TWiM discusses citizen science surveillance of drug-resistant Aspergillus in garden soil, and the mechanism of action of a copper dependent antibiotic.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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]

From ASM Microbe 2022 in Washington, DC, Heran joins TWiM to discuss her career and her work on the agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson Guest: Heran Darwin

Become a patron of TWiM.

• Honey badger of pathogens (EMBO Rep)
• Pup-proteasome system (PNAS)
• Cytokinin signaling in M. tuberculosis (mBio)
• Bandwagoning (EMBO Rep)
• 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 explains how spindle-shaped Archaeal viruses evolved from rod-shaped ancestors to package a larger genome, and transcriptional recording by CRISPR acquisition from RNA.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• From rods to spindles (Cell)
• Spindle-shaped virus movie (Cell)
• Bacteria that record (Science)
• Transcriptional recording with CRISPR (Nature)
• Letters read on TWiM 266
• 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]

TWiM explains the discovery of hotspots of genetic variation containing reservoirs of anti-phage systems in E. coli phages and their parasitic satellites, and pathogen desiccation tolerance promoted by hydrophilins.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• Phage and satellite antiviral systems (Cell Host Micro)
• Hydropilins promote desiccation tolerance (Cell Host Micro)
• Letters read on TWiM 265
• 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 reveals that the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine promotes multiple antibiotic resistance in E. coli, and treatment with Bifidobacterium lactis probiotic benefits patients with coronary artery disease.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode:

• Antipsychotic promotes antimicrobial resistance (J Bact)
• Probiotic benefits patients with coronary artery disease (mSystems)
• B. lactis and Alzheimer’s in mice (Eur J Nutr)

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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

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

Become a Patron of TWiM!

• 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

Become a patron of TWiM.

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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

• 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.

Become a patron of TWiM.

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]