Microbiome digest, July 24

Introducing the crAssphage, an 84 bp BLAST from the past, archaea in the Savannah, metabolomics of racehorse microbiome, and X-raying headphones.

Human oral microbiome

Proceedings RoyalMolecular analysis of ancient caries – Marc Simón – Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences

“An 84 base pair sequence of the Streptococcus mutans virulence factor, known as dextranase, has been obtained from 10 individuals from the Bronze Age to the Modern Era in Europe and from before and after the colonization in America. “

Human gut microbiome

Nature CommunicationsA highly abundant bacteriophage discovered in the unknown sequences of human faecal metagenomes – Bas E. Dutilh – Nature Communications

“Here we describe the discovery of a previously unidentified bacteriophage present in the majority of published human faecal metagenomes, which we refer to as crAssphage.”

Gut family SchlossThe dynamics of a family’s gut microbiota reveal variations on a theme – Patrick D Schloss – Microbiome

“Using 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic shotgun sequence data, it was possible to distinguish the family from a cohort of normal individuals living in the same geographic region and to differentiate each family member”

Pregnancy and Birth

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 05.53PM, Jul 24An unnecessary cut? – Sky Dylan-Robbins – The New Yorker

“The most common operating-room procedure in the United States is the Cesarean section. “

Animal microbiome

Equine Vet JournalCharacterisation of the faecal metabolome and microbiome of Thoroughbred racehorses – C. J. Proudman – Equine Veterinary Journal

“Faecal metabolome was characterised using thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS), with spectral analysis performed using AMDIS and compared against the NIST database. Taxonomic description of the faecal microbiota was achieved using error-corrected 454 pyrosequencing data from 16S rRNA gene amplicons”

Journal of MicrobiologyPyrosequencing-based analysis of fecal microbial communities in three purebred pig lines – Edward Alain B. Pajarillo – Journal of Microbiology

“Taxon-dependent and -independent analyses were performed to evaluate differences in the fecal bacterial communities and to identify bacterial genera that can be used to discriminate breeds, following high-throughput pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. “

Environmental microbiome

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 05.55PM, Jul 24Seasonal Effects in a Lake Sediment Archaeal Community of the Brazilian Savanna – Thiago Rodrigues – Archaea

“Here we describe for the first time the diversity of archaeal communities from freshwater lake sediments of the Cerrado in the dry season and in the transition period between the dry and rainy seasons, when the first rains occur. Gene libraries were constructed, using Archaea-specific primers for the 16S rRNA and amoA genes.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 05.56PM, Jul 24Spatial patterns and links between microbial community composition and function in cyanobacterial mats – Mohammad A. Al-Najjar – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Similar clustering was found when the community composition of the mats’ cyanobacterial layers were compared by automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, indicating a significant link between the microbial community composition and function. “

MicrobeNetNew Joint Initiative from the Knight and Sogin Labs as a Follow-up to the MoBEDAC Initiative – Embriette Hyde

“By the end of the funded period, standard 16S rRNA and ITS (fungal) analysis pipelines will be developed and made available to the MoBe community, 16S rRNA and ITS databases will be markedly improved, QIIME and VAMPS will be tightly integrated into a new database engine called QiiTA to facilitate analysis by all MoBe researchers, and two major training workshops will be offered. “

Dr. Bik’s PicksDNA

DNA mostly ‘junk?’ Only 8.2 percent of human DNA is ‘functional’, study finds – Science Daily

“This figure is very different from one given in 2012, when some scientists involved in the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project stated that 80% of our genome has some biochemical function.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 05.58PM, Jul 24Sex differences in medicine – BeWell – Stanford University

“A man can be diagnosed with the same disease as a woman, and yet the course the disease takes in each could prove very different. And a treatment which works for one gender may prove ineffective for the other. “

corksIs Climate Change Ruining Wine Corks? – Kelly Dickerson – LiveScience

“Many people may only worry about corks when it’s time to pop the Champagne, but some experts are worried about wine cork quality, which has been mysteriously in decline for almost 20 years.“

Headphone x rayDoc X-Rays His Broken Headphones to Fix Them – Bahar Gholipour – LiveScience

“”Closed fracture of a speaker wire within its rubber/plastic sleeve is a rare headphone injury, usually due to a traction trauma,” Skalski wrote in his report of the case.”

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