Category Archives: Bik’s Non-Microbiology Picks

July 9, 2015

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Microbiome in colicky infants, bacterial communities on seaweed, and viral communities in soil.

Events

Altering the Microbiome: Can it Impact Health? Sept 24, 2015. Call for Abstracts- Deadline August 3, 2015

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG therapy and microbiological programming in infantile colic: a randomized, controlled trial – Anna Pärtty – Pediatric Research

Human respiratory microbiome
The Lung Microbiome: New Principles for Respiratory Bacteriology in Health and Disease – Robert P. Dickson – PLOS Pathogens

Human gut microbiome

Interactions between the intestinal microbiota and bile-acids in gallstones patients – Nirit Keren – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Continental-scale variation in seaweed host-associated bacterial communities is a function of host condition, not geography – Ezequiel M. Marzinelli – Environmental Microbiology

Ecotoxicological assessment of soil microbial community tolerance to glyphosate – Marco Allegrini – Science of The Total Environment

Dynamics of autochthonous soil viral communities parallels dynamics of host communities under nutrient stimulation – Sharath Srinivasiah – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Water microbiome

Zonation of bacterioplankton communities along aging upwelled water in the northern Benguela upwelling – Benjamin Bergen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Temporal evolution of bacterial communities associated with the in situ wetland-based remediation of a marine shore porphyry copper tailings deposit – N. Diaby – Science of The Total Environment

 

Bioinformatics

Web Resources for Microbial Data – Qinglan Sun – Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics

The unifrac significance test is sensitive to tree topology – Catherine A. Lozupone – BMC Bioinformatics

Microbes in the news

Researchers discover how bacteria sweet-talk their way into plants – Aarhus University – EurekAlert

Probiotics—for plants: Helpful bacteria promote growth, less fertilizer on crops – Phys.org

Designer microbiome: MIT biologists program common gut bacteria – Eryn Brown – LA Times

Certain species dominate oral microbiome in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome – Healio

Science, publishing, and career

How to fail better (and even succeed!) in the academic job market – Dr. Acclimatrix – Tenure She Wrote

Bik’s Picks

Science reveals how giant pandas survive on a bamboo diet – Karen Kaplan – LA Times

Patients can spot trouble with new dental implants – Lisa Rapaport – Reuters

This jumping, squishy robot looks like a tiny UFO – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post
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July 8, 2015

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Just a short post today. PLOS ONE has a paper about burn victims and gut microbiome, in which both humans as well as mice were studied, but I really disliked the mouse experiments, where mice were deliberately burned (by shaving them and dipping them in near-boiling water). As a scientist, I realize that animal experiments can be useful, but I very much dislike animal studies that involve deliberate burns, enormous tumors, and parabiosis. I hope that these types of experiments can soon be replaced by more animal-friendly versions.

In other news: a bacterium on satellite survived entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. How cool is that?

Human respiratory microbiome

Dysbiosis of upper respiratory tract microbiota in elderly pneumonia patients – Wouter A A de Steenhuijsen Piters – The ISME Journal

Human/animal model gut microbiome

I really dislike the mouse part of this paper: Burn Injury Alters the Intestinal Microbiome and Increases Gut Permeability and Bacterial Translocation – Zachary M. Earley – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Diet shapes the gut microbiome of pigs during nursing and weaning – Steven A. Frese – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Editorial: Symbiosis: Receptive to infection – Sharon R. Long – Nature

Receptor-mediated exopolysaccharide perception controls bacterial infection – Y. Kawaharada – Nature

Water microbiome

Genomics and Ecophysiology of Heterotrophic Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria Isolated from Estuarine Surface Water – Mikkel Bentzon-Tilia – mBio

More microbiology

Eye-like ocelloids are built from different endosymbiotically acquired components –
Gregory S. Gavelis – Nature

Spore-Forming Thermophilic Bacterium within Artificial Meteorite Survives Entry into the Earth’s Atmosphere on FOTON-M4 Satellite Landing Module – Alexander Slobodkin – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Justin and Erica Sonnenburg: The Gut Connection – The Insight

Together bacteria invade antibiotic landscapes – Phys.org

Now You Can Buy Shampoo and Cleanser That Promote the Growth of “Good” Bacteria – L.V. Anderson – Slate

Just How Gross Is It to Leave Your Toothbrush In The Bathroom? – Lindsay Colameo – Allure

Science, publishing, and career

Postdocs will be getting a raise – Justin Kiggins – The Spectroscope
and
Will Obama’s revamp of the overtime rules mean postdocs are paid more? – Drugmonkey

Bik’s Picks

Shark selfies: Shark Files: Baited Cameras to Count World Sharks – Lori Cuthbert – Discovery

Scientists Discover a ‘Complex Cocktail of Many Chemicals’ in Snail Venom That Could Treat Cancer, Pain and Addiction – Liz Klimas – The Blaze

These Plastic Chemicals May Be Just As Dangerous As What They Replace – Justin Worland – Time

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July 7, 2015

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A personal perspective on microbiome research, phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms, ruling out viruses as causes for necrotizing enterocolitis, and Robert Edgar’s USEARCH.

Job openings

Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology are looking for 2 postdocs (one experimentalist and one bioinformatician)

General microbiome

Personal perspective: From cell biology to the microbiome: An intentional infinite loop – Wendy S. Garrett – Journal of Cell Biology

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Cytomegalovirus and other common enteric viruses are not commonly associated with Necrotizing Enterocolitis – Thomas Skeath – Acta Paediatrica

Viremia during pregnancy and risk of childhood leukemia and lymphomas in the offspring: Nested case-control study – Davit Bzhalava – International Journal of Cancer

Human oral microbiome

The Oral Bacterial Communities of Children with Well-Controlled HIV Infection and without HIV Infection – Brittany E. Goldberg – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

Sputum Bacterial and Fungal Dynamics during Exacerbations of Severe COPD – Jin Su – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Chemotherapy-driven dysbiosis in the intestinal microbiome – E. Montassier – Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Animal models of microbiome research

Perilipin-2 Modulates Lipid Absorption and Microbiome Responses in the Mouse Intestine – Daniel N. Frank – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

NGS metabarcoding proves successful for quantitative assessment of symbiont abundance: the case of feather mites on birds – J. Diaz-Real

Genetic Structure and Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli and Cryptic Clades in Birds with Diverse Human Associations – Michaela D. J. Blyton – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Coral transplantation triggers shift in microbiome and promotion of coral disease associated potential pathogens – Jordan M. Casey – Scientific Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Metabarcoding Analysis of Fungal Diversity in the Phyllosphere and Carposphere of Olive (Olea europaea) – Ahmed Abdelfattah – PLOS ONE

High carbon use efficiency in soil microbial communities is related to balanced growth, not storage compound synthesis – Paul Dijkstra – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Earthworms modify microbial community structure and accelerate maize stover decomposition during vermicomposting – Yuxiang Chen – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Microbial Communities Associated with Zones of Elevated Magnetic Susceptibility in Hydrocarbon-contaminated Sediments – Carol L. Beaver – Geomicrobiology Journal

Bacterial diversity differences along an epigenic cave stream reveal evidence of community dynamics, succession, and stability – Kathleen Brannen-Donnelly – Frontiers in Microbiology

Firmicutes is an Important Component of Microbial Communities in Water-Injected and Pristine Oil Reservoirs; Western Siberia, Russia – Yulia Frank – Geomicrobiology Journal

Functional interactions among filamentous Epsilonproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent biofilm – Runar Stokke – Environmental Microbiology

Temporal Study of the Microbial Diversity of the North Arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah, U.S. – Swati Almeida-Dalmet – Microorganisms

Diversity of the Sediment Microbial Community in the Aha Watershed (Southwest China) in Response to Acid Mine Drainage Pollution Gradients – Weimin Sun – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial Transport, Retention, and Inactivation in Streams: A Combined Experimental and Stochastic Modeling Approach – Jennifer D. Drummond – Environmental Science & Technology

Extremophile microbiome

Ribosomal tag pyrosequencing of DNA and RNA reveals ‘rare’ taxa with high protein synthesis potential in the sediment of a hypersaline lake in Western Australia – Pascal Weigold – Geomicrobiology Journal

Microbial Diversity in Engineered Haloalkaline Environments Shaped by Shared Geochemical Drivers Observed in Natural Analogues – Talitha C. Santini – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

A New Perspective on Microbiome and Resource Management in Wastewater Systems – Veera Gnaneswar Gude – Biotechnology & Biomaterials

Microbial Ecology

A functional perspective on phenotypic heterogeneity in microorganisms – Martin Ackermann – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Bioinformatics and statistics

USEARCH: Error filtering, pair assembly, and error correction for next-generation sequencing reads – Robert C. Edgar – Bioinformatics

Assessment and Selection of Competing Models for Zero-Inflated Microbiome Data – Lizhen Xu – PLOS ONE

Metabolomics and metatranscriptomics

Functional metabolomics: from biomarker discovery to metabolome reprogramming – Bo Peng – Protein & Cell

Stool metatranscriptomics: A technical guideline for mRNA stabilisation and isolation – Michael Reck – BMC Genomics

Hydrodynamic chronoamperometry for probing kinetics of anaerobic microbial metabolism – case study of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii – Antonin Prévoteau – Scientific Reports

Techniques

A flexible and economical barcoding approach for highly multiplexed amplicon sequencing of diverse target genes – Craig W. Herbold – Frontiers in Microbiology

This paper is not novel at all: An improved method for bacterial identification through 16S rDNA sequencing using double set of primers: a case study – Amanat Ali – Pak. J. Agri. Sci.,

Microbes in the news

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold – Michele Lent Hirsch – Smithsonian

Bacteria in a bottle? AOBiome offers ways to stay clean without traditional soap – Nidhi Subbaraman – The Boston Globe

uBiome to Award Grant of up to $100k for Groundbreaking Microbiome Research – PR Web

Bik’s Picks

NASA Releases Time-Lapse Video Of Mars Rover Opportunity’s Journey: 11 Years In Just 8 Minutes – Jim Algar – Tech Times

Self-Driving ‘Robocabs’ Could Help Curb Global Warming – Wendy Koch – National Geographic

‘Vampires’ keep doctors in the dark for fear of stereotyping: study – Reuters

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July 6, 2015

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Oral microbiomes of dogs and their owners, airway mycobiome in CF patients, memory B cells and antibodies to gut microbiota, and yogurt containing seawater (?).

Human oral microbiome

Comparison of the Oral Microbiomes of Canines and Their Owners Using Next-Generation Sequencing – Changin Oh – PLOS ONE

Systemic immunity shapes the oral microbiome and susceptibility to bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw – Shirin Kalyan – Journal of Translational Medicine

Review: Oral malodorous gases and oral microbiota: From halitosis to carcinogenesis – Naoko Tanda – Journal of Oral Biosciences

Human respiratory microbiome

A cohort study of the airway mycobiome in adult cystic fibrosis patients: differences in community structure of fungi compared to bacteria reveal predominance of transient fungal elements – Rolf Kramer – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Review: The role of the local microbial ecosystem in respiratory health and disease – Wouter A. A. de Steenhuijsen Piters – Philosophical Transactions B

Review: The mechanism or mechanisms driving atopic asthma initiation: The infant respiratory microbiome moves to center stage – Patrick G. Holt – Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Diversification of memory B cells drives the continuous adaptation of secretory antibodies to gut microbiota – Cornelia Lindner – Nature Immunology

Dietary modulation of the gut microbiota – a randomised controlled trial in obese postmenopausal women – Lena K. Brahe – British Journal of Nutrition

Anti-TNF treatment with adalimumab induces changes in the microbiota of Crohn’s disease – Busquets David – Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Effects of high doses of vitamin D3 on mucosa-associated gut microbiome vary between regions of the human gastrointestinal tract – Mina Bashir – European Journal of Nutrition

Review: Suppression of inflammation by helminths: a role for the gut microbiota? – Paul Giacomin – Philosophical Transactions B

Review: Immune-microbiota interactions in health and disease – Noah W. Palm – Clinical Immunology

Animal models

Lentinula edodes-derived polysaccharide rejuvenates mice in terms of immune responses and gut microbiota – Xiaofei Xu – Food and Function

Effect of Lactobacillus plantarum FH185 on the Reduction of Adipocyte Size and Gut Microbial Changes in Mice with Diet-induced Obesity – Sun-Young Park – Korean Journal for Food Science of Animal Resources

In vitro probiotic characteristics of Lactobacillus plantarum ZDY 2013 and its modulatory effect on gut microbiota of mice – Renhui Huang – Journal of Dairy Science

Reduced airway microbiota diversity is associated with elevated allergic respiratory inflammation – Wenkai Yu – Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

The prebiotics 3’Sialyllactose and 6’Sialyllactose diminish stressor-induced anxiety-like behavior and colonic microbiota alterations: evidence for effects on the gut-brain axis – Andrew J. Tarr – Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Effect of yogurt containing deep sea water on health-related serum parameters and intestinal microbiota in mice – Sun Moon Kang – Journal of Dairy Science

Animal microbiome

In situ identification and quantification of starch-hydrolyzing bacteria attached to barley and corn grain in the rumen of cows fed barley-based diets – Yun Xia – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Developmental Dynamic Analysis of the Excreted Microbiome of Chickens Using Next-Generation Sequencing – Lim S. – Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology

Wolbachia influences the production of octopamine and affects Drosophila male aggression – Chelsie E. Rohscheib – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Expanding the Entamoeba Universe: New Hosts Yield Novel Ribosomal Lineages – Alison S. Jacob – Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Interactions between multiple helminths and the gut microbiota in wild rodents – Jakub Kreisinger – Philosophical Transactions B

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The Hidden World within Plants: Ecological and Evolutionary Considerations for Defining Functioning of Microbial Endophytes – Pablo R. Hardoim – Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews

The evolution of bacterial resistance against bacteriophages in the horse chestnut phyllosphere is general across both space and time – Britt Koskella – Philosophical Transactions B

Influence of corn, switchgrass, and prairie cropping systems on soil microbial communities in the upper Midwest of the United States – Ederson da C. Jesus – GCB Bioenergy

Phylogenetic congruence and ecological coherence in terrestrial Thaumarchaeota –
Eduard Vico Oton – The ISME Journal

Composition of soil microbial communities in the rhizosphere of cucumber cultivars with differing nitrogen acquisition efficiency – Xingang Zhou – Applied Soil Ecology

Differential Decay of Wastewater Bacteria and Change of Microbial Communities in Beach Sand and Seawater Microcosms – Qian Zhang – Environmental Science & Technology

New traceability strategies based on a biological Bar Code by PCR-DGGE using bacterial and yeast communities for determining farming type of peach – Ahmed El Shobaky – Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences

Optimization of biostimulant for bioremediation of contaminated coastal sediment by response surface methodology (RSM) and evaluation of microbial diversity by pyrosequencing – Bakthavachallam Subha – Marine Pollution Bulletin

Water microbiome

Metagenomic study of red biofilms from Diamante Lake reveals ancient arsenic bioenergetics in haloarchaea – Nicolás Rascovan – ISME Journal

Viral assemblage composition in Yellowstone acidic hot springs assessed by network analysis – Benjamin Bolduc – The ISME Journal

Built Environment Microbiome

Bacteriological assessment of the hospital environment in two referral hospitals in Yaoundé-Cameroon – Kamga Hortense Gonsu – Pan African Medical Journal

Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren – Payam Dadvand – PNAS

Food microbiology

Source Tracking and Succession of Kimchi Lactic Acid Bacteria during Fermentation –
Se Hee Lee – Journal of Food Science

House microbiotas as sources of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts in traditional Italian sourdoughs – Fabio Minervini – Food Microbiology

Proteomics

Estimating the computational limits of detection of microbial non-model organisms – Mathias Kuhring – Proteomics

Antarctic archaea–virus interactions: metaproteome-led analysis of invasion, evasion and adaptation – Bernhard Tschitschko – The ISME Journal

Microbial Ecology

Paleobiological Perspectives on Early Microbial Evolution – Andrew H. Knoll – Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

Review: Building the microbiome in health and disease: niche construction and social conflict in bacteria – Luke McNally – Philosophical Transactions B

Hypothesis: Restriction modification systems as engines of diversity – Kim Sneppen – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: A Replisome’s journey through the bacterial chromosome – Thomas R. Beattie – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Horizontal gene transfer in an acid mine drainage microbial community – Jiangtao Guo – BMC Genomics

ISQuest: Finding Insertion Sequences in Prokaryotic Sequence Fragment Data – Abhishek Biswas – Bioinformatics

Comparing K-mer based methods for improved classification of 16S sequences – Hilde Vinje – BMC Bioinformatics

Databases for Microbiologists – Igor B. Zhulin – Journal of Bacteriology

Techniques

Here, there, and everywhere: From PCRs to next‐generation sequencing technologies and sequence databases, DNA contaminants creep in from the most unlikely places – Karl Gruber – EMBO Reports

Microbes in the news

Bacteria ‘Fight Club’ could help find new cures for diseases – Alexandra Ossola – Popular Science
Sold on Symbiosis: A love of the ocean lured Nicole Dubilier into science; gutless sea worms and their nurturing bacterial symbionts keep her at the leading edge of marine microbiology – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

Terroir: how fungi, yeasts and bacteria affect the taste of your wine – Max Allen – The Australian

Brookline’s Maya Sekhar wins grand prize at state science fair (work on phages)

Almost half of Americans don’t understand threat of antibiotic resistance – Ginger Skinner – Consumer Reports

The Human Microbiome: do not underestimate microbes! – John Dalton – David Game College

Faecal transplants, diet on trend as society embraces gut health – Hamish Fitzsimmons – ABC.au

Aquarium Microbiome Project – Shedd Aquarium – YouTube

The Microbiology Weekly – Cesar Sanchez

This Bacteria-Slaying Light Fixture Is Perfectly Safe For Humans – Andrew Liszewski – Gizmodo

Researcher finds bacteria in pistachio trees – Angela Simental – Las Cruces Sun

Bacteria-Eating Viruses Could Be New Ally Against Superbugs In A ‘Post-Antibiotic Era’ – Ben Hirschler – Reuters / Huffington Post

Linking the microbiome and colorectal cancer: an author Q+A – Sophie Marchant – BioMedCentral blogs

Bik’s Picks

US Fish & Wildlife struggles to save remaining polar bears – Sam Catherman – News Quench

Professor: Nothing Fishy About Portuguese Man o’ War at Jersey Shore – NBC

Japan And The U.S. Are Going To Have An Actual Giant Robot Battle – Damon Beres – The Huffington Post

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July 2, 2015

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A review on the risks of antibiotics early in life, undergrad in our lab wins award, and microbiome research needs scepticism.

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Trends and determinants of gastric bacterial colonization of preterm neonates in a NICU setting – Ketki Patel – PLOS ONE

Review: Risks of Antibiotic Exposures Early in Life on the Developing Microbiome – Anjelique Schulfer and Martin J Blaser – PLOS Pathogens

Human skin microbiome

Temporal changes in the skin Malassezia microbiota of members of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE): A case study in Antarctica as a pseudo-space environment – Takashi Sugita – Medical Mycology

Human gut microbiome

Review: Clostridium difficile Infection – Daniel A. Leffler – The New England Journal of Medicine

Spotlight: The gut microbiome in the helminth infected host – Francisca Mutapi – Trends in Parasitology

Animal microbiome

Editorial? (no full access this one yet) The giant panda gut microbiome – Fuwen Wei – Trends in Microbiology

Should Symbionts Be Nice or Selfish? Antiviral Effects of Wolbachia Are Costly but Reproductive Parasitism Is Not – Julien Martinez – PLOS Pathogens

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Exploring soil microbial 16S rRNA sequence data to increase carbon yield and nitrogen efficiency of a bioenergy crop – Leonardo M. Pitombo – GCB Bioenergy

Microbes in the news

Congrats to “our” undergraduate student Laurie Rumker for winning a Firestone Medal for her thesis “Before and After the Flood: Stability and Resilience of the Human Gut Microbiota”.

Microbiology: Microbiome science needs a healthy dose of scepticism – William P. Hanage – Nature

Tools for Drools: A general guide to collecting and processing saliva – Kelly Rae Chi – The Scientist

Single-Celled Creature Has Eye Made of Domesticated Microbes – Ed Yong – National Geographic

Must read for everyone who thinks IRBs are a pain: Blood & Fog: The Military’s Germ Warfare Tests in San Francisco – Rebecca Kreston – Discover

How the Black Death turned from a tummy bug to a deadly plague – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

BacteriaHysteria (posting here does not mean endorsement)

“Just take your shoes off at the door and stop wearing them inside your home! If you have pets, clean off their paws with some disposable wipes before letting them traipse all over the place as well. Your immune system will thank you.”
A Serious (and Gross) Reason to Take Your Shoes Off Inside Your Home – Susan Yara – Glamour

Bik’s Picks

Reaction to Smells May Help Diagnose Autism, Study Suggests – Sindya N. Bhanoo – New York Times

Eye color: A potential indicator of alcohol dependence risk in European Americans – Arvis Sulovari – American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics

Why the seahorse tail is square – Michael M. Porter – Science

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July 1, 2015

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I’ve been busy in the lab most of the day, and will be tomorrow, so my apologies for posting at weird hours.

Human oral microbiome

The Influence of Smoking on the Peri-Implant Microbiome – A.A. Tsigarida – Journal of Dental Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Dual Transcriptomic Profiling of Host and Microbiota during Health and Disease in Pediatric Asthma – Marcos Pérez-Losada – PLOS ONE

Commentary: Has the airway microbiome been overlooked in respiratory disease? – Olawale Salami – Genome Medicine

Review: The bacterial microbiota in inflammatory lung diseases – Gary B. Huffnagle – Clinical Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Thematic collection of abstracts: GUT in FOCUS Symposium NOBEL FORUM, Karolinska Institutet, February 2nd 2015 – Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease

Animal models

Long noncoding RNA expression profiles in gut tissues constitute molecular signatures that reflect the types of microbes – Lunxi Liang – Scientific Reports

Animal microbiome

Effects of transport, fasting and anaesthesia on the faecal microbiota of healthy adult horses – A. Schoster – Equine Veterinary Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Pyridine-type alkaloid composition affects bacterial community composition of floral nectar – Yana Aizenberg-Gershtein – Scientific Reports

Review: Role of plant growth regulators as chemical signals in plant–microbe interactions: a double edged sword – Carla Spence – Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Water microbiome

Investigation of a Large Collection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bacteriophages Collected from a Single Environmental Source in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – Christiane Essoh – PLOS ONE

Study in 93 wells (Ha! why not 96?): Natural Bacterial Communities Serve as Quantitative Geochemical Biosensors – Mark B. Smith – mBio

Extremophile microbiome

Arsenic rich Himalayan hot spring metagenomics reveal genetically novel predator–prey genotypes – Naseer Sangwan – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Microbial diversity in shallow-water hydrothermal sediments of Kueishan Island, Taiwan as revealed by pyrosequencing – Li Wang – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Built Environment microbiome

Bacterial Exposures and Associations with Atopy and Asthma in Children – Maria Valkonen – PLOS ONE

Studies for antifungal activity of selected concrete sealers on white cement panels – Rajesh K. Verma – International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research (IJSETR)

Bioreactor microbiology

In vitro characterisation of the fermentation profile and prebiotic capacity of gold-fleshed kiwifruit – P. Blatchford – Beneficial Microbes

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Constructing a Boolean implication network to study the interactions between environmental factors and OTUs – Congmin Zhu – Quantitative Biology

CheckM: assessing the quality of microbial genomes recovered from isolates, single cells, and metagenomes – Donovan H. Parks – Genome Research

The 2015 Nucleic Acids Research annual Web Server Issue: web-based software resources for analysis and visualization of molecular biology data

Microbial Ecology

The Final Countdown? Confusion about the species richness of human gut microbiota – E. Avershina – Beneficial Microbes

Individuality, phenotypic differentiation, dormancy and ‘persistence’ in culturable bacterial systems: commonalities shared by environmental, laboratory, and clinical microbiology – Douglas Kell – F1000 Research

Microbial interspecies interactions: recent findings in syntrophic consortia – Atsushi Kouzuma – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbes in the news

The Sum of Our Parts – Janice Dietert – The Scientist

Human Microbiome Journal Club: “Disease-specific alterations in the enteric virome in inflammatory bowel disease” [Norman et al, 2015]

Would You Eat Off These Bacteria-Covered Plates? The Petri Dishes – Diana Budds – FastCoDesign

Bik’s Picks

Personal Belief Exemptions to Vaccination in California: A Spatial Analysis – Margaret Carrel – Pediatrics
No Mating Partner? No Problem: This Flatworm Injects Sperm Directly Into Own Head To Reproduce – Jim Algar – Tech Times

Citrus fruit linked with melanoma in preliminary study – Kathryn Doyle – Reuters

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June 30, 2015

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Metabolomics and gut colonization of gnotobiotic mice, metabolomics of mice treated with antibiotics, inter-individual and temporal variation in human oral microbiotas, and several papers on microbes in agricultural-use soil.

Events

Free Cell Press webinar on Microbiome, Antibiotics and Human Disease: July 28th – Cell Press

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

Book chapter: The Effect of Diet and Probiotics on the Human Gut Microbiome – Lorenzo Morelli – Metabolic Syndrome and Complications of Pregnancy

Human oral microbiome

Inter-Individual Differences in the Oral Bacteriome Are Greater than Intra-Day Fluctuations in Individuals – Yukuto Sato – PLOS ONE

Oral microflora of supragingival and subgingival biofilms in Algerian healthy adults – Sara Ziouani – African Journal of Microbiology Research

Human respiratory microbiome

Airway bacteria and respiratory symptoms are common in ambulatory HIV-positive UK adults – Camus Nimmo – European Respiratory Journal

Oral application of lactic acid bacteria following treatment with antibiotics inhibits allergic airway inflammation – Qiuxiang Zhang – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Human vaginal microbiome

Soluble Immune Mediators and Vaginal Bacteria Impact Innate Genital Mucosal Antimicrobial Activity in Young Women – Rebecca Pellett Madan – American Journal of Reproductive Immunology

Human gut microbiome

Fetal programming of overweight through the microbiome: boys are disproportionately affected – A. L. Kozyrskyj – Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Impact of fluoroquinolones on human microbiota. Focus on the emergence of antibiotic resistance – Victoire de Lastours – Future Microbiology

Animal models

Metabolome progression during early gut microbial colonization of gnotobiotic mice – Angela Marcobal – Scientific Reports

Metabolic and metagenomic outcomes from early-life pulsed antibiotic treatment – Yael R. Nobel – Nature Communications

Altered Interactions between the Gut Microbiome and Colonic Mucosa Precede Polyposis in APCMin/+ Mice – Joshua S. Son – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Review: The use of probiotics in aquaculture – Ngo Van Hai – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Thesis: Roles of the symbiotic microbial communities associated with sponge hosts in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles – Russell T Hill – University of Maryland

Master Thesis: Arsenic Exposure Alters the Microbiome of Larval Zebrafish: A Metagenomic Analysis – Dylan A. Dahan – Bard Digital Commons

Discovery of a novel circular DNA virus in the Forbes sea star, Asterias forbesi – Elizabeth Fahsbender – Archives of Virology

Sexual transmission of beneficial microbes – Chad C. Smith – Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Rhizosphere bacteria and fungi associated with plant growth in soils of three replanted apple orchards – Ingrid H. Franke-Whittle – Plant and Soil

Microbial population dynamics in response to Pectobacterium atrosepticum infection in potato tubers – Viia Kõiv – Scientific Reports

Maternal effects on tree phenotypes: considering the microbiome – Maria Vivas – Trends in Plant Science

Bacterial population and biodegradation potential in chronically crude oil-contaminated marine sediments are strongly linked to temperature – Rafael Bargiela – Scientific Reports

Soil Microbial Communities are Shaped by Plant-Driven Changes in Resource Availability During Secondary Succession – Lauren C. Cline – Ecology

Warmer temperature accelerates methane emissions from the Zoige wetland on the Tibetan Plateau without changing methanogenic community composition – Mengmeng Cui – Scientific Reports

Water microbiome

Constitutive presence of antibiotic resistance genes within the bacterial community of a large subalpine lake – Andrea Di Cesare – Molecular Ecology

Draft Genome Sequences of Leviviridae RNA Phages EC and MB Recovered from San Francisco Wastewater – Alexander L. Greninger – Genome Announcements

Seasonal Dynamics of Marine Microbial Community in the South Sea of Korea – Sung-Suk Suh – PLOS ONE

Built environment / water treatment microbiology

Comparative metagenomics reveals microbial community differentiation in a biological heap leaching system – Qi Hu – Research in Microbiology

Impact of disinfection on drinking water biofilm bacterial community – Zilong Mi – Journal of Environmental Sciences

Intensive care unit environmental surfaces are contaminated by multidrug-resistant bacteria in biofilms: combined results of conventional culture, pyrosequencing, scanning electron microscopy, and confocal laser microscopy – H. Hu – The Journal of Hospital Infection

A review of melanized (black) fungal contamination in pharmaceutical products – incidence, drug recall and control measures – Rajendran Vijayakumar – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

BioMaS: a modular pipeline for Bioinformatic analysis of Metagenomic AmpliconS – Bruno Fosso – BMC Bioinformatics

Challenges and opportunities in understanding microbial communities with metagenome assembly (accompanied by IPython Notebook tutorial) – Adina Howe – Frontiers in Microbiology

Metabolomics

Human Urinary Composition Controls Antibacterial Activity of Siderocalin – Robin R. Shields-Cutler – The Journal of Biological Chemistry

Human Urine Decreases Function and Expression of Type 1 Pili in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli – Sarah E. Greene – mBio

New techniques

To Celebrate Marriage Equality, Illumina to Release “BiSeq” Genome Sequencer – The Allium

More microbiology

More than the sum of its parts – Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink – Science

Ecological communities by design – James K. Fredrickson – Science

The bacterial pangenome as a new tool for analyzing pathogenic bacteria – Laetitia Rouli – New Microbes and New Infections

Microbes in the news

Antibiotics and the Gut Microbiome: Antibiotics given to infant mice may have long-term effects on the animals’ metabolism and gut microbiota – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

Study: Breast milk helps babies develop immunity-boosting gut bacteria – Deena Shanker – Quartz

Your Diet May Be Causing Your Urinary Tract Infections – Mandy Oaklander – Time

uBiome and OpenBiome Partner for Microbiome Study in FMT Patients – Study will provide new insights on mechanics of fecal microbiota transplantation in C. difficile patients – uBiome

Passive Aggressive: Drosophila microbiota influence behavior – Julie Wolf – mBioSphere

Soil water, microbes influence carbon in world’s coldest desert, study finds – Phys.org

Invisible You: Art and Microbiology at the Eden Project – Microbe Post

Science, publishing, and career

The Myth of the Academic Lottery – Kelly J. Baker – Chronicle Vitae

Bik’s Picks

I saw this last night and it was so pretty: Venus and Jupiter to Put on ‘Best Backyard Sky Show of 2015’ – Alyssa Newcomb – ABC News

Say hello to the centipede from hell – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

California governor signs strict law requiring vaccinations for most kids – Liz Szabo – USA Today

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June 29, 2015

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Gut microbiome of children with Schistosoma infections, what happens to the hooves after a cow dies, and microbiomes at extremely dry or hot places.

General microbiome

Only one health, and so many omics – Nives Pećina-Šlaus – Cancer Cell International

Interchange of entire communities: microbial community coalescence – Matthias C. Rillig – Trends in Ecology and Evolution

A Vision for Investigating the Microbiology of Health and Disease – W. Ian Lipkin – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Collateral sensitivity of antibiotic-resistant microbes – Csaba Pál – Trends in Microbiology

Personalized medicine going precise: from genomics to microbiomics – Sanjay K. Shukla – Trends in Molecular Medicine

Review: Secrets from the microbiome: molecular biology meets microbiology meets histopathology….meets clinical biochemistry – Caroline Young – Annals of Clinical Biochemistry

Human respiratory microbiome

Editorial: Infectious asthma triggers: time to revise the hygiene hypothesis? – Wilmore C. Webley – Trends in Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Differences in the Faecal Microbiome in Schistosoma haematobium Infected Children vs. Uninfected Children – Gemma Louise Kay – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Glycan complexity dictates microbial resource allocation in the large intestine – Artur Rogowski – Nature Communications

Review: Intestinal Microbiota, Lipids, and the Pathogenesis of Intestinal Failure–Associated Liver Disease – Way Seah Lee – The Journal of Pediatrics

Review: Influence of gut bacteria on development and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – Ali Abdul-Hai – World Journal of Hepatology

Animal microbiome

Cockroaches: Aerobic Bacterial Community of American Cockroach Periplaneta americana,a Step toward Finding Suitable Paratransgenesis Candidates – Sanaz Akbari – Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases

Hooves from dead cows: Compost biodegradation of recalcitrant hoof keratin by bacteria and fungi – T. Reuter – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Fish: Modulation of the intestinal microbiota and morphology of tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus , following the application of a multi-species probiotic – B . T. Standen – Applied

Jellyfish: Changing company: Composition of bacterial communities associated with
Aurelia aurita changes with compartment, life stage and population – Nancy Weiland-Bräuer – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Ants: Bacterial community composition and diversity in an ancestral ant fungus symbiosis – Katrin Kellner – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Review: A new view of the fish gut microbiome: Advances from next-generation sequencing – Mahdi Ghanbari

Plant microbiome

Host–microbe interactions as a driver of acclimation to salinity gradients in brown algal cultures – Simon M Dittami – The ISME Journal

The olive knot disease as a model to study the role of interspecies bacterial communities in plant disease – Roberto Buonaurio – Frontiers in Plant Science

Review: Biotic Interactions in the Rhizosphere: A Diverse Cooperative Enterprise for Plant Productivity – Clelia De-la-Peña – Plant Physiology

Editorial on plants as alternative hosts for human and animal pathogens – Nicola J. Holden – Frontiers in Microbiology

Soil microbiome

Responses of bacterial communities to simulated climate changes in alpine meadow soil of
Qinghai-Tibet plateau – Junpeng Rui – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Evaluation of bacterial communities by bacteriome analysis targeting 16S rRNA genes and quantitative analysis of ammonia monooxygenase gene in different types of compost – Rika Kitamura – Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering

Soil conditions and land use intensification effects on soil microbial communities across a range of European field sites – Bruce C. Thomson – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Impact of urine and the application of the nitrification inhibitor DCD on microbial communities in dairy-grazed pasture soils – Sergio E. Morales – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Water microbiome

Metagenomic assessment of viral diversity in Lake Matoaka, a temperate, eutrophic freshwater lake in southeastern Virginia, USA – Jasmin C. Green – Aquatic Microbial Ecology

A comparison of bacterial community structure in seawater pond with shrimp, crab, and shellfish cultures and in non-cultured pond in Ganyu, Eastern China – LianTai Li – Annals of Microbiology

Extremophile microbiome

Phylogenetic Profiling and Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Death Valley, an Extreme Habitat in the Atacama Desert – Francine Piubeli – Indian Journal of Microbiology

Review: Uncultivated thermophiles: current status and spotlight on ‘Aigarchaeota’ – Brian P Hedlund – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Food microbiology

Evaluation and identification of poly-microbial biofilms on natural green Gordal table olives – Antonio Benítez-Cabello – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Proteomic and high-throughput analysis of protein expression and microbial diversity of microbes from 30- and 300-year pit muds of Chinese Luzhou-flavor liquor – Qi Zheng – Food Research International

Bacterial communities during the process of high-temperature Daqu production of roasted sesame-like flavour liquor – Yao Su – Journal of the Institute of Brewing

Bioreactor microbiology

Sulfate Reducing Bacteria and Mycobacteria Dominate the Biofilm Communities in a Chloraminated Drinking Water Distribution System – Christa Kimloi Gomez-Smith – Environmental Science & Technology

The Microbiota and Abundance of the Class 1 Integron-Integrase Gene in Tropical Sewage Treatment Plant Influent and Activated Sludge – Magna C. Paiva – PLOS ONE

Metabolic networks

Metabolic pathway activity estimation from RNA-Seq data – Yvette Temate-Tiagueu – ISBRA abstracts

Microbes in the news

Volunteers Needed for Human Microbiota Study: prebiotic effects of certain rice bran components @UArkansas

In Defense of Fiber: How Changing Your Diet Changes Your Gut Bacteria – Mandy Oaklander – Time

Undergraduate is first author on study of Lake Matoaka’s metagenome – Joseph McClain – WM.edu

DNA Genotek Inc. announces recipients of gut microbiome grant program – Steamfeed

Indigo-Clean Is New Light Designed For Hospitals That Kills Bacteria – James Maynard – TechTimes

The ‘frightening’ rise of flesh-eating bacteria: Mystery, pain and amputations – Peter Holley – Washington Post

Fatty and sugary foods linked to lower cognitive functions: Mouse data – Nathan Gray – Food Navigator

Investors Think This Company’s Gut Bacteria Are Worth $1.9 Billion – John Tozzi – Bloomberg

What’s new in gastroenterology? Insights from BMC Medicine at #DDW2015 – Alessandro Recchioni- BioMedCentral

Science, publishing, and career

From trainee to tenure-track: ten tips – Tuuli Lappalainen – Genome Biology

What would be a suitable value for the absolute minimum proportion of female speakers at genomics/bioinformatics conferences? – Keith Bradnam? – ACGT blog

Bik’s Picks

Make it count! ‘Leap second’: Why June 30 will have one extra second – Deborah Netburn – LA Times

SpaceX Rocket Explosion Destroys Students’ Science Experiment – Alyssa Newcomb – ABC News

Rats Dream About the Places They Want to Explore – Kiona Smith-Strickland – Discover Magazine
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June 26, 2015

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Antibiotic resistance genes in stool from 3 twin pairs, oasis microbiome helps date palms cope with drought, and mother’s littlest helpers.

General microbiome

Triclosan and prescription antibiotic exposures and enterolactone production in adults – Margaret A. Adgent – Environmental Research

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Gut resistome development in healthy twin pairs in the first year of life – Aimee M. Moore – Microbiome

Center Variation in Intestinal Microbiota Prior to Late-Onset Sepsis in Preterm Infants – Diana H. Taft – PLOS ONE

Editorial: Mother’s littlest helpers – Katie Hinde – Science

Human skin microbiome

Identification of the skin virome in a boy with widespread human papillomavirus-2-positive warts that completely regressed after administration of tetravalent human papillomavirus vaccine – M.M. Landini – British Journal of Dermatology

Use of 16S rRNA sequencing and quantitative PCR to correlate venous leg ulcer bacterial bioburden dynamics with wound expansion, antibiotic therapy, and healing – Daniel D. Sprockett – Wound Repair and Regeneration

Human gut microbiome

Editorial: Go with your gut: microbiota meet microglia – Kira Irving Mosher – Nature Neuroscience

Review: Metabolism of Chinese Materia Medica in Gut Microbiota and Its Biological Effects – Yan Wang – Chinese Herbal Medicines

Animal models of microbiome research

The role of beneficial bacteria wall elasticity in regulating innate immune response – Viktoria V. Мokrozub – The EPMA Journal

Exposure to soil, house dust and decaying plants increases gut microbial diversity and decreases serum immunoglobulin E levels in BALB/c mice – Dongrui Zhou – Environmental Microbiology

Animal microbiome

The gill microbiota of invasive and indigenous Spondylus oysters from the Mediterranean Sea and northern Red Sea – Yahala Rina Roterman – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Exercising influence: distinct biotic interactions shape root microbiomes – Sarah Stuart Sloan, Sarah L Lebeis – Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Oasis Desert Farming Selects Environment-Specific Date Palm Root Endophytic Communities and Cultivable Bacteria that Promote Resistance to Drought – Hanene Cherif – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Comprehensive sampling of an isolated dune system demonstrates clear patterns in soil fungal communities across a successional gradient – Alice Roy-Bolduc – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Metagenomic analyses reveal no differences in genes involved in cellulose degradation under different tillage treatments – Maria de Vries – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Water microbiome

Viral activities and life-cycles in deep subseafloor sediment – Tim Engelhardt – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Waterborne Viruses: A Barrier to Safe Drinking Water – Aimee M. Gall – PLOS Pathogens

Bacterial biogeography in the coastal waters of northern Zhejiang, East China Sea is highly controlled by spatially structured environmental gradients – Kai Wang – Environmental Microbiology

Distribution patterns of bacterioplankton in the oligotrophic south-eastern Mediterranean Sea – Sabine Keuter – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Mathematical Model of Dynamic Behavior of Microbial Desalination Cells for Simultaneous Wastewater Treatment and Water Desalination – Qingyun Ping – Environmental Science & Technology

Extremophile microbiome

Review: The changing form of Antarctic biodiversity – Steven L. Chown – Nature

Painting microbiome

Amid the possible causes of a very famous foxing: molecular and microscopic insight into Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait – Guadalupe Piñar – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Food microbiology

Empirical Model based on Weibull Distribution describing the Destruction Kinetics of Natural Microbiota in Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) Puree during High-Pressure Processing – Snehasis Chakraborty – International Journal of Food Microbiology

Metabolic networks

Metabolic network modeling of microbial communities – Matthew B. Biggs – Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Systems Biology and Medicine

Microbes in the news

Metropolitan Metagenomics: Mapping the Urban Genome – Catherine Potenski – BioMedCentral Blog

The Problem With David Perlmutter, the Grain Brain Doctor – Alan Levinovitz – NY Magazine

Oregon State University researcher Kathy Magnusson probes the rodent gut – Diane Dietz – Register Guard

Breast Milk Studies May Lead to Better Probiotics, Baby Formula – Tia Ghose – Live Science

Volunteers sweat for science at NC Museum of Natural Sciences – Rose Rimler – News Observer

Fermented Foods Including Yogurt And Sauerkraut May Help Calm Social Anxiety – John McQuaid – Forbes

You May Be on a Paleo Diet, but Is Your Microbiome? How a meat–centric diet can starve your gut bacteria – Erica Sonnenburg – Psychology Today

Team Effort – XKCD comics

Raise a glass to the Black Death: The ravages of the plague led directly to the creation of the pub, historian claims – Hannah Furness – The Telegraph

Should you eat your baby’s placenta? – Laura Sanders – Science News

Science, publishing, and career

Self-correction in science at work: protecting the integrity of science – Bruce Alberts – Science

Introducing “Research Matters” – Grant McFadden – PLOS Pathogens

Practical policies can combat gender inequality – Douglas Hilton – Nature

Bik’s Picks

Crossbreeding Could Help Coral Survive Warming Waters – Sindya N. Bhanoo – New York Times

Home-brewed heroin is near after scientists nail down poppy morphine gene – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

New rapid diagnostic test detects Ebola virus in minutes – IBN Live

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June 24, 2015

Posted on by

Chinese mushroom might help with weight loss (in mice), asthma and the microbiome (also in mice), metabolic networks in the gut, and benefits of resistant starch. Plus: Taylor Swift won’t be doing anymore reviewing for Nature.

Human oral microbiome

Alterations of Bacteroides sp., Neisseria sp., Actinomyces sp., and Streptococcus sp. populations in the oropharyngeal microbiome are associated with liver cirrhosis and pneumonia – Haifeng Lu – BMC Infectious Diseases

Intra-Genomic Heterogeneity in 16S rRNA Genes in Strictly Anaerobic Clinical Isolates from Periodontal Abscesses – Jiazhen Chen – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Akkermansia muciniphila and improved metabolic health during a dietary intervention in obesity: relationship with gut microbiome richness and ecology – Maria Carlota Dao – Gut

Animal models

Ganoderma lucidum reduces obesity in mice by modulating the composition of the gut microbiota – Chih-Jung Chang – Nature Communications

Evidence that asthma is a developmental origin disease influenced by maternal diet and bacterial metabolites – Alison N. Thorburn – Nature Communications

Characterization of the bacterial gut microbiota of piglets suffering from new neonatal porcine diarrhoea – Marie Louise Hermann-Bank – BMC Veterinary Research

Animal microbiome

Allometry of animal–microbe interactions and global census of animal-associated microbes – Thomas L. Kieft, Karen A. Simmons – Proceedings B

Introduction of Non-Native Pollinators Can Lead to Trans-Continental Movement of Bee-Associated Fungi – Shannon M. Hedtke – PLOS ONE

Effect of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate on growth, enzyme activity and intestinal microbial community of Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis (Milne-Edwards) juveniles – Liying Sui – Aquaculture Research

Small stonefly predators affect microbenthic and meiobenthic communities in stream leaf packs – Nabil Majdi – Freshwater Biology

Plant, root and soil microbiome

Hologenome theory supported by co-occurrence networks of species-specific bacterial communities in siphonous algae (Caulerpa) – T. Aires – FEMS Microbial Ecology

Land Use History Shifts In Situ Fungal and Bacterial Successions following Wheat Straw Input into the Soil – Vincent Tardy – PLOS ONE

Water microbiome

Inefficient microbial production of refractory dissolved organic matter in the ocean – Helena Osterholz – Nature Communications

The Link between Microbial Diversity and Nitrogen Cycling in Marine Sediments Is Modulated by Macrofaunal Bioturbation – Maryam Yazdani Foshtomi – PLOS ONE

Functional foods

Review: Preparation, health benefits and applications of resistant starch—a review – Bilal Ahmad Ashwar – Starch – Stärke

Metabolic networks and metabolomics

Inference of Network Dynamics and Metabolic Interactions in the Gut Microbiome – Steven N. Steinway – PLOS Computational Biology

A genome-wide systems analysis reveals strong link between colorectal cancer and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbial metabolite of dietary meat and fat – Rong Xu – BMC Genomics

Application of a hierarchical enzyme classification method reveals the role of gut microbiome in human metabolism – Akram Mohammed – BMC Genomics

Comparative integrated omics: identification of key functionalities in microbial community-wide metabolic networks – Hugo Roume – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Use of the Analysis of the Volatile Faecal Metabolome in Screening for Colorectal Cancer – Claire A Batty – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

IndieGoGo project: A Probiotic Life: Microbiome Documentary

New colon cancer culprit found in gut microbiome – EurekAlert

Mushroom used in Chinese medicine ‘slows weight gain’ – James Gallagher – BBC News

Announcing the uBiome Studies Portal “We’re aiming to launch one new study every week.” – uBiome

What is the role of the gut microbiome in developing Parkinson’s disease? – EurekAlert

Microbiology and art

Artists Reveal the Bacterial Beauty of the Human Microbiome – Shaunacy Ferro – Mental Floss

Science, publishing, and career

A day in the life of a malaria researcher – Lin Lee – BioMedCentral Blogs

Towards an unbiased view of science: Authors at Nature Communications now have the option to choose double-blind peer review – Nature Communications

Satire: Taylor Swift Announces She Will No Longer Review For Nature – The Allium

Bik’s Picks

A Middle Triassic stem-turtle and the evolution of the turtle body plan – Rainer R. Schoch & Hans-Dieter Sues – Nature

Scientists Finally Decide Which Bit of This Weird Animal is the Head – Ed Yong – National Geographic

America’s Next Top Chef is a Supercomputer From IBM – Liz Stinson – Wired
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