The last common ancestor, pika gut microbiome, fire-fighting chemicals and soil microbiome, improved Illumina-compatible 18S rRNA primers.

Jobs

Verily (Google-associated) is looking for a Microbiome Research Associate

Pregnancy and birth

Probiotic properties of lactic acid bacteria isolated from human milk – N.A. Reis – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

High Throughput Quantitative Method for Assessing Coaggregation among Oral Bacterial Species – Elizabeth Levin-Sparenberg – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Periodontal infectogenomics: systematic review of associations between host genetic variants and subgingival microbial detection – Luigi Nibali – Journal of Clinical Periodontology

Human respiratory microbiome

Upper airway viruses and bacteria and clinical outcomes in children with cough – Kerry-Ann F. O’Grady – Pediatric Pulmonology

Human skin microbiome

Hypothesis: The skin microbiome: Is it affected by UV-induced immune suppression? – Vijaykumar Patra – Frontiers in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiota-host interactions and juvenile idiopathic arthritis – Miika Arvonen – Pediatric Rheumatology

Designing fecal microbiota transplant trials that account for differences in donor stool efficacy – Scott W. Olesen – bioRxiv

Probiotics and the Microbiome in Celiac Disease: A Randomised Controlled Trial – Joanna Harnett – Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Review: Links Between the Microbiome and Bone – Christopher J Hernandez – Journal of Bone and Mineral Research

Human vaginal microbiome

More Easily Cultivated Than Identified: Classical Isolation With Molecular Identification of Vaginal Bacteria – Sujatha Srinivasan – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

The Effects of Hormones and Vaginal Microflora on the Glycome of the Female Genital Tract: Cervical-Vaginal Fluid – Bernard J. Moncla – PLOS ONE

Review: New Systems for Studying Intercellular Interactions in Bacterial Vaginosis – Melissa M. Herbst-Kralovetz – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Animal experiments

Lactulose differently modulates the composition of luminal and mucosal microbiota in C57BL/6J mice – Bingyong Mao – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

American Ginseng Attenuates Colitis Associated Colon Carcinogenesis in Mice: Impact on Gut Microbiota and Metabolomics – Chong-Zhi Wang – Cancer Prevention Research

Alterations of Gut Microbiota After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass and Sleeve Gastrectomy in Sprague-Dawley Rats – Yikai Shao – Obesity Surgery

Animal microbiome

Diet diversity is associated with beta but not alpha diversity of pika gut microbiota – Huan Li – Frontiers in Mcrobiology

The Microbial Signature Provides Insight into the Mechanistic Basis of Coral Success across Reef Habitats – Alejandra Hernandez-Agreda – mBio

Perspective: Hominid superorganisms – Julia A. Segre – Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Long-term response of soil microbial communities to fire and fire-fighting chemicals –
A. Barreiro – Biology and Fertility of Soils

Desert Perennial Shrubs Shape the Microbial-Community Miscellany in Laimosphere and Phyllosphere Space – Varsik Martirosyan – Microbial Ecology

Lichen-associated Fungal Community in Hypogymnia hypotrypa (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota) Affected by Geographic Distribution and Altitude – Yanyan Wang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water management impacts rice methylmercury and the soil microbiome – Sarah E. Rothenberg – Science of the Total Environment

Ecological restoration of a copper polluted vineyard: Long-term impact of farmland abandonment on soil bio-chemical properties and microbial communities – Luciano Cavani – Journal of Environmental Management

Review: Soil C and N models that integrate microbial diversity – Benjamin P. Louis – Environmental Chemistry Letters

Water and extremophile microbiome

Genomes of Abundant and Widespread Viruses from the Deep Ocean – Carolina Megumi Mizuno – mBio

Microbial communities associated with Antarctic snow pack and their biogeochemical implications – Runa Antony – Microbiological Research

Novel chytrid lineages dominate fungal sequences in diverse marine and freshwater habitats – André M. Comeau – Scientific Reports

Metabolomics

Review: Gut Microbiota Profiling: Metabolomics Based Approach to Unravel Compounds Affecting Human Health – Pamela Vernocchi – Frontiers in Microbiology

Functional foods

Review: Fermented Foods: Are They Tasty Medicines for Helicobacter pylori Associated Peptic Ulcer and Gastric Cancer? – Mydhily R. B. Nair – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics

A novel alignment-free method for detection of lateral genetic transfer based on TF-IDF – Yingnan Cong – Scientific Reports
Exploring lateral genetic transfer among microbial genomes using TF-IDF – Yingnan Cong – Scientific Reports

Techniques

Design and Evaluation of Illumina MiSeq Compatible Primers for the 18S rRNA Gene for Improved Characterization of Mixed Microalgal Communities – Ian M. Bradley – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

More microbiology

Are multi-omics enough? – Cristina Vilanova – Nature Microbiology

Review: Bacterial Communities: Interactions to Scale – Reed M. Stubbendieck – Frontiers in Microbiology

The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor – Madeline C. Weiss – Nature Microbiology

Press: Scientists find Luca, a single-cell, bacterium-like organism that is the common ancestor of all life on Earth – Andrew Griffin – Independent
Behold LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth – Jason Daley – Smithsonian
Our last common ancestor inhaled hydrogen from underwater volcanoes – Robert F. Service – Science
Meet Luca, the Ancestor of All Living Things – Nicholas Wade – New York Times

Microbes in the news

What your gut microbiome may be telling you – Katrina Clarke – The Record

Healthy microbiome supports antibiotic-free production – World Poultry

Charlottesville Lab to Test Microbiology of Local Breweries – NBC29

Nanostructured bacterial film makes new mortar resistant to water uptake – NanoWerk

Bik’s non-microbiology Picks

The Dutchies are still holding the top positions! A century of trends in adult human height – NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) – eLIFE