TWiM explains the use of lavender oil to disrupt Listeria biofilms, and how treatment of catheters with liquid silicone reduces associated urinary tract infections.

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• Lavender oil prevents biofilms (Lett Appl Micro)
• Silicone-infused catheters reduce infection (eLife)
• Viable but not culturable (TWiM 179)
• Letters read on TWiM 263
• TWiM Listener survey

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

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

TWiM welcomes new host Petra, and explains how a small protein helps ensure that E. coli utilizes a preferred carbon source, and a screening strategy to identify inhibitors of the type IV secretion system that is essential for virulence of a variety of bacterial pathogens.

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

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• A small protein regulates carbon utilization (PNAS)
• Inhibitors of type IV secretion systems (mBio)
• Letters read on TWiM 262

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

Mark returns to TWiM to join in a discussion of soil microbiota as game-changers in restoration of degraded lands, and discovery of a centimeter-long bacterium, the biggest yet discovered.

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Game-changing soil microbiota (Science)
• A World Without Soil by Jo Handlesman
• A World Without Soil video (YouTube)
• Centimeter-long bacteria (bioRxiv)
• How large can a bacteria get? (YouTube)
• Giant bacteria (YouTube)
• Three faces of Thiomargarita (Small Things Considered)
• The microbe that could be seen (Small Things Considered)
• Energetics of the eukaryotic edge (Small Things Considered)
• A lakeside tale (Small Things Considered)
• Letters read on TWiM 261

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

In this food-centric TWiM, we reveal the microbiomes of carnivorous vulture bees and of Gala apples from all over the world.

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• Microbiome of vulture bees (mBio)
• Bees previously in TWiM 245
• Microbiome of Gala apples (Envir Micro)
• Apple flower microbiome (mBio)
• TWiM Listener survey

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

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

Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of the frightening global burden of bacterial antibiotic resistance, and a solution to the problem of daylight nitrogen fixation in a cyanobacterium, despite the incompatibility of nitrogenase with oxygen produced during photosynthesis.

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Links for this episode:

• Global bacterial antimicrobial resistance (Nat Micro)
• Cancer moon shot (NCI)
• When antibiotics don’t work (TED)
• Cyanobacterium buoyancy (Nat 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 bacterial symbionts regulate tick blood feeding activity, and the reasons why antibiotics exist.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt

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Links for this episode:

• Symbionts help ticks to feed (Cell Host Microbe)
• Why do antibiotics exist? (mBio)
• Shorter is still better (J Hosp Med)
• Shorter vs longer antibiotic courses (J Hosp Med)
• Francis Tally and tigecycline (Clin Inf Dis)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

On this episode of TWiM, how phages prevent other phages from invading their hosts without blocking their own reproduction, and plastic-degrading potential of microbes across the Earth.

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Links for this episode:

• Prophages encode phage-defense systems with cognate self-immunity (Cell Host Microbe)
• Prophages self-destruct to eliminate competitors (Cell Host Microbe)
• Plastic-degrading potential across global microbiome (mBio)
• Plastics in our foods (ENV media)

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 discusses antigenic variation within dengue virus serotypes, and an mRNA vaccine that induces antibodies against tick proteins and prevents transmission of the Lyme disease agent.

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

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

Links for this episode:

• Dengue virus antigenic variation (eLife)
• mRNA vaccine induces tick resistance (Sci Transl Med)

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 reveals a study showing that positive interactions among bacteria are far more common than previously thought, and how acquisition of a single gene enabled Yersinia pestis to expand the range of mammalian hosts that sustain flea-borne plague.

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

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

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Links for this episode:

• Positive interactions are common among bacteria (Sci Adv)
• Expansion of mammal hosts for flea-borne plague (PLoS Path)
• Hurling fleas (TWiM #80)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]

Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of the observation that Gram’s stain does not cross the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane, and suppression of gingival inflammation and bone loss through host modulation caused by episymbiotic Saccharibacteria. 

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

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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

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• Gram’s stain does not cross cytoplasmic membrane (ACS Chem Biol)
• Gram stain protocol (pdf)
• Chemical  mechanism of Gram’s stain (J Bact)
• Episymbiotic Saccharibacteria suppress disease (Host Cell Microbe)
• Microedu listserve
• TWiM Listener survey

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]