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

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TWiM investigates the high variability in the rate and amount of current production from microbial fuel cells, and how bacteria link their growth rate to external nutrient conditions via a protein that functions as a cellular rheostat.

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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• Variability in microbial fuel cells (Appl Environ Micro)
• Electrodes for microbial fuel cells (Chemosphere)
• Microbial | electrochemical CO2 reduction (Joule)
• Growth rate and cell wall precursors (Nat Micro)
• Bacterial growth physiology (Front Micro)
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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals environmental integrons, bacterial genetic elements notorious for their role in spreading antibiotic resistance, and how Salmonella invasion is controlled by competition among intestinal chemical signals.

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

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• Environmental integrons (Trends Micro)
• Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution (Nat Rev Micro)
• Rethinking microbial infallibility in the metagenomics era (Fems Micro

Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals a new type of satellite virus that requires only phage tails for producing infectious virus particles, and that highly virulent plague bacteria differs from its innocuous enteric predecessor by its resistance to lysis by human complement.

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

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• Viruses that steal bacteriophage tails (Cell Host Microbe)
• Y. pestis not susceptible to human complement (Appl Environ Micro)
• How Y. pestis got its pathogenic groove (Appl Environ Micro)
• Risks of another pandemic (TedEd)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria.

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• Housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant E. coli (Appl Micro Int)
• Antibiotic use in farming (Nature)
• Antimicrobial use in food producing animals (PLoS Glob Pub Health)
• Reproductive organ linked to symbiotic bacteria (mBio)
• Skype a Scientist
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

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TWiM reveals quorum-sensing systems that regulate intestinal inflammation and permeability caused by P. aeruginosa, and how plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior through translational regulatory crosstalk.

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

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• Quorum-sensing in the intestine (mBio)
• Block quorum sensing, block biofilm (Antimicrob Agents Chemother)
• Plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior (PLoS Biol)
• Regulatory genes associated with integrative conjugative elements (J Bact)
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

TWiM presents a protocol for evolving caffeine-tolerant yeast by high school students in the home, and how predator-prey dynamics change when multiple bacteria grow together in biofilms.

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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• Caffeine-tolerant yeast selected at home (microPub Biology)
• yEvo Lab
• Vision and change in undergraduate biology (NAS)
• CURE in a box (JMBE)
• EvolvingStem
• EvolvingStem: Evolution-in-action curriculum (BMC)
• Spatial ecology of predation (PNAS)
• Predatory bacteria: From curiosity to curative (Trends Micro)
• Combating antimicrobial resistance with predatory Bdellovibrio (YouTube)
• Bdellovibrio attacking E.coli (YouTube)
• From one, many (YouTube)
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TWiM explains the synthesis in bacteria of new energy-dense biofuels that can replace rocket and jet fuels, and the use of nanopore sequencing to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with serious infections.

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Links for this episode:

• Biosynthesis of high energy biofuels (Joule)

• Polyketide synthases in bacteria (PNAS)

• Sequencing for diagnosis of serious infections (mBio)

• Nanopore sequencing video (YouTube)

• Emerging human pathogen Kodamaea ohmeri (Front. Micro)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiM explains how magnesium modulates cell division frequency of a soil bacillus, and killing of fungi by Acinetobacter baumannii via a Type VI DNase Effector.

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

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•Magnesium modulates cell division frequency (J Bacteriol) •A. baumannii kills fungi (mBio)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]