We begin with a few updates about the recent research news about COVID 19 and how as a scientist you might be able to help. As a result of the global lock down, many conferences and seminars have moved online. You will find some of the microbiome-related online events in today’s post. Please also have a look at a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for conceptual challenges in microbial community ecology.

COVID-19
Coronavirus vaccines: five key questions as trials begin – Nature News

How blood from coronavirus survivors might save lives – Nature News

COVID-19 Pandemic: Scientist volunteer form

An initiative to redirect scientific resources towards the fight against COVID-19

Virtual Events
Virtual Conference: 6th Annual Translational Microbiome Conference

Guts & Bugs: A virtual GI seminar series by Edelblum Lab

Let’s go viral: online microbiology seminars in partnership with International Society of Microbial Ecology
Schedule can be found via Twitter #MicroSeminar @MicroSeminar

General microbiome
SPECIAL ISSUE: Phillosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B : Conceptual challenges in microbial community ecology

Human respiratory microbiome
Review: Respiratory microbiome and epithelial interactions shape immunity in the lungs – Invernizzi et al. – Immunology

Human oral microbiome
Polymicrobial periodontal disease triggers a wide radius of effect and unique virome – Gao et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Metagenomic analysis of bacterial species in tongue microbiome of current and never smokers – Sato et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Spatial Ecology of the Human Tongue Dorsum Microbiome – Wilbert et al. – Cell Reports

Oral biofilms exposure to chlorhexidine results in altered microbial composition and metabolic profile – Chatzigiannidou et al. – npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Dysbiotic oral microbiota and infected salivary glands in Sjögren’s syndrome – Alam et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal experiments
Drosophila-associated bacteria differentially shape the nutritional requirements of their host during juvenile growth – Consuegra et al. – PLOS Biology

Bacterially produced metabolites protect C. elegans neurons from degeneration – Urrutia et al. – PLOS Biology

Dynamic interactions within the host-associated microbiota cause tumor formation in the basal metazoan Hydra – Rathje et al. – PLOS Pathogens

Association of colitis with gut-microbiota dysbiosis in clathrin adapter AP-1B knockout mice – Jangid et al. – PLOS ONE

Variations in microbiota composition of laboratory mice influence Citrobacter rodentium infection via variable short-chain fatty acid production – Osbelt et al. – PLOS Pathogens

Changes in the faecal microbiota of horses and ponies during a two-year body weight gain programme – Langner et al. – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome
Microbiomes in the insectivorous bat species Mops condylurus rapidly converge in captivity – Edenborough et al. – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
Towards Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture: An evaluation of biocontrol effects, nutritional value, and ecological impact of bacterial inoculants – Passera et al. – Science of The Total Environment

Book Chapter: Rhizobacteria Versus Chelating Agents: Tool for Phytoremediation – Kaur et al. – Microbial Technology for Health and Environment

Book Chapter: Applications of Microorganisms in Agriculture – Doley et al. – Microbial Technology for Health and Environment

Plant Invasion Has Limited Impact on Soil Microbial alpha Diversity: A Meta-Analysis – Custer & van Diepen – Diversity

Water microbiome
Carbonate facies‐specific stable isotope data record climate, hydrology, and microbial communities in Great Salt Lake, UT – Ingalls et al. – Geobiology

The microbiome of modern microbialites in Bacalar Lagoon, Mexico – Yanez-Montalvo et al. – PLOS ONE

Food microbiology
Variations in Fungal Community and Diversity in Doushen With Different Flavors – Luo et at. – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics
MetaBridge: An Integrative Multi‐Omics Tool for Metabolite‐Enzyme Mapping – Blimkie et al. – Current Protocols in Bioinformatics

Validating metabarcoding-based biodiversity assessments with multi-species occupancy models: A case study using coastal marine eDNA – McClenaghan et al. – PLOS ONE

PPanGGOLiN: Depicting microbial diversity via a partitioned pangenome graph – Gautreau et al. – PLOS Computational Biology

The Community Simulator: A Python package for microbial ecology – Marsland et al. – PLOS ONE

Techniques
Genome-based species-specific primers for rapid identification of six species of Lactobacillus acidophilusgroup using multiplex PCR – You & Kim – PLOS ONE

Pathogens and microbiome
Commensal Neisseria cinerea impairs Neisseria meningitidis microcolony development and reduces pathogen colonisation of epithelial cells – Custodio et al. – PLOS Pathogens

Swimming motility of a gut bacterial symbiont promotes resistance to intestinal expulsion and enhances inflammation – Wiles et al. – PLOS Biology