Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Making E. coli an insect mutualist (bioRxiv)
• Letters read on TWiEVo 76
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Inequality in science and the case for a new agenda Vincent – Foundations of Virology by Fred Murphy

Sam – Saturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist

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Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature)
• Vampire vax (TWiV 809)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Erich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement Vincent – Polio type 1 in Africa

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Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Joe Graves

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• On Racism, Not Race (Amazon)
• African Americans in evolutionary science (Behav Ecol Sociobiol)
• Biological variation and the normal (Am J Hum Biol)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Where is Webb? Vincent – Black Microbiologists Association Joe – Biology versus bias

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Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants (Cell Rep)
• Host origins of SARS-CoV-2 genome insertions (Virological)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Plant virus satellite accelerates wing formation in insect Vincent – A plant virus that switched to vertebrates

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Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Ancient coronavirus epidemic in East Asia (Curr Biol)
• Gene-culture coevolution and human evolutionary transition (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Membrane permeability at the lipid divide (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science Vincent – Virology Live

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Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• SARS-CoV-2 mutation rate (Genome Biology Evolution)
• Delta spike change enhances fitness (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Leading Edge Symposium Vincent – Epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2

Thomas – The gene's-eye view of evolution by J. Arvid Ågren

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Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life's Edge.

Host: Nels Elde

Guest: Carl Zimmer

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• On Life's Edge by Carl Zimmer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Remembrance of Dick Lewontin Carl – From telomere to telomere: the transcriptional and epigenetic state of human repeat elements

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Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Identification of novel bat coronaviruses (Cell)
• Dating first cases of COVID-19 (PLoS Path)
• Recovery of deleted SARS-CoV-2 sequences (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – The Last—And Only—Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out Vincent – Human Behavior During the Pandemic Is More Important Than Any Covid Variant

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Nels and Vincent explain a new method for calculating the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which concludes that the ancestral virus was circulating in October/November 2019, before its first detection in China.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolutionary portrait of SARS-CoV-2 (Mol Biol Evolution)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 68
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Ed Yong pandemic trauma and We're Not Ready for the Next Pandemic Vincent – Furin cleavage site is not a smoking gun

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Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Recombination in B.1.1.7 lineage (Virological)
• CoVariants
• Letters read on TWiEVO 67
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Nels – Mars rover helicopter flight! Vincent – TWiN 17: Worms see the light with Michael Nitabach

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