On this episode of TWiM, we reveal widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages that may regulate translation of lytic genes, and how Staphylococcus aureus inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth.

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

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• Stop codon recoding in bacteriophages (Nat Micro)
• How S. aureus inhibits P. aeruginosa growth (J Bact)
• S. aureus small colony variants (Front Cell Infect Micro)
• Ken Timmis retires as journal editor (YouTube)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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TWiM presents evidence that over half of human pathogenic diseases are impacted by climate change, and considers how a novel prokaryote discovered next to an underground stream illuminates the pathway to multicellularity.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Mark Martin.

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• Climate change and pathogenic diseases (Nat Climate Change)
• Impacts of climate change on human diseases (MoraLAB)
• Cave bacteria illuminate pathway to multicellularity (eLife)
• Commentary on novel cave bacteria (eLife)
• Karst landscapes (National Park Service)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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TWiM reveals high rates of co-transformation of plasmids in E. coli overturns the clonality myth, and bacterial membrane vesicles as a novel strategy for extrusion of the antimicrobial bismuth in H. pylori.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin

• The myth of clonality (Sci Rep)
• Bacterial membrane vesicles extrude bismuth (mBio)
• Gastric acid levels must decrease (World J Gastroenterol)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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Mark Martin returns to TWiM to join the discussion of how to design a complex gut microbiome, and protection of protists from virus infection by intracellular bacterial symbionts.

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

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• Design of a complex gut microbiome (Cell)
• Defensive symbiosis against giant viruses (PNAS)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

Music by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals how to inactivate norovirus on formica surfaces, and how to achieve antibiotic resistance by suppression of a frameshift mutation in an essential gene.

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

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• Effect of wiping on norovirus inactivation (Appl Env Micro)
• Chlorine dilution calculator (Ontario Pub Health)
• Antibiotic resistance by frameshift suppression (PNAS)
• Resistance to rifampicin (Nature)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

Music by Ronald Jenkees.

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

TWiM explores the activation of natural product synthesis using CRISPR interference in Streptomyces, and how light/dark and temperature cycling modulate Electron Flow in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

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• Activating natural product synthesis (Nucleic Acids Res)
• Light and temperature modulate biofilm electron flow (mBio)
• Take the 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 presents a novel mucosal COVID-19 vaccine based on a bacteriophage capsid, and potentiation of C. difficile infection severity by the gut bacterial community.

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Links for this episode:

• Bacteriophage based COVID-19 vaccine (mBio)
• Gut microbiome potentiates C. difficile disease (mBio)
• Letters read on TWiM 271

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 explores the use of Archaea to produce plastics from molasses wastewater, and a bacterial defense against bacteriophage infection that involves depletion of deoxynucleotides.

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• Improving plastics production by Archaea (Appl Environ Micro)
• Biodegradability of PHA (Green Chem)
• What does tesla mean for an MRI and its magnet? (GE)
• Bacteria deplete nucleotides to block phages (Nat Micro)
• Antiphage hotspots in bacteria (TWiM 265)
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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 reviews discovery of a bacterium that is visible to the naked eye, and reversible resistance to bacteriophage by shedding of the bacterial cell wall.

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• A bacterium that is not a microbe (Science)
• Overwhelming microbial greatness (TWiM 261)
• Medical illustrator Kellie Holoski
• Bacteriophage resistance by shedding cell wall (Open Biol)
• Who came first, monderms or diderms? (Nat Ecol Evol)
• Letters read on TWiM 269
• Take the 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 discusses citizen science surveillance of drug-resistant Aspergillus in garden soil, and the mechanism of action of a copper dependent antibiotic.

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• Fanny Hesse (Microbial Menagerie)
• Citizen science surveillance of Aspergillus (App Envir Micro)
• Aspergillum (Wikipedia)
• DMDC, copper dependent antibiotic (Infect Immun)
• National Summer Undergraduate Research Project
• Letters read on TWiM 268
• Take the 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]