Happy Saturday morning, y’all! I’m excited for my first contribution to the digest, and hope you enjoy my picks over a luxurious weekend meal. Today’s digest starts with some preprints about COVID including research on a drug that may inhibit viral replication. Other research highlights include an examination of the relationship between the vaginal microbiome and pre-term birth, a preprint on the oral microbiome in space, and a potential new technique for low cost, high-throughput metagenome profiling. Scroll all the way to the end for information about a fun project by a University of Wyoming student called The Microbestiary.

COVID-19
Preprint: Genomic determinants of pathogenicity in SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses. Auslander, N. et al.

Preprint: Nelfinavir inhibits replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in vitro. Yamamoto, N. et al.

Preprint: Understanding the B and T cells epitopes of spike protein of severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2: A computational way to predict the immunogens. Vashi, Y. et al.

General Microbiome
Preprint: From iron to antibiotics: Identification of conserved bacterial-fungal interactions across diverse partners. Pierce, EC. et al.

Human Gut Microbiome
Review: Unraveling Host-Gut Microbiota Dialogue and Its Impact on Cholesterol Levels. Villette R. et al. Frontiers in Pharmacology.

Metagenomics analysis reveals features unique to Indian distal gut microbiota. Kaur, K. et al. PLOS ONE.

Gut Microbiota Modulate CD8 T Cell Responses to Influence Colitis-Associated Tumorigenesis. Yu, A.I. et al. Cell Reports.

Human Oral Microbiome
Preprint: Characterization of the oral microbiome of medically controlled type-2 diabetes patients. Santos, A. et al.

Human Vaginal Microbiome
Cervicovaginal microbiome and natural history of HPV in a longitudinal study. Usyk, M. et al. PLOS Pathogens.

Meta-Analysis of Vaginal Microbiome Data Provides New Insights Into Preterm Birth. Kosti, I. et al. Frontiers in Microbiology.

Water and Extremophile Microbiome
Microbiota characterization of Exaiptasia diaphana from the Great Barrier Reef. Hartman, L.M. et al. Animal Microbiome.

Microbial Diversity and Metabolic Potential in the Stratified Sansha Yongle Blue Hole in the South China Sea. He, P. et al. Scientific Reports.

Metabolic versatility of freshwater sedimentary archaea feeding on different organic carbon sources. Compte-Port, S. et al. PLOS ONE.

Animal Experiments and Animal Microbiome
The skin microbiome facilitates adaptive tetrodotoxin production in poisonous newts. Vaelli, P.M. et al. eLife.

Metatranscriptomic virome assessment of Rhipicephalus microplus from Colombia. Gomez, G.F. et al. Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.

Preprint: Metabolic differences between symbiont subpopulations in the deep-sea tubeworm Riftia pachyptila. Hinzke, T. et al.

Preprint: Similar gut bacterial microbiota in two fruit-feeding moth pests collected from different host species and locations. Gong, Q et al.

Plant, Root, and Soil Microbiome
The preceding root system drives the composition and function of the rhizosphere microbiome. Zhou, Y. et al. Genome Biology.

Microbial Co-Occurrence in Floral Nectar Affects Metabolites and Attractiveness to a Generalist Pollinator. Rering, C.C. et al. Journal of Chemical Ecology.

Impact of phages on soil bacterial communities and nitrogen availability under different assembly scenarios. Braga, L.P.P. et al. Microbiome.

A predatory myxobacterium controls cucumber Fusarium wilt by regulating the soil microbial community. Ye, X. et al. Microbiome.

A plant genetic network for preventing dysbiosis in the phyllosphere. Chen, T. et al. Nature.

Fungal communities differentially respond to warming and drought in tropical grassland soil. de Oliveira, T.B. et al. Molecular Ecology.

Built Environment
An in-depth survey of the microbial landscape of the walls of a neonatal operating room. Derilus, D. et al. PLOS ONE.

Microbes in Space
Preprint: Defining the resilience of the human salivary microbiota by a 520 days longitudinal study in confined environment: the Mars500 mission. Bacci, G. et al.

Phages and Viruses
Phage cocktail containing Podoviridae and Myoviridae bacteriophages inhibits the growth of Pectobacterium spp. under in vitro and in vivo conditions. Zaczek-Moczydłowska, M.A. et al. PLOS ONE.

Dynamic genome evolution and complex virocell metabolism of globally-distributed giant viruses. Moniruzzaman M., et al. Nature Communications.

Preprint: Infection with novel Bacteroides phage BV01 alters host transcriptome and bile acid metabolism in a common human gut microbe. Campbell, D.E. et al.

Bioinformatics
Preprint: Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICE) and Associated Cargo Genes within and across Hundreds of Bacterial Genera. Kaufman, J. et al.

Techniques
A restriction enzyme reduced representation sequencing approach for low-cost, high-throughput metagenome profiling. Hess, M.K. et al. PLOS ONE.

Industrial Microbiome
Open microbiome dominated by Clostridium and Eubacterium converts methanol into i-butyrate and n-butyrate. Huang, S. et al. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Fun with Microbes
University of Wyoming masters student Erin Bentley was selected for an Arctic Circle Expedition in 2021 where she will characterize microbes and share her discoveries on The Microbestiary.
“The Microbestiary strives to show the public, in welcoming and memorable ways, that the microbial world is populated by strange and beautiful characters,” says Bentley in an article published on the UW website.