elegans

This episode Lucy Dickie speaks to OIST adjunct researcher Professor Greg Stephens about quantifying behavior. Greg looks at systems across the biological world, from tiny wiggling worms and rowdy zebrafish to crowds of people.

Squirm! I’m a worm. With a name as long as Caenorhabditis elegans, you might expect this model organism to be larger. What is a model organism? Why would a researcher use a worm to represent research as a model? What is the historical basis of C. elegans research? Let’s learn to be scientifically conversational.

Vincent, Michael and Elio note the passing of Stanley Falkow, give E. coli an archaeal membrane, and show how the microbiome can make worms live longer.

Hosts: 

Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter.

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Links for this episode

• Fecal transplants in the good old days (STC)
• Stanley Falkow, 84
• Loss of an old army buddy (STC)
• Giving E. coli an archaeal membrane (PNAS)
• Microbiome tunes host longevity (Cell)
• Letters read on TWiM 176

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

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

The lovely TWiV team explore evolution of our fecal virome, and the antiviral RNA interference response in the nematode C. elegans. 

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Links for this episode

• ASM Clinical Virology Symposium
• Evolution of the human fecal virome (PNAS)
• Antiviral RNAi response in C. elegans (Curr Biol)
• Orsay virus (TWiV 123)
• Broad VSV host range (J Comp Neurol)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiV 433

This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the #1 fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country. See what’s on the menu this week and get your first 3 meals free with your first purchase – WITH FREE SHIPPING – by going to blueapron.com/twiv

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Contact information for Senators and Representatives
Kathy - How Tumor Virology Transformed Oncology
Dickson - Seven new species of Peacock Spider
Vincent - Proposed NIH budget cut and Expensive Oxford Comma

Listener Pick

Kim - Pigeon Fashion Week (TWiEVO 7)
Richard - aeroMorph and Understanding Molecular Evolution
Johnye - Ice Instruments and Fahrenheit and Celsius

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Elio Schaechter.

Vincent and Elio marvel in the finding that a phage tail-like structure from a marine bacterium stimulates tubeworm metamorphosis, and reveal Ophidiomyces as a cause of snake fungal disease.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode 

• Tubeworm metamorphosis by phage tail-like structures (Science)
• Cell enzyme becomes viral capsid protein (virology blog)
• Snake fungal disease in the laboratory (mBioi)
• Snake fungal disease in cottonmouths (PLoS Biol)
• Snake fungal disease (pdf)
• Image credit

This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Institute Online Webinar and 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium

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

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@twiv.tv.

Vincent, Elio, and Michael reveal that a soil-dwelling nematode can recognize and respond to a bacterial quorum sensing molecule through a sensory neuron.

Vincent, Alan, and Rich talk about XMRV integration sites in prostate tumor DNA, the decline effect and scientific method, and the first virus of Caenorhabditis nematodes.