Happy New Year from the Microbiome Digest team!

General microbiome

Pre-print: Understanding How Microbiomes Influence The Systems They Inhabit: moving from a correlative to a causal research framework – E K Hall – bioRxiv

Human vaginal microbiome

A retrospective pilot study to determine whether the reproductive tract microbiota differs between women with a history of infertility and fertile women – Bryan A Wee – Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Human gut microbiome

Rates of Gut Microbiome Divergence in Mammals – Alex H Nishida – Molecular Ecology

Animal microbiome

Processes shaping gut microbiota diversity in allopatric populations of the endemic lizard Podarcis lilfordi from Menorcan islets (Balearic Islands) – Laura Baldo – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Individual- and Species-Specific Skin Microbiomes in Three Different Estrildid Finch Species Revealed by 16S Amplicon Sequencing – Kathrin Engel – Microbial Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Vertical variation of a black soil’s properties in response to freeze-thaw cycles and its links to shift of microbial community structure – Ziming Han – Science of the Total Environment

Biomass, activity and structure of rhizosphere soil microbial community under different metallophytes in a mining site – Wenhao Yang – Plant and Soil

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation by rhizobia — the roots of a success story – Catherine Masson-Boivin – Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial community structure and function in sediments from e-waste contaminated rivers at Guiyu area of China – Jun Liu – Environmental Pollution

Pre-print: Micro-scale ecology regulates particulate organic matter turnover in model marine microbial communities – Tim N Enke – bioRxiv

Food microbiology

Autochthonous facility-specific microbiota dominates washed-rind Austrian hard cheese surfaces and its production environment – Narciso M Quijada – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Bioinformatics

CoMet: a workflow using contig coverage and composition for binning a metagenomic sample with high precision – Damayanthi Herath – BMC Bioinformatics

Techniques

Serial Dilution-Based Growth Curves and Growth Curve Synchronization for High-Resolution Time Series of Bacterial Biofilm Growth – Fernando Govantes – Host-Pathogen Interactions

Microbes in the news

Fiber Is Good for You. Now Scientists May Know Why. – Carl Zimmer – The New York Times

Fast, Cheap Testing for Tuberculosis? Soon It May Be Possible – Donald G McNeil – The New York Times

How probiotics can help ward off health complications in premature babies – CTV News

Science, career, and publishing

Pre-print: Disequilibrium in Gender Ratios among Authors who Contributed Equally – Nichole A Broderick – bioRxiv