Author Archives: Ariane Panzer

February 16, 2022

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Happy Wednesday! Today’s digest includes two gut-brain axis papers from Sarkis Mazmanian’s lab at CalTech. The first article, published in Nature, found that 4-ethylphenol (4EPS) produced by gut microbes from dietary tyrosine was capable of entering the brain and changing gene expression, brain cell interactions, and brain functions. In the second study, published in Nature Medicine, oral administration of the adsorbent AB-2004–which can bind and sequester phenolic compounds–led to reduced levels of gut 4EPS and decreased anxiety in human adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

I have also included an article published by my thesis lab in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology looking at the impact of seasons on the respiratory microbiome and asthma exacerbations in children.

Finally, there is an interesting paper by Baranova et al. in which the authors identify a bacterial species ubiquitous across multiple wild animals that appears to have novel functions for pathogen control or microbiome remodeling. Happy reading!

General Microbiome
Scale-dependent tipping points of bacterial colonization resistance. – Karita, Y. et al., PNAS.

Microbial protection favors parasite tolerance and alters host-parasite coevolutionary dynamics. – Rafaluk-Mohr, C. et al., Current Biology.

Human Respiratory Microbiome
Seasonal Airway Microbiome and Transcriptome Interactions Promote Childhood Asthma Exacerbations. – McCauley, K.E. et al., The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Human Skin Microbiome
Secreted Toxins From Staphylococcus aureus Strains Isolated From Keratinocyte Skin Cancers Mediate Pro-tumorigenic Inflammatory Responses in the Skin. – Krueger, A. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology.

Aged related human skin microbiome and mycobiome in Korean women. – Kim, H-J. et al., Scientific Reports.

Human Vaginal Microbiome
Extracellular Vesicles Generated by Gram-Positive Bacteria Protect Human Tissues Ex Vivo From HIV-1 Infection. – Costantini, P.E. et al., Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

Gut-Brain Axis
A gut-derived metabolite alters brain activity and anxiety behavior in mice. – Needham, B.D. et al., Nature.

Safety and target engagement of an oral small-molecule sequestrant in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: an open-label phase 1b/2a trial. – Campbell, A.S., Needham, B.D., Meyers, C.R. et al., Nature Medicine.

Animal Experiments
Tryptophan-derived microbial metabolites activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in tumor-associated macrophages to suppress anti-tumor immunity. – Hezaveh, K. et al., Immunity.

Stochastic microbiome assembly depends on context. – Jones, E.W. et al., PNAS.

IBD-Associated Atg16L1T300A Polymorphism Regulates Commensal Microbiota of the Intestine. – Liu, H. et al., Frontiers in Immunology.

A homeostatic interferon-lambda response to bacterial microbiota stimulates preemptive antiviral defense within discrete pockets of intestinal epithelium. – Van Winkle, J.A. et al. eLife.

Enteric nervous system modulation of luminal pH modifies the microbial environment to promote intestinal health. – Hamilton, M.K. et al., PLoS Pathogens.

Animal Microbiome
Characterization of the Gut Microbiome and Resistomes of Wild and Zoo-Captive Macaques. – Jia, T. et al., Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

Deep Functional Profiling of Wild Animal Microbiomes Reveals Probiotic Bacillus pumilus Strains with a Common Biosynthetic Fingerprint. – Baranova, M.N. et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Plant immunity suppression via PHR1-RALF-FERONIA shapes the root microbiome to alleviate phosphate starvation. – Tang, J. et al., The EMBO Journal.

Extracts from Environmental Strains of Pseudomonas spp. Effectively Control Fungal Plant Diseases. – Librizzi, V. et al., Plants.

Mega-fire in Redwood Tanoak Forest Reduces Bacterial and Fungal Richness and Selects for Pyrophilous Taxa that are Phylogenetically Conserved. – Enright, D.J. et al., Molecular Ecology.

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Analysis of antibiotic resistance genes reveals its important role in influencing the community structure of ocean microbiome. – Yang, P. et al., The Science of the Total Environment.

Seaweeds influence oyster microbiota and disease susceptibility. – Dugeny, E. et al., The Journal of Animal Ecology.

Air Microbiome
Vertical stratification of the air microbiome in the lower troposphere. – Drautz-Moses, D.I. et al., PNAS.

Bioinformatics
Evaluating supervised and unsupervised background noise correction in human gut microbiome data. – Briscoe, L. et al., PLoS Computational Biology.

October 29, 2021

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Sorry for the delayed post, WordPress was playing some mean tricks on me today and there were no treats! Good morning all and happy spooky season! It’s been a moment since I’ve written a post and I write to you now as a freshly (pepper)minted PhD! I’m feeling gourd and can’t wait to pumpkin spice things up with some fangtastic papers.

Some of the highlights include a paper by McAlpine et al. examining interkingdom relationships between bacteria and fungi. Specifically, they found that the gut commensal species Lactobacillus can produce a small molecule that blocks filamentous growth of the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans. Another interesting paper comes from Michael Adams lab at the University of Georgia, Athens which showed that members of the gut microbiota have the capacity to assimilate the metal tungsten which, in turn, allows these microbes to oxidize a broad range of aldehydes in the gut. Additionally, a paper by Plummer et al. looked at the vaginal microbiota of women who have recurrent bacterial vaginosis as well as the penile microbiota of their partners, and found that when males also underwent antibiotic treatment it led to a decrease in bacterial vaginosis in their female partners.

Hope you enjoy reading these fa-boo-lous papers and may you eat, drink, and be scary this Halloween!

General Microbiome
A small molecule produced by Lactobacillus species blocks Candida albicans filamentation by inhibiting a DYRK1-family kinase. – MacAlpine, J. et al., Nature Communications.

Pregnancy and Early-Life
Bifidobacterium species associated with breastfeeding produce aromatic lactic acids in the infant gut. – Laursen, M.F. et al., Nature Microbiology.

Bifidobacterium catabolism of human milk oligosaccharides overrides endogenous competitive exclusion driving colonization and protection. – Heiss, B.E. et al., Gut Microbes.

Mother’s Milk Microbiome Shaping Fecal and Skin Microbiota in Infants with Food Allergy and Atopic Dermatitis: A Pilot Analysis. – Gołębiewski. M. et al., Nutrients.

Early-life formula feeding is associated with infant gut microbiota alterations and an increased antibiotic resistance load. – Pärnänen, K.M.M. et al., The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Human Vaginal Microbiome
A Prospective, Open-Label Pilot Study of Concurrent Male Partner Treatment for Bacterial Vaginosis. – Plummer, E.L. et al., mBio.

Human Gut Microbiome
Tungsten enzymes play a role in detoxifying food and antimicrobial aldehydes in the human gut microbiome. – Schut, G.J. et al., PNAS.

Commensal bacteria promote endocrine resistance in prostate cancer through androgen biosynthesis. – Pernigoni, N. et al., Science.

Vertebrate host phylogeny influences gut archaeal diversity. – Youngblut, N.D. et al., Nature Microbiology.

Gut microbiota dysbiosis contributes to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. – Li, N. et al., Respiratory Research.

Oral Administration of Latilactobacillus sakei ADM14 Improves Lipid Metabolism and Fecal Microbiota Profile Associated With Metabolic Dysfunction in a High-Fat Diet Mouse Model. – Won, S.-M. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology.

Human Oral Microbiome
Discrimination of Bacterial Community Structures among Healthy, Gingivitis, and Periodontitis Statuses through Integrated Metatranscriptomic and Network Analyses. – Nemoto, T. et al., mSystems.

Animal Experiments
Commensal segmented filamentous bacteria-derived retinoic acid primes host defense to intestinal infection. – Woo, V. et al., Cell Host & Microbe.

Intestinal microbiota shapes gut physiology and regulates enteric neurons and glia. – Vicentini, F.A. et al., Microbiome.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG Derived Extracellular Vesicles Modulate Gut Microbiota and Attenuate Inflammatory in DSS-Induced Colitis Mice. – Tong, L. et al., Nutrients.

Animal Microbiome
Phage Treatment Trial to Eradicate LA-MRSA from Healthy Carrier Pigs. – Tuomala, H. et al., Viruses.

Characterization of the Eukaryotic Virome of Mice from Different Sources. – Zhang, C. et al., Microorganisms.

Supplemental L-Arginine Improves the Embryonic Intestine Development and Microbial Succession in a Chick Embryo Model. – Dai, D. et al., Frontiers in Nutrition.

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Plastic-Degrading Potential across the Global Microbiome Correlates with Recent Pollution Trends. – Zrimec, J. et al., mBio.

Acrylate protects a marine bacterium from grazing by a ciliate predator. – Teng, Z.-J. et al., Nature Microbiology.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
The fungal root endophyte Serendipita vermifera displays inter-kingdom synergistic beneficial effects with the microbiota in Arabidopsis thaliana and barley. – Mahdi, L.K. et al., ISME Journal.

Spatial Characterization of Microbial Communities on Multi-Species Leafy Greens Grown Simultaneously in the Vegetable Production Systems on the International Space Station. – Hummerick, M.E. et al., Life (Basel).

Relationships between community composition, productivity and invasion resistance in semi-natural bacterial microcosms. – Jones, M.L. et al., Elife.

Probiotics
High-efficiency delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 by engineered probiotics enables precise microbiome editing. – Neil, K. et al., Molecular Systems Biology.

Techniques
Visualizing transfer of microbial biomolecules by outer membrane vesicles in microbe-host-communication in vivo. – Bittel, M. et al., Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.

May 12, 2021

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Good morning all! Today’s digest includes two articles discussing the role of the local tissue microbiome in cancer. In the first, Zhu et al. explore the relationship between the intratumor microbiome, immune cell infiltration, and patient survival in the context of melanoma. The second study by Wilkie et al. examines how lipopolysaccharide produced by the commensal breast microbiota impacts cancer growth.

Additionally, there is a paper by Radojević et al. in which the authors found an association between the fecal microbiota and immunogenicity of peripheral blood monocyte-derived dendritic cells in healthy donors; a study by Kim et al. showing that diet and microbiome derived amino acids impact gut enterocyte communication with the brain in Drosophila; and a paper by Tandon et al. investigating the impact of the reciprocal transplantation of water from the surface and bottom of lakes with different trophic states on microbial community composition and function.

Pregnancy and Early-Life
Metagenomic analysis of mother-infant gut microbiome reveals global distinct and shared microbial signatures. – Wang, S. et al., Gut Microbes.

Human Nearly-Sterile Sites
Intratumour microbiome associated with the infiltration of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and patient survival in cutaneous melanoma. – Zhu, G. et al., European Journal of Cancer Research.

Lipopolysaccharide from the commensal microbiota of the breast enhances cancer growth: role of S100A7 and TLR4. – Wilkie, T. et al., Molecular Oncology.

Human Gut Microbiome
Intestinal microbiota influences clinical outcome and side effects of early breast cancer treatment. – Terrisse, S. et al., Cell Death & Differentiation.

Fecal microbiota composition associates with the capacity of human peripheral blood monocytes to differentiate into immunogenic dendritic cells in vitro. – Radojević, D. et al., Gut Microbes.

Substrate‐driven differences in tryptophan catabolism by gut microbiota and Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor activation. – Huang, Z. et al., Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.

Human Oral Microbiome
The evolution and changing ecology of the African hominid oral microbiome. – Fellows Yates, J.A. et al., PNAS.

Animal Experiments
Response of the microbiome-gut-brain axis in Drosophila to amino acid deficit. – Kim, B. et al., Nature.

Coadaptation between host genome and microbiome under long-term xenobiotic-induced selection. – Wang, G-H. et al., Science Advances.

Predicted Metabolic Function of the Gut Microbiota of Drosophila melanogaster. – Ankrah, N.Y.D. et al., mSystems.

Animal Microbiome
The microbiome of deep-sea fish reveals new microbial species and a sparsity of antibiotic resistance genes. – Collins, F.W.J. et al., Gut Microbes.

Insect Microbiome
Compartmentalization of bacterial and fungal microbiomes in the gut of adult honeybees. – Callegari, M. et al., npj Biofilms Microbiomes.

Seasonal Dynamics of the Honey Bee Gut Microbiota in Colonies Under Subtropical Climate. – Castelli, L. et al., Microbial Ecology.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Impact of cropping systems on the functional diversity of rhizosphere microbial communities associated with maize plant: a shotgun approach. – Fadiji, A.E. et al., Archive of Microbiology.

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Meta-transcriptomic profiling of functional variation of freshwater microbial communities induced by an antidepressant sertraline hydrochloride. – Cui, H. et al., Science of the Total Environment.

Aquatic microbial community is partially functionally redundant: Insights from an in situ reciprocal transplant experiment. – Tandon, K. et al., Science of the Total Environment.

Towards enhancing coral heat tolerance: a “microbiome transplantation” treatment using inoculations of homogenized coral tissues. – Doering, T. et al., Microbiome.

Built Environment
The Bacterial Community Diversity of Bathroom Hot Tap Water Was Significantly Lower Than That of Cold Tap and Shower Water. – Zhang, C. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology.

Bioinformatics
A Protocol for Teaching Basic Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Analysis Skills to Undergraduate Students Using Bash and R. – Fondi, M. & Bacci, G., Bacterial Pangenomics.

Techniques
Microdroplet-based system for culturing of environmental microorganisms using FNAP-sort. – Saito, K. et al., Scientific Reports.

March 4, 2021

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Happy Thursday from San Francisco! Today’s Microbiome Digest includes: a paper by Marbouty et al. in which a large number of phages and their interacting bacteria were identified in the healthy human gut; a thorough examination by Zhu et al. of the composition and metabolic potential of cave-dwelling bacteria, including sequencing of 14 new bacterial species; and a study by Mu et al. which found that the maternally-derived microbe Lactobacillus reuteri promotes immunoglobulin A production in the neonatal gut.

There is also a study by Serrano-Villar et al. which examined the use of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMTs) in HIV patients. The authors observed that FMT led to engraftment of two bacterial families–Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae–typically depleted in HIV-infected subjects and decreased levels of a plasma biomarker of intestinal permeability. While the findings are interesting, I remain skeptical of the appropriateness of FMTs in this context. Instead of an FMT–which requires donors and screening of their stool to ensure quality and safety–why not use a probiotic cocktail of Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae family members and perhaps include prebiotic factors to try to promote engraftment?

Additionally, there is a great article by Ras et al. discussing the results of a pilot study that successfully implemented microbiome-related bioinformatics courses across 11 African countries.

Pregnancy and Early Life
Distinct Changes Occur in the Human Breast Milk Microbiome Between Early and Established Lactation in Breastfeeding Guatemalan Mothers. – Gonzales, E. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology.

Human Skin Microbiome
Spermidine-induced recovery of human dermal structure and barrier function by skin microbiome. – Kim, G. et al. Communications Biology.

Human Vaginal Microbiome
Influence of dapivirine vaginal ring use on cervicovaginal immunity and functional microbiome in adolescent girls. – Farr Zuend, C. et al., AIDS.

Mapping the entire functionally active endometrial microbiota. – Sola-Leyva, A. et al., Human Reproduction.

Genomic relatedness and clinical significance of Streptococcus mitis strains isolated from the urogenital tract of sexual partners. – Mores, C.R. et al., Microbial Genomics.

Human Gut Microbiome
Identification of an N-acetylneuraminic acid-presenting bacteria isolated from a human microbiome. – Han, Z. et al., Scientific Reports.

Fecal microbiota transplantation in HIV: A pilot placebo-controlled study. – Serrano-Villar, S. et al., Nature Communications.

Gastrointestinal microbiota composition predicts peripheral inflammatory state during treatment of human tuberculosis. – Wipperman, M.F. et al., Nature Communications.

Animal Experiments
Regulation of neonatal IgA production by the maternal microbiota. – Mu, Q. et al., PNAS.

Lysates of Methylococcus capsulatus Bath induce a lean-like microbiota, intestinal FoxP3+RORγt+IL-17+ Tregs and improve metabolism. – Jensen, B.A.H., et al., Nature Communications.

Sex-dependent modulation of immune development by secretory IgA–coated Lactobacillus reuteri isolated from breast milk. – Qi, C. et al., Journal of Dairy Science.

Oral berberine improves brain dopa/dopamine levels to ameliorate Parkinson’s disease by regulating gut microbiota. – Wang, Y. et al., Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.

Animal Microbiome
Lactobacillus reuteri-derived extracellular vesicles maintain intestinal immune homeostasis against lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory responses in broilers. – Hu, R. et al., Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Dicer-like proteins influence Arabidopsis root microbiota independent of RNA-directed DNA methylation. – Kaushal, R. et al., Microbiome.

Succession of the Resident Soil Microbial Community in Response to Periodic Inoculations. – Wang, Z. et al., Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Climate change alters temporal dynamics of alpine soil microbial functioning and biogeochemical cycling via earlier snowmelt. – Broadbent, A.A.D. et al., ISME Journal.

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Microbial Community Structure Driven by a Volcanic Gradient in Glaciers of the Antarctic Archipelago South Shetland. – García-Lopez, E. et al., Microorganisms.

Effect of polymer type on the colonization of plastic pellets by marine bacteria. – Hansen, J. et al., FEMS Microbiology Letters.

Lifestyle of sponge symbiont phages by host prediction and correlative microscopy. – Jahn, M.T. et al., ISME Journal.

Bacteria and Metabolic Potential in Karst Caves Revealed by Intensive Bacterial Cultivation and Genome Assembly. – Zhue, H-Z et al., Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Phages and Viruses
MetaHiC phage-bacteria infection network reveals active cycling phages of the healthy human gut. – Marbouty, M. et al., Elife.

Bioinformatics
On the evolutionary origins of host–microbe associations. – Sieber, M. et al., PNAS.

Ecology-guided prediction of cross-feeding interactions in the human gut microbiome. – Goyal, A. et al., Nature Communications.

Using a multiple-delivery-mode training approach to develop local capacity and infrastructure for advanced bioinformatics in Africa. – Ras, V. et al., PLoS Computational Biology.

Techniques
Amplicon-based skin microbiome profiles collected by tape stripping with different adhesive film dressings: a comparative study. – Ogai, K. et al., BMC Microbiology.

High-Resolution Differentiation of Enteric Bacteria in Premature Infant Fecal Microbiomes Using a Novel rRNA Amplicon. – Graf, J. et al., mBio.

January 28, 2021

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Happy almost Friday from the US’s west coast, everybody! I recently finished reading “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer and plants have been on my mind so today’s Digest is heavy on the plant microbiome research. Two plant papers I found especially fascinating applied different experimental designs to study the same issue: one looks at how the mono-cropping of maize negatively impacts soil microbial communities and the other found that sugarcane/peanut intercropping enriches for beneficial microbes that promote nitrogen and phosphate release from the soil. There are also several papers looking at the relationship between microbes and the host immune system and an eLife paper in which the popular shelter-in-place hobby of making sourdough and our beloved microbiome field collide. Happy reading!

Pregnancy and Early Life
Fecal Microbiota Nutrient Utilization Potential Suggests Mucins as Drivers for Initial Gut Colonization of Mother-Child Shared Bacteria. – Nilsen, M. et al., Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Metagenomic insights of the infant microbiome community structure and function across multiple sites in the United States. – Casaburi, G. et al., Scientific Reports.

Human Gut Microbiome
Gut bacteria-derived 5-hydroxyindole is a potent stimulant of intestinal motility via its action on L-type calcium channels. – Waclawiková, B. et al., PLoS Biology.

Animal Experiments
Gut CD4+ T cell phenotypes are a continuum molded by microbes, not by TH archetypes. – Kiner, E. et al., Nature Immunology.

Regulation of Gut Microbiota Disrupts the Glucocorticoid Receptor Pathway and Inflammation-related Pathways in the Mouse Hippocampus. – Rao, X. et al., Experimental Neurobiology.

Decreased Ecological Resistance of the Gut Microbiota in Response to Clindamycin Challenge in Mice Colonized with the Fungus Candida albicans. – Markey, L. et al., mSphere.

Gut Commensal Segmented Filamentous Bacteria Fine-Tune T Follicular Regulatory Cells to Modify the Severity of Systemic Autoimmune Arthritis. – Bates, N.A. et al., Journal of Immunology.

Microbial metabolism of L-tyrosine protects against allergic airway inflammation. – Wypych, T.P. et al., Nature Immunology.

Animal Microbiome
Host development overwhelms environmental dispersal in governing the ecological succession of zebrafish gut microbiota. – Xiao, F. et al., npj Biofilms and Microbiomes.

Quantifying fluorescent glycan uptake to elucidate strain-level variability in foraging behaviors of rumen bacteria. – Klassen, L. et al., Microbiome.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Complementary Roles of Wood-Inhabiting Fungi and Bacteria Facilitate Deadwood Decomposition. – Tláskal, V. et al., mSystems.

Natural Bacterial Assemblages in Arabidopsis thaliana Tissues Become More Distinguishable and Diverse during Host Development. – Beilsmith, K. et al., mBio.

Colonization of naïve roots from Populus tremula x alba involves successive waves of fungi and bacteria with different trophic abilities. – Fracchia, F. et al., Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The role of host promiscuity in the invasion process of a seaweed holobiont. – Bonthond, G. et al., The ISME Journal.

Sugarcane/peanut intercropping system improves the soil quality and increases the abundance of beneficial microbes. – Tang, X. et al., Journal of Basic Microbiology.

Variation of rhizosphere microbial community in continuous mono-maize seed production. – Zhao, Y. et al., Scientific Reports.

Food Microbiology
The diversity and function of sourdough starter microbiomes. – Landis, E.A. et al., eLife.

Probiotics
Optimization of probiotic therapeutics using machine learning in an artificial human gastrointestinal tract. – Westfall, S. et al., Scientific Reports.

Metagenomics
How reliably do metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) represent natural populations? Insights from comparing MAGs against isolate genomes derived from the same fecal sample. – Meziti, A. et al., Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Techniques
Precision modification of the human gut microbiota targeting surface-associated proteins. – Marcos-Fernández, R. et al., Scientific Reports.

High-throughput cultivation and identification of bacteria from the plant root microbiota. – Zhang, J. et al., Nature Protocols.

November 9, 2020

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Happy Monday morning from San Francisco, California! Hope everyone had a restful weekend. For those who aren’t quite ready for the working week, how about easing in to things with a warm beverage and some great microbiome reads?

Today’s digest includes two papers that blew my mind. The first is a paper by van Tatenhove-Pel et al. which looks at how cell-to-cell distance in 3D space impacts the metabolic interactions between bacteria. The second, by Nowosad et al., examines the role of the gut microbiota on B cell selection and antibody affinity maturation in gut-associated germinal centers. Other fascinating papers include: a pilot study profiling the gut microbiomes of South Africans in an urban cohort and a transitioning rural cohort which was designed collaboratively with community leaders (Oduaran et al.); a review paper about using brachyuran crabs as a model for studying how animal-microbiome symbioses evolve when aquatic organisms transition to land (Cannicci et al.); and a paper that used shotgun metagenomics to identify current and historical microbiomes in lake sediment which could help our understanding of how humans impact lake ecosystems over time (Garner et al.). Happy reading, y’all!

General Microbiome
Microbial competition reduces metabolic interaction distances to the low µm-range. – van Tatenhove-Pel, R.J. et al., The ISME Journal

Human Respiratory Microbiome
Developmental patterns in the nasopharyngeal microbiome during infancy are associated with asthma risk. – Tang, H.H.F, et al., Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human Gut Microbiome
Distinct Fecal and Plasma Metabolites in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Modulation after Microbiota Transfer Therapy. – Kang, D-W et al., mSphere

Gut Microbiome in Children from Indigenous and Urban Communities in México: Different Subsistence Models, Different Microbiomes. – Sánchez-Quinto, A. et al., Microorganisms

Gut microbiome profiling of a rural and urban South African cohort reveals biomarkers of a population in lifestyle transition. – Oduaran, O.H. et al., BMC Microbiology

Maturation of the gut microbiome during the first year of life contributes to the protective farm effect on childhood asthma. – Depber, M. et al., Nature Medicine

Fecal Microbiota Changes in Patients With Postpartum Depressive Disorder. – Zhou, Y. et al., Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Animal Experiments
Tunable dynamics of B cell selection in gut germinal centres. – Nowosad, C.R. et al., Nature

Acute liver failure is regulated by MYC- and microbiome-dependent programs. – Kolodziejczyk, A.A. et al., Nature Medicine

Epithelial TLR4 signaling activates DUOX2 to induce microbiota-driven tumorigenesis. – Burgueño, J.F. et al., Gastroenterology

Gut Microbiome Alters the Activity of Liver Cytochromes P450 in Mice With Sex-Dependent Differences. – Jourová, L. et al., Frontiers in Pharmacology

Distinct Polysaccharide Utilization Determines Interspecies Competition between Intestinal Prevotella spp. – Gálvez, E.J.C. et al., Cell Host & Microbe

FXR in the dorsal vagal complex is sufficient and necessary for upper small intestinal microbiome-mediated changes of TCDCA to alter insulin action in rats. – Zhang, S-Y et al., Gut

Animal Microbiome
Review: To the Land and Beyond: Crab Microbiomes as a Paradigm for the Evolution of Terrestrialization. – Cannicci, S. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Insect Microbiome
The direct and indirect effects of environmental toxicants on the health of bumblebees and their microbiomes. – Rothman, J.A. et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences

A Very Hungry Caterpillar: Polyethylene Metabolism and Lipid Homeostasis in Larvae of the Greater Wax Moth ( Galleria mellonella). – LeMoine, C.M. et al., Environmental Science and Technology

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Deciphering the Microbial Taxonomy and Functionality of Two Diverse Mangrove Ecosystems and Their Potential Abilities To Produce Bioactive Compounds. – Liao, S. et al., mSystems

Introducing the Mangrove Microbiome Initiative: Identifying Microbial Research Priorities and Approaches To Better Understand, Protect, and Rehabilitate Mangrove Ecosystems. – Allard, S.M. et al., mSystems

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
The water chemistry and microbiome of household wells in Medawachchiya, Sri Lanka, an area with high prevalence of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu). McDonough, L.K. et al., Scientific Reports

Sediment Metagenomes as Time Capsules of Lake Microbiomes. – Garner, R.E. et al., mSphere

Built Environment
Bioaerosols in the Athens Metro: Metagenetic insights into the PM 10 microbiome in a naturally ventilated subway station. – Grydaki, N. et al., Environment International

Probiotics
Biotic Interactions Are More Important than Propagule Pressure in Microbial Community Invasions. – Albright, M.B.N. et al., mBio

Microbiological, immunological, and histological changes in the gut of Salmonella Enteritidis-challenged rats fed goat cheese containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus EM1107. – Rolim, F.R.L. et al., Journal of Dairy Science

Comparative Genome Analysis of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis Strains Reveals Variation in Human Milk Oligosaccharide Utilization Genes among Commercial Probiotics. – Duar, R.M. et al., Nutrients

Persistence of Suspected Probiotic Organisms in Preterm Infant Gut Microbiota Weeks After Probiotic Supplementation in the NICU. – Yousuf, E.I. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics
Model-based and phylogenetically adjusted quantification of metabolic interaction between microbial species. – Lam, T.J. et al., PLoS Computational Biology

Comprehensive screening of genomic and metagenomic data reveals a large diversity of tetracycline resistance genes. – Berglund, F. et al., Microbial Genomics

Review: Naught all zeros in sequence count data are the same. – Silverman, J.S. et al., Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Techniques
Microbiomic Analysis on Low Abundant Respiratory Biomass Samples; Improved Recovery of Microbial DNA From Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid. – Saladié, M. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Jumping the green wall: The use of PNA-DNA clamps to enhance microbiome sampling depth in wildlife microbiome research. – Víquez-R, L. et al., Ecology and Evolution

October 14, 2020

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Good morning from sunny San Francisco, California! Today’s digest shares some fascinating in vivo studies including a paper from Ou et al. examining the role of host antimicrobial proteins α-definsins in bacterial colonization and epithelial cell adherence in the gut and a proof-of-concept paper from Hsu et al. in which the authors orally delivered an engineered phage to the gut of mice that was capable of specifically repressing gene expression in bacteria. Additionally, there are some great plant, root, and soil microbiome papers (Kusstatscher et al. show that treating maize seeds with a plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria improves plant health) and water microbiome papers (León-Zayas et al. published a super collaborative paper looking at microbiome sharing between sediments, seagrasses, and reef fish at multiple sites). Finally, I wanted to highlight a paper by Zelaya et al. outlining a course-based undergraduate research experience for teaching microbiology that focuses on the bean beetle microbiome. Happy reading!

Pregnancy and Early Life
Review: The early life education of the immune system: Moms, microbes and (missed) opportunities. – Nitya, J. et al., Gut Microbes

Delayed Establishment of Gut Microbiota in Infants Delivered by Cesarean Section. – Kim, G. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Human Respiratory Microbiome
Proteins produced by Streptococcus species in the lower respiratory tract can modify antiviral responses against influenza virus in respiratory epithelial cells. – Nishioka, K. et al., Microbes and Infection

Human Vaginal Microbiome
Vaginal host immune-microbiome interactions in a cohort of primarily African-American women who ultimately underwent spontaneous preterm birth or delivered at term. – Florova, V. et al., Cytokine

Human Oral Microbiome
Isolation and Characterization of Nitrate-Reducing Bacteria as Potential Probiotics for Oral and Systemic Health. – Rosier, B.T. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Human Gut Microbiome
Translocation of Viable Gut Microbiota to Mesenteric Adipose Drives Formation of Creeping Fat in Humans. – Ha, C.W.Y. et al., Cell

Gastrointestinal Surgery for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Persistently Lowers Microbiome and Metabolome Diversity. – Fang, X. et al., Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Animal Experiments
α-Defensins Promote Bacteroides Colonization on Mucosal Reservoir to Prevent Antibiotic-Induced Dysbiosis. – Ou, J. et al., Frontiers in Immunology

In situ reprogramming of gut bacteria by oral delivery. – Hsu, B.B. et al., Nature Communications

The intestinal microbial metabolite desaminotyrosine is an anti‐inflammatory molecule that modulates local and systemic immune homeostasis. – Wei, Y. et al., The FASEB Journal

Modulation of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis through colonisation of the gut with Escherichia coli. – Libbey, J.E. et al., Beneficial Microbes

Molecular patterns from a human gut-derived Lactobacillus strain suppress pathogenic infiltration of leukocytes into the central nervous system. -Sanchez, J.M.S. et al., Journal of Neuroinflammation

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Soil-microorganism-mediated invasional meltdown in plants. – Zhang, Z. et al., Nature Ecology and Evolution

Microbiome Management by Biological and Chemical Treatments in Maize Is Linked to Plant Health. – Kusstatscher, P. et al., Microorganisms

Disruption of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria abundance in tomato rhizosphere causes the incidence of bacterial wilt disease. – Lee, S-M. et al., The ISME Journal

Keystone Microbiomes Revealed by 14 Years of Field Restoration of the Degraded Agricultural Soil Under Distinct Vegetation Scenarios. – Zhang, Z. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Dynamic Changes in the Microbiome of Rice During Shoot and Root Growth Derived From Seeds. – Wang, M. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

Root-Secreted Coumarins and the Microbiota Interact to Improve Iron Nutrition in Arabidopsis. – Harbort, C.J. et al., Cell Host & Microbe

Review: Pinpointing secondary metabolites that shape the composition and function of the plant microbiome. – Jacoby, R.P. et al., Journal of Experimental Botany

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Microbiomes of fish, sediment and seagrass suggest connectivity of coral reef microbial populations. – León-Zayas, R. et al., PeerJ

Size Shapes the Active Microbiome of Methanogenic Granules, Corroborating a Biofilm Life Cycle. – Trego, A.C. et al., mSystems

Self-regulating microbiome networks ensure functional resilience of biofilms in sand biofilters during manganese load fluctuations. – Zhao, X. et al., Water Research

Review: Groundwater Microbial Communities in Times of Climate Change. -Retter, A. et al., Current Issues in Molecular Biology

Probiotics/Prebiotics
Combining IL-2-based immunotherapy with commensal probiotics produces enhanced antitumor immune response and tumor clearance. – Shi, L. et al., Journal for the ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

Mom’s diet matters: Maternal prebiotic intake in mice reduces anxiety and alters brain gene expression and the fecal microbiome in offspring. – Hebert, J.C. et al., Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Prophylactic effects of oral administration of Lactobacillus casei on house dust mite-induced asthma in mice. – Lingzhi, L. et al., Food & Function

Bioinformatics
INTEDE: interactome of drug-metabolizing enzymes. – Yin, J. et al., Nucleic Acid Research.

GIMICA: host genetic and immune factors shaping human microbiota. – Tang, J. et al., Nucleic Acid Research

metaFlye: scalable long-read metagenome assembly using repeat graphs. – Kolmogorov, M. et al., Nature Methods

Diagnosing and Predicting Mixed-Culture Fermentations with Unicellular and Guild-Based Metabolic Models. – Scarborough, M.J. et al., mSystems

Education
The Bean Beetle Microbiome Project: A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience in Microbiology. – Zelaya, A.J. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology

September 10, 2020

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Good morning from smokey, apocalyptic San Francisco! The world outside my window may be in sepia tones, but the articles I’m highlighting here are helping to brighten my day. Today’s digest has some fascinating insect and environmental microbiome research including a paper about the gut microbiota of a beetle that lives in the mixed forest of northeastern Asia and its capacity to efficiently degrade polystyrene. Additionally, there’s a paper characterizing the community structure and metabolic capacity of a biofilm-like microbial community lining the wall of the Yumugi river cave in a remote part of Western New Guinea. I’ve also included a paper examining availability of microbial community sequencing data which found that much of this data is not available and offers suggestions for improving data archiving practices. Finally, there is a very interesting technique paper about an orally ingestible microdevice that can be used to sample the gut microbiota in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Happy reading!

General Microbiome
Influence of Intratumor Microbiome on Clinical Outcome and Immune Processes in Prostate Cancer. – Ma, J. et al., Cancers

Experimental (co)evolution in a multi-species microbial community results in local maladaptation. – Castledine, M. et al., Ecology Letters

Pregnancy and Early Life
Mothers of Preterm Infants Have Individualized Breast Milk Microbiota that Changes Temporally Based on Maternal Characteristics. – Asbury, M.R et al., Cell Host Microbe

The meconium microbiota shares more features with the amniotic fluid microbiota than the maternal fecal and vaginal microbiota. – He, Q. et al., Gut Microbes

Skin microbiome
Stratum Corneum Lipidomics Analysis Reveals Altered Ceramide Profile in Atopic Dermatitis Patients Across Body Sites With Correlated Changes in Skin Microbiome. – Emmert, H. et al., Experimental Dermatology

Vaginal microbiome
Diverse vaginal microbiome was associated with pro-inflammatory vaginal milieu among pregnant women in Uganda. – Bayigga, L. et al. Human Microbiome Journal

Gut microbiome
Diet Diurnally Regulates Small Intestinal Microbiome-Epithelial-Immune Homeostasis and Enteritis. – Tuganbeav, T. et al., Cell

Microbiota-modulated CART + enteric neurons autonomously regulate blood glucose. – Muller, P.A. et al., Science

Succinate Produced by Intestinal Microbes Promotes Specification of Tuft Cells to Suppress Ileal Inflammation. -Banerjee, A. et al., Gastroenterology

Animal Experiments
Gut microbiome improves postoperative cognitive function by decreasing permeability of the blood-brain barrier in aged mice. – Wen, J. et al., Brain Research Bulletin

Indolepropionic Acid, a Metabolite of the Microbiome, Has Cytostatic Properties in Breast Cancer by Activating AHR and PXR Receptors and Inducing Oxidative Stress. – Sári, Z. et al., Cancers

Angiogenin maintains gut microbe homeostasis by balancing α-Proteobacteria and Lachnospiraceae. – Sun, D. et al., Gut

Gut Microbiota-Associated Activation of TLR5 Induces Apolipoprotein A1 Production in the Liver. – Yiu, J.H.C. et al., Circulation Research

Animal and insect microbiome
Cross-generational effects of climate change on the microbiome of a photosynthetic sponge. – Luter, H.M. et al., Environmental Microbiology

Symbionts shape host innate immunity in honeybees. – Horak, R.D. et al., Proceedings Biological Sciences

Parental Microbiota Modulates Offspring Development, Body Mass and Fecundity in a Polyphagous Fruit Fly. – Nguyen, B. et al. Microorganisms

Fast and Facile Biodegradation of Polystyrene by the Gut Microbial Flora of Plesiophthalmus davidis Larvae. – Woo, S. et al., Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Gut microbiota protects honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) against polystyrene microplastics exposure risks. – Wang, K. et al., Journal of Hazardous Materials

Plant, root, and soil microbiome
Characteristics of microbial community of soil subjected to industrial production of antibiotics. – Borčinová, M. et al., Folia Microbiologica

Host selection shapes crop microbiome assembly and network complexity. -Xiong, C. et al., The New Phytologist

Microbiome of root vegetables-a source of gluten-degrading bacteria. – Kõiv, V. et al., Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water and extremophile microbiome
Environmental stability impacts the differential sensitivity of marine microbiomes to increases in temperature and acidity. – Wang, Z. et al., ISME Journal

Insights into the Vertical Stratification of Microbial Ecological Roles across the Deepest Seawater Column on Earth. – Xue, C-X et al., Microorganisms

The microbial community of a biofilm lining the wall of a pristine cave in Western New Guinea. – Turrini, P. et al., Microbiological Research

Built environment
Airborne bacteria in outdoor air and air of mechanically ventilated buildings at city-scale in Hong Kong across seasons. – Zhou, Y. et al., Environmental Science and Technology

Phages and viruses
Review: Phages and their potential to modulate the microbiome and immunity. Federici, S. et al., Cellular and Molecular Immunology

Bioinformatics
Generalized estimating equation modeling on correlated microbiome sequencing data with longitudinal measures. – Chen, B. and Xu, W., PLoS Computational Biology

The Nubeam reference-free approach to analyze metagenomic sequencing reads. – Dai, H. and Guan, Y., Genome Research

The archives are half-empty: an assessment of the availability of microbial community sequencing data. – Jurburg, S.D. et al., Communications Biology

Techniques
An effective culturomics approach to study the gut microbiota of mammals. – Pereira, A.C. and Cunha, M.V., Research in Microbiology

Activity-based cell sorting reveals responses of uncultured archaea and bacteria to substrate amendment. – Reichart, N.J. et al., ISME Journal

An Ingestible Self-Polymerizing System for Targeted Sampling of Gut Microbiota and Biomarkers. – Chen, L. et al., ACS Nano

July 25, 2020

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Good morning and happy Saturday y’all! Today’s digest is brief, but covers some fascinating papers including: small RNAs regulating gut microbe metabolism; epigenetics linking the early-life airway microbiota with allergic rhinitis; and the impact of gut microbial composition on vagal innervation. I’ve also included a non-microbiome pick discussing how to spot and resolve common statistical mistakes in research manuscripts. The authors of the article hope this will help improve robustness of scientific research. Happy reading!

Gut Microbiome
A high-resolution transcriptome map identifies small RNA regulation of metabolism in the gut microbe Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Ryan, D. et al. Nature Communications.

Depicting SARS-CoV-2 faecal viral activity in association with gut microbiota composition in patients with COVID-19. Zuo, T. et al. Gut.

High microbiota reactivity of adult human intestinal IgA requires somatic mutations. Kabbert, J. et al. Journal of Experimental Medicine.

A unified catalog of 204,938 reference genomes from the human gut microbiome. Almeida, A. et al. Nature Biotechnology.

Airway Microbiome
Epigenetic landscape links upper airway microbiota in infancy with allergic rhinitis at 6 years of age. Morin, A. et al. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Early-Life Microbiome
Butyrate producing colonic Clostridiales metabolise human milk oligosaccharides and cross feed on mucin via conserved pathways. Pichler, M.J. et al. Nature Communications.

Animal Experiments
Bile acids drive the newborn’s gut microbiota maturation. van Best, N. et al. Nature Communications.

Gut microbiota composition modulates inflammation and structure of the vagal afferent pathway. Kim, J.S. et al. Physiology & Behavior.

TNFα regulates intestinal organoids from mice with both defined and conventional microbiota. Sun, L. et al. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Water Microbiome
Nutrient and microbial water quality of the upper Ganga River, India: identification of pollution sources. Bowed, M.J. et al. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
Global warming shifts the composition of the abundant bacterial phyllosphere microbiota as indicated by a cultivation-dependent and -independent study of the grassland phyllosphere of a long-term warming field experiment. Aydogan, E.L. FEMS Microbiology and Ecology.

Non-Microbiome Pick
Science Forum: Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for when writing or reviewing a manuscript. Makin, T.R. and Orban de Xivry, JJ. eLife.

June 17, 2020

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Hello and welcome to Wednesday’s Digest! Today’s selection includes two separate but complementary papers from Cell Host & Microbe. The first, from Brett Finlay’s lab, investigates what drives the loss of Immunoglobulin A recognition by beneficial bacteria in the gut of undernourished children. The second, from Jeffrey Gordon’s lab, examines the impact of prebiotic and microbial interventions on oral vaccination responses in a mouse model of childhood undernutrition. These papers both highlight the important relationship between nutrition, the microbiota, and host mucosal immunity.

There are also a few fungi-focused papers today as well as some interesting animal microbiome research. Tan et al. compare the microbiome of pigs and their farmers and Andrade-Oliveira et al. found that antimicrobial resistance genes from a feline oral commensal can be transferred to a human-associated staphylococci. I also want to call attention to the techniques section, especially a paper by Song and Xie in which they used CRISPR/Cas9 to deplete host contamination in 16S rRNA gene amplicon samples.

Happy reading, y’all!

Pregnancy and Early-life
Analysis of Immune, Microbiota and Metabolome Maturation in Infants in a Clinical Trial of Lactobacillus Paracasei CBA L74-fermented Formula. Roggero, P. et al. Nature Communications.

Ecological Succession in the Vaginal Microbiota During Pregnancy and Birth. Rasmussen, M.A. et al. The ISME Journal.

Neonatal Diet Alters Fecal Microbiota and Metabolome Profiles at Different Ages in Infants Fed Breast Milk or Formula. Brink, L.R. et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Human Milk Fungi: Environmental Determinants and Inter-Kingdom Associations With Milk Bacteria in the CHILD Cohort Study. Moossavi, S. et al. BMC Microbiology.

Profiles of Human Milk Oligosaccharides and Their Relations to the Milk Microbiota of Breastfeeding Mothers in Dubai. Ayoub, C. et al. Nutrients.

Human Milk Microbiota Development During Lactation and Its Relation to Maternal Geographic Location and Gestational Hypertensive Status. Wan, Y. et al. Gut Microbes.

Skin Microbiome
Skin Microbiota Analysis-Inspired Development of Novel Anti-Infectives. Liu, Y. et al. Microbiome.

Review: Skin Microbiome Analysis for Forensic Human Identification: What Do We Know So Far? Tozzo, P. et al. Microorganisms.

Review: Protecting the Outside: Biological Tools to Manipulate the Skin Microbiota. O’Sullivan, J.N. et al. FEMS Microbiology and Ecology.

Vaginal Microbiome
Recovery of Vaginal Microbiota After Standard Treatment for Bacterial Vaginosis Infection: An Observational Study. Lehtoranta, L. et al. Microorganisms.

Alterations in Vaginal Microbiota and Associated Metabolome in Women With Recurrent Implantation Failure. Fu, M. et al. mBio.

Gut Microbiome
Alterations of the Gut Microbiota in Patients With COVID-19 or H1N1 Influenza. Gu, S. et al. Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Alterations in the Gut Microbiome and Suppression of Histone Deacetylases by Resveratrol Are Associated with Attenuation of Colonic Inflammation and Protection Against Colorectal Cancer. Alrafas, H.R. et al. Journal of Clinical Medicine.

Long-term Dietary Intervention Reveals Resilience of the Gut Microbiota Despite Changes in Diet and Weight. Fragiadakis, G.K. et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Oral Microbiome
Intraoral Microbial Metabolism and Association With Host Taste Perception. Gardner, A. et al. Journal of Dental Research.

Animal Experiments
Combined Prebiotic and Microbial Intervention Improves Oral Cholera Vaccination Responses in a Mouse Model of Childhood Undernutrition. Di Luccia, B. et al. Cell Host & Microbe.

Commensal Bacteria Modulate Immunoglobulin A Binding in Response to Host Nutrition. Huus, K.E. et al. Cell Host & Microbe.

The interplay between the gut microbiota and NLRP3 activation affects the severity of acute pancreatitis in mice. Xueyang, L. et al. Gut Microbes.

Structural and functional changes of gut microbiota in ovariectomized rats and their correlations with altered bone mass. Ma, S. et al. Aging (Albany NY).

Animal Microbiome
Comparative assessment of faecal microbial composition and metabonome of swine, farmers and human control. Tan, S.C. et al. Scientific Reports.

Staphylococcus nepalensis, a Commensal of the Oral Microbiota of Domestic Cats, Is a Reservoir of Transferrable Antimicrobial Resistance. Andrade-Oliveira, A.L. et al. Microbiology.

Increasing the Hindgut Carbohydrate/Protein Ratio by Cecal Infusion of Corn Starch or Casein Hydrolysate Drives Gut Microbiota-Related Bile Acid Metabolism To Stimulate Colonic Barrier Function. Pi, Y. mSystems.

The Microbial Biogeography of the Gastrointestinal Tract of Preterm and Term Lambs. Chong, C.Y.L. et al. Scientific Reports.

Microbial Ecology of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar) Hatcheries: Impacts of the Built Environment on Fish Mucosal Microbiota. Minich, J.J. et al. Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Dysbiosis in the Gut Microbiota of Soil Fauna Explains the Toxicity of Tire Tread Particles. Ding, J. et al. Environmental Science and Technology.

Insect Microbiome
Dietary Adaptation of Microbiota in Drosophila Requires NF-κB-Dependent Control of the Translational Regulator 4E-BP. Vandehoef, C. et al. Cell Reports.

Responses of soil and earthworm gut bacterial communities to heavy metal contamination. Liu, P. et al. Environmental Pollution.

Effect of Life Stage and Pesticide Exposure on the Gut Microbiota of Aedes Albopictus and Culex Pipiens L. Juma, E.O. et al. Scientific Reports.

Caterpillar Gut and Host Plant Phylloplane Mycobiomes Differ: A New Perspective on Fungal Involvement in Insect Guts. Višňovská, D. et al. FEMS Microbiology Ecology.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
The Response of Soil and Phyllosphere Microbial Communities to Repeated Application of the Fungicide Iprodione: Accelerated Biodegradation or Toxicity? Katsoula, A. et al. FEMS Microbiology Ecology.

Host Genotype Explains Rhizospheric Microbial Community Composition: The Case of Wild Cotton Metapopulations (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) in Mexico. Hernández-Terán, A. et al. FEMS Microbiology Ecology.

Review: Microbiome Approaches Provide the Key to Biologically Control Postharvest Pathogens and Storability of Fruits and Vegetables. Kusstatscher, P. et al FEMS Microbiology and Ecology.

Review: The Plant Microbiome: From Ecology to Reductionism and Beyond. Fitzpatrick, C.R. et al. Annual Review of Microbiology.

Water Microbiome
Persistence of Wastewater Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Their Genes in Human Fecal Material. Scaccia, N. et al. FEMS Microbiolgy Ecology.

Review: Microorganisms Populating the Water-Related Indoor Biome. Babič, M.N. et al. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Phage
Introducing Lu-1, a Novel Lactobacillus Jensenii Phage Abundant in the Urogenital Tract. Miller-Ensminger, T. et al. PLoS ONE.

Review: Bacteriophage-mediated Manipulation of the Gut Microbiome – Promises and Presents Limitations. Rasmussen, T.S. et al. FEMS Microbiology Reviews.

Bioinformatics
gutMEGA: A Database of the Human Gut MEtaGenome Atlas. Zhang, Q. et al. Briefings in Bioinformatics.

Techniques
Engineering CRISPR/Cas9 to mitigate abundant host contamination for 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequencing. Song, L. and Xie, K. Microbiome.

Optimization and Standardization of the Culturomics Technique for Human Microbiome Exploration. Diakite, A. et al. Scientific Reports

Direct detection of mRNA expression in microbial cells by fluorescence in situ hybridization using RNase H-assisted rolling circle amplification. Takahashi, H. et al. Scientific Reports.