Good afternoon from sunny South Wales!

Today’s digest has a lot of great papers, with something for just about everyone. We’ll start off with a bang, and highlight a great paper in which Rajasekaran and collegaues challenge the current dogma that human intervertebral discs are sterile using a 16S rRNA sequencing approach.

We then have an interesting, or perhaps concerning paper looking at the prevalence of underreported parasites in laboratory zebrafish populations. A must read for anybody using zebrafish models. We also have plenty of papers concerning plant and water microbiomes, including a rather huge report on ocean systems.

Finally, with the current health climate, what better paper peruse than the contribution of Qureshi et al. who have demonstrated that gender neutral bathrooms are more rapidly colonised than single gender bathrooms. If recent anecdotal news articles are to be believed (although they seldom are) it’s usually the men letting the side down. You’ve got to wash those hands!

I hope everyone is staying safe, and enjoys today’s post!

COVID-19

Preprint: Identification of five antiviral compounds from the Pandemic Response Box targeting SARS-CoV-2 – Holwerda et al.

General microbiome

Longitudinal Study of Oral Microbiome Variation in Twins – Freire et al. – Sci Rep

Human nearly-sterile sites

Human intervertebral discs harbour a unique microbiome and dysbiosis determines health and disease – Rajasekaran et al. – European Spine Journal

Human gut microbiome

Early signs of gut microbiome aging: biomarkers of inflammation, metabolism, and macromolecular damage in young adulthood – Gaydosh et al. – The Journals of Gerontology

Animal experiments

Behavioural effects of the common brain-infecting parasite Pseudoloma neurophilia in laboratory zebrafish (Danio rerio) – Midttun et al. – Sci Rep

Lactobacillus plantarum FRT10 alleviated high-fat diet–induced obesity in mice through regulating the PPARα signal pathway and gut microbiota – Cai et al. – Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology

Animal microbiome

Factors affecting the microbiome of Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum – Brinkerhoff et al. – PLoS ONE

Preprint: Distinct Microbial Assemblages Associated with Genetic Selection for High- and Low- Muscle Yield in Rainbow Trout – Walker et al.

Whole-genome sequences of an abortive Bacillus safensis strain isolated from a mare’s uterus – Little, Hillhouse and Lawhorn – Genome Sequences

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Preprint: A fungal member of the microbial phyllosphere antagonizes infection of Arabidopsis thaliana by the oomycete pathogen Albugo laibachii via a putative secreted hydrolase – Eitzen et al.

Preprint: Diazotrophic bacteria from maize exhibit multifaceted plant growth promotion traits in multiple hosts – Higdon et al.

Fungal communities and their association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria affect early decomposition of Norway spruce deadwood – Gómez-Brandón et al. – Sci Rep

Fruitbody chemistry underlies the structure of endofungal bacterial communities across fungal guilds and phylogenetic groups – Pent, Bahram and Põldmaa – ISME J

Endophytic fungal community in grape is correlated to foliar age and domestication – Fan et al. – Annals of Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial genomics of the global ocean system – Joye and Kostka – Coloqium Report

How do microbiota associated with an invasive seaweed vary across scales? – Bonthond et al. – Molecular Ecology

Preprint: Differences in the microbiota of native and non-indigenous gelatinous zooplankton organisms in a low saline environment – Jaspers et al.

Built environment

Gender‐neutral bathroom surfaces recolonized by microbes more quickly than single gender bathrooms – Qureshi, Kedo and Berthrong – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Food microbiology

Dynamic distribution of gut microbiota in meat rabbits at different growth stages and relationship with average daily gain (ADG) – Fang et al. – BMC Microbiology

Techniques

Preprint: Evaluation of Methods to Optimise Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing-Based Analysis of the Microbiome of Milk – Feehily et al.