Viroids are some of the most unusual biological infectious agents because they consist of only very small circular RNA molecules. They are too small to encode proteins, yet they are resilient and cause disease in a variety of agriculturally important plants, including cannabis, the sixth largest cash crop in the U.S.

Dr. Zamir Punja is a Professor of Plant Biotechnology at Simon Frasier University, whose laboratory studies the cannabis viroid, which he refers to as the “COVID of cannabis”. Dr. Punja describes how viroids only infect plants, how a viroid stunts the growth and potency of cannabis plants, where viroids may have come from, why agricultural practices may enhance the spread of the cannabis viroid, how “beneficial” biological approaches may protect cannabis from infectious agents, and how the beautiful environment of Vancouver promotes good science.

Dr. Vince Young joined microTalk on this episode, which was supported by Gordo Sheepsay’s My Dope Microscope.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Zamir Punja, Ph.D. (Simon Frasier University)
• Vincent Young, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)

Archaea are one of the three domains of life on earth, but these organisms are much more mysterious and less understood than either Bacteria or Eukaryotes.

Dr. Alex Bisson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Brandeis University. His laboratory studies Archaea, primarily focusing on Haloarchaea. Dr. Bisson discusses how Archaea are able to shape-shift from one cell shape to another, how Haloarchaea are able to grow at extremely high salt concentrations, how Archaea cope with being “squishy”, how common polyploidy (multiple copies of chromosomes) is among Archaea, how Haloarchaea are able to desalinate soil to allow trees to grow, how Haloarchaea can lie dormant inside Himalayan Pink Salt, and how Boston is an intellectually stimulating place to do science.

Dr. Salvador Almagro-Moreno joined microTalk on this episode, which was supported by Gordo Sheepsey’s My Brave Little Autoclave.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Alexandre Bisson, Ph.D. (Brandeis University)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Salvador Almagro-Moreno (University of Central Florida)

Guinea worm infections have been plaguing mankind throughout recorded history. The Carter Center took the lead in the guinea worm eradication effort in the 1980’s, when there were over 3 million cases per year. Through concentrated effort, this disease is on the brink of extinction, with only 14 human cases in 2023!

Adam Weiss, MPH, is the director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at the Carter Center. microTalk caught up with Adam at the ASM Microbe conference in Atlanta in a live session to discuss the imminent extinction of guinea worm disease.

Weiss talks about how seeing the disease first-hand led to President Carter’s and Weiss’ passion for eradication, how behavior modification was key to guinea worm eradication, how a reservoir in dogs affects eradication efforts, and how being in the Peace Corps influenced his career path.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/yt7cDHZhThI

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Adam Weiss, M.P.H. (Carter Center)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA).