MicrobiomeDigest is back! Lots of new papers came out in my 2-week hiatus, so here we go (more tomorrow):

General (Human) Microbiota

Editorial for Special Issue: Insights into Molecular Mechanisms of Microbiota – Eric C. Martens, Justin L. Sonnenburg, David A. Relman – Journal of Molecular Biology

“Understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie these processes has been a goal for decades, but while recent technological advances have greatly expanded our descriptive view of these ecosystems, our knowledge of underlying functions and mechanisms has lagged. “

A Systematic Analysis of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters in the Human Microbiome Reveals a Common Family of Antibiotics – Mohamed S. Donia – Cell

“we identified 3,118 small-molecule biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in genomes of human-associated bacteria and studied their representation in 752 metagenomic samples from the NIH Human Microbiome Project.”

See also:

Mining for Antibiotics, Right Under Our Noses – Carl Zimmer – New York Times

The Integrative Human Microbiome Project: Dynamic Analysis of Microbiome-Host Omics Profiles during Periods of Human Health and Disease – iHMP Consortium – Cell Host & Microbe

“Here we describe the three models of microbiome-associated human conditions, on the dynamics of preterm birth, inflammatory bowel disease, and type 2 diabetes”

Microbiome in pregnancy and birth
Review: Diet and host–microbial crosstalk in postnatal intestinal immune homeostasis – Nitya Jain & W. Allan Walker – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

“In this Review, we discuss the current state of knowledge regarding early-life nutrition, its effects on the microbiota and the consequences of diet-induced perturbation of the structure of the microbial community on mucosal immunity and disease susceptibility.”

The early use of appropriate prophylactic antibiotics in susceptible women for the prevention of preterm birth of infectious etiology – Jan Stener Joergensen – Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy

“a focused systematic review/meta-analysis, which targeted the use of clindamycin before 22 weeks gestation, in women with objective evidence of abnormal genital tract flora, demonstrated that clindamycin produced a significant decrease in late miscarriage and preterm birth.”

Mucosa-Associated Bacterial Diversity in Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Rachel Brower-Sinning – PLOS ONE

“26 intestinal samples were resected from 19 infants, including 16 NEC samples and 10 non-NEC samples. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences were amplified and sequenced. “

Oral human microbiome

The presence of cariogenic and periodontal pathogens in the oral cavity of one-year-old
infants delivered pre-term with very low birthweights: a case control study – Vlasta Merglova – BMC Oral Health

“At 12 months of age, both groups of infants were examined, and unstimulated saliva samples from the dorsum of the tongue and dental plaque samples were collected.”

Frequent detection of Streptococcus tigurinus in the human oral microbial flora by a specific 16S rRNA gene real-time TaqMan PCR – Andrea Zbinden – BMC Microbiology

“Although S. tigurinus was a frequently detected species of the human oral microbial flora, it was not associated with periodontal disease. “

Oral Microbiome Link to Neurodegeneration in Glaucoma – Konstantin Astafurov – PLOS ONE

“Mouthwash specimens from patients with glaucoma and control subjects were analyzed for the amount of bacteria”

Bacterial community composition of chronic periodontitis and novel oral sampling sites for detecting disease indicators  – Vaia Galimanas – Microbiome

“Using SubG, SupG, and tongue plaque DNA from 11 healthy and 13 diseased subjects, we sequenced V3 regions (approximately 200 bases) of the 16S rRNA gene using Illumina sequencing.”

Human gut microbiome

TLR5-Mediated Sensing of Gut Microbiota Is Necessary for Antibody Responses to Seasonal Influenza Vaccination – Jason Z. Oh – Immunity

“TLR5-mediated sensing of the microbiota also impacted antibody responses to the inactivated polio vaccine, but not to adjuvanted vaccines or the live-attenuated yellow fever vaccine.”

Review: Nutritional iron turned inside out: intestinal stress from a gut microbial
perspective – Guus A.M. Kortman – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

“This review covers the multifaceted aspects of nutritional iron stress with respect to growth, composition, metabolism and pathogenicity of the gut microbiota in relation to human health.”

Review: Host–microbe interactions shaping the gastrointestinal environment – Gerard E. Kaiko, Thaddeus S. Stappenbeck – Trends in Immunology

“Here we review emerging concepts of how microbial metabolic processes control commensal composition, invading pathogens, immune activation, and intestinal barrier function. “

The microbial eukaryote Blastocystis is a prevalent and diverse member of the healthy human gut microbiota – Pauline D. Scanlan – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“Here, we survey the prevalence, genetic diversity and temporal stability of Blastocystis in a group of healthy adults (n = 105) using a sensitive PCR assay.”

Evaluation of bifidobacterial community composition in the human gut by means of a targeted amplicon sequencing (ITS) protocol – Christian Milani – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“Here, we define the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of all currently known Bifidobacterium taxa, providing a Bifidobacterium-specific primer pair that targets a hypervariable region within the ITS suitable for precise taxonomic identification of all 48 so far recognized members of the Bifidobacterium genus.”

Alzheimer’s disease and the microbiome – James M. Hill – Alzheimer’s & Dementia

“In these preliminary studies we evaluated the effects of the anti-amyloid, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory flavonoid quercetin on growth inhibition of the HM-representative Bacteroides galacturonicus (ATCC 43244).”

Complete Suppression of the Gut Microbiome Prevents Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease following Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation  – Jaak M. Vossen – PLOS ONE

“All patients received T-cell replete marrow from human leukocyte antigens (HLA) matched sibling donors under identical transplantation conditions.”

Associations of the Fecal Microbiome With Urinary Estrogens and Estrogen Metabolites in Postmenopausal Women – Barbara J. Fuhrman – Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

“Our data suggest that women with a more diverse gut microbiome exhibit an elevated urinary ratio of hydroxylated estrogen metabolites to parent estrogen. “

Alterations of the human gut microbiome in liver cirrhosis – Nan Qin – Nature

“Here we characterize the gut microbiome in liver cirrhosis by comparing 98 patients and 83 healthy control individuals. “

Altered intestinal microbiota and blood T cell phenotype are shared by patients with Crohn’s disease and their unaffected siblings – Charlotte R Hedin – Gut

“Faecal microbiology was analysed by quantitative PCR targeting 16S ribosomal RNA, FC by ELISA, blood T cell phenotype by flow cytometry and IP by differential lactulose-rhamnose absorption in 22 patients with inactive CD, 21 of their healthy siblings and 25 controls.”

Detection of bacterial DNA in lymph nodes of Crohn’s disease patients using high throughput sequencing – Claire L O’Brien – Gut

“Universal primers targeting V1–V3 regions of bacterial 16S rRNA genes were used to amplify bacterial DNA and amplicons sequenced using high throughput sequencing. “

Cultivation-based multiplex phenotyping of human gut microbiota allows targeted recovery of previously uncultured bacteria – Elizabeth A. Rettedal – Nature Communications

“Here, we show that carefully designed conditions enable cultivation of a representative proportion of human gut bacteria, enabling rapid multiplex phenotypic profiling. “

Animal models of human microbiome research

Innate lymphoid cells regulate intestinal epithelial cell glycosylation – Yoshiyuki Goto – Science

“Here, we show that type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) induced intestinal epithelial Fut2 expression and fucosylation in mice. “

Effect of Metformin on Metabolic Improvement and Gut Microbiota – Heetae Lee and GwangPyo Ko – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

“In this study, the composition of the gut microbiota was investigated using a mouse model of high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced obesity with and without metformin treatment. “

Microbiota modulate transcription in the intestinal epithelium without remodeling the accessible chromatin landscape – J. Gray Camp – Genome Research

“We profiled transcriptome and accessible chromatin landscapes in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) from mice reared in the presence or absence of microbiota.”

Host adaptive immunity alters gut microbiota – Husen Zhang – ISME Journal

“Here we investigated the role of adaptive immunity on the mouse distal gut microbial composition by sequencing 16 S rRNA genes from microbiota of immunodeficient Rag1−/− mice, versus wild-type mice, under the same housing environment.”

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