TWiM reviews how a coating of lipoproteins provides a stabilizing environment on the inner membrane of Bacillus subtilis spores, and a miniaturized device that integrates genetically engineered probiotic biosensors with a custom-designed photodetector and readout chip to track mediators of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin, Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Lipoproteins stabilize germination apparatus (J Bacteriol)
• A coating of liposomes (J Bacteriol)
• Biosensor to detect inflammatory molecules in the gut (Nature)
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TWiM discusses a dispute about whether the mycobiome plays a role in the development of cancer, and the structure and function of channels that are delivered to plant cells by pathogenic bacteria.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, and Michael Schmidt.

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• Cancer microbes disputed (Carl Zimmer)
• Fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature)
• Revisiting fungal mycobiome and cancer (Nature)
• Bacteria deliver channels to plant cells (Nature)
• Ice nucleation by bacteria (YouTube)
• Gram-negative bacterial porins (Curr Protein Pept Sci)
• Xenopus oocyte toolbox (Cold Spring Harb Protocols)
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TWiM explains how phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses, and discovery of a new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium that binds to an immutable target.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin,

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• Phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses (eLife)
• Sea phages
• Actinobacteriophage database
• New antibiotic from uncultured bacterium (bioRxiv)
• The age of infection (For Policy)
• Killing bacteria by teixobactin (Nature)
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TWiM reveals that the ice cream manufacturing environment harbors psychrotrophic bacteria, and identification of a deadly bacterial strain causing widespread deaths of newborns in Uganda.

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

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• Pyschrotrophic bacteria in ice cream plants (Appl Environ Micro)
• Creamery pays fine for contaminated ice cream (US DOJ)
• Paenibacillus infection of infants in Uganda (The Lancet)
• Deadly bacterial strain identified (Yale SOM)
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TWiM explains personalized aerosilized phage therapy for a chronic lung infection, and using the combination of antibiotic and a DNA molecule that binds alpha-gal to reduce S. aureus infection in vivo.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

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• Aerosolized phage therapy (Nat Comm)
• Alpha-gal aptamer and vancomycin for MRSA (Microorg)
• Alpha-gal syndrome (Front Allergy)
• Natural antibody protects against viral infection (virology blog)
• Oil pulling for improving oral health (Healthcare)

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals that breast milk bioactives are essential for development of the infant microbiome and immunity, and how capsule mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae can affect bacterial pathogenesis.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin,

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• Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life (Science)
• Human Milk: An Ideal Food (Front Ped)
• Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (Ann NY Acad Sci)
• Gut microbiome in early childhood (Nature)
• Probiotics Infloran and Labinic
• Cell envelope defects of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Mol Micro)
• A cautionary tale (Mol Micro)
• Global mortality associated with bacterial pathogens (Lancet)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin, Guest: Mark O. Martin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email.

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• Bacteria initiated plate tectonics (Geophys Res Lett)
• Medea hypothesis (Sci Am)
• Earth’s ferrous wheel (Nature)
• The Great Dying (Nova)
• The Great Oxidation Event (ASM)
• Banded iron formations (EarthSphere)
• S. sputigena and tooth decay (Nat Comm)
• Acid tolerance mechanisms of S. mutans (Fut. Micro.)
• Halitosis patients' tongue biofilm (Microbiol. Open)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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From ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston, TWiM speaks with Mimi Goldschmidt about her remarkable career in microbiology which included training astronauts to safely bring moon rocks back to Earth.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin. Guest: Mimi Goldschmidt

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• Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia)
• Dr. Millicent “Mimi” Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin.

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• Ubiquitin-like conjugation by bacterial cGAS (Nature)
• Jumpin’ Jack Flash (TWiV 222)
• Viral sponges inactivate anti-phage immunity (Trends Micro)
• cGAS and CD-NTase enzymes (Curr Opin Struct Biol)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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TWiM describes a potential connection between a bacterial protein that damages DNA, and human cancers, and how to synthesize antimicrobial natural products from reconstructed bacterial genomes of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

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• Colorectal cancer and E. coli (Nature)
• Natural products from ancient bacterial genomes (Science)
• Underexplored bacteria reservoirs of antimicrobial lipopeptides (Front Chem)
• Fries With That Mammoth Burger? (Mother Jones)
• 25-40 million year old spores (Science)
• 250 million year old bacterium from salt crystal (Nature)
• 1918 influenza with Jeffery Taubenberger (TWiV 966)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees

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