Of special note today: A randomized double blind controlled clinical trial on the impacts of probiotics on Alzheimer’s demonstrated an improvement in cognitive function, triglycerides, insulin sensitivity and C reactive protein; and a meta-analysis of the lung microbiome in tuberculosis identified specific species that are characteristic of the disease.

Events and jobs

Research Associate – Kintai Therapeutics – Cambridge, MA

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Human respiratory microbiome

*Meta-analysis of the lung microbiota in pulmonary tuberculosis – Bo-young Hong – Tuberculosis

Human skin microbiome

Longitudinal study of the psoriasis-associated skin microbiome during therapy with ustekinumab in a randomized Phase 3b clinical trial – Michael Loesche – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Human oral microbiome

The subgingival microbiome in patients with established rheumatoid arthritis – Ted R Mikuls – Rheumatology

Self-reported bovine milk intake is associated with oral microbiota composition – Ingegerd Johansson – PLOSone

Human uro-genital microbiome

A Distinctive Urinary Metabolomic Fingerprint Is Linked With Endoscopic Postoperative Disease Recurrence in Crohn’s Disease Patients – Ammar Hassanzadeh Keshteli – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Human gut microbiome

Review: Interrelation of Diet, Gut Microbiome, and Autoantibody Production – Ioanna Petta – Frontiers in Immunology

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Animal experiments

Microbiome-metabolome signatures in mice genetically prone to develop dementia, fed a normal or fatty diet – Elena Sanguinetti – Scientific Reports

Influence of dietary protein and fructooligosaccharides on fecal fermentative end-products, fecal bacterial populations and apparent total tract digestibility in dogs – Carlo Pinna – BMC Veterinary Research

Animal microbiome

Review: The tripartite interactions between the mosquito, its microbiota and Plasmodium – Ottavia Romoli – BMC Parasites & Vectors

Nutrient-Dependent Impact of Microbes on Drosophila suzukii Development – XiaoLi Bing – mBio

Lower dietary concentrate level increases bacterial diversity in the rumen of Cervus elaphus yarkandensis – Wenxi Qian- Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Evaluation of milk sample fractions for characterization of milk microbiota from healthy and clinical mastitis cows – Svetlana Ferreira Lima – PLOSone

Characterization of shifts of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) intestinal microbial communities associated with antibiotic treatment – Katherine E. Dahlhausen – PeerJ

Effects of high ambient temperature on the community structure and composition of ileal microbiome of broilers – X J Wang – Poultry Science

Oscillating bacterial expression states generate herd immunity to viral infection – Christopher J. R. Turkington – bioRxiv

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

High-Throughput Sequencing Analysis of the Actinobacterial Spatial Diversity in Moonmilk Deposits – Marta Maciejewska – Antibiotics

Dynamic root exudate chemistry and microbial substrate preferences drive patterns in rhizosphere microbial community assembly – Kateryna Zhalnina – Nature Microbiology

Microbiome engineering to improve biocontrol and plant growth-promoting mechanisms – Ma del Carmen Orozco-Mosqueda – Microbiological Research

Specificity in Arabidopsis thaliana recruitment of root fungal communities from soil and rhizosphere – Hector Urbina – Fungal Biology

Microbial cycling of isoprene, the most abundantly produced biological volatile organic compound on Earth – Terry J. McGenity – The ISME Journal

Depth matters: effects of precipitation regime on soil microbial activity upon rewetting of a plant-soil system – Ilonka C. Engelhardt – The ISME Journal

Water and extremophile microbiome

Use of in-field bioreactors demonstrate groundwater filtration influences planktonic bacterial community assembly, but not biofilm composition – Geoff A. Christensen – PLOSone

Coordinated gene expression between Trichodesmium and its microbiome over day–night cycles in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre – Kyle R Frischkorn – The ISME Journal

Microbial parasites make cyanobacteria blooms less of a trophic dead end than commonly assumed – Matilda Haraldsson – The ISME Journal

Air Microbiome

Deposition rates of viruses and bacteria above the atmospheric boundary layer
– Isabel Reche – The ISME Journal

Microbial Ecology

Review: Understanding Microbiome Stability in a Changing World – Ashley Shade – mSystems

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Probiotics / prebiotics

*Effect of Probiotic Supplementation on Cognitive Function and Metabolic Status in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Randomized, Double-Blind and Controlled Trial – Elmira Akbari – Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Bioinformatics

GraftM: a tool for scalable, phylogenetically informed classification of genes within metagenomes – Joel A Boyd – Nucleic Acids Research

VITCOMIC2: visualization tool for the phylogenetic composition of microbial communities based on 16S rRNA gene amplicons and metagenomic shotgun sequencing – Hiroshi Mori – BMC Systems Biology

Machine learning for tackling microbiota data and infection complications in immunocompromised patients with cancer – J. Luis Espinoza – Journal of Internal Medicine

A highly adaptive microbiome-based association test for survival traits – Hyunwook Koh – BMC Genomics

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Microbes in the news

Making intricate images with bacterial communities – Psy.Org

Many Non-Antibiotic Drugs Affect Gut Bacteria. A new study finds that more than 200 human-targeted, non-antibiotic drugs inhibit the growth of bacterial species that make up part of the human microbiome – Catherine Offord

‘New life form’ answers question about evolution of cells – Science Daily

Bacteria and Art

This watercolour painting was created by artistic bacteria – Sarah Roberts had a germ of an idea: let bacteria take creative control – Anna Marks – Wired

Crocheted and Embroidered Bacteria Grow in Elin Thomas’s Fiber Art Petri Dishes – Laura Staugaitis – Colossal