Episode

337: Lifestyles of the Plasmids

Podcast
This Week in Microbiology
Published
Jul 31, 2025
Duration seconds
3884
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Canonical source
https://www.microbe.tv/twim/twim-337/
Audio
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/twimshow/TWiM337.mp3?dest-id=53322
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/this-week-in-microbiology-1045713/episodes/337-lifestyles-of-the-plasmids
Markdown
/podcast/this-week-in-microbiology-1045713/337-lifestyles-of-the-plasmids.md

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Summary

TWiM explains a study that examines pathogen presence in ancient humans and concludes that zoonoses emerged 6500 years ago with the domestication of livestock, and determination of universal rules that govern plasmid copy number. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson , and Petra Levin Guests: Mark O. Martin Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode: Human pathogens in ancient Eurasia (Nature) What once ailed us (NY Times) Rules of plasmid copy number (Nature Comm) Scaling laws of plasmids (Nature Comm) Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission. Send your microbiology questions and comments to [email protected]