God morgon!

Good morning from Sweden. Another new week and another new digest! Today’s digest is very light with only a few articles. There is an interesting preprint which reports that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G leads to increased infectivity and the virus might have acquired this mutation during human-to-human transmission as this mutation is not seen in the original virus that infects the non-human hosts. This might be the reason why about 97% of the nCoV19 isolates have this mutation. However, the good news is that the neutralizing antibodies against the wildtype virus still retain the ability to target this mutant virus. Another interesting commentary published in Microbiome journal revisits important concepts in microbiome biology and is a must-read for all the microbiome enthusiasts. Elsewhere in the digest is a study on microbial succession in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, microbial communities of small brown planthopper (Laodelphax striatellus) and Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), and thermophilic digestion of biowaste.

Happy reading and have a great week!

COVID 19

Preprint: SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein variant D614G increases infectivity and retains sensitivity to antibodies that target the receptor binding domain – Leonid Yurkovetskiy, et al.

General Microbiome

Fine-scale succession patterns and assembly mechanisms of bacterial community of Litopenaeus vannamei larvae across the developmental cycle – Yanting Wang, et al. – Microbiome

Syntrophic acetate oxidation replaces acetoclastic methanogenesis during thermophilic digestion of biowaste – Stefan Dyksma, et al. – Microbiome

Recent infection by Wolbachia alters microbial communities in wild Laodelphax striatellus populations – Xing-Zhi Duan, et al. – Microbiome

Microbiome definition re-visited: old concepts and new challenges – Gabriele Berg, et al. – Microbiome

Microbial succession during the transition from active to inactive stages of deep-sea hydrothermal vent sulfide chimneys – Jialin Hou, et al. – Microbiome