June 5, 2018

A model to study the effect of horizontal gene transfer on maintaining equilibrium in microbial communities, antimicrobial tolerance in brewery biofilms, the sperm whale microbiota.

General microbiome

Horizontal Gene Transfer Can Help Maintain the Equilibrium of Microbial Communities – Yuhang Fan – Journal of Theoretical Biology

Human gut microbiome

Review: Carcinogenesis as a Result of Multiple Inflammatory and Oxidative Hits: a Comprehensive Review from Tumor Microenvironment to Gut Microbiota – Floriana Morgillo – Neoplasia

Animal experiments

Extrathymically Generated Regulatory T Cells Establish a Niche for Intestinal Border-Dwelling Bacteria and Affect Physiologic Metabolite Balance – Clarissa Campbell – Immunity

Animal microbiome

Pre-print: Microbiome interaction networks and community structure from lab-reared and field-collected Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito vectors – Shivanand Hegde – bioRxiv

Pre-print: Metagenomics reveals diet-specific specialization in fungus gardens of grass- and dicot-cutter ants – Lily Khadempour – bioRxiv

Occurrence of anthropozoonotic parasitic infections and faecal microbes in free-ranging sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) from the Mediterranean Sea – Carlos Hermosilla – Parasitology Research

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Root-associated bacteria influencing mycelial growth of Tricholoma matsutake (pine mushroom) – Seung-Yoon Oh – Journal of Microbiology

Determinants of Soil Bacterial and Fungal Community Composition Toward Carbon-Use Efficiency Across Primary and Secondary Forests in a Costa Rican Conservation Area – Katie M McGee – Microbial Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Pre-print: Competition and Synergy Between Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus Under Ocean Acidification Conditions – James Jeffrey Morris – bioRxiv

Quantifying the Relative Contributions of Environmental Sources to the Microbial Community in an Urban Stream under Dry and Wet Weather Conditions – Darshan Baral – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

The deep continental subsurface: the dark biosphere – Cristina Escudero – International Microbiology

Food microbiology

Competitive inter-species interactions underlie the increased antimicrobial tolerance in multispecies brewery biofilms – Ilse Parijs – ISME Journal

Phages and viruses

Influence of gut microbiome on mucosal immune activation and SHIV viral transmission in naive macaques – Yongjun Sui – Mucosal Immunity

Techniques

Does universal 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of environmental communities provide an accurate description of nitrifying guilds? – Vaibhav Diwan – Journal of Microbiological Methods

May 31, 2018

Metagenomic analysis of the endangered kakapo fecal microbiota, a role for the microbiota in the social interaction habits of mice, using fecal metabolomics to readout functions of the gut microbiome.

General microbiome

Pre-print: Measuring the archaeome: detection and quantification of archaea signatures in the human body – Manuela R Pausan – bioRxiv

Human skin microbiome

Short‐term direct contact with soil and plant materials leads to an immediate increase in diversity of skin microbiota – Mira Grönroos – Microbiology Open

Human oral microbiome

Preliminary esophageal microbiome studies prompt important scientific questions – Yash Choksi – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Human urinary microbiome

Calcium Oxalate Urolithiasis: A Case of Missing Microbes? – Carlos Alfredo Batagello – Journal of Endourology

Animal experiments

Social interaction-induced activation of RNA splicing in the amygdala of microbiome-deficient mice – Roman M Stilling – eLIFE

Differences in cecal microbiome of selected high and low feather-pecking laying hens – P Birkl – Poultry Science

Digestive microbiota is different in pigs receiving antimicrobials or a feed additive during the nursery period – Cassandra Soler – PLOS ONE

Dietary supplementation with yeast hydrolysate in pregnancy influences colostrum yield and gut microbiota of sows and piglets after birth – Shah Hasah – PLOS ONE

Dietary sodium butyrate improves intestinal development and function by modulating the microbial community in broilers – Wei Wu – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Network-guided genomic and metagenomic analysis of the faecal microbiota of the critically endangered kakapo – David W Waite – Scientific Reports

Bacterial diversity and community structure of the intestinal microbiome of Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) during ontogenesis – Francisca A Burgos – Systematic and Applied Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Pre-print: Consortia of anti-nematode fungi and bacteria in the rhizosphere of soybean plants attacked by root-knot nematodes – Hirokazu Toju – bioRxiv

The importance of phyllosphere on plant functional ecology: a phyllo trait manifesto – Bruno H P Rosado – New Phytologist

Biocatalytic potential of Streptomyces spp. isolates from rhizosphere of plants and mycorrhizosphere of fungi – Jelena Spasic – Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry

Hosts do not simply outsource pathogen resistance to protective symbionts – Jan Hrček – Evolution

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial Diversity in Sediments from the Bottom of the Challenger Deep, the Mariana Trench – Takuro Nunoura – Microbes and Environments

Microbial Community Composition and Putative Biogeochemical Functions in the Sediment and Water of Tropical Granite Quarry Lakes – Amit Kumar – Microbial Ecology

Bloom of a denitrifying methanotroph, “Candidatus Methylomirabilis limnetica”, in a deep stratified lake – Jon S Graf – Environmental Microbiology

Food microbiology

Microbiome dynamics during spontaneous fermentations of sound grapes in comparison with sour rot and Botrytis infected grapes – Jessica Lleixà – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Pre-print: Microbial Community Structure and Diversity of Shrimp Paste at Different Fermentation Stages – Dai Lingying – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

MetaHMM: A webserver for identifying novel genes with specified functions in metagenomic samples – Balázs Szalkai – Genomics

Metabolomics

The fecal metabolome as a functional readout of the gut microbiome – Jonas Zierer – Nature Genetics

More microbes

Pre-print: Aggregation of Vibrio cholerae by cationic polymers enhances quorum sensing but over-rides biofilm dissipation in response to autoinduction – Nicolas Perez-Soto – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Virus genes from city pond rescue bacteria – ScienceDaily

May 25, 2018

Microbes and climate change, molecules from the microbiota and the gut-brain axis, C. albicans respiration changes lead to differences in macrophage recognition.

Animal experiments

The Gut Microbiota Mediates the Anti-Seizure Effects of the Ketogenic Diet – Christine A Olson – Cell

Microbial signals drive pre-leukaemic myeloproliferation in a Tet2-deficient host – Marlies Meisel – Nature

Pre-print: Temporal changes in gut microbiota and signaling molecules of the gut-brain axis in mice fed meat protein diets – Yunting Jie – bioRxiv

Water and extremophile microbiome

Detection and Genetic Characterization of Bacteria of the Genus Pseudomonas from Microbial Communities of Lake Baikal – N L Bel’kova – Russian Journal of Genetics

More microbes

Review: Microbial Function on Climate Change – A Review – Endeshaw Abatenh – Environment Pollution and Climate Change

Pre-print: Inhibition of classical and alternative modes of respiration in C. albicans leads to cell wall remodelling and increased macrophage recognition – Lucian Duvenage – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

How gut microbes are joining the fight against cancer – Giorgia Guglielmi – Nature

May 24, 2018

Pest gut microbiota indirectly effects plant defenses in corn, evolution of microbial social behavior from shearing in flow environments, a model to predict cytokine responses based on multi-comics data integration.

General microbiome

Shearing in flow environment promotes evolution of social behavior in microbial populations – Gurdip Uppal – eLIFE

Pregnancy and early life

Review: The Neonatal Microbiome and Its Partial Role in Mediating the Association between Birth by Cesarean Section and Adverse Pediatric Outcomes – D Montoya-Williams – Neonatology

Human respiratory microbiome

Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps is characterized by dysbacteriosis of the nasal microbiota – Thanit Chalermwatanachai – Scientific Reports

Human oral microbiome

Metagenomic study of bacterial microbiota in persistent endodontic infections using Next‐generation sequencing – G Sánchez-Sanhueza – International Endodontic Journal

Human gut microbiome

Iron Sequestration in Microbiota Biofilms As A Novel Strategy for Treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Jean-Paul Motta – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Temporal and long‐term gut microbiota variation in allergic disease: A prospective study from infancy to school age – Kotryna Simonyté Sjödin – European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Bangladeshi children with acute diarrhea show fecal microbiomes with increased Streptococcus abundance, irrespective of diarrhea etiology – Silas Kieser – Environmental Microbiology

Animal experiments

Effects of a protease and essential oils on growth performance, blood cell profiles, nutrient retention, ileal microbiota, excreta gas emission, and breast meat quality in broiler chicks – J H Park – Poultry Science

Colonic Inhibition of Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog Increases Colitogenic Bacteria, Causing Development of Colitis in Il10-/- Mice – Jonathon Mitchell – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Review: Microbial Signatures as a Predictive Tool in IBD—Pearls and Pitfalls – Nadine Waldschmitt – Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Oral hydroxysafflor yellow A reduces obesity in mice by modulating the gut microbiota and serum metabolism – Juan Liu – Pharmacological Research

Impact of commensal flora on periodontal immune response to lipopolysaccharide – Daiki Fukuhara – Journal of Periodontology

Animal microbiome

Poor feed efficiency in sheep is associated with several structural abnormalities in the community metabolic network of their ruminal microbes – Rocky D Patil – Journal of Animal Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Cadmium phytoextraction potential of king grass (Pennisetum sinese Roxb.) and responses of rhizosphere bacterial communities to a cadmium pollution gradient – Li Hu – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Gut-Associated Bacteria of Helicoverpa zea Indirectly Trigger Plant Defenses in Maize – Jie Wang – Journal of Chemical Ecology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial activity during a coastal phytoplankton bloom on the Western Antarctic Peninsula in late summer – María E Alcamán-Arias – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Effects of partially saturated conditions on the metabolically active microbiome and on nitrogen removal in vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands – Catiane Pelissari – Water Research

Pre-print: Diversity and community structure of marine microbes around the Benham Rise underwater plateau, northeastern Philippines – Andrian P Gajigan – PeerJ

Food microbiology

Porous Silicon-Based Biosensors: Towards Real-Time Optical Detection of Target Bacteria in the Food Industry – Naama Massad-Ivanir – Scientific Reports

Probiotics/prebiotics

Survival of Planktonic and Sessile Cells of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus reuteri upon Exposure to Simulated Fasting-State Gastrointestinal Conditions – Kyle B Klopper – Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins

Phages and viruses

Pre-print: A novel oceanic uncultured temperate cyanophage lineage – José Flores-Uribe – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

Integration of multi-omics data and deep phenotyping enables prediction of cytokine responses – Olivier B Bakker – Nature Immunology

More microbes

Pre-print: New sequential touch method for determining bacterial contact transfer rate from finger to surface – Pengcheng Zhao – bioRxiv

Amy’s non-microbiology picks

Restoration of paper artworks with microemulsions confined in hydrogels for safe and efficient removal of adhesive tapes – Nicole Bonelli – PNAS

May 17, 2018

Genome engineering tools for non-model prokaryotes, microgravity and space radiation’s effects on microbes, an analysis of science podcasts.

General microbiome

Taking the technical microbiome into the next decade – Jo De Vrieze – Environmental Microbiology

Pre-print: Links between environment, diet, and the hunter-gatherer microbiome – Gabriela K Fragiadakis – bioRxiv

Human vaginal microbiome

The effect of vaginal microbial communities on colonization by Staphylococcus aureus with the gene for toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1): a case–control study – Jacob D Pierson – FEMS Pathogens and Disease

Human urinary microbiome

Lactobacillus and Urine Microbiome in Association with Urinary Tract Infections and Bacterial Vaginosis – Jun-Mo Kim – Urogenital Tract Infection

Human gut microbiome

Combination Antibiotics Improves Disease Activity and Alters Microbial Communities In Children with Ulcerative Colitis – Kattayoun Kordy – Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition

Animal experiments

Postnatal colonization with human “infant-type” Bifidobacterium species alters behavior of adult gnotobiotic mice – Berkley Luk – PLOS ONE

A gene catalogue of the Sprague-Dawley rat gut metagenome – Hudan Pan – Gigascience

Animal microbiome

Changes in intestinal microbiota of Bufo gargarizans and its association with body weight during metamorphosis – Lihong Chai – Archives of Microbiology

Metagenomic analysis of Varroa-free Australian honey bees (Apis mellifera) shows a diverse Picornavirales virome – John M K Roberts – Journal of General Virology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Strong associations between plant genotypes and bacterial communities in a natural salt marsh – Gregory P Zogg – Ecology and Evolution

What Is the Role of Archaea in Plants? New Insights from the Vegetation of Alpine Bogs – Julian Taffner – mSphere

Rhizosphere hydrophobicity limits root water uptake after drying and subsequent rewetting – Mohsen Zarebanadkouki – Plant and Soil

Crop rotational diversity increases disease suppressive capacity of soil microbiomes – Ariane L Peralta – Ecosphere

Water and extremophile microbiome

A thiotrophic microbial community in an acidic brine lake in Northern Chile – Lorena Escudero – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Codon usage bias reveals genomic adaptations to environmental conditions in an acidophilic consortium – Andrew Hart – PLOS ONE

Microbes in space

Review: Effect of microgravity & space radiation on microbes – Giuliana Senatore – Future Microbiology

Food microbiology

Bacterial community analysis in three types of the fermented seafood, jeotgal, produced in South Korea – Eun-Ji Song – Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry

Metabolomics

Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveal that bacteria promote plant defense during infection of soybean cyst nematode in soybean – Wenshu Kang – BMC Plant Biology

Techniques

Review: Building a genome engineering toolbox in non‐model prokaryotic microbes – Emily Freed – Biotechnology and Bioengineering

Pre-print: Effective soil extraction method for cultivating previously uncultured soil bacteria – Tuan Manh Nguyen – bioRxiv

More microbes

Disentangling complex parasite interactions: Protection against cerebral malaria by one helminth species is jeopardized by co-infection with another – Jessica L Abbate – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Pre-print: Nanotube-mediated cross-feeding couples the metabolism of interacting bacterial cells – Shraddha Shitut – bioRxiv

Science, career, and publishing

Pre-print: Science podcasts: analysis of global production and output from 2004 to 2018 – Lewis E MacKenzie – bioRxiv

May 15, 2018

Comparison of the cottage cheese and artisanal cheese microbiota, no microbes found in amniotic fluid from healthy term pregnancies, impacts of ocean warming on the oyster microbiome.

General microbiome

Molecular (Me)micry? – Orly Avni – Cell Host & Microbe

Pregnancy and early life

Amniotic fluid from healthy term pregnancies does not harbor a detectable microbial community – Efrem S Lim – Microbiome

Multi-site human microbiome

Data on the gut and saliva microbiota from a cohort of atherosclerosis patients determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing – Gregory B Gloor – Data in Brief

Human skin microbiome

Antiseptic Agents Elicit Short-Term, Personalized and Body Site-Specific Shifts in Resident Skin Bacterial Communities – Adam J SanMiguel – The Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Human gut microbiome

Review: Systematic review assessing the effectiveness of dietary intervention on gut microbiota in adults with type 2 diabetes – David Houghton – Diabetologia

Animal experiments

Increased butyrate priming in the gut stalls microbiome associated-gastrointestinal inflammation and hepatic metabolic reprogramming in a mouse model of Gulf War Illness – Ratanesh Kumar Seth – Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

Light exposure influences the diurnal oscillation of gut microbiota in mice – Guangyan Wu – Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications

Early-Life Antibiotic-Driven Dysbiosis Leads to Dysregulated Vaccine Immune Responses in Mice – Miriam Anne Lynn – Cell Host & Microbe

The effect of the timing of exposure to Campylobacter jejuni on the gut microbiome and inflammatory responses of broiler chickens – Phillippa L Connerton – Microbiome

Animal microbiome

Potential impacts of hypoxia and a warming ocean on oyster microbiomes – Bushra Khan – Marine Environmental Research

Mixed-Mode Transmission Shapes Termite Gut Community Assemblies – Rafael R da Costa – Trends in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Effect of compost application on the dynamics of carbon in a nectarine orchard ecosystem – E Baldi – Science of the Total Environment

Review: Current research trends on plastic pollution and ecological impacts on the soil ecosystem: A review – Yooeun Chae – Environmental Pollution

Community structure and plant growth-promoting potential of cultivable bacteria isolated from Cameroon soil – Gylaine Vanissa Tchuisseu Tchakounté – Microbiological Research

Characterisation of antagonistic yeasts for biocontrol applications on apples or in soil by quantitative analyses of synthetic yeast communities – Simon Gross – Yeast

Water and extremophile microbiome

Microbial ecology of two hot springs of Sikkim: Predominate population and geochemistry – Ishfaq Nabi Najar – Science of the Total Environment

Exploring abundance, diversity and variation of a widespread antibiotic resistance gene in wastewater treatment plants – Ziyan Wei – Environment International

Antimicrobial resistance and potential virulence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from water and bivalve mollusks from Bahia, Brazil – Irana Paim Silva – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Diversity and distribution of Archaea in global estuarine ecosystems – Xiaobo Liu – Science of the Total Environment

Microbes in space

Acute exposure to space flight results in evidence of reduced lymph Transport, tissue fluid Shifts, and immune alterations in the rat gastrointestinal system – W E Cromer – Life Sciences in Space Research

Food microbiology

Using PacBio sequencing to investigate the bacterial microbiota of traditional Buryatian cottage cheese and comparison with Italian and Kazakhstan artisanal cheeses – Hao Jin – Journal of Dairy Science

Salmonella Cold Stress Response: Mechanisms and Occurrence in Foods – Steven C Ricke – Advances in Applied Microbiology

Probiotics/prebiotics

Strategies to improve the functionality of probiotics in supplements and foods – Claude P Champagne – Current Opinion in Food Science

Phages and viruses

Pre-print: Diversity of active viral infections within the Sphagnum microbiome – Joshua M A Stough – bioRxiv

Review: Composition of gut microbiota and its influence on the immunogenicity of oral rotavirus vaccines – Cliff A Magwira – Vaccines

Metabolomics

Review: A Review on Human Fecal Metabolomics: Methods, Applications and the Human Fecal Metabolome Database – Naama Karu – Analytica Chimica Acta

More microbes

Critical knowledge gaps and research needs related to the environmental dimensions of antibiotic resistance – D G Joakim Larsson – Environment International

April 28, 2018

Genomic analysis of tick endosymbionts, re-evaluation of the phylogenetic placement of mitochondria outside alphaproteobacteria, gravity sensing in fungi acquired by horizontal gene transfer from bacteria.

General microbiome

Review: Malaria and the microbiome: a systematic review – Matthew M Ippolito – Clinical Infectious Diseases

Pregnancy and early life

The fallopian tube microbiome: implications for reproductive health – Elise S Pelzer – Oncotarget

Animal microbiome

The influence of diet and environment on the gut microbial community of field crickets – Soon Hwee Ng – Ecology and Evolution

Comparison of closely related, uncultivated Coxiella tick endosymbiont population genomes reveals clues about the mechanisms of symbiosis – Despina Tsementzi – Environmental Microbiology

Insights into the bacterial symbiont diversity in spiders – Lihua Zhang – Ecology and Evolution

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Legume endosymbionts: Drought stress tolerance in second‐generation chickpea (Cicer arietinum) seeds – V Kumari – Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science

Quantifying the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Plant Root Colonization by Beneficial Bacteria in a Microfluidic Habitat – Jayde A Aufrecht – Advanced Biosystems

Response of the wheat rhizosphere soil nematode community in wheat/walnut intercropping system in Xinjiang, Northwest China – Peng-hua Bai – Applied Entomology and Zoology

Pre-print: Host identity and functional traits determine the community composition of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in facultative epiphytic plant species – Maria del Mar Alguacil – bioRxiv

Seagrass rhizosphere microenvironment alters plant‐associated microbial community composition – Kasper Elgetti Brodersen – Environmental Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration on terrestrial-aquatic carbon transfer and a downstream aquatic microbial community – Emma Rochelle-Newell – Aquatic Sciences

Community differentiation of bacterioplankton in the epipelagic layer in the South China Sea – Yi Zhang – Ecology and Evolution

Built environment

Review: Ecotoxicological effects of microplastics on biota: a review – Sadasivam Anbumani – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Bioinformatics

Renewing Felsenstein’s phylogenetic bootstrap in the era of big data – F Lemoine – Nature

Pre-print: Machine learning based prediction of functional capabilities in metagenomically assembled microbial genomes – Fred Farrell – bioRxiv

Techniques

Review: Overview of Next‐Generation Sequencing Technologies – Barton E Slatko – Current Protocols in Molecular Biology

More microbes

Deep mitochondrial origin outside the sampled alphaproteobacteria – Joran Martijn – Nature

Evolutionary novelty in gravity sensing through horizontal gene transfer and high-order protein assembly – Tu Ahn Nguyen – PLOS Biology

Pre-print: Differentiation of vegetative cells into spores: a kinetic model applied to Bacillus subtilis – Emilie Gauvry – bioRxiv

Pre-print: A decay effect of bacterial growth rate associated with genome reduction – Kouhei Tsuchiya – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Mass suicide documented in bacteria – Nature

Researchers assassinate disease-causing bacteria with virus cocktail – EurekAlert

Bacteria in the small intestine indispensable for fat absorption – EurekAlert

Why a rinse won’t do: on menstrual cups, bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome – Siouxsie Wiles – The Spinoff

Study reveals how bacteria communicate in groups to avoid antibiotics – EurekAlert

Podcast: Gut Punch – Marketing Microbiome Hype – Michael Joyce – Health News Review

Microbes on the market

Global Microbiome Therapeutics Market to Witness Comprehensive Growth By 2024 – Healthcare Trends

uBiome Sponsors Annual Fundraising Walk, SF Take Steps, to Support the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation – benzinga

Microbiome Company A-Mansia Secures €16M – Allison Johnson – Biocentury

Science, career, and publishing

A photo celebration of scientists at work – Jack Leeming – Nature

Scientists’ early grant success fuels further funding – Holly Else – Nature

Pre-print: Strength in numbers: collaborative science for new experimental model systems – Ross F Waller – bioRxiv

April 25, 2018

Method for cell-free transcription-translation to characterize nonmodel bacteria, a review of bile acid metabolism by the gut microbiota, altitude affects on the lizard intestinal microbiota.

Events and jobs

Research Applications Programmer – UC San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation

Pregnancy and early life

Preterm infants have distinct microbiomes not explained by mode of delivery, breastfeeding duration or antibiotic exposure – Cecilie Dahl – International Journal of Epidemiology

Multi-site human microbiome

Bifidobacteria isolated from vaginal and gut microbiomes are indistinguishable by comparative genomics – Aline C Freitas – PLOS ONE

Human skin microbiome

The Skin Commensal Yeast Malassezia globosa Thwarts Bacterial Biofilms to Benefit the Host – Giuseppe Ianiri – Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Human gut microbiome

A repeat offender: recurrent extraintestinal Clostridium difficile infection following fecal microbiota transplantation – Bradley J Gardiner – Anaerobe

Next-Generation Immune Repertoire Sequencing as a Clue to Elucidate the Landscape of Immune Modulation by Host–Gut Microbiome Interactions – Tatsuo Ichinohe – Frontiers in Immunology

Review: Metabolism of hydrogen gases and bile acids in the gut microbiome – Phillip B Hylemon – FEBS Letters

Animal experiments

Beneficial effects of a selected probiotic mixture administered to high fat-fed mice before and after the development of obesity – Marianna Roselli – Journal of Functional Foods

Emodin ameliorates ulcerative colitis by the flagellin-TLR5 dependent pathway in mice – Shuang Luo – International Immunopharmacology

Pre-print: Probiotics enhance susceptibility of mice to cryptosporidiosis – Bruno C M Oliveira – bioRxiv

Review: Using murine colitis models to analyze probiotics–host interactions – Rebeca Martín – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Dietary Clostridium Butyricum induces a phased shift in fecal microbiota structure and increases the acetic acid-producing bacteria in a weaned piglet model – Jie Zhang – Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Animal microbiome

Changes in intestinal microbiota across an altitudinal gradient in the lizard Phrynocephalus vlangalii – Wenya Zhang – Ecology and Evolution

New York City House Mice (Mus musculus) as Potential Reservoirs for Pathogenic Bacteria and Antimicrobial Resistance Determinants – Simon H Williams – mBio

Glucocorticoids modulate gastrointestinal microbiome in a wild bird – José C Noguera – Royal Society Open Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Insights to plant‐microbe interactions provide opportunities to improve resistance breeding against root diseases in grain legumes – Lukas Wille – Plant, Cell & Environment

Rice Phyllosphere Bacillus Species and Their Secreted Metabolites Suppress Aspergillus flavus Growth and Aflatoxin Production In Vitro and in Maize Seeds – Subbaiah Chalivendra – Toxins

Root diameter predicts the extramatrical hyphal exploration distance of the ectomycorrhizal fungal community – Weile Chen – Ecosphere

Isolation and characterization of phosphofungi, and screening of their plant growth-promoting activities – Xiaohui Wang – AMB Express

Plants regulate the effects of experimental warming on the soil microbial community in an alpine scrub ecosystem – Zhiliang Ma – PLOS ONE

Pre-print: Effects of fertilizations on soil bacteria and fungi communities in a degraded arid steppe revealed by high through-put sequencing – Luhua Yao – PeerJ

Water and extremophile microbiome

Life on the edge: active microbial communities in the Kryos MgCl2-brine basin at very low water activity – Lea Steinle – The ISME Journal

Light availability impacts structure and function of phototrophic stream biofilms across domains and trophic levels – Mia M Bengtsson – Molecular Ecology

Bacterial Community in Water and Air of Two Sub-Alpine Lakes in Taiwan – Kshitij Tandon – Microbes and Environments

Microbes in space

Book chapter: The Search for Signatures of Life and Habitability on Planets and Moons of Our Solar System – Oliver Funke – Biological, Physical and Technical Basis of Cell Engineering

Bioinformatics

Phylogenetic Placement of Exact Amplicon Sequences Improves Associations with Clinical Information – Stefan Janssen – mSystems

Pre-print: Fusobacterium genomics using MinION and Illumina sequencing enables genome completion and correction – S Michelle Todd – bioRxiv

Pre-print: FusoPortal: An interactive repository of hybrid MinION-sequenced Fusobacterium genomes improves gene identification and characterization – Blake E Sanders – bioRxiv

Comparison of normalization methods for the analysis of metagenomic gene abundance data – Mariana Buongermino Pereira – BMC Genomics

Pre-print: Accuracy of taxonomy prediction for 16S rRNA and fungal ITS sequences – Robert C Edgar – PeerJ

Pre-print: Natural history bycatch: a pipeline for identifying metagenomic sequences in RADseq data – Iris Holmes – PeerJ

Metabolomics

Exploring the Genetic Landscape of Metabolic Phenotypes with MetaboSignal – Andrea Rodriguez-Martinez – Current Protocols in Bioinformatics

Tissue Multiplatform-Based Metabolomics/Metabonomics for Enhanced Metabolome Coverage – Panagiotis A Vorkas – Metabolic Profiling

Review: Current and future perspectives of functional metabolomics in disease studies–A review – Min Yan – Analytica Chimica Acta

Techniques

Rapid acquisition and model-based analysis of cell-free transcription–translation reactions from nonmodel bacteria – Simon J Moore – PNAS

Pre-print: Impact of DNA sequencing and analysis methods on 16S rRNA gene bacterial community analysis in dairy products – Zhengyao Xue – bioRxiv

Methodological considerations for the identification of choline and carnitine-degrading bacteria in the gut – Eleanor Jameson – Methods

More microbes

Omics and multi-omics approaches to study the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in microorganisms – Emilia Palazzotto – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Helicobacter pylori the Latent Human Pathogen or an Ancestral Commensal Organism – Jackie Li – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Wiping out the gut microbiome could help with heart failure – ScienceDaily

How bacteria are changing your mood – James Gallagher – BBC News

Drinkers have more bad mouth bacteria, study finds – Susan Scutti – CNN

$11.2 million federal grant to support microorganism and disease research – EurekAlert

A Surprising Way Dogs Are Similar to Humans – Julissa Treviño – Smithsonian

Could Your Diet Be The Cause Of Your Arthritis Pain? – Robert Glatter – Forbes

Growing evidence that probiotics are good for your liver – ScienceDaily

Just being outside can improve your psychological health, and maybe your physical health too – Zoë Schlanger – Quartz

Role of Mosquito Microbiota in Reducing Malaria Transmission – JoAnna Pendergrass – American Veterinarian

A search for some of Earth’s most extreme creatures in the West Coast’s deepest underwater canyon – Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

How plastic-eating bacteria actually work—a chemist explains – Emily Flashman – Phys.org

Far-red fluorescent silk can kill harmful bacteria as biomedical and environmental remedy – Kayla Wiles – Phys.org

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria cross oceans hidden in cargo ships – Inga Vesper – New Scientist

Fight against Zika, dengue get boost from reliable spread of bacteria – EurekAlert

Microbes on the market

Rebiotix Presents Posters at ECCMID 2018 Highlighting Microbiome Health Index™ Value Potential and RBX2660 Phase 2 Clinical Program Data – PR Newswire

Kaleido Biosciences Announces Appointment of Joshua Brumm as Chief Financial Officer – Citizen Tribune

Science, career, and publishing

Pre-print: Aligning interests: Integrating Citizen Science Efforts into Schools Through Service Requirements – Ginger Tsueng – bioRxiv

Randomly auditing research labs could be an affordable way to improve research quality: A simulation study – Adrian G Barnett – PLOS ONE

March 28, 2018

The impact of the microbiota on bone marrow transplantation in mice, differences in phage infection efficiency in nearly identical hosts, bacterial diversity of Brazilian artisanal cheese.

Events and jobs

Research Associate in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, School of Life Cours – King’s College London

Research Associate in Department of Twin Research_School of Life Course Sciences – King’s College London

General microbiome

Variations in the relative abundance of Wolbachia in the gut of Nasutitermes arborum across life stages and castes – Michel Diouf – FEMS Microbiology Letters

Pregnancy and early life

HIV-exposure, early life feeding practices and delivery mode impacts on faecal bacterial profiles in a South African birth cohort – Shantelle Claassen-Weitz – Scientific Reports

Human respiratory microbiome

Exacerbation induces a microbiota shift in sputa of COPD patients – Eric Jubinville – PLOS ONE

Human oral microbiome

Review: Insights into the human oral microbiome – Digvijay Verma – Archives of Microbiology

Pre-print: Characterization of the salivary microbiome in people with obesity – Yujia Wu – PeerJ

Review: The oral microbiota – a mechanistic role for systemic diseases – G Jia – British Dental Journal

Human gut microbiome

Differences in epidemiological features between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease: the early life-programmed versus late dysbiosis hypothesis – Laurent Beaugerie – Medical Hypotheses

Analysis of changes in intestinal flora and intravascular inflammation and coronary heart disease in obese patients – Xv Li – Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine

Animal experiments

Nutritional Support from the Intestinal Microbiota Improves Hematopoietic Reconstitution after Bone Marrow Transplantation in Mice – Anna Staffas – Cell Host & Microbe

High salt intake increases plasma trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) concentration and produces gut dysbiosis in rats – Klaudia Bielinska – Nutrition

High salt diet exacerbates colitis in mice by decreasing Lactobacillus levels and butyrate production – Pedro M Miranda – Microbiome

The Pancreatic Cancer Microbiome Promotes Oncogenesis by Induction of Innate and Adaptive Immune Suppression – Smruti Pushalkar – Cancer Discovery

Predominant gut Lactobacillus murinus strain mediates anti-inflammaging effects in calorie-restricted mice – Fengwei Pan – Microbiome

Deletion of choline acetyltransferase in enteric neurons results in postnatal intestinal dysmotility and dysbiosis – Carl D Johnson – The FASEB Journal

At-hatch administration of probiotic to chickens can introduce beneficial changes in gut microbiota – Stephen Baldwin – PLOS ONE

Impact of parenteral antimicrobial administration on the structure and diversity of the fecal microbiota of growing pigs – Mohamed Zeineldin – Microbial Pathogenesis

Pre-print: Metabolic retroconversion of trimethylamine N-oxide and the gut microbiota – Lesley Hoyles – bioRxiv

Pre-print: Isolation of a natural DNA virus of Drosophila melanogaster, and characterisation of host resistance and immune responses – William H Palmer – bioRxiv

Proanthocyanidin‐Rich Grape Seed Extract Modulates Intestinal Microbiota in Ovariectomized Mice – Guangwen Jin – Journal of Food Science

Evaluation of the nutrition and function of cow and goat milk based on intestinal microbiota by metagenomic analysis – Zhaoxia Wang – Food & Function

Animal microbiome

Pre-print: Characterisation of gut microbiota of farmed Chinook salmon using metabarcoding – Milica Ciric – bioRxiv

Variation in the microbiome of the urogenital tract of Chlamydia-free female koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) with and without ‘wet bottom’ – Alistair R Legione – PLOS ONE

Pre-print: Characterization of shifts of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) intestinal microbial communities associated with antibiotic treatment – Katherine E Dahlhausen – PeerJ

Comparison of gizzard and intestinal microbiota of wild neotropical birds – M Alexandra García-Amado – PLOS ONE

Fecal microbiota in the female prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) – J Thomas Curtis – PLOS ONE

Disentangling factors that shape the gut microbiota in German Shepherd dogs – Åsa Vilson – PLOS ONE

Yeast culture dietary supplementation modulates gut microbiota, growth and biochemical parameters of grass carp – Han Liu – Microbial Biotechnology

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Gestating Sows and Neonatal Offspring Alters Lifetime Intestinal Microbiota and Growth in Offspring – Ursula M McCormack – mSystems

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Tetracycline resistance genes are more prevalent in wet soils than in dry soils – Yijun Kang – Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Functional diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities is reduced by trace element contamination – Álvaro López-García – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Long- and short-term effects of mercury pollution on the soil microbiome – Aline Frossard – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Structure of surface polysaccharides from Aeromonas sp. AMG272, a plant-growth promoting rhizobacterium isolated from rice rhizosphere – Rocío Contreras Sánchez-Matamoros – Carbohydrate Research

Review: Sniffing bacterial volatile compounds for healthier plants – Rouhallah Sharifi – Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence decomposition and the associated soil microbial community under different soil phosphorus availability – Jing Xu – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Water and extremophile microbiome

Habitat filtering of bacterioplankton communities above polymetallic nodule fields and sediments in the Clarion-Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean – Markus V Lindh – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Microbial communities in seawater from an Arctic and a temperate Norwegian fjord and their potentials for biodegradation of chemically dispersed oil at low seawater temperatures – Deni Ribicic – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Built environment

Pre-print: Half-lives of PAHs and temporal microbiota changes in commonly used urban landscaping materials – Marja I Roslund – PeerJ

Food microbiology

Interspecies variation in biofilm-forming capacity of psychrotrophic bacterial isolates from Chinese raw milk – Lei Yuan – Food Control

Bacterial diversity of artisanal cheese from the Amazonian region of Brazil during the dry and rainy seasons – Mayra Carla de Freitas Martins – Food Research International

Probiotics/prebiotics

Salecan stabilizes the microstructure and improves the rheological performance of yogurt – Renjie Fu – Food Hydrocolloids

Probiotic Lactobacillus casei Zhang (LCZ) alleviates respiratory, gastrointestinal & RBC abnormality via immuno-modulatory, anti-inflammatory & anti-oxidative actions – Yan-Yan Hor – Journal of Functional Foods

Routine Supplementation of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Risk of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Very Low Birth Weight Infants – Andrea F Kane – The Journal of Pediatrics

Phages and viruses

Continued Need for Comprehensive Genetic and Phenotypic Characterization of Viruses: Benefits of Complementing Sequence Analyses with Functional Determinations – Aaron C Brault – The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Detection of Hantaviruses and Arenaviruzses in three-toed jerboas from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China – Zhiqiang Wu – Emerging Microbes & Infections

Enteric Virome Sensing—Its Role in Intestinal Homeostasis and Immunity – Rebecca N Metzger – Viruses

Commentary: Bacteriophage transfer during faecal microbiota transplantation in Clostridium difficile infection is associated with treatment outcome – Blessing O Anonye – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Multiple mechanisms drive phage infection efficiency in nearly identical hosts – Cristina Howard-Verona – The ISME Journal

Early MinION™ nanopore single-molecule sequencing technology enables the characterization of hepatitis B virus genetic complexity in clinical samples – Virginie Sauvage – PLOS ONE

A metagenomic viral discovery approach identifies potential zoonotic and novel mammalian viruses in Neoromicia bats within South Africa – Marike Geldenhuys – PLOS ONE

Pre-print: Ecological and evolutionary consequences of viral plasticity – Melinda Choua – bioRxiv

Bioinformatics

Pre-print: Taxonomy annotation errors in 16S rRNA and fungal ITS sequence databases – Robert C Edgar – bioRxiv

Metabolomics

Analysis of paper foxing by newly available omics techniques – Justyna Szulc – International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

Review: Targeting human urinary metabolome by LC–MS/MS: a review – Jose Rodríguez-Morató – Bioanalysis

GC-MS Based Metabolomics and NMR Spectroscopy Investigation of Food Intake Biomarkers for Milk and Cheese in Serum of Healthy Humans – Alessia Trimigno – Metabolites

Techniques

KatharoSeq Enables High-Throughput Microbiome Analysis from Low-Biomass Samples – Jeremiah J Minich – mSystems

eDNA from roots: a robust tool for determining Phytophthora communities in natural ecosystems – Ihsanul Khaliq – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

A silica sands-based method for faithful analysis of microbial communities and DNA isolation from a wide range of species – Xia Liu – Preparative Biochemistry and Biotechnology

More microbes

Review: New therapeutics from Nature: The odd case of the bacterial cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 – Zaira Maroccia – Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Pre-print: An attenuated CRISPR-Cas system in Enterococcus faecalis permits DNA acquisition – Karthik Hullahalli – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Here’s Why Antibiotics May Give Viruses a Leg Up – Christopher Wanjek – Live Science

‘Nanobot’ viruses tag and round up bacteria in food and water – Carolyn Wilke – ScienceNews

Your rubber ducky is probably crawling with bacteria, scientists say – STAT

Newly discovered bacteria can break down biomass – Phys.Org

Microbes on the market

Biocodex funds microbiome research on link between diet, colon cancer, IBD – Healio

Rebiotix’s Lee Jones to Receive TRUST 2018 Courageous Women in Health Care Award – PR Newswire

March 23, 2018

Optogenetic regulation of transcription to promote biosynthesis of desired chemicals from fungi, the effect of yeast and bacteria on floral nectar, guidelines and best practices for human microbiome sampling/sequencing/processing.

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Evaluation of conventional and response surface level optimisation of n-dodecane (n-C12) mineralisation by psychrotolerant strains isolated from pristine soil at Southern Victoria Island, Antarctica – Syahir Habib – Microbial Cell Factories

Analysis of microbiota in bellflower root, Platycodon grandiflorum, obtained from South Korea – Daeho Kim – Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

Contrasting effects of yeasts and bacteria on floral nectar traits – Rachel L Vannette – Annals of Botany

Water and extremophile microbiome

Mechanisms of Methyl Mercury Net Degradation in Alder Swamps: The Role of Methanogens and Abiotic Processes – Rose-Marie Kronberg – Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Microbial mat of the thermal springs Kuchiger Republic of Buryatia: species composition, biochemical properties and electrogenic activity in biofuel cell – Denis Aleksandrovich Yuriev – IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Sciences

Bioinformatics

Pre-print: A comprehensive automated pipeline for human microbiome sampling, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and bioinformatics processing – Luisa W Hugerth – bioRxiv

Pre-print/Review: Real-time analysis and visualization of pathogen sequence data – Richard A Neher – bioRxiv

Techniques

Yeast Biofilm as a Bridge Between Medical and Environmental Microbiology Across Different Detection Techniques – Luca Roscini – Infectious Diseases and Therapy

More microbes

Optogenetic regulation of engineered cellular metabolism for microbial chemical production – Evan M Zhao – Nature

Pre-print: Titan cells formation in Cryptococcus neoformans is finely tuned by environmental conditions and modulated by positive and negative genetic regulators – Benjamin Hommel – bioRxiv

Pre-print: High-resolution analysis of the pneumococcal transcriptome under a wide range of infection-relevant conditions – Rieza Aprianto – bioRxiv

Pre-print: Deep genome annotation of the opportunistic human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 – Jelle Slager – bioRxiv

Microbes in the news

Oral microbiome and anthropometry changes following caries arrest using silver-nitrate/fluoride-varnish – EurekAlert

Metagenomics of early childhood oral health and early childhood caries – EurekAlert

Synergistic effects of smoking and obesity on the subgingival microbiome – EurekAlert

Gut bacteria can mean life or death for birds – EurekAlert

Its name is LUCA. Now it’s needing second thoughts – Stephen Fleischfresser – Cosmos

Plants really do feed their friends – ScienceDaily

Bacteria eats greenhouse gas with a side of protein – Phys.org

Survival of the Slimiest: The Persistent Nature of Biofilms – Sonali D Advani – Medscape

Amy’s non-microbiology picks

Editorial: Asymmetry symposium unites economists, physicists and artists – Nature