This Week in Microbiology

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Michael Schmidt ,  and  Elio Schaechter Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss changing populations of  Emiliania huxleyi  and their viruses in the North and Black Seas. Right click to download  TWiM #34  (50 MB .mp3, 69 minutes). Links for this episode: The  protist wonderland  (Microbe) Emiliania huxleyi   home page DISCO in the North Sea  (FEMS Microbiol Ecol) 7000 yea...

Vincent, Michael, and Ivo review the requirement for segmented, filamentous bacteria for the induction of a specific type of helper T cell in the gut. Links for this episode: Induction of Th17 cells  by segmented filamentous bacteria (Cell) Segmented filamentous bacteria  take the stage (Nature) Genome of segmented filamentous bacteria  reveals auxotrophy  (Cell) Segmented filamentous bacteria and...

Rosie Redfield talks about her evidence that a bacterium cannot grow on arsenic instead of phosphorus. 

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Jo Handelsman ,  and   Michael Schmidt Vincent, Jo, and Michael discuss an archetypal protein transport system in bacterial outer membranes, and evidence that gut microbial enterotypes might not fall into defined groups. Links for this episode: Discovery of a TAM, a new bacterial  protein transport system  (Nat Struct Mol Biol) Commentary  on TAM discovery Enterotypes...

On episode #30 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how a toxin from Burkholderia pseudomallei inhibits protein synthesis, and the role of the gut microbiome in modulating insulin resistance in mice lacking an innate immune sensor.

On episode #29 of the podcast,  Vincent  and Stanley review how a phage pierces the cell membrane with an iron-loaded spike, and two programmed cell death systems in E. coli.

Vincent, Michael, and Elio review how competition within a host drives virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae , and the expanding universe of the bacterial cytoskeleton.

Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how inflammation allows Salmonella to compete with fermenting gut microbes, and a riboswitch in bacterial and Archeal species that is triggered by fluoride.

Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss the finding of Sutterella species in the gut of autistic children, and methods for cultivating oral bacteria. 

On episode #25 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review bacteria that use the earth’s magnetic field for navigation, and identification of totally drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Vincent, Michael, and Cliff review ten compelling microbiology stories from 2011.

Vincent, Jo, Elio, and Michael explain how a swarming bacterium helps disperse a non-motile fungus, and bacterial antibiotic tolerance mediated by hydrogen sulfide and starvation responses.

Vincent and Michael speak with Alfred Sacchetti, MD, Chief of Emergency Services at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, about microbial infections encountered in the emergency room.

Vincent and Elio discuss ancient symbiosis between Alphaproteobacteria and catenulid flatworms, and a toxin from Helicobacter pylori that engages the mitochondrial fission machinery to induce host cell death.

On episode #20 of the podcast   This Week in Microbiology ,  Vincent, Michael, and Elio follow up on the outbreaks of  E. coli  in Germany and cholera in Haiti, then discuss genes that confer self-identity to  Proteus  mirabilis .

Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Jo discuss the genome sequence of Y. pestis from victims of the Black Death, and the effect of diet on gut microbial enterotypes.

Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Stanley explain how to make the human intestinal commensal and benign laboratory bacterium Escherichia coli K-12 into an invasive organism, and the unearthing of century-old spores in New York City.

Vincent, Michael, and Elio focus on endosymbiosis: the rapid spread of Ricekttsia in whitefiles, and a metabolic patchwork in nested symbionts of mealybugs.

On episode #16 of the podcast   This Week in Microbiology ,  Vincent ,  Michael ,  Arturo ,  Stuart , and  David  converse about antimicrobial resistance and why most fungi do not cause disease at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

On episode #15 of the podcast   This Week in Microbiology , Vincent , Michael and Jo review the number of species on Earth, evidence that the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak originated in Nepal, and how gut microbiota influence the immune response to influenza virus infection of the lung. 

On episode #14 of the podcast   This Week in Microbiology ,  Stanley, Margaret, Michael and Elio review how the fungus  Cryptococcus  escapes from macrophages, and electrical conductivity in nanowires formed by the bacterium  Geobacter .

On episode #13 of the podcast  This Week in Microbiology , Stanley, Jo, Michael and Elio discuss how colonic microbial ecology and risk for colitis are regulated by an inflammasome, and amelioration of intestinal inflammation in mice by delivery of a probiotic-derived soluble protein to the colon.

Vincent, Margaret, Michael and Elio review the use of photothermal nanoblades to dissect the Burkholderia intracellular life cycle, and manipulation of chromosomes in vivo for genome-wide codon replacement in E. coli .

Vincent, Margaret, Michael and Elio review the presence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase genes in chicken meat and in humans, and a beneficial effect of Helicobacter pylori colonization on the development of allergen-induced asthma.

On episode #10 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology , Vincent, Margaret, Elio, Michael and Dickson discuss the symbiosis between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the luminous, gram-negative bacterium Vibrio fischeri.