Here are few interesting articles for your Sunday morning edition. Canadian bacteria-like fossils may be the oldest evidence of life yet.  Black carbon, one of the main components of air pollution,  is reported to drastically change the development of bacterial biofilms and key aspects of bacterial colonization and survival.  A novel organ culture system described for the mouse intestine shows that the nervous system influences the microbiome/immune system crosstalk.  And the power of alternative assays for discovery: Deep sequencing of cell-free DNA from a large patient cohort revealed previously unknown and highly prevalent microbial and viral diversity in humans.

Pregnancy and early life

Prediction of complicated disease course for children newly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease: a multicenter inception cohort study – Subra Kugathasan – The Lancet

Multi-site human microbiome

Humans are colonized by many uncharacterized and highly divergent microbes -Mark A. Kowarsky -bioRxiv

Human respiratory microbiome

Air pollution alters Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumonia biofilms, antibiotic tolerance and colonization – Shane J. K. Hussey – Journal of Environmental Microbiology

Human vaginal microbiome

The global health impact of vaginal dysbiosis – Janneke H.H.M. van de Wijgert – Research in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

An Intestinal Organ Culture System Uncovers a Role for the Nervous System in Microbe-Immune Crosstalk – Nissan Yissachar – Cell

Animal microbiome

Genetic and functional analysis of the bovine uterine microbiota. Part I: Metritis versus healthy cows, Part II: Purulent vaginal discharge versus healthy cows – M.L.S. Bicalho – The journal of Dairy Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Review: Soil-Plant-Microbe Interactions in Stressed Agriculture Management– Shobhit Raj Vimal – Pedosphere

Water and extremophile microbiome

Evidence for early life in Earth’s oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates – Matthew S. Dodd – Nature

Microbes in the news

Study Shows Link Between Microbiome in the Gut and Parkinson’s – University of Alabama at Birmingham

A Japanese study performed by sequencing the gut microbiota of 367 healthy individuals ranging from newborn to 104 years old shows microbiome changes with age

UN issues list of 12 most worrying bacteria

Microbes on the market

Rebiotix Inc. has its lead product for C. diff. treatment granted Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Breakthrough Therapy status by the FDA.