This Week in Microbiology American Society for Microbiology

The TWiM team reviews the movie Jezebel, played against the background of the yellow fever epidemic of 1853 in New Orleans, and prokaryotic viperins, ancestors of the eukaryotic enzymes that synthesize antiviral molecules.

TWiM explores the use of a bacterial protein to make highly conductive microbial nanowires, and how modulin proteins seed the formation of amyloid, a key component of S. aureus biofilms.
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Links for this episode Amyloid formation for S. aureus biofilms (eLife) Highly conductive microbial nanowires (Nat Chem Biol) Uncovering Nature’s electronics (Nature) Activating Nature’s electrical grid (Bioeng) Bacteria that exhale electricity (SyFyWire) Microbial transistors (TWiM 14) TWiM Listener survey Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv
 

Mark Martin returns to TWiM for a discussion of a predatory bacterium appropriately named Vampirococcus lugosii, and Elio reveals how bacteria can be used on the International Space Station to efficiently extract rare earth elements in microgravity.

In this episode of TWiM, control of Campylobacter in raw chicken by zinc oxide nanoparticles in packaging material, and Salmonella enterica genomes from a16th century epidemic in Mexico.

In this episode of TWiM, the hidden biochemical diversity in soil-dwelling Actinobacteria that could lead to a second Golden Era of antibiotic discovery, and structures of glideosome components reveals the mechanism of gliding in apicomplexan parasites.

Ninecia and Chelsey, two of the founders of Black in Microbiology, join TWiM to discuss the goals of the organization, then we reveal survival of Deinococcus bacteria for 3 years in space, an experiment that addresses the panspermia hypothesis for interplanetary transfer of life.