Vincent, Elio, and Michele meet with Harry Mobley, Mary O’Riordan, and Vince Young at the University of Michigan, during the designation of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They discuss how the laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss faculty work on uropathogenic E. coli, induction of stress by bacterial infection, and the gut microbiome.

Visit microbeworld.org/twim for more including the special video version of this episode.

Vincent meets up with Romney and Duncan at the 79th annual meeting of the Southern California branch of the American Society for Microbiology, where they talk about emerging technologies for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and next generation sequencing and advanced molecular diagnostics.

Visit microbeworld.org/twim to watch the video version and for complete shownotes including links mentioned.

The TWiM team wonders why definitions in biology often change, and discuss how the small molecule terrein is important for the growth of a soil fungus.

Image: Lesion formation on banana surfaces infected with Aspergillus terreus. Source

Links mentioned:

• ASM Undergraduate Research Capstone Program
• ASM Undergraduate Fellowship Program
• Regulation of terrein production in Aspergillus terreus

Visit microbeworld.org/twim for more.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

The TWiMitos discuss the reconstruction of a 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy, and using gallium as an antimicrobial in the battle for iron.

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

• 1,000 year old antimicrobial (mBio)
• Siderophore quenching with gallium (Evol Med Pub Health)
• Evolutionary dynamics of public goods (J Evol Biol)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 111

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected], or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

The TWiM team focuses on the gut microbiome, from a single member, Akkermansia muciniphila, to the effect of antibiotics on its composition and colonization resistance against C. difficile.

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

Agar art contest

Akkermansia muciniphilia and obesity (Gut)

A. muciniphilia genome (Biol Direct)

Alterations of gut microbiota and C. difficile colonization (mBio)

Science Delivered

Girls Who Code

F.E.M.M.E.S.

Association for Women in Science

UMich Host-Microbiome Initiative

UMich anaerobic chamber room (png)

The TWiM cohort discusses the use of antimicrobial peptides to target specific bacteria in the microbiome, and how the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia selectively kills male hosts.

Links for this episode:

• Antimicrobial peptides to modulate microbial ecology (PNAS)

• Targeting specific bacteria in the oral microbiome (Trends Micro)

• How Wolbachiakills male hosts (PLoS Biol)

• Wolbachia phage on TWiV 332

Image: Transmission electron micrograph of Wolbachia within an insect cell.

By: Scott O'Neill - Genome Sequence of the Intracellular Bacterium Wolbachia. PLoS Biol 2/3/2004: e76.

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

The professors of TWiM discuss a University of Wisconsin plan for rescuing biomedical research in the US, and results of a clinical trial in Bangladesh of an oral cholera vaccine.

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

• Rescuing biomedical research (eLife)
• Rethinking graduate and postdoc education (iBiology)
• Oral cholera vaccine trial (Lancet)
• Inexpensive cholera vaccine (NYTimes)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 108

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt.

Vincent and Michael discuss the highly diverse microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians, and how the composition of human urine plays a role in the battle for iron.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, via RSS feed, by email or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

• Microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians (Sci Adv)
• Urinary composition controls siderocalin activity (J Biol Chem)
• Urine acidity and UTI susceptibility (Infect Cont Today)
• Image (from pdb file 3cmp) shows siderocalin (magenta) complexed
• with iron (orange) and enterobactin (sticks)

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected], or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.

Vincent and Michael speak with Katy Bosio about her research on pathogenesis, immunity, and vaccines against Franciscella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia.

The TWiM team reviews the microbiological safety of herbs in the United Kingdom, and how a peptide from the milkweek bug binds the ribosome and inhibits bacterial protein synthesis.

Links for this episode:

• Microbes in whole-leaf herbs (J Appl Micro)

• Antimicrobial peptide blocks ribosome (Nat Struct Mol Biol)

• Bacterial protein synthesis (Micro Mol Biol Rev)

• Antimicrobial peptides (Nature)

• The battle for tryptophan (Front Cell Infect Micro)

• Image credit