Microbes around a methane seep that look like ancient ruins, microbial metabolites protecting intestinal stem cells, and human-derived microbes in a Mars-like simulator.

Jobs and events

For everyone anxious to see the videos of the Stanford Bioinformatics for the Microbiome Symposium (including me!), please be patient. The AV team is working hard to generate videos for each individual talk, but that will take some time. Check in at this blog under the “Jobs and Events” header where I will post them once they are ready.

Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology – Macalester College, St. Paul, MN

Human vaginal microbiome

Predictive value of the composition of the vaginal microbiota in bacterial vaginosis, a dynamic study to identify recurrence-related flora – Bingbing Xiao – Scientific Reports

Human gut microbiome

Review: Reframing the Teenage Wasteland: Adolescent Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis – Karen-Anne McVey Neufeld – The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
Editorial to their own paper (?): Stress and the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. An Evolving Concept in Psychiatry – John F. Cryan – The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

Review: Emerging evidence of the role of gut microbiota in the development of allergic diseases – Kotryna Simonyte Sjödin – Current Opinion Allergy Clinical Immunology

Review: Microbiota and pathogen ‘pas de deux’: setting up and breaking down barriers to intestinal infection – Elizabeth S. McKenney – Pathogens and Disease

Review: Linking Gut Microbiota and Inflammation to Obesity and Insulin Resistance – M. J. A. Saad – Physiology

Research Highlight: Sensing gene–microbiota signals in IBD – Katrina Ray – Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Editorial: Probiotics and microbiota composition – Mary Ellen Sanders – BMC Medicine

Animal / tissue culture experiments

The Colonic Crypt Protects Stem Cells from Microbiota-Derived Metabolites – Gerard E. Kaiko – Cell

Press: Gut microbes’ metabolite dampens proliferation of intestinal stem cells – Science Daily

Animal microbiome

Unfortunately no reference to our recent paper,  which included dolphin blowhole samples: Isolation of culturable aerobic bacteria and evidence of Kerstersia gyiorum from the blowhole of captive Yangtze finless porpoises – Xiaoling Wan – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Plants, roots, and soil microbiome

Seeing is believing: cell biology at the plant–microbe interface: report from the 36th New Phytologist Symposium – Mike Deeks – New Phytologist

Bacteria with Phosphate Solubilizing Capacity Alter Mycorrhizal Fungal Growth Both Inside and Outside the Root and in the Presence of Native Microbial Communities – Yuli Marcela Ordoñez – PLOS ONE

Water and extremophile microbiome

Exhumed hydrocarbon-seep authigenic carbonates from Zakynthos island (Greece): Concretions not archaeological remains – Julian E Andrews – Marine and Petroleum Geology

Press:
Ancient Civilization of Microbes, Not Greeks, Built ‘Lost City’ – Henry Fountain – The New York Times
The lost (microbe) colony: bacteria make underwater ‘ruins’ off Greek island – Alan Yuhas – The Guardian
This “Lost Underwater City” Was Actually Made by Microbes. Though these formations may not be evidence of a lost city, they show off some intriguing chemistry – Danny Lewis – Smithsonian
Microfungal oasis in an oligotrophic desert: diversity patterns and community structure in three freshwater systems of Cuatro Ciénegas, Mexico – Patricia Velez – PeerJ

Built environment microbiome

Microbial succession in an inflated lunar/Mars analog habitat during a 30-day human occupation – Teresa Mayer – Microbiome

In Situ Microbial Community Succession on Mild Steel in Estuarine and Marine Environments: Exploring the Role of Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria – Joyce M. McBeth – Frontiers in Microbiology

Ecology and bioinformatics

Applications of species accumulation curves in large-scale biological data analysis – Chao Deng – Quantitative Biology

Microbes in the news

See beautiful gif below: Educate Your Immune System. Our bodies are confused by this 21st-century world – Moises Velasquez-Manoff – NY Times

Will Microbes Save Agriculture? Experts Aim To Find Out – Geoffrey Mohan – Sci Tech Today

Alzheimer’s May Defend Against Microbes – Paul Rodgers – Forbes

Methane-producing microbes in California rocks – Science Daily

Science, publishing, and career

Science launches the 2016 ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ contest – John Bohannon – Science Magazine

Let’s talk about preprint servers – Emilie Marcus – Crosstalk Cell

Bik’s Picks

A New Origin Story for Dogs. The first domesticated animals may have been tamed twice – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun’s iron dagger blade – Daniela Comelli – Meteoritics & Planetary Science