God morgon!

Good morning from Sweden. Another Monday, a new week, and a new digest.

Today’s digest comes with a new review on gut microbiota focusing on the mycobiota which is mostly overlooked as a bulk of studies focus their interest on bacterial diversity in the gut instead. A very cool feature, which I think is now fast becoming common in papers published in Microbiome is the use of a very informative video abstract. As I mentioned in my previous digest, a video abstract catches the eye and it could very well be the next big thing in academic publishing.

There is some potential bad news from Brazil as a team has identified a new nCoV variant of interest (VoI) which probably originated in August 2020 and accounted for about 3% of all samples analyzed between November 2020 and February 2021. The variant also accounted for a very high fraction (35%) of all the B.1.1.33 lineage samples analyzed during the aforementioned period and is now considered widely distributed in Brazil. The troubling fact is that this variant has a S:E484K mutation in the spike protein and this mutation has been implicated in immune evasion and resistance to several monoclonal antibodies. Speaking about COVID-19, there is a new study that tested the viability of nCoV on various inanimate surfaces. The virus persisted longest on a surgical mask (for about 124 hours) and reduced the fastest on a polyester shirt (about 2.5 hours).

Elsewhere in the digest is a preprint that analysed publically available datasets to determine the effect of space type radiation on the gut microbiome, a somewhat controversial study (check out the comments section) hypothesizing the use of fungus to attenuate ionizing radiation on the ISS, and a comprehensive study of E. coli phage-host interactions within the BASEL phage collection.

Hope you’ll enjoy today’s digest.

Intestinal mycobiota in health and diseases: from a disrupted equilibrium to clinical opportunities – Xiaoyan Wu, et al., Microbiome

Preprint: A potential SARS-CoV-2 variant of interest (VOI) harboring mutation E484K in the Spike protein was identified within lineage B.1.1.33 circulating in Brazil – Paola C Resende, et al.

Preprint: Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 virus and viral RNA on hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces and investigating contamination concentration – Susan Elizabeth Paton, et al.

Preprint: Systematic exploration of Escherichia coli phage-host interactions with the BASEL phage collection – Enea Maffei, et al.

Preprint: PulseNet international: the missing link between PFGE and WGS – Ibrahim El-khalil M Adam

Preprint: Spontaneous Escherichia coli persisters with week-long survival dynamics and lasting memory of a short starvation pulse – Mikkel Skjoldan Svenningsen, et al.

Preprint: A Self-Replicating Radiation-Shield for Human Deep-Space Exploration: Radiotrophic Fungi can Attenuate Ionizing Radiation aboard the International Space Station – Graham K. Shunk, Xavier R. Gomez, and Nils J. H. Averesch

Preprint: Resistance to aztreonam in combination with non-β-lactam β-lactamase inhibitors due to the layering of mechanisms in Escherichia coli identified following mixed culture selection – Ching Hei Phoebe Cheung, et al.

Preprint: Yersinia pestis lipopolysaccharide remodeling confers resistance to a Xenopsylla cheopis cecropin – Basil Mathew, Kari L. Aoyagi, and Mark A. Fisher

Preprint: Rare transmission of commensal and pathogenic bacteria in the gut microbiome of hospitalized adults – Benjamin A Siranosian, et al.

Preprint: Radiation Threats to Humans in Space and an alternative approach with Probiotics – Dilara Diken, et al.