This Week in Microbiology

This Week in Microbiology


Latest Episodes

289: Viral Defense and Counter-Defense
June 30, 2023

TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity. Hosts: , , , . Become

288: Cancer and E. coli
June 09, 2023

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

287: When Replicas Do Not Replicate
May 20, 2023

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 tha

286: Integrons and Invasion
May 05, 2023

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

285: How Plague Got Deadly
April 23, 2023

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 predeces

284: Flies, Pigs, and Squid
April 07, 2023

TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria. Become a of TWiM Links for this episode (Appl Micro Int) (

283: Quorum Sensing In The Gut
March 24, 2023

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

282: At-home evolution with yeast
March 10, 2023

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: , , ,

281: Microbes Making Jet Fuel
February 17, 2023

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 serio

280: They Forget To Divide
January 27, 2023

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: , , , and Subscribe to TWiM (fre