Today’s highlights in our Microbiology picks: Antibacterial activity of nested concentric patterns, relationship between the microbiota epitopes and antigenic epitopes, a book chapter on N-Acetyl transferase microbes, core microbiota for de novo IBD, soil microbes and disease suppression, fungi of office dust, microbes of potable  water from the Himalayan region, articles from ‘Techniques’ section.

Today’s highlights in our non-microbes picks: Epidemiology is important, recent on-goings on harassment, mental health awareness in academia, mimicking the prebiotic chemistry using flow chemistry, step taken by Wellcome Trust against misconduct in academia including harassment, Horizon 2020 budget for 2021-27.

 

Events and jobs

Laboratory Manager : New York, NY, United States – Albert Einstein College of Medicine – Deadline: 18 May 2018

General microbiome

Supramolecular Kandinsky circles with high antibacterial activity – H Wang – Nature Communications

Microbiota epitope similarity either dampens or enhances the immunogenicity of disease-associated antigenic epitopes – SC Pro – PLoS One

Genomic evolution of Staphylococcus aureus isolates colonizing the nares and progressing to bacteremia – JB Benoit – PLoS One

Book chapter: N-Acetyltransferases Microorganisms – S Boukouvala – Arylamine N-acetyltransferases in Health and Disease:From Pharmacogenetics to Drug Discovery and Diagnostics

 

Human vaginal microbiome

Preprint: Metatranscriptome analysis of the vaginal microbiota reveals potential mechanisms for protection against metronidazole in bacterial vaginosis – Z-L Deng – bioRxiv

Human gut microbiome

Preprint: Variability of core microbiota in newly diagnosed treatment-naïve paediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients – TGJ de Meij – bioRxiv

Compositional and Functional Differences in the Human Gut Microbiome Correlate with Clinical Outcome following Infection with Wild-Type Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi – Y Zhang – mBio

Animal experiments 

Preprint: Bottlenecks in the transmission of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV1) to naïve pigs and quasi-species variation during infection in partially immune pigs – M Cortey – bioRxiv

Lactobacillus gasseri PA-3 utilizes the purines GMP and guanosine and decreases their absorption in rats – N Yamada – Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids

An exclusive metabolic niche enables strain engraftment in the gut microbiota – ES Sheperd – Nature

Interleukin 1α-Deficient Mice Have an Altered Gut Microbiota Leading to Protection from Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colitis – M Nunberg – mSystems

Animal microbiome 

Low bacterial community diversity in two introduced aphid pests revealed with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing – F Zepeda-Paulo – PeerJ

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effect of land use and soil organic matter quality on the structure and function of microbial communities in pastoral soils: Implications for disease suppression – BEA Dignam – PLoS One

Relations between bacterial communities and enzyme functions of two paddy soils – X Luo – European Journal of Soil Science

Nematophagus fungi increasing phosphorus uptake and promoting plant growth – TSA Monteiro – Biological Control

Water and extremophile microbiome 

Effect of elevated pressure on ferric iron reduction coupled to sulfur oxidation by biomining microorganisms – R Zhang – Hydrometallurgy

Halophilic & halotolerant prokaryotes in humans – EH Seck – Future Medicine

Preprint: Structural variability and functional association in the epiphytic bacteria assemblies of freshwater macrophytes (Myriophyllum spicatum) – L Xian – bioRxiv

Investigation of nutrients and faecal coliforms removal in wastewater using a hydroponic system – SF Ndulini – Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C

Built environment 

Characterization of fungi in office dust: comparing results of microbial secondary metabolites, fungal ITS region sequencing, viable culture, and other microbial indices – J-H Park – Indoor Air

 

Phages and viruses

Preprint: First report on Bacterial Diversity of Potable Spring water of Indian Himalayan Region – AK Singh – bioRxiv

Preprint: “In plaque-mass spectrometry imaging” reveals a major metabolic shift towards odd-chain fatty acid lipids induced by host-virus interactions – G Schleyer – bioRxiv

Preprint: Adventitious viruses persistently infect three commonly used mosquito cell lines – J Weger-Lucarelli – bioRxiv

Techniques

Preprint: High-resolution ISR amplicon sequencing reveals personalized oral microbiome – C Mukherjee – bioRxiv

Preprint: Transcriptome Analysis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae During Natural Infection Reveals Differential Expression of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants Between Men and Women – K Nudel – bioRxiv

Designer cells programming quorum-sensing interference with microbes – F Sedlmeyer – Nature Communications

A comprehensive model for assessment of liver stage therapies targeting Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum – A Roth – Nature Communications

Preprint: Detection and quantification of the heterogeneity of S. aureus bacterial populations to identify antibiotic-induced persistence – MH Hasan – bioRxiv

Rapid isolation of fast-growing methanotrophs from environmental samples using continuous cultivation with gradually increased dilution rates – J Kim – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Stanley Falkow, Who Saw How Bacteria Cause Disease, Dies at 84 – NY Times

How the Bugs In Your Gut Could Affect Your Blood Vessels – Live Science

Faeces transplant: The best cure for severe diarrhoea may be more faeces – Times Live

Cancer-killing viruses show promise — and draw billion-dollar investment – Nature

Does where we live affect our skin microbiome? – Medical News Bulletin

Non-Microbiology Picks

Editorial: Epidemiology is a science of high importance – Nature Communications

Mimicking the surface and prebiotic chemistry of early Earth using flow chemistry – DJ Ritson – Nature Communications

I’d whisper to my student self: you are not alone – D Reay – Nature

Harassment should count as scientific misconduct – E Marín-Spiotta – Nature

€100-billion budget proposed for Europe’s next big research programme – I Vesper – Nature

Editorial: The #MeToo campaign is gaining ground in China – Nature

Editorial: What to do to improve postgraduate mental health – Nature

Report harassment or risk losing funding, says top UK science funder – H Else – Nature

78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later stone age innovation in an East African tropical forest – C Shipton – Nature Communications

KACST Impact – Nature Communications