Let’s take a deep dive into chemoautotrophy!  Today, Dr. Roxanne Beinart, Associate Professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how some marine creatures use bacterial symbioses to provide organic compounds for growth and reproduction. 

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Roxanne Beinart

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• An appreciation of the late Dr. Moselio (Elio) Schaechter from his friends at the blog “Small Things Considered.”
• A video from This Week in Microbiology appreciating Elio Schaechter.
• A video describing deep sea symbioses.
• A video by the great Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh about chemoautotrophy/chemosynthesis.
• An overview of chemoautotrophic strategies in the ocean.
• An overview of hydrothermal vents.
• A video review of  thiotrophic (sulfur based) symbiotic associations.
• A video about hydrothermal vent exploration.
• A review of hydrothermal vent communities.
• Alvinella, the extremophilic bristleworm discussed in this episode (includes videos).
• An article by Dr. Beinart and colleagues, describing how a hydrothermal vent community is disrupted by a volcanic eruption.
• A report on the 2020 submarine volcano eruption discussed in this episode.
• An interesting article about studying deep sea symbioses, coauthored by Dr. Beinart. 
• A great video by Dr. Beinart about her research. 
• Dr. Beinart’s research team website.
• Dr. Beinart’s faculty webpage.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Boo Shan Tseng, Associate Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Life Sciences, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss bacterial biofilms and antibiotic tolerance. 

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Boo Shan Tseng

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• A video overview of biofilms.
• A comprehensive review article on biofilms.
• An article describing the impact biofilms have on disease.
• An article describing the impact of biofilms on implanted medical devices.
• A link to the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University that has MANY links of interest.
• An overview of biofilm development.
• An overview of confocal laser microscopy.
• Studying biofilms in flow cells.
• An article about the role proteins play in biofilm formation, which intersects with the Tseng group’s research.
• The technique of single cell RNA seq.
• The technique of mRNA-FISH.
• An article about porins in bacteria, and how that can relate to antibiotic resistance.
• An article by Dr. Tseng and coworkers on the eDNA and biofilms discussed today.
• A lovely video of Dr. Tseng talking about the research she and her colleagues carry out in the laboratory.
• Dr. Tseng’s biography from the American Society for Microbiology.
• Dr. Tseng’s laboratory group website with wonderful links and images.
• Dr. Tseng’s faculty website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Jean-Marie Volland, Assistant Professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the discovery and analysis of the (so far) largest bacterium known:  Thiomargarita magnifica, which can be a centimeter long! Definitely #OMG and #WTM!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Jean-Marie Vollard

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• Here is a review article discussing the environmental persistence of antibiotic resistance genes.
• Here is a link to Episode 41 of this podcast, with Dr. Esther Angert, on the wily ways of Epulopiscium.
• A review article regarding “giant bacteria.”
• A video explaining the surface area versus volume issue discussed on this podcast.
• An interesting article exploring how much “territory” is within a bacterial cell; this is relevant to bacterial polyploidy.
• A review of Epulopiscium, the first of the giant bacteria described.
• Here is a video of Epulopisicum.  
• An article describing polyploidy in Epulopiscium. 
• A review of Thiomargarita nambiensis, another giant bacterium with an interesting strategy.
• Here is a video of T. nambiensis. 
• An essay from “Small Things Considered” about the very, very strange world of Achromatium, which is so worth your time.
• The first report of Thiomargarita magnifica, the world’s largest bacterium (thus far) by Dr. Volland and coauthors.
• Here is a report on this discovery for novice micronauts.
• A great review about giant microbes by Dr. Volland.
• A more recent article on T. magnifica by Dr. Volland and colleagues.
• A video regarding T. magnifica.
• A video by Dr. Volland describing T. magnifica work.
• A lovely essay regarding how Dr. Volland and family trekked California searching for giant microbes. Don’t miss!
• The research lab website for Dr. Volland and colleagues, with so much interesting information.
• The faculty website for Dr. Volland at UC Santa Barbara.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Today, Dr. Davida Smyth, Professor of Biology and Deputy Director of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement at Texas A&M University-San Antonio joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss her impressive work using microbiology to engage students at the intersection of cutting edge research and current events. #MicrobialLiteracy!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Davida Smyth

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• The American Society for Microbiology Carski Award website.
• The American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer website.
• The concept of “classroom agreements.”
• The 10:1 (microbial cells to human cells) story, and a related article.
• The 3-2-1 approach to learning in the classroom.
• Dr. Smyth’s “How Toilets Changed the World” class.
• The American Society for Microbiology Curriculum Guidelines.
• The National Science Foundation’s “Vision and Change” website describing improvements in biology education.
• The American Society for Microbiology profile for Dr. Smyth.
• A video seminar by Dr. Smyth describing open science in undergraduate education.
• The website for the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement.
• Dr. Smyth’s faculty website.
• Dr. Smyth’s superb research website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to [email protected]

Today, Dr. Nicole Geerlings from the University of Vienna in Austria joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss some of the wonderful work she and colleagues have carried out studying the wild, weird, and wonderful world of cable bacteria, which can conduct electricity over microbially enormous distances!  Definitely time for #OMG and #WTM!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Nicole Geerlings

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• This just became available:  a wonderful short introduction to day’s topic, the cable bacteria, from Asimov Press.  It is an absolute must read for everyone interested.
• Here is a link to the Summer Science Program, a wonderful outreach program for high school juniors.
• An essay about Nobel Prize winning Albert Szent-Györgyi, who stated that life was a matter of electrons finding a place to rest.  Here is a short video introduction to his work.
• A video introduction to microbial metabolism.
• A video introduction to electron transport.  Remember that bacteria and archaea are VERY skilled at using different electron donors and acceptors than eukaryotic life.
• The really fun concept of the “Jagendorf Jump,” showing electron transport vs. pH in chloroplasts.
• An overview of the microbial fuel cell concept.  Here is a nice overview I highly recommend.
• A commercial source for you to build your own microbial fuel cell.
• A DIY approach to building a MFC. 
• An ESSENTIAL overview to the idea of electrons in microbial sediments.
• A review article about cable bacteria.  Here is another fine review. This is a third great introduction to cable bacteria. And here is a video overview.  
• An article by Dr. Geerlings and colleagues describing cable bacteria for new #Micronauts.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
• An review of stable isotope probing in microbiology. Here is a video seminar using SIP in microbiology.
• An overview of Nano-SIMS and how it is used in microbiology.  Here is another review.  
• A deeply wonderful article by Dr. Geerlings and colleagues suggesting that inactive cells with the “microbial cable” are still conducting electrons!
• Dr. Geerlings postdoctoral scholar website.

Links and References on Cable Bacteria from Dr. Geerlings:

1. Here is a website from the group of Prof. Dr. Filip Meysman from the University of Antwerp, which includes a great video on the electron conductivity of cable bacteria.

2. The first paper describing redox half-reactions separated by long-distance electron transport.

Nielsen, L. P., Risgaard-Petersen, N., Fossing, H., Christensen, P. B., and Sayama, M. (2010). Electric currents couple spatially separated biogeochemical processes in marine sediment. Nature 463, 1071–1074. doi: 10.1038/nature08790

3. The paper describing the discovery of cable bacteria. Look into the supplemental material for the excellent experimental set-up to prove that the cable bacteria are the ones doing the long-distance electron transport.

Pfeffer, C., Larsen, S., Song, J., Dong, M., Besenbacher, F., Meyer, R. L., et al. (2012). Filamentous bacteria transport electrons over centimetre distances. Nature 491, 218–221. Doi: 10.1038/nature11586

4. A paper that dives into the conductivity of the cable bacteria network and shows that these fibres can conduct electrons just as well as a copper wire.

Meysman, F. J. R., Cornelissen, R., Trashin, S., Bonné, R., Martinez, S. H., van der Veen, J., et al. 2019. A highly conductive fibre network enables centimetre-scale electron transport in multicellular cable bacteria. Nat. Commun. 10:1–8. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12115-7

5. This paper describes how cable bacteria activity generates a layer of iron oxyhydroxides on the top of the sediment layer and how this delays the release of sulfide into the water column for several weeks in a seasonally hypoxic basin in the Netherlands.

Seitaj, D., R. Schauer, F. Sulu-Gambari, et al. 2015. “Cable Bacteria Generate a Firewall Against Euxinia in Seasonally Hypoxic Basins.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112: 13278–13283.

6. This paper describes how the catabolic division of labor is coupled to an anabolic division of labor where cells reducing oxygen cannot grow and therefore provide a “community service” for the rest of the filament.

Nicole M. J. Geerlings, Cheryl Karman, Stanislav Trashin, Karel S. As, Michiel V. M. Kienhuis, Silvia Hidalgo-Martinez, Diana Vasquez-Cardenas, Henricus T.S. Boschker, Karolien de Wael, Jack J. Middelburg, Lubos Polerecky, and Filip J.R. Meysman. Division of labor and growth during electrical cooperation in multicellular cable bacteria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 5478–5485. Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1916244117

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Heather Hendrickson from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the research she and her team are conducting on bacteriophage therapy to protect vulnerable honeybees from bacterial infections.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Heather Hendrickson

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• Here is the website for a former undergraduate research student of mine, Dr. Paula Welander, now a professor and administrator at Stanford University.  Yes, I am proud.
• Here is a link to another former undergraduate research student of mine, Dr. Krista Venecia Edmiston, now a professor at California Health Sciences University.  Yes, I am proud.
• A review on cell shape in bacteria.
• A review on the cytoskeleton of bacteria and archaea.
• I am a great admirer of Dr. John Roth, and his clearheaded and direct approach to microbial genetics.  Here is his academic website with many publications.
• An article about the causative agent of American Foulbrood, Paenibacillus larvae.
• An overview of American Foulbrood’s impact on honeybees.
• The honeybee lifecycle.
• Beemites and honeybees.
• A video overview of bacteriophage therapy against bacterial diseases.
• An explainer of bacteriophage plaques.
• A video overview of lytic versus lysogenic bacteriophages.
• Dr. Graham Hatfull and his simply amazing SEAPHAGEs program, teaching so many people about isolating and studying bacteriophages.
• An article from Dr. Hendrickson’s laboratory exploring cell shape in bacteria.
• An article from Dr. Hendrickson’s laboratory explaining the importance of protecting honeybees from American Foulbrood, and the approach her laboratory uses.
• An article from Dr. Hendrickson’s laboratory describing a community based approach to search for bacteriophages of Paenibacillus larvae.
• An article from Dr. Hendrickson’s laboratory analyzing the types of Paenibacillus attacking bacteriophages isolated in New Zealand.
• An article from Dr. Hendrickson’s laboratory describing an improved method for isolating bacteriophages.
• A truly great video from Dr. Hendrickson some years ago, explaining her research.  This is a “must see.”
• Dr. Hendrickson’s faculty webpage.
• Dr. Hendrickson’s informative research group website.
• This section of Dr. Hendrickson’s research group website is devoted to outreach, and so very worth your time.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Dianne Newman of Caltech joins the #QualityQuorum live at ASM Microbe in Los Angeles, to discuss the role that Albert Kluvyer played in helping microbial scientists to understand the unity and diversity to be found in microbial metabolism.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Dianne Newman

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• A review article by Roberto Kolter about the history of microbiology.
• An overview of the “Delft School” of microbiology.  Here is another article on that topic.
• The 1924 article by Albert Kluyver that Dr. Newman references—very much worth you time.
• A video overview of microbial metabolism.  Here is a recent article on that topic.
• A short biography of Albert Kluyver. Here is another article on that topic.
• A wonderful 2023 video seminar by Dr. Newman exploring the unity and diversity of microbial metabolism.  Much recommended.
• Dr. Newman’s faculty website.
• Dr. Newman’s very impressive research group website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. John McCutcheon of Arizona State University joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the work he and his research group do to investigate the strategies by which microbes become symbionts of other cells. After all, the mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotic cells, including yours, were once bacteria!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: John McCutcheon

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• A video about the symbiosis of Hydra virdissima, which captured my heart when I was young.  Look at those symbiotic algae!  Here is an overview of this topic.
• A video describing the Rhizobium – legume nitrogen fixing symbiosis in all of its glory—by my PhD advisor, the great Dr. Sharon Long.  Here is an overview of this topic.  
• An appreciation of Paul Buchner’s very important book, “Endosymbiosis of Animals with Plant Microorganisms.”
• A wonderful review by Dr. McCutcheon on how symbioses form.
• A wonderful essay by Ed Yong about an event that made eukaryotic cells possible:  how bacteria became mitochondria.
• A story about an anaerobic protist that lost its mitochondria completely.
• A bacterial symbiont of mitochondria, the “midichlorian.”
• The recent discovery of a new integrated symbiont that has become an organelle, the nitrosome.
• The “X-bacteria” and amoebae story.
• A retrospective on endosymbiosis, and Paramecium based on Tracey Sonneborn’s work.
• An essay on aphids and bacteria.
• An article on the Moranella/Tremblaya symbiosis.
• An article on “bacteria inside other bacteria” found in several symbioses, written by Dr.McCutcheon and colleagues.
• Genomic instability in bacterial endosymbionts.
• An article on cicadas and bacterial endosymbionts from Dr. McCutcheon and colleagues.
• An article on mealybugs and bacterial endosymbionts from Dr. McCutcheon and colleagues.
• Dr. McCutcheon’s thoughts on his career path (so worth reading).
• The Center for Mechanisms of Evolution research institute in which Dr. McCutcheon works.
• Dr. McCutcheon’s faculty website.
• Dr. McCutcheon’s (and his research team’s) wonderful research website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Dr. Ari Kozik, Assistant Professor at the University of MIchigan joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the work she and her research group do to investigate microbes living within the lung and their relationship to health as well as microbiology outreach and representation.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Ari Kozik

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• A wonderful discussion of airway microbes.
• A thought provoking article about microbes in our breath!
• Geography of mouth to lung and relevance to health.
• Relevance and definition of the term “microaspiration.”
• Some general characteristics of anaerobic bacteria
• A commercial video explaining the basics of anaerobic chambers
• An article about the airway microbiome
• A video overview about biofilms
• Kombucha sculpture as discussed briefly.
• A relevant article from Dr. Kozik’s and coworkers.
• A video from This Week in Virology including Dr. Kozik about representation in the microbial sciences (very important to watch).
• Dr. Kozik’s important efforts in science outreach.
• Dr. Kozik’s faculty website.
• Dr. Kozik’s research group website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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Today, Bob Kuhn, biotechnology teacher at the Fulton County Schools Innovation Academy STEM high school in Alpharetta, Georgia joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss his strategies for teaching molecular microbiology skills and concepts to high school students — and why that matters.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Bob Kuhn

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• An article on Mr. Kuhn’s original microbiological interest:  salt marsh foraminifera.
• Another interest:  a video of the beautiful organism Volvox.
• An overview of the fantastic world of protists.
• A classroom CURE that Mr. Kuhn uses:  the Tiny Earth program.
• A classroom CURE that Mr. Kuhn uses:  the SEAPHAGES program.
• A classroom CURE that Mr. Kuhn uses:  the Evolving Stem program.
• A classroom CURE that Mr. Kuhn uses:  the Discover the Microbes Within program.
• Mr. Kuhn’s classroom received help from the University of Georgia Microscopy Center.
• A video of the Wolbachia Project with which Mr. Kuhn has collaborated for years.
• An overview of wonderful and various isopods, including the “roly polies” used in some Wolbachia work.
• The Journal of Emerging Investigators, in which some of Mr. Kuhn’s high school students have published.
• The LTEE program that studies evolution in E. coli.  
• The Experiment.com program that supported some of Mr. Kuhn’s students.
• The very inspirational MEGAplate video that demonstrates how quickly antibiotic resistance can occur.
• Innovation Academy STEM program in Georgia, where Mr. Kuhn works with high school students.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to [email protected]