TWiM explains the finding that owning a dog during adolescence alters the microbiota and improves mental health, and the molecular basis for multidrug efflux by an anaerobic-associated resistance-nodulation-cell division transporter.

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

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

• Dog ownership and the microbiome during adolescence (iScience)
• Molecular basis for multidrug efflux (Nat Comm)
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TWiM explains how S. aureus pathogenicity is a dynamic, niche-specific choreography that constantly recalibrates in response to the host microenvironment, and short chain fatty acids produced by commensal microbiota reduces its competitive fitness.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and Petra Levin.

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Niche-specific fitness of S. aureus at the wound edge (Nat Comm)

• Commensal derived short chain fatty acids attenuate S. aureus (mBio)

• Ditch the term pathogen (Nature)
  

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

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TWiM explains how competition for nutrients anticipates and potentially mitigate drug side effects on the gut microbiota, and metabolic control of porin permeability influences antibiotic resistance.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt and Petra Levin

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Nutrient competition predicts drug effects on microbiota (Cell)

• Metabolic control of porin permeability influences antibiotic resistance in E coli (Nat Micro)

• Santiago Cano-Muniz

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM explains a biological mechanism that links sulfur and iron cycling in anoxic environments, and "swashing," a form of surface movement in which bacteria migrate without active propulsion.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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• Sulfur and iron cycling in anoxic environments (Nature)
• Bacterial surface migration by swashing (J Bacteriol)

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Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiM reveals the bacteria, acids, and enzymes behind yogurt made with ants, and a defined set of microbes that reproduces attributes of fine flavor chocolate fermentation

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Making yogurt with ants (iScience)

• The Alchemist Restaurant

• How to make classic tuiles (MasterClass)

• Defined microbes for chocolate (Nat Micro)

• Microbial chocolatiers of fine flavour (Nat Micro)

• Blind taste every chocolate bar (YouTube)
  

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM explores two different ways that bacteria defend against phages through the synthesis of cyclic nucleotides.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Decoy cyclic nucleotides in phage defense (Nature)

• CRISPR defense with nucleotides (Nature)

• A decoy defence molecule to set a trap for viruses (Nature)

• Cyclic oligonucleotide-based antiphage signaling system immunity (Curr Opin Immunol)
  

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM explains studies that show that the oral bacterial and fungal microbiome are risk factors for pancreatic cancer, and the gut microbiome and pyruvate metabolism of older adults are a link between sleep quality and frailty.

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

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

Become a patron of TWiM.

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

• Oral microbiome and pancreatic cancer risk (JAMA Oncol)
• 2025 Cancer Facts & Figures (ACS)
• Periodontal Disease: The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown (Front Cell Infect Micro)
• Socransky's disease complexes (Microorg)
• Microbiome, pyruvate metabolism, sleep quality, and frailty (Cell Rep)
• Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (pdf)
• How to score the sleep quality index (pdf)
• Take the TWiM Listener survey!

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

TWiM reveals a Vibrio as the causative agent of sea star wasting disease, and using microcolony-seq to uncover phenotypic inheritance from single cells.

Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Michele Swanson

Guest: Mark O. Martin

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Links for this episode:

• Agent of sea star wasting disease (Nat Ecol Evol)

• Sea star wasting mystery solved (Nat Ecol Evol)

• Phenotypic inheritance from single cells (Cell)

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv