Bedouins, urban Saoudis and monkeys, a subglacial lake, and the oldest microbial fossils.

Events

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Workshop on Viruses to be Held in Singapore, January 2017 – David Coil – MicroBEnet

Human respiratory microbiome

News: Does barnyard dust protect Amish children from asthma? – Bryant Furlow – The Lancet

Human gut microbiome

Gut microbiome and dietary patterns in different Saudi populations and monkeys – Emmanouil Angelakis – Scientific Reports

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation is Safe and Efficacious for Recurrent or Refractory Clostridium difficile Infection in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Monika Fischer

Animal experiments

High fat diet drives obesity regardless the composition of gut microbiota in mice – Sylvie Rabot – Scientific Reports

Gut Microbiota Promote Angiotensin II–Induced Arterial Hypertension and Vascular Dysfunction – Susanne H. Karbach – Hypertension

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Forest area and connectivity influence root-associated fungal communities in a fragmented landscape – Rachel L. Vannette – Ecology

Review: Comparative phylogenomics of symbiotic associations – Pierre-Marc Delaux – New Phytologist

Water and extremophile

Microbial Community Structure of Subglacial Lake Whillans, West Antarctica – Amanda M. Achberger – Frontiers in Microbiology

Dust microbiome

Poultry houses: DNA from dust: comparative genomics of large DNA viruses in field surveillance samples – Utsav Pandey – bioRxiv

Techniques

Direct 16S rRNA-seq from bacterial communities: a PCR-independent approach to simultaneously assess microbial diversity and functional activity potential of each taxon – Riccardo Rosselli – Scientific Reports

More microbiology

Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures – Allen P. Nutman – Nature

Press: Life thrived on young Earth: scientists discover 3.7-billion-year-old fossils – Science Daily
The World’s Oldest Fossils Are 3.7 Billion Years Old. The newly discovered rocks suggest that life arose very quickly after the Earth was formed – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Microbes in the news

Microbial genomics and the future of food microbiology – Julie Wolf – American Society for Microbiology

Space Microbiome? Yes Please! and I’ll take a minION sequencer as well if you don’t mind – Ben Libberton – NPJ Biofilms Community

Multitalented microbiology student is highly lauded for her scholarship – Western Michigan University

Manuka honey makes bacteria less resistant to antibiotics – Rowena Jenkins – The Conversation

Changes in Gut microflora – early warning of Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS)? – Jackie Bellamy-Zions – Harness Link

uBiome Hires New Vice President of Research and Development: Dr. Audrey Goddard Joins from Genomic Health and Genentech – PR Web

Samorost 3’s fairy tale of microbiology is now on iPhone – Chris Priestman – Kill Screen

Science, publishing, and career

How to Motivate Your Employees: Give Them Compliments and Pizza – Melissa Dahl – New York Magazine

Opinion: Fixing Science’s Human Bias. It’s time to accelerate the conversation about why the research community is still not diverse – Edward Courchaine and Sarah Smaga – The Scientist

Thanks to the glass ceiling breakers – Yarrow Axford – Science

Peer review

HT: Tomer Altman: Stupid Patent of the Month: Elsevier Patents Online Peer Review – Electronic Frontier Foundation

Research Integrity

OMICS vs. The FTC: Plagiarism at a Predatory Publisher – Neuroskeptic – Discover