The microbiota of chigger mites and praying mantids, the prevalence of thermophiles in domestic water heaters, the bacteria that colonize and degrade centuries-old art.

General microbiome

Migration alters oscillatory dynamics and promotes survival in connected bacterial populations – Shreyas Gokhale – Nature Communications

Pre-print: A probabilistic model to identify the core microbial community – Thiago Gumiere – bioRxiv

Human oral microbiome

Pre-print: Correlation between the oral microbiome and brain resting state connectivity in smokers – Dongdong Lin – bioRxiv

Animal experiments

Host-targeted niclosamide inhibits C. difficile virulence and prevents disease in mice without disrupting the gut microbiota – John Tam – Nature Communications

Impact of Bacillus spp. spores and gentamicin on the gastrointestinal microbiota of suckling and newly weaned piglets – Ann-Sofie Riis Poulsen – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Bacterial microbiome of the chigger mite Leptotrombidium imphalum varies by life stage and infection with the scrub typhus pathogen Orientia tsutsugamushi – Loganathan Ponnusamy – PLOS ONE

The hindgut microbiota of praying mantids is highly variable and includes both prey-associated and host-specific microbes – Kara A Tinker – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Belowground fungal community diversity and composition associated with Norway spruce along an altitudinal gradient – Max E. Schön – PLOS ONE

Treating wheat seeds with neonicotinoid insecticides does not harm the rhizosphere microbial community – Yaofa Li – PLOS ONE

Water and extremophile microbiome

Pre-print: An archaeal symbiont-host association from the deep terrestrial subsurface – Katrin Schwank – bioRxiv

Marine-Derived Fungi: Promising Candidates for Enhanced Bioremediation – Anjana K Vala – Approaches in Bioremediation

Built environment

Biogeography of thermophiles and predominance of Thermus scotoductus in domestic water heaters – Regina L Wilpiszeski – Extremophiles

Probiotics/prebiotics

Dopamine production in Enterococcus faecium: A microbial endocrinology-based mechanism for the selection of probiotics based on neurochemical-producing potential – Daniel Villageliú – PLOS ONE

Phages and viruses

A chemical defence against phage infection – Sarah Kronheim – Nature

Bioinformatics

Pre-print: Metagenome-wide measurement of protein synthesis in the human fecal microbiota using MetaRibo-Seq – Brayon J Fremin – bioRxiv

Pre-print: Large-scale analyses of human microbiomes reveal thousands of small, novel genes and their predicted functions – Hila Sberro – bioRxiv

Metabolomics

Rumen and plasma metabolomics profiling by UHPLC-QTOF/MS revealed metabolic alterations associated with a high-corn diet in beef steers – You Yang – PLOS ONE

More microbes

Pre-print: Real-time capture of horizontal gene transfers from gut microbiota by engineered CRISPR-Cas acquisition – Christian Munck – bioRxiv

Bacteria art

A detailed look at the microorganisms that colonize, and degrade, a 400-year-old painting – ScienceDaily

Inside SAIC’s Bio Art Lab, where art is life—literally – Paul Dailing – Chicago Reader

Across China: Medical students paint “Mona Lisa” with bacteria – Xinhua Net

Science, career, and publishing

Pre-print: Non-academic employability of life science PhDs: the importance of training beyond the bench – Sohyoung Her – bioRxiv