Happy St. Patrick’s day! Enjoy the green microbial fermented fluids.

Human oral microbiome

Metagenomic sequencing reveals altered metabolic pathways in the oral microbiota of sailors during a long sea voyage – Weiwei Zheng – Scientific Reports

A Filifactor alocis-centered co-occurrence group associates with periodontitis across different oral habitats – Hui Chen – Scientific Reports

Review: Polymicrobial nature of chronic oral disease – Stuart Dashper – Microbiology Australia

Animal models

Intestinal Microbiota Composition Modulates Choline Bioavailability from Diet and Accumulation of the Proatherogenic Metabolite Trimethylamine-N-Oxide – Kymberleigh A. Romano – mBio

Animal microbiome

Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons – Jenny Tung – eLIFE

Unfolding the secrets of coral–algal symbiosis – Nedeljka Rosic – The ISME Journal

Water microbiome

Presence of oxygen and aerobic communities from sea floor to basement in deep-sea sediments – Steven D’Hondt – Nature Geoscience

Molecular-based approaches to characterize coastal microbial community and their potential relation to the trophic state of Red Sea – Mohd Ikram Ansari – Scientific Reports

Oceanographic structure drives the assembly processes of microbial eukaryotic communities – Adam Monier – The ISME Journal

Other microbial science

Microbial reflectance spectra: Surface biosignatures of exo-Earths: Remote detection of extraterrestrial life – Siddharth Hegde – PNAS USA

Viruses and phages

Membrane vesicles in natural environments: a major challenge in viral ecology – Nicolas Soler – The ISME Journal

Lytic phages obscure the cost of antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli – Samuel J Tazzyman and Alex R Hall – The ISME Journal

Metagenomics

Genomics of microbial plasmids: classification and identification based on replication and transfer systems and host taxonomy – Masaki Shintani – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics

Minimum entropy decomposition: Unsupervised oligotyping for sensitive partitioning of high-throughput marker gene sequences – A Murat Eren – The ISME Journal

Microbes in the news

Baboon friends swap gut germs – Science Daily

No limit to life in deep sediment of ocean’s “deadest” region – National Science Foundation

The microbiome of alcoholics may contribute to pathologies – American Microbiome Institute

Reflectance spectra from microbes: This Alien Color Catalog May Help Us Spot Life on Other Planets – Jesse Emspak – Smithsonian

New Data May Help Identify Extraterrestrial Life – William Large – Clapway

Science, publishing, and career

Competitive Science: Is Competition Ruining Science? – Ferric C. Fang and Arturo Casadevall – Infection and Immunity

Bik’s Picks – Marine Mammal Edition

Starving sea lion pups inundate Southern California rescue centers – Marty Graham – Reuters

Sciencespeak: Whale Pump. Whales can poop almost anywhere they want. – Brian Switek – National Geographic

Long-lost whale fossil sheds light on East Africa’s evolution – Bianca Nogrady – ABC Science

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