Antiphage defense systems in microbial genomes, oral pathogen inhibition by wine polyphenols and an oral probiotic, and analysis of E. coli gene expression in simulated spaceflight.

Events and jobs

Call for Expressions of Interest: Microbiology Twitter Teachers for New MOOC – Spanish Society for Microbiology

Endowed Chair in Molecular Genetics Waksman Institute of Microbiology – Rutgers University

General microbiome

Creating a 3D microbial and chemical snapshot of a human habitat – Clifford A Kapono – Scientific Reports

Human oral microbiome

Inhibition of Oral Pathogens Adhesion to Human Gingival Fibroblasts by Wine Polyphenols Alone and in Combination with an Oral Probiotic – Adelaida Esteban-Fernández – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

• Press: Wine polyphenols could fend off bacteria that cause cavities and gum disease – American Chemical Society News

Human vaginal microbiome

Metatranscriptome analysis of the vaginal microbiota reveals potential mechanisms for protection against metronidazole in bacterial vaginosis – Zhi-Luo Deng – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Differential human gut microbiome assemblages during soil-transmitted helminth infections in Indonesia and Liberia – Bruce A Rosa – Microbiome

Animal experiments

Pre-print: Orthogonal dietary niche enables reversible engraftment of a gut bacterial commensal – Sean M Kearney – bioRxiv

Pre-print: Clearing the FoG: Antifungal tolerance is a subpopulation effect that is distinct from resistance and is associated with persistent candidemia – Alexander Rosenberg – bioRxiv

Blueberry Supplementation Influences the Gut Microbiota, Inflammation, and Insulin Resistance in High-Fat-Diet–Fed Rats – Sunhye Lee – Journal of Nutrition

Animal microbiome

Woody forages effect the intestinal bacteria diversity of golden pompano Trachinotus ovatus – Biao Chen – AMB Express

Water and extremophile microbiome

Pre-print: Microzooplankton distribution in the Amundsen Sea Polynya (Antarctica) during an extensive Phaeocystis antarctica bloom – Rasmus Swalethorp – bioRxiv

Microbes in space

Pre-print: Analysis of Escherichia coli Flagellin Gene Expression in Simulated Spaceflight Growth Conditions – Kyle M Hetrick – bioRxiv

Phages and viruses

Systematic discovery of antiphage defense systems in the microbial pangenome – Shany Doron – Science

Bioinformatics

Pre-print: VirTect: a computational method for detecting virus species from RNA-Seq and its application in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma – Atlas Khan – bioRxiv

Techniques

Pre-print: Performance of convolutional neural networks for identification of bacteria in 3D microscopy datasets – Edouard A Hay – bioRxiv

Correcting for 16S rRNA gene copy numbers in microbiome surveys remains an unsolved problem – Stilianos Louca – Microbiome

Improving saliva shotgun metagenomics by chemical host DNA depletion – Clarisse A Marotz – Microbiome

Microbes in the news

Your skin is crawling with bacteria, and some of them might help fight cancer – Claire Maldarelli – Popular Science

Most Viruses And Bacteria Fall From The Sky – Astrobiology Web

Microbes on the market

Six Leading Pharma Firms to Participate at Pharmaceutical Microbiology Event in San Diego – Technology Networks

Science, career, and publishing

Pre-print: Persistent Underrepresentation of Women’s Science in High Profile Journals – Yiqin Alicia Shen – bioRxiv

Pre-print: Female grant applicants are equally successful when peer reviewers assess the science, but not when they assess the scientist – Holly O Witteman – bioRxiv