtail squid work together at a  molecular level—using cutting-edge cryo-electron  tomography!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Ariane Briegel

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• The (somewhat venerable) “The Eighth Day of Creation” discussed in this episode.
• A lovely article about the much missed Dr. Esther Lederberg.  Here is another I much enjoyed. 
• A website devoted to Dr. Esther Lederberg.
• A fun video reminder of the symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and Euprymna scolopes.  
• A review of cryo-electron tomography as applied to the study of bacterial structures.
• A book coauthored by Dr. Briegel on the use of this technology to study cell-microbe interactions.
• A video on the topic of cryo-electron tomography.
• Another video by Dr. Briegel on this topic.  
• An earlier episode of #MattersMicrobial with Dr. Briegel.
• An article by the Moore Foundation that supports the work of Dr. Briegel.
• A article describing how cryo-EM can be applied to whole organisms, like roundworms.  
• Research websites for collaborators on this project, Dr. Edward Ruby and Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai.
• Dr. Briegel’s laboratory website.
• Dr. Briegel’s academic website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr Laura Williams, Director of Undergraduate Research at Georgia Institute of Technology, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss some of the exciting work she did as an associate professor at Providence College with undergraduate students studying predatory bacteria and why we should care about this fascinating topic!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Laura Williams

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• A quite ancient review article describing the different classes of predatory bacteria by yours truly.
• A very important article on this topic by the late Dr. Lynn Margulis and colleagues.
• An article about my very inspirational first microbiology professor at UCLA, Syd Rittenberg, who did early work on Bdellovibrio.
• Several more up to date review articles on Bdellovibrio.
• The website of Dr. Liz Sockett (where both yours truly and Dr. Williams received some generous training).
• A quite interesting article by Dr. Sockett on Bdellovibrio.
• An article suggesting that predatory bacteria could be used as “living antibiotics.”
• An article describing the BALOs concept.
• The article described by Dr. Williams.
• Dr. Williams laboratory group website.
• Dr. Williams current faculty/administrator page.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. George Schaible, Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the exciting work he did during his PhD to unravel a fascinating topic:  multicellular magnetotactic microbes!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: George Schaible

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• What is a postdoctoral scholar in microbiology? 
• A previous #MattersMicrobial podcast about giant bacteria from Dr. Esther Angert.  
• A previous #MattersMicrobial podcast about magnetotactic bacteria from Dr. Arash Komeili.
• A previous #MattersMicrobial podcast about multicellularity in microbes from Dr Will Ratcliff.  
• The transformative Microbial Diversity Course at the Marine Biological Labs at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
• An article describing the value of the Microbial Diversity Course. 
• I wrote this blog post on Chlorochromatium aggregatum consortium for Small Things Considered many years ago.  
• The “pink berry” consortium at Woods Hole.
• A research paper on genetic interactions within the pink berry consortium, coauthored by a former undergraduate researcher of mine, Dr. Danielle Campbell.  Yes, I am very proud.
• A strategy to easily enrich for magnetotactic bacteria from nature. Here is a video that informs and amuses.  
• An early report of multicellular magnetotactic microbes.
• The research article under discussion in today’s podcast.
• A link to Dr. Roland Hatzenpichler’s laboratory website (Dr. Hatzenpichler was the originator of this research, all the way back to his own attending the Microbial Diversity Course.).
• The deeply strange genome(s) of Achromatium.
• An introduction to nanoSIMS technology.
• An introduction to stable isotope probing.
• The laboratory website of Dr. Jean-Marie Volland, where Dr. Schaible works at UC Santa Barbara

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to [email protected]