The TWiM team explore how Lactobacillus reuteri can rescue social deficits in three mouse models of autism spectrum disorder, and the role of Salmonella persisters in undermining host defenses during antibiotic treatment.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. 

Become a Patron of TWiM!

• Please take the
• TWiM listener surveyBacteria alter behavior in mouse autism models (Neuron)
• Mice behaving badly (TWiM 131)
• Salmonella persisters undermine host immune defenses (Science)
• Persister cells (Ann Rev Microbiol)

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

The TWiM team reveals an extremely low rate of mutation in a 2500 year old, 185 acre fungus in Michigan, and how a host-produced quorum sensing autoinducer controls the phage switch between lysis and lysogeny.

• Please take the TWiM listener survey
• Vote for NJ State Microbe
• Huge fungus is 2500 years old (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Humongous fungus (Wikipedia)
• Host-produced autoinducer controls phage (Cell)
• These bacteria are bugged (virology blog)

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

• Please take the TWiM listener survey
• Vote for NJ State Microbe
• Huge fungus is 2500 years old (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Humongous fungus (Wikipedia)
• Host-produced autoinducer controls phage (Cell)
• These bacteria are bugged (virology blog)L

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

The TWiM team reveals the oldest human plague from 4,900 years ago in Sweden, and engineering E. coli to become an endosymbiont in yeast, modeling the evolution of mitochondria.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter,  Michael Schmidt,  and Michele Swanson

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• Oldest human plague from 4,900 years ago (PNAS)
• Engineering yeast endosymbionts (PNAS)
• Letters read on TWiM 191
• TWiM Listener survey

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to "mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]

The TWiM-opods consider two stories about exosomes, vesicles that are shed from cells: those that eliminate airway pathogens, and those from the plants we eat that shape our gut microbiome.

Hosts: 

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

• Exosome swarms eliminate airway pathogens (J Aller Clin Immunol)
• Exosome release from Bacteria, Eukaryotes, Archaea (Infect Immun)
• Plant exosomes shape gut microbiome (Cell Host Microbe)
• Image credit
• Subscribe to MicrobeTV on YouTube
• TWiM Listener survey

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to [email protected]

The TWiM team considers the state of the world’s fungi as revealed by a report from the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, and how Salmonella loses motility to evade host defenses.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson

Take our listener survey. Thanks! asm.org/twimpoll

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode:

• Subscribe to MicrobeTV on YouTube
• State of the World’s Fungi 2018
• Salmonella loses motility to avoid inflammasome activation (Cell Rep)

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

The TWiM rock stars show how to modify gram-positive antibiotics so they can kill gram-negative cells, and bacteria that have both DNA and RNA in their genome.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

Links for this episode

• Antibiotics for gram-positives that kill gram-negatives (J Med Chem)
• Sideromycin commentary (Am Council Sci Health)
• Bacterial genome with DNA and RNA (J Am Chem Soc)

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a patron of TWiM.

The TWiM people reveal that phages must cooperate to overcome CRISPR-Cas defenses, and the effect of the herbicide glyphosate on the gut microbiome of honey bees.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode:

• Phages Cooperate to Overcome CRISPR-Cas Immunity (Cell)
• Glyphosate perturbs gut microbiota of honey bees (PNAS)
• Letters read on TWiM 187

The TWiM team describe the involvement of a microbiome in snail metamorphosis, and using Listeria to kill tumors.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode

• Infectious diseases after Florence (Med Inf Dis)
• Cryptic niche switching in gastropod (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Metamorphosis then no eating (NY Times)
• Listeria promotes tumor rejection (PNAS)
• Image credit
• LADD pathway (jpg)
• LADD (Aduro Biotech)
• Crawling cells and comet tails (YouTube)
• Letters read on TWiM 168

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

The TWiM team considers the increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols, and how the study of DNA in ancient dung reveals the diet and parasite burden of extinct New Zealand birds.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Episode Links:

• Hand sanitizer alert (Emerg Inf Dis)
• Bacteria becoming hand sanitizer tolerant (NPR)
• Increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols (Sci Transl Med)
• Coprolites and the Moa (PNAS)
• After Hurricane Florence, Significant Worry Over Infectious Diseases

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

Sam Sternberg discusses his work on exploring and exploiting CRISPR-Cas immune systems, beginning as a graduate student with Jennifer Doudna, at a biotech start-up, and in his laboratory at Columbia University.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Sam Sternberg

 Become a Patron of TWiM!

• Sternberg Laboratory at Columbia
• Mechanism of substrate selection by Cas9 (RNA)
• DNA interrogation by Cas9 (Nature)
• Conformational control of DNA target cleavage by Cas9 (Nature)
• A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg
• What if we could rewrite the human genome? (YouTube)
• Sam Sternberg

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]