Category Archives: Metagenomics & Bioinformatics

Microbiome digest, November 3, 2014

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Human oral and vaginal microbiomes, rumen microbiome of impalas, sample handling and sponges, and two remarkable pieces in the New York Times.

Human oral microbiome

The association between the upper digestive tract microbiota by HOMIM and oral health in a population-based study in Linxian, China – Guoqin Yu – BMC Public Health

“Human Oral Microbe Identification Microarrays were used to test for the presence of 272 human oral bacterial species (97 genera) in upper digestive tract (UDT) samples collected from 659 participants. “

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Poster: Comparison of the Vaginal Microbiomes of Pregnant Women of Four Ethnicities
and Identification of Taxa Associated with Urogenital Disease – Mendz GL – ECCMID Poster

“Principal component analysis suggested differences in the bacterial populations of healthy women and those with genital infections, with clustering of the latter along the Protobacteria axis “

Animal microbiome

Examination of the Rumen Bacteria and Methanogenic Archaea of Wild Impalas (Aepyceros melampus melampus) from Pongola, South Africa – Laura M. Cersosimo – Microbial Ecology

“In the present study, next-generation sequencing and real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to investigate the diversity and density of the bacteria and methanogenic archaea residing in the rumen of five adult male impalas”

Effects of sample handling and cultivation bias on the specificity of bacterial communities in keratose marine sponges – Cristiane C. Hardoim – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bacterial community profiling of the sympatric keratose species Sarcotragus spinosulus and Ircinia variabilis (Dictyoceratida, Irciniidae) was performed by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 454-pyrosequecing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. “

Plant microbiome

Soil type-dependent effects of a potential biocontrol inoculant on indigenous bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of field-grown lettuce – Susanne Schreiter – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“16S rRNA gene fragments amplified from total community DNA were analyzed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and pyrosequencing. “

Are heterotrophic and silica-rich eukaryotic microbes an important part of the lichen symbiosis? – David M Wilkinson – Mycology: An International Journal on Fungal Biology

“In this necessarily speculative paper we highlight areas for future research and how newer technologies may be useful for understanding the full suite of organisms involved in the lichen symbiosis.”

Soil microbiome

Selection on soil microbiomes reveals reproducible impacts on plant function – Kevin Panke-Buisse – ISME Journal

“Analysis of the soil microbial community using 16 S rRNA gene sequencing showed distinct microbiota profiles assembling by flowering time treatment.”

Chemolithotrophy in the continental deep subsurface: Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), USA – Magdalena R. Osburn – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Geochemical data, energetic modeling, and DNA sequencing were combined with principle component analysis to describe this deep (down to 8100 ft below surface), terrestrial environment.”

Bioinformatic tools

* Seeing the forest for the genes: Using metagenomics to infer the aggregated traits of microbial communities – Noah Fierer – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Microbial ecologists could benefit by borrowing the concept of community-aggregated traits (CATs) from plant ecologists to glean more insight from the ever-increasing amount of metagenomic data being generated.”

Metabolomics

Fructan supplementation of senior cats affects stool metabolite concentrations and fecal microbiota concentrations, but not nitrogen partitioning in excreta – K.A. Barry – Journal of Animal Science

“Fructan supplementation may benefit senior cats as it modulates stool odor-forming compounds and decreases some protein catabolites and pathogenic gut microbiota concentrations without affecting N retention.”

Proteomics

From the Banfield lab: Development of an enhanced metaproteomic approach for deepening the microbiome characterization in the human infant gut – Weili Xiong – Journal of Proteome Research

“….we have designed a novel metaproteomic strategy based on double filtering (DF) the raw samples, a method that fractionates microbial from human cells to enhance microbial protein identification and characterization in complex fecal samples from healthy premature infants. “

More microbiology

Complementarity between targeted real-time specific PCR and conventional broad-range 16S rDNA PCR in the syndrome-driven diagnosis of infectious diseases – A.-S. Morel – European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

“Herein, we report our experience in the diagnosis of infectious diseases over two years, during which 32,948 clinical samples from 18,056 patients were received from France and abroad.”

Microbes in the news

* There Is No ‘Healthy’ Microbiome – Ed Yong – New York Times

“The microbiome is complex, varied, ever changing and context-dependent — qualities that are the enemies of easy categorization.”

Study: Ice Man has traces of bacteria that undermined his health – BetaWired

“…they found evidence of the presence of Treponema denticola, an opportunistic pathogen implicated in the development of periodontal diseases. “

Science, publishing, and career

How Do Small Things Make a Big Difference? Activities to Teach about Human–Microbe Interactions – Chandana Jasti – The American Biology Teacher

“In these guided inquiry activities, students investigate human–microbe interactions as they work together to interpret and analyze authentic data from published articles and develop scientific models.”

2014 Life Sciences Salary Survey – Jyoti Madhusoodanan – The Scientist

“This year’s data reveal notable variation in compensation for life scientists working in different fields, sectors, and regions of the world.”

Academic Science Isn’t Sexist – Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci – New York Times

“Our analyses show that women can and do prosper in math-based fields of science, if they choose to enter these fields in the first place.”

and two rebuttals:
Academic science is sexist: We do have a problem here – Emily Willingham
* The flawed and offensive logic of “Academic Science Isn’t Sexist” in the @nytimes – Jonathan Eisen – The Tree of Life

Bik’s Picks

Standing time and all-cause mortality in a large cohort of Australian adults – Hidde P. van der Ploeg – Preventive Medicine

“Increasing standing may hold promise for alleviating the health risks of prolonged sitting.”

A Face to Remember – Kerry Grens – The Scientist

“Once dominated by correlational studies, face-perception research is moving into the realm of experimentation—and gaining tremendous insight.”

* With a very cute picture: Rovers Disguised as Baby Penguins Can Quietly Infiltrate Penguin Colonies – Rachel Nuwer – Smithsonian

“Pursuing this hunch, they outfitted the rover with a big ball of fluff and a little penguin head and arms. ”

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Microbiome digest, October 30, 2014

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Bacteriocins in human metagenomic libraries, freezing/thawing effects on community composition, microbiome of preterm neonates, and bacteria in soil.
Multiple-site human microbiome

Diversity and dynamics of bacteriocins from human microbiome – Jinshui Zheng – Environmental Microbiology

“We employed bioinformatic analyses to identify putative bacteriocin sequences in metagenomic sequences obtained from different human body sites. “

Human respiratory microbiome

* Implications of multiple freeze-thawing on respiratory samples for culture-independent analyses – Leah Cuthbertson – Journal of Cystic Fibrosis

“Following each cycle, an aliquot was removed and treated with propidium monoazide (PMA) prior to DNA extraction and 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing.”

Human gut microbiome

Immune Homeostasis, Dysbiosis and Therapeutic Modulation of the Gut Microbiota – Christine T. Peterson – Clinical & Experimental Immunology

“This review discusses host-microbiota homeostasis, consequences of its perturbation, and the associated challenges in therapeutic developments that lie ahead.”

Microbiome of pregnancy and birth

* Intestinal Microbiota Development in Preterm Neonates and Effect of Perinatal Antibiotics – Silvia Arboleya – The Journal of Pediatrics

“We used 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence-based microbiota analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction to evaluate the establishment of the intestinal microbiota. “

Animal microbiome

Hidden Population Structure and Cross-species Transmission of Whipworms (Trichuris sp.) in Humans and Non-human Primates in Uganda – Ria R. Ghai – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

“We examined the phylogenetic structure of whipworms in a multi-species community of non-human primates and humans in Western Uganda, using both traditional microscopy and molecular methods.”

Soil microbiome

Metagenomic analysis reveals microbial functional redundancies and specificities in a soil under different tillage and crop-management regimes – Renata Carolini Souza – Applied Soil Ecology

“in this study we used a shotgun metagenomic approach to compare different soil…, and crop … managements in a 13-year-old field experiment in southern Brazil. “

Evaluating T-RFLP protocols to sensitively analyze the genetic diversity and community changes of soil alkane degrading bacteria – Julia Giebler – European Journal of Soil Biology

“This study aimed at identifying a reliable, highly resolving fingerprinting method to monitor alkane degrading communities in soil.”

Contrasting land uses in Mediterranean agro-silvo-pastoral systems generated patchy diversity patterns of vascular plants and below-ground microorganisms – Simonetta Bagella – Comptes Rendus Biologies

“Species richness decreased with increasing land use intensity, the Shannon index showed the highest values in grasslands and hay crops.”

Food microbiology

Characterization and use of microbial communities in Doenjang to control the unpleasant odor of Ginkgo epicarp – Sunhyun Park – Food Science and Biotechnology

“Microbes in doenjang were probably responsible for the reduction in the butyric acid content. Microbial communities were analyzed during fermentation.”

Bioreactor microbiology

Thermophilic anaerobic digestion of thermal pretreated sludge: role of microbial community structure and correlation with process performances – M.C. Gagliano – Water Research

“16S rRNA gene clonal analysis and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) analyses allowed us to identify the majority of bacterial and archaeal populations. “

Bioinformatics

Fast dendrogram-based OTU clustering using sequence embedding – Thuy-Diem Nguyen – Proceedings of the 5th ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics

“In this paper, we introduce a new hierarchical clustering method called CRiSPy-Embed which aims to produce high-quality clustering results at a low computational cost. “

Focus: a new multilayer graph model for short read analysis and extraction of biologically relevant features – Julia Warnke – Proceedings of the 5th ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics

“We present Focus, a new multilayer graph model for short read analysis and extraction of biologically relevant features. “

The UniFrac significance test generates different outputs given semantically equivalent inputs – Jeffrey Long – Proceedings of the 5th ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics

“We identify a discrepancy in the UniFrac methodology that causes semantically equivalent inputs to produce different outputs in tests of statistical significance.”

Microbes in the news

SpaceX 4 splashes down, returns bacteria samples to Earth – Josh Barrett – WaayTV

“HudsonAlpha’s Genomic Sciences Lab will be sequencing the genomes of E. coli bacteria that were aboard the ISS. For some reason, bacteria are not as susceptible to antibiotics in space.”

Bik’s Picks

Why Millennials &%#@! Love Science – Alexandra Ossola – The Atlantic

“Today’s young adults see new discoveries both as a source of awe and a means for innovation.”

1,000 Flavors of Banana: the New Science of Food Additives – Annie Gasparro – The Wall Street Journal

“Rather than sourcing the jalapeño or poblano pepper, you can create it with a flavor house, and just apply it over a corn chip,” said Jared Simon, marketing director for Hain Celestial Group Inc. ’s snacks and bakery division, which uses natural flavors for its foods such as Terra vegetable chips.”

Spooky Science: The Sounds of Halloween – Science Buddies – Scientific American

“In this science activity, you will investigate what goes into the composition of a perfect creepy soundtrack. “

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Microbiome Digest, October 29, 2014

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The genome of Mycoplasma Mnola, helminths in wild rats, fungi in strawberry roots, and the top 100 most cited papers of all time. Can you guess which one is #1?

Human genital microbiome

An Emerging Mycoplasma Associated with Trichomoniasis, Vaginal Infection and Disease – Jennifer M. Fettweis – PLOS ONE

“In this study, the mycoplasma was found almost exclusively in women infected with the sexually transmitted pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis, but rarely observed in women with no diagnosed disease.”

Human gut microbiome

Bacteriology and Changes in Antibiotic Susceptibility in Adults with Community-Acquired Perforated Appendicitis – Hong Gil Jeon – PLOS ONE

“We retrospectively reviewed records of adult patients diagnosed with perforated appendicitis at an 800-bed teaching hospital between January 2000 and December 2011. “

Animal microbiome

Changes in the intestinal bacterial community during the growth of white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei – Zhaobin Huang – Aquaculture Research

“In this study, we documented the changes in the intestinal bacterial community at four stages in Litopenaeus vannamei…, using 454 pyrosequencing techniques. “

* Assessment of Helminth Biodiversity in Wild Rats Using 18S rDNA Based Metagenomics – Ryusei Tanaka – PLOS ONE

“In this study, we assessed parasite diversity in wild rats using 18S rDNA-based metagenomics. 18S rDNA PCR products were sequenced using an Illumina MiSeq sequencer and the analysis of the sequences using the QIIME software successfully classified them into several parasite groups.”

Soil microbiome

Linking soil microbial communities to vascular plant abundance along a climate gradient – Luca Bragazza – New Phytologist

“Microbial community structure and function were measured seasonally in four peatlands located along an altitude gradient representing a natural gradient of climate and associated vascular plant abundance.”

* Influence of Soil Type, Cultivar and Verticillium dahliae on the Structure of the Root and Rhizosphere Soil Fungal Microbiome of Strawberry – Srivathsa Nallanchakravarthula – PLOS ONE

“In this study we examined the effects of different soils and cultivars, and the presence of a soil-borne fungal pathogen, Verticillium dahliae, on the fungal microbiome of the rhizosphere soil and roots of strawberry plants, using high-throughput pyrosequencing.”

Metagenomics / Bioinformatics

* Evaluation of a Hybrid Approach Using UBLAST and BLASTX for Metagenomic Sequences Annotation of Specific Functional Genes – Ying Yang – PLOS ONE

“A hybrid annotation pipeline proposed previously for taxonomic assignments was evaluated in this study for metagenomic sequences annotation of specific functional genes, such as antibiotic resistance genes, arsenic resistance genes and key genes in nitrogen metabolism. “

Metabolomics

Long-term phenotypic evolution of bacteria – Germán Plata – Nature

“Here we perform a comparative analysis of bacterial growth and gene deletion phenotypes using hundreds of genome-scale metabolic models. “

Phages and viruses

Conditional tolerance of temperate phages via transcription-dependent CRISPR-Cas targeting – Gregory W. Goldberg – Nature

“Here we show that the Staphylococcus epidermidis CRISPR-Cas system can prevent lytic infection but tolerate lysogenization by temperate phages. “

Science, publishing and career

The top 100 papers – Richard Van Noorden – Nature

“To mark the anniversary, Nature asked Thomson Reuters, which now owns the SCI, to list the 100 most highly cited papers of all time.”

Bibliometrics: Is your most cited work your best? – John P. A. Ioannidis – Nature

“John P. A. Ioannidis and colleagues asked the most highly cited biomedical scientists to score their top-ten papers in six ways.”

Recommendations for the Role of Publishers in Access to Data – Jennifer Lin, Carly Strasser – PLOS Biology

“As appeals for public access of research data continue to proliferate, many scholarly publishers—alongside funders, institutions, and libraries—are expanding their role to address this need. “

How to Make More Published Research True – John P. A. Ioannidis – PLOS ONE

“Currently, many published research findings are false or exaggerated, and an estimated 85% of research resources are wasted.”

* Prominent Geomicrobiologist Dies – Tracy Vence – The Scientist

“Katrina Edwards, whose research focus was on discovering life beneath the ocean floor, has passed away at age 46.”

Bik’s Picks

* The Art of Science: Popsicles Go Viral – The Finch and Pea

“Lick a virus? Probably not a good idea, unless it’s a Dangerous Popsicle, a sweet treat created by artist and designer Wei Li. “

Dozens of genes associated with autism in new research – Science Direct

“Two major genetic studies of autism, involving more than 50 laboratories worldwide, have newly implicated dozens of genes in the disorder. “

Antares Rocket Explosion Destroyed These Kids’ Science Projects – Rheana Murray – ABC News

“Students across the nation watched their science projects go up in flames as the rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after takeoff.”

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Microbiome digest, October 22, 2014

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Microbes in the mouth of patients with heart disease, bile and gall bladder microbiome of pigs, precisely restoring resistance to Clostridium difficile infection, and networks between fungi and plants. And don’t forget the solar eclipse tomorrow PM for most of the US.

Human oral microbiome

Microbial Diversity Similarities in Periodontal Pockets and Atheromatous Plaques of Cardiovascular Disease Patients – Wagner Serra e Silva Filho – PLOS ONE

“Subgingival biofilm and coronary balloons used in percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty were collected from 18 subjects presenting with generalized moderate to severe periodontitis and OCAA. DNA was extracted and the gene 16S was amplified, cloned and sequenced.”

Human gut microbiome

Dietary Patterns Differently Associate with Inflammation and Gut Microbiota in Overweight and Obese Subjects – Ling Chun Kong – PLOS ONE

“We aimed to characterize dietary patterns in overweight and obese subjects and evaluate the different dietary patterns in relation to metabolic and inflammatory variables as well as gut microbiota.”

Impact of diet and individual variation on intestinal microbiota composition and fermentation products in obese men – Anne Salonen – ISME Journal

“Here we report a comprehensive and deep microbiota analysis of 14 obese males consuming fully controlled diets supplemented with resistant starch (RS) or non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) and a weight-loss (WL) diet.”

Animal models of microbiome research

* Precision microbiome reconstitution restores bile acid mediated resistance to Clostridium difficile – Charlie G. Buffie – Nature

“..we determine that Clostridium scindens, a bile acid 7α-dehydroxylating intestinal bacterium, is associated with resistance to C. difficile infection and, upon administration, enhances resistance to infection in a secondary bile acid dependent fashion.”

* Changes in the Bacterial Microbiota in Gut, Blood, and Lungs following Acute LPS Instillation into Mice Lungs – Marc A. Sze – PLOS ONE

“Bacterial microbiota of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, blood, and cecum were determined using 454 pyrotag sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) at 4 through 168 hours post-instillation.”

Specific Microbiome Changes in a Mouse Model of Parenteral Nutrition Associated Liver Injury and Intestinal Inflammation – J. Kirk Harris – PLOS ONE

“Microbiome analysis in the PNALI mouse identified specific alterations within colonic microbiota associated with PNALI and further association of these communities with the lipid composition of the PN solution. “

Animal microbiome

Characterization of the bile and gall bladder microbiota of healthy pigs – Esther Jiménez – Microbiology Open

“We have studied, by culture-dependent techniques and a 16S rRNA gene-based analysis, the microbiota present in the bile, gall bladder mucus, and biopsies of healthy sows”

Characterization of Egg Laying Hen and Broiler Fecal Microbiota in Poultry Farms in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia – Petra Videnska – PLOS ONE

“In this study we were therefore interested in the prevalence of selected antibiotic resistance genes and microbiota composition in feces of egg laying hens and broilers originating from 4 different Central European countries determined by real-time PCR and 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, respectively. “

Plant microbiome

* Assembly of complex plant–fungus networks – Hirokazu Toju – Nature Communications

“The examined symbiotic network of a temperate forest in Japan includes 33 plant species and 387 functionally and phylogenetically diverse fungal taxa, and the overall network architecture differs fundamentally from that of other ecological networks. “

Soils and sediments

The long-term adaptation of bacterial communities in metal-contaminated sediments: a metaproteogenomic study – David C. Gillan – Environmental Microbiology

“Two freshwater sites, Férin and MetalEurop, differing by one order of magnitude in metal levels (MetalEurop: 3218 mg Zn kg−1; 913 mg Pb kg−1) were compared by shotgun metaproteogenomics. “

Bioinformatics / metabolomics

* Biogeochemical Typing of Paddy Field by a Data-Driven Approach Revealing Sub-Systems within a Complex Environment – A Pipeline to Filtrate, Organize and Frame Massive Dataset from Multi-Omics Analyses – Diogo M. O. Ogawa – PLOS ONE

“We propose the technique of biogeochemical typing (BGC typing) as a novel methodology to set forth the sub-systems of organismal communities associated to the correlated chemical profiles working within a larger complex environment. “

Estimating coverage in metagenomic data sets and why it matters – Luis M Rodriguez-R and Konstantinos T Konstantinidis – ISME Journal

“We demonstrate here how available solutions can determine the level of sequencing coverage obtained by metagenomic data sets and thus, guide their robust analysis and comparison.”

Immunology

* Fall issue of Stanford Medicine reports on the immune system’s balancing act

“If you want to understand the human immune system, try studying humans — not mice, urges Mark Davis, PhD, in a special report on the immune system in the new issue of Stanford Medicine magazine.”

Bik’s Picks

Genome sequence of a 45,000-year-old modern human from western Siberia – Qiaomei Fu – Nature

“the genomic segments of Neanderthal ancestry are substantially longer than those observed in present-day individuals, indicating that Neanderthal gene flow into the ancestors of this individual occurred 7,000–13,000 years before he lived. “

Sky spectacle: Partial solar eclipse coming Thursday – USA Today

“In the afternoon, a partial solar eclipse — where the moon covers a part of the sun — will be visible across much of the USA, barring any pesky clouds that could block the show.”

Go Giants! The Science of Baseball – Exploratorium

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Microbiome digest, October 21, 2014

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Human oral microbiome

Abstract 4834: Microbiome in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia and Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Deepak Saxena – Cancer Research

“PCR amplicons targeting V3-V5 region of 16S rRNA gene were sequenced by 454 pyrosequencing. “

Human respiratory microbiome

Microbial Communities in the Upper Respiratory Tract of Patients with Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – HeeKuk Park – PLOS ONE

“To account for the qualitative and quantitative diversity of the 16S rRNA gene in the oropharynx, the microbiomes of 18 asthma patients, 17 COPD patients, and 12 normal individuals were assessed using a high-throughput next-generation sequencing analysis.”

Human gut microbiome

Decreased bacterial diversity characterizes an altered gut microbiota in psoriatic arthritis and resembles dysbiosis of inflammatory bowel disease – Jose U. Scher – Arthritis & Rheumatology

“High-throughput 16S rRNA pyrosequencing was utilized to compare community composition of gut microbiota in PsA patients, subjects with psoriasis of the skin and healthy, matched-controls. “

Pregnancy and birth

The Salivary Scavenger and Agglutinin in Early Life: Diverse Roles in Amniotic Fluid and in the Infant Intestine – Martin Parnov Reichhardt – Journal of Immunology

“The present study revealed that SALSA was present in the amniotic fluid (AF) and exceptionally enriched in both meconium and feces of infants. “

Animal microbiome

* Unique and shared responses of the gut microbiota to prolonged fasting: a comparative study across five classes of vertebrate hosts – Kevin D. Kohl – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“We used 16S rRNA sequencing to document changes in colonic and cecal microbiomes of animals representing five classes of vertebrates at four time points through prolonged fasting: tilapia, toads, geckos, quail, and mice. “

GeoChip-based insights into the microbial functional gene repertoire of marine sponges (HMA, LMA) and seawater – Kristina Bayer – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“By use of GeoChip, altogether 20,273 probes encoding for 627 functional genes and representing 16 gene categories were identified”

Natural volcanic CO2 seeps reveal future trajectories for host–microbial associations in corals and sponges – Kathleen M Morrow – ISME Journal

“The corals Acropora millepora and Porites cylindrica were less abundant and hosted significantly different microbial communities at the CO2 seep than at nearby control sites <500 m away.”
Plant microbiome

Phylogenetic conservatism in plant-soil feedback and its implications for plant abundance – Brian L. Anacke – Ecology Letters

“We conclude that soil biota influence the abundance of close plant relatives in nature.”

Bioreactor microbiome

Influence of Acidic pH on Hydrogen and Acetate Production by an Electrosynthetic Microbiome – Edward V. LaBelle – PLOS ONE

“Production of hydrogen and organic compounds by an electrosynthetic microbiome using electrodes and carbon dioxide as sole electron donor and carbon source, respectively, was examined after exposure to acidic pH (~5). “

Metagenomics / Transcriptomics / Bioinformatics

Census-based rapid and accurate metagenome taxonomic profiling – Amirhossein Shamsaddini – BMC Genomics

“We have developed a robust subsampling-based algorithm implemented in a tool called CensuScope meant to take a ‘sneak peak’ into the population distribution and estimate taxonomic composition as if a census was taken of the metagenomic landscape. “

Metatranscriptomes from diverse microbial communities: assessment of data reduction techniques for rigorous annotation – Andrew Toseland – BMC Genomics

“To investigate the effect of such techniques on the annotation of metatranscriptome data we assess two commonly employed methods: clustering and de-novo assembly. To do this, we also developed an approach to simulate 454 and Illumina metatranscriptome data sets with varying degrees of taxonomic diversity. “

Microbial Ecology

Mathematical Modeling of Microbial Community Dynamics: A Methodological Review – Hyun-Seob Song – Processes

“In this article, we provide an overview of mathematical tools that include not only current mainstream approaches, but also less traditional approaches that, in our opinion, can be potentially useful. “

A phylogenetic perspective on species diversity, β-diversity, and biogeography for the microbial world – Albert Barberán† and Emilio O. Casamayor – Molecular Ecology

“We explored links between evolution/phylogeny and community ecology using bacterial 16S rRNA gene information from a high altitude lakes district dataset to describe phylogenetic community composition, spatial distribution, and β-diversity and biogeographical patterns applying evolutionary relatedness without relying on any particular operational taxonomic unit definition.”

Distance-Decay and Taxa-Area Relationships for Bacteria, Archaea and Methanogenic Archaea in a Tropical Lake Sediment – Davi Pedroni Barreto – PLOS ONE

“The samples were analyzed using T-RFLP (Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism) targeting mcrA (coding for a subunit of methyl-coenzyme M reductase) and the genes of Archaeal and Bacterial 16S rRNA.”

More microbiology

From Denise Monack’s lab: Role of disease-associated tolerance in infectious superspreaders – Smita Gopinath – PNAS USA

“Using a mouse model of Salmonella infection, we show that levels of Salmonella are equivalent between antibiotic-treated superspreader and nonsuperspreader hosts; however, superspreader hosts are uniquely able to tolerate antibiotic treatment, unlike nonsuperspreader hosts. “

*Also see:  Antibiotics may help Salmonella spread in infected animals, scientists learn – Stanford Medicine News

Spatial organization of bacterial chromosomes – Xindan Wang, David Z Rudner – Current Opinion in Microbiology

“Here, we summarize these different patterns highlighting similarities and differences and discuss the protein factors that help establish and maintain them.”

Bacterial healers: Microbes can redeem themselves to fight disease – Susan Gaidos – Science News

“It’s just a matter of time before bacterial-based treatments become a routine part of a doctor’s toolkit, says microbiologist Robert Britton of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who is studying the relationship between microbes and human health. “

Techniques

Rapid fingerprinting of methanogenic communities by high-resolution melting analysis – Jaai Kim, Changsoo Lee – Bioresource Technology

“The new method produced robust community clustering and ordination results comparable to the results from the commonly used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) performed in parallel.”

Microbes in the news

Our unique ‘microbial aura’ travels with us wherever we go – Science Friday – PRI

“Unless you lived exactly the same life as me, you would not have the same microbiome. You are, in essence, microbially unique,” explains Jack Gilbert

We’re making a Microbiome Documentary Series and could use your Help – Jamie – Reddit

“My name’s Jamie and I’m part of a team trying to crowdfund a documentary series on the human microbiome titled: ‘Redefining Human’.”

Building houses with bacteria – Euronews

“Houses of the future could be partially built with bacteria. It sounds like science fiction but researchers involved in an EU-backed project in Madrid are working towards making this a concrete reality.”

Bik’s Picks

The Role of Surface Chemistry in Adhesion and Wetting of Gecko Toe Pads – Ila Badge – Scientific Reports

“As expected, under wet conditions, adhesion on a hydrophilic surface (glass) was lower than that on a hydrophobic surface (alkyl-silane monolayer on glass).”

Scientists prepare for an 8-month mission to Mars – on Earth soil- BetaWired

“There’s a new experiment commencing in Hawaii, and the results will help NASA better prepare its astronauts for a lengthy mission to Mars.”

White rhino subspecies is down to one breeding male – Andrea James – BoingBoing

“Sad news from Kenya: the northern white rhino subspecies is down to one breeding male with the death of Suni this month. Only six remain.”

Scientists restore hearing in noise-deafened mice, pointing way to new therapies – ScienceDirect

“Scientists have restored the hearing of mice partly deafened by noise, using advanced tools to boost the production of a key protein in their ears.”

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Microbiome Digest, October 20, 2014

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Oral core microbiome, symbionts in crabs, sponges, and Drosophila, metabolites in dolphin’s breath, and retraction of a paper favored by Dr. Oz.

Pregnancy and birth

NEC in Twin Pregnancies: Incidence and Outcomes – Sathyaprasad C Burjonrappa, Brian Shea, Diya Goorah – Journal of Neonatal Surgery

“There is a remarkable higher incidence of NEC amongst twins. Abnormal colonization of the gastrointestinal tract appears to be an immediate postpartum event.”

Human oral microbiome

Intraindividual variation in core microbiota in peri-implantitis and periodontitis – Noriko Maruyama – Scientific Reports

“To improve our knowledge of the different communities of complex oral microbiota, we compared the microbial features between peri-implantitis and periodontitis in 20 patients with both diseases. “

Antimicrobial Effect of Lemongrass Oil against Oral Malodor Microorganisms and the Pilot Study of Safety and Efficacy of Lemongrass Mouthrinse on Oral Malodor – Panitta Satthanakul – Journal of Applied Microbiology

“Antimicrobial activity of LG mouthrinse was examined against common odorigenic microorganisms using broth microdilution assay and the disc diffusion method. A randomized double-blind clinical study was performed in 20 healthy volunteers.”

Animal microbiome

Molecular evidence of digestion and absorption of epibiotic bacterial community by deep-sea crab Shinkaia crosnieri – Tomo-o Watsuji – ISME Journal

“A phylogenetic analysis showed that many of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences obtained from the intestine were closely related to the sequences of the epibionts, thus they were probably derived from the epibionts.”

* In vivo function and comparative genomic analyses of the Drosophila gut microbiota identify candidate symbiosis factors – Peter D. Newell – Frontiers in Microbiology

“We compared microbiota isolates with con-specific or closely related bacterial species isolated from non-fly environments. “

* Two distinct microbial communities revealed in the sponge Cinachyrella – Marie L. Cuvelier – Frontiers in Microbiology

“Sponges of the genus Cinachyrella are common in Caribbean and Floridian reefs and their archaeal and bacterial microbiomes were explored here using 16S rDNA tag pyrosequencing.”

* Symbiotic archaea in marine sponges show stability and host specificity in community structure and ammonia oxidation functionality – Fan Zhang – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“PCR cloning and sequencing of archaeal 16S rRNA and amoA genes showed that the archaeal community composition and structure were different from that in seawater and varied among sponge species. “

Plant microbiome

Reduced dependence of rhizosphere microbiome on plant-derived carbon in 32-year long-term inorganic and organic fertilized soils – Chao Ai – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

“Wheat rhizosphere microbiome was studied by stable isotope probing and pyrosequencing.”

Environmental microbiome

Characterization of bacterial communities associated with seasonal water masses from Tongyoung in South Sea of Korea – Sung-Suk Suh – Ocean Science Journal

“In this study, we adopted a 16S rRNA gene tag-pyrosequencing technique to investigate the bacterial communities associated with two different water masses from Tongyoung in the South Sea of Korea. “

Bacterial community structure of a lab-scale anammox membrane bioreactor – Alejandro Gonzalez-Martinez – Biotechnology Progress

“In this study, next-generation sequencing techniques have been used for the investigation of the bacterial communities of this MBR Anammox for the first time ever. “

Metagenomics & Bioinformatics

GenomePeek: What exactly is that sequencing data? – Katelyn McNair – MicroBEnet

“I wrote the initial version of GenomePeek, and tested it with various data sets using this student’s data. I quickly found that some genes work better than others, and so currently the four genes analyzed are: 16S, recA, rpoB, and groEL.”

Metabolomics

Metabolite Content Profiling of Bottlenose Dolphin Exhaled Breath – Alexander A. Aksenov – Analytical Chemistry

“We have developed a method to reproducibly sample breath from small cetaceans, specifically Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). “

Proteomics

Symbiosis, Dysbiosis and Rebiosis – the value of metaproteomics in human microbiome monitoring – Lei Mao and Jacqueline Franke – Proteomics

“After a brief review of the history and state-of-the-art of metaproteomics in the field of environmental health research, focus of this perspective article will be put on the role of cross-species joint efforts in symbiosis, dysbiosis and rebiosis of the human gut during human development, pathogenesis and aging.”

More microbiology

Bridging the gap between viable but non-culturable and antibiotic persistent bacteria – Mesrop Ayrapetyan – Trends in Microbiology

“This discussion is intended to stimulate discourse about these seemingly different but very similar dormant states.”

* Phylogenomic Reconstruction Indicates Mitochondrial Ancestor Was an Energy Parasite
Zhang Wang, Martin Wu – PLOS ONE

“Using a phylogenomic approach and leveraging on the increased taxonomic sampling of alphaproteobacterial and eukaryotic genomes, we reconstructed the metabolisms of both proto-mitochondria and pre-mitochondria.”

Real-time video imaging as a new and rapid tool for antibiotic susceptibility testing by the disk diffusion method: a paradigm for evaluating resistance to imipenem and identifying extended-spectrum β-lactamases – Stéphanie Le Page – International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents

“..we present here for the first time video movies of the appearance of the diameter of inhibition by the disk diffusion in real-time. “

Microbes in the news

Can Microbes Help Feed the World? – Amy Mayer – BioScience

“To help meet the challenge for food, scientists are using new technologies to better understand the role that soil microbes might play in bolstering agricultural production. “

Dentists Want To See Studies On Pot-Cavity Link – CBS Local

“Patients are experiencing tooth decay, expensive dentist bills and the pain of dealing with it all. The biggest side effect is dry mouth.”

Bik’s Picks

Brain surgery, by robot, through the cheek – Science Daily

“Engineers have developed a surgical robot designed to perform brain surgery by entering through the cheek instead of the skull that can operate on a patient in an MRI scanner. Additionally, the engineers have designed the system so that much of it can be made using 3-D printing in order to keep the price low.”

* Hilarious cartoons on Imgur: Real Scientists vs. Movie Scientists 

* Authors retract green coffee bean diet paper touted by Dr. Oz – Ivan Oransky – Retraction Watch

“Two authors of a 2012 paper sponsored by a company that made grand claims about green coffee bean extract’s abilities to help people lose weight have retracted it. The study was cited by The Dr. Oz Show, and last month it cost the company a $3.5 million settlement with the Feds.”

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Microbiome digest, October 17, 2014

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Resistance one year after antibiotic treatment, skin microbiome in atopic dermatitis, bacterial 16S rRNA load in the lungs, the rat oral microbiome, and microbes in cheese. And an exciting new discovery by Stanford scientists. Have a great weekend!

 

Multiple site human microbiome

Development of antimicrobial resistance in the normal anaerobic microbiota during one year after administration of clindamycin or ciprofloxacin – Mamun-Ur Rashid – Anaerobe

“Clindamycin or ciprofloxacin or placebo was given for 10 days in three groups. Skin, nasal, saliva, faeces sampling at day -1 and 11, 1, 2, 4 and 12 months.“

Shared microbiome in gums and the lung in an outpatient population – Patrick R. Schmidlin – Journal of Infection

“PCR to determine four periopathogens and seven less pathogenic species in both the periodontal pocket and bronchial protected specimen brush was used. “

Human skin microbiome

* Review: Role of the skin microbiome in atopic dermatitis – Alexander Salava and Antti Lauerma – Clinical and Translational Allergy

“Molecular genetics have dramatically changed our vision of the micro-organisms colonizing the human skin and recently well-documented changes in the skin microbiome in atopic dermatitis have become evident.”

Human respiratory microbiome

* The effect of long-term macrolide treatment on respiratory microbiota composition in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis: an analysis from the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled BLESS trial – Geraint B Rogers – The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

“Microbiota composition was determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing of sputum samples from participants in the BLESS trial”

A Comparison between Droplet Digital and Quantitative PCR in the Analysis of Bacterial 16S Load in Lung Tissue Samples from Control and COPD GOLD 2 – Marc A. Sze – PLOS ONE

“qPCR and ddPCR were performed on these samples using primers spanning the V2 region on the 16S rRNA gene along with negative controls. Total 16S counts were compared between the two methods.”

Human gut microbiome

* With pictures! Fecal microbiota transplantation: A ‘How-To’ guide for nurses – Sharyn Leis – Collegian

“However, to date, much of the literature addresses the procedure from a physician’s point of view, and can therefore be lacking in practical detail. As nurses are often the ‘unsung heroes’ of the procedure, it is timely to address the subject from a nursing perspective.”

The Intestinal Microbiota and Microenvironment in Liver – Hong-Di Ma- Autoimmunity Reviews

“But the interplay between the intestinal tract and the liver may explain the increased association with autoimmune liver diseases and inflammatory bowel diseases. “

Alterations of gut barrier and gut microbiota in food restriction, food deprivation and protein-energy wasting – L. Genton – Clinical Nutrition

“This review… highlights the complex interactions between the components of gut barrier in depleted states due to food deprivation, food restriction and protein energy wasting and shows that these interactions are multidirectional”

Application of next-generation sequencing to study ascitic microbiome in cirrhotic patients with or without spontaneous bacterial peritonitis – Ye Feng- Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection

“Both the 16S polymerase chain reaction approach and the whole genome shotgun approach were adopted for the next-generation sequencing technology. “

Chronic ethanol consumption alters intestinal microbiota impairing immune function – T. Barr – Alcohol

The gastrointestinal microbiome – functional interference between stomach and intestine – Loris R. Lopetuso – Best Practice & Research Clinical Gastroenterology

“This review focuses and speculates on the possible interactions between gastric microorganisms and intestinal microbiota and on the consequences of this interplay in modulating gut health.”

Animal models of microbiome research

Can Pre-Weaning Modulation of Intestinal Microbiota by Oligosaccharides or Amoxicillin Program Adult One in Rats? – Fanny B. Morel – Nutrition

“As revealed by a targeted qPCR approach, programming of adult intestinal microbiota seems to vary according to the nature of the pre-weaning microbiotal modulator.”

Animal microbiome

* Characterization of the rat oral microbiome and the effects of dietary nitrate – Embriette R. Hyde – Free Radical Biology and Medicine

“Demonstrates the utility of using metagenomics techniques to characterize the healthy rat tongue microbiome and to compare it to the healthy human tongue microbiome.”

Soil microbiome

High-Level Diversity of Tailed Phages, Eukaryote-Associated Viruses, and Virophage-Like Elements in the Metaviromes of Antarctic Soils – Olivier Zablocki – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

“The metaviromes of two distinct Antarctic hyperarid desert soil communities have been characterized.”

Food microbiology

Microbial communities involved in Kashar cheese ripening – Oğuz Aydemir – Food Microbiology

“The molecular classification and identification of 594 LAB isolates during Kashar cheese ripening were performed through (GTG)5–PCR fingerprinting of their genomic DNA followed by verification of the (GTG)5–PCR clusters obtained after numerical analysis through 16S rRNA gene sequencing of representative isolates. “

Characterization of the bacterial biodiversity in Pico cheese (an artisanal Azorean food)
Cristina Riquelme – International Journal of Food Microbiology

“Pyrosequencing of tagged amplicons of the V3–V4 regions of the 16S rDNA and Operational Taxonomic Unit-based (OTU-based) analysis were applied to obtain an overall idea of the microbiota in Pico cheese and to elucidate possible differences between cheese-makers (A, B and C) and maturation times.”

Metagenomics/Bioinformatics

Likelihood-Based Gene Annotations for Gap Filling and Quality Assessment in Genome-Scale Metabolic Models – Matthew N. Benedict – PLOS Computational Biology

“Here we develop an approach for applying genomic information to predict alternative functions for genes and estimate their likelihoods from sequence homology. “

Microbes in the news

‘Critical Conversation’ to focus on human microbiome – Sue Wuetcher – UB Reporter, University at Buffalo

“David Relman, the Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor and professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, will speak on “Your Inner Self: The Human Microbiome in Health and Disease””

 

Bik’s Weekend Picks

Want to Ace That Test? Get the Right Kind of Sleep – Benedict Carey – New York Times

“Scientists now argue that a primary purpose of sleep is learning consolidation, separating the signal from the noise and flagging what is most valuable.”

‘Human face of science’: Researchers dance to raise funds for cancer study – RT.com

“Biomedicine scientists in Barcelona have released a music clip aimed at raising funds for medical research, as well as promoting their profession’s “human face.” The video’s release comes amid low levels of public interest in science throughout Spain.”

In science, popularity breeds unreliability – Tom Siegfried – Science News

“In recent decades, pressure to publish and seek publicity has distorted the scientific enterprise. Scientists need grants. Getting published raises the likelihood of getting those grants. “

Satire: Scientists Discover Two New Kinds Of Bird Poop – The Allium

“Scientists at Stanford University have revealed that they have discovered two new species of bird poop that defy classification. These are the first new species of poop that have been discovered in thirty five years. The findings have been reported this week in the journal Nature.”

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Microbiome digest, October 15, 2014

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A seminar this Friday with Pat Schloss, but without HMP girl, aspartame and gut microbiome in a rat model, bacteria in arsenic contaminated soil, and inter-kingdom horizontal gene transfer.

Human oral microbiome

General Immune Status and Oral Microbiology in Patients with Different Forms of Periodontitis and Healthy Control Subjects – Jana Schmidt – PLOS ONE

“Subgingival plaque samples were taken from each individual and immediately cultivated for microbiological examination.”

Pregnancy and birth

* The vaginal microbiome, vaginal anti-microbial defence mechanisms and the clinical challenge of reducing infection-related preterm birth – SS Witkin – BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology

“Ascending bacterial infection is implicated in about 40–50% of preterm births. “

Animal models of microbiome research

* Low-Dose Aspartame Consumption Differentially Affects Gut Microbiota-Host Metabolic Interactions in the Diet-Induced Obese Rat – Marie S. A. Palmnäs – PLOS ONE

“Serum metabolomics analysis revealed aspartame to be rapidly metabolized and to be associated with elevations in the short chain fatty acid propionate, a bacterial end product and highly gluconeogenic substrate, potentially explaining its negative affects on insulin tolerance. “

Effect of dietary supplementation with resveratrol on nutrient digestibility, methanogenesis and ruminal microbial flora in sheep – T. Ma – Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition

“Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of resveratrol on methanogenesis and microbial flora in Dorper × thin-tailed Han cross-bred ewes. “

Soil microbiome

Changing precipitation pattern alters soil microbial community response to wet-up under a Mediterranean-type climate – Romain L Barnard – ISME Journal

“Here, we investigated the effects of extending winter rainfall into the normally dry summer period on soil microbial response to a controlled rewetting event”

Surface binding and intracellular uptake of arsenic in bacteria isolated from arsenic contaminated site – Neha Vishnoi, Sonal Dixit, D.P. Singh – Ecological Engineering

“The present study deals with the surface binding and uptake of arsenic (As) in two bacterial strains (Bacillus subtilis and Paenibacillus macerans) isolated from the As contaminated soil.”

Water microbiome

Effects of ecological engineered oxygenation on the bacterial community structure in an anoxic fjord in western Sweden – Michael Forth – ISME Journal

“We used molecular ecologic methods to study changes in bacterial community structure in response to the oxygenation in the Byfjord. “

Food microbiology

Assessment of the bacterial and fungal diversity in home-made yoghurts of Xinjiang, China by pyrosequencing – Haiyan Xu – Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

“The bacterial and fungal community diversity in 22 home-made yoghurt samples was analyzed by pyrosequencing. “

CRISPRs, phages, viruses

In Hopes Of Fixing Faulty Genes, One Scientist Starts With The Basics – Joe Palca – NPR Morning Edition

“That’s certainly true for Jennifer Doudna. She hasn’t won a Nobel Prize, but many are whispering that she’s in line to win one for her work on something called CRISPR/Cas9 — a tool for editing genes.”

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

* Inter-phylum HGT has shaped the metabolism of many mesophilic and anaerobic bacteria – Alejandro Caro-Quintero and Konstantinos T Konstantinidis – ISME Journal

“Here, we devised a novel bioinformatic pipeline, which minimized the effect of over-representation of specific taxa in the available databases and other limitations of homology-based approaches by analyzing genomes in standardized triplets, to quantify gene exchange between bacterial genomes representing different phyla. “

* Origins of major archaeal clades correspond to gene acquisitions from bacteria –
Shijulal Nelson-Sathi – Nature

“To investigate the origin of higher taxa in archaea, we have determined gene distributions and gene phylogenies for the 267,568 protein-coding genes of 134 sequenced archaeal genomes in the context of their homologues from 1,847 reference bacterial genomes.”

Evidence of Carbon Fixation Pathway in a Bacterium from Candidate Phylum SBR1093 Revealed with Genomic Analysis – Zhiping Wang – PLOS ONE

“A phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene reveals that the phylotypes within candidate phylum SBR1093 are primarily clustered into 5 clades with a shallow branching pattern. “

Metagenomic Approach Reveals Variation of Microbes with Arsenic and Antimony Metabolism Genes from Highly Contaminated Soil – Jinming Luo – PLOS ONE

“Metagenomic analysis revealed that microbes from 18 phyla were present in the 5 samples of soil contaminated with high As and Sb.”

More microbiology

* The Phylogeny of Everything, the Origin of Eukaryotes, and the Rules of Taxonomy: Death to Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya! Long live Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Eukaryota, and Prokaryota! – Judge Starling

“The molecular revelation based on orthologous ribosomal RNA sequences that prokaryotes are separable into two basic taxa—archaebacteria and eubacteria, and that these two taxa are approximately equidistant from eukaryotes, prompted Woese et al. (1990) to come up with a tripartite taxonomy of all life forms.”

Adhesion as a weapon in microbial competition – Jonas Schluter – ISME Journal

“We test the predictions of our model using the enteric pathogen Vibrio cholerae, which produces an extracellular matrix important for biofilm formation. “

Microbes in the news:

* Google Hangout on Friday: MicroSeminar: A new way of doing conferences – Pat Schloss

“You will not see HMP Girl, no quotes of specious statistics, no mention of obscure disease, and no venturing into the weeds of bioinformatics. I will be describing unpublished experiments from the lab where we have taken various sources of microorganisms and used them to colonize mice that lack their own microbiota.”

‘Grapes of Wrath’: Stomping out grape disease one vineyard at a time – Phys.org

“A Rochester Institute of Technology scientist and an RIT alumnus are close to completing the genetic blueprint, or microbiome, of grape crown gall tumor disease—the bane of vineyards worldwide. ”

Redefining Human: The Microbiome Documentary Series – Root House Studio – Kickstarter

“We know science documentaries can be painfully boring, so Redefining Human will use a variety of new techniques to turn this complex science into an informative and entertaining documentary series.”

What’s in my microbiome? – Richard Sprague

“To find out what’s in my microbiome now, I bought a $400 kit from the San Francisco company uBiome. “

Science, publishing and career

* Rise of the Rest: The Growing Impact of Non-Elite Journals – Anurag Acharya – Google / Arxiv

“Our analysis indicates that the number of top-1000 papers published in non-elite journals for the representative subject category went from 149 in 1995 to 245 in 2013, a growth of 64%.”

Review rewards – Welcome efforts are being made to recognize academics who give up their time to peer review – Nature Editorial

“A welcome movement is under way to publicly register and recognize the hitherto invisible efforts of referees.”

Overqualified or underqualified? – Carrie Arnold – Science

“As unemployment stretched from weeks into months, Milstein decided that her Ph.D. was working against her. “

 

Satire: Facebook Offers To Freeze Female Employee’s Newborn Children – The Onion

“Women deserve to have the option to postpone motherhood until they feel fully prepared, which is why Facebook will also cover the cryonic facility’s annual maintenance costs for as many years as our employees feel they need. “

Bik’s Picks

360-Degree View of the Tomato – Anna Azvolinsky – The Scientist

“Researchers have sequenced 360 varieties of the tomato plant to create a comprehensive map of the evolution of the fruit from its wild form to the modern varieties. “

Extinct giant kangaroos didn’t hop, they walked – Andy Coghlan – New Scientist

“They had faces like rabbits and some were 2 metres tall. But now it seems that an extinct giant kangaroo didn’t hop – it walked.“

 

Chimpanzees have favorite ‘tool set’ for hunting staple food of army ants – Science Daily

“New research shows that chimpanzees search for the right tools from a key plant species when preparing to ‘ant dip’ — a crafty technique enabling them to feast on army ants without getting bitten. “

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General microbiology and science, October 14, 2014

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A living review of multivariate techniques, spatial organizations of bacterial genomes, and metabolomics of wetlands, pigs, marine bacteria and free-living humans.

Bioinformatics

* A Guide to Statistical Analysis in Microbial Ecology: a community-focused, living review of multivariate data analyses – Pier Luigi Buttigieg – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

“we present the GUide to STatistical Analysis in Microbial Ecology (GUSTA ME): a dynamic, web-based resource providing accessible descriptions of numerous multivariate techniques relevant to microbial ecologists”

Techniques

New approaches to understanding the spatial organization of bacterial genomes – Tung BK Le, Michael T Laub – Current Opinion in Microbiology

“Here, we review the current arsenal of techniques used to query chromosome structure”

Development of Clamping Probe for Rare DNA Detection using Universal Primers – Meyong il Kim – E-FAS Journal

“In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of rare gene detection for two kinds of clamping probes which were successfully utilized for eukaryotic symbiont analysis”

Metabolomics

Microbial community metabolic function in subsurface flow constructed wetlands of different designs – Mark Button – Ecological Engineering

“Microbial community function followed a clear gradient along the flow direction. Metabolic profiles were system specific (horizontal, vertical, and aerated).”

A high fat, high choleststerol diet leads to changes in metabolite patterns in pigs – a metabolomic study – Jianghao Sun – Food Chemistry

“Extracts of plasma, fecal and urine samples from pigs fed high fat or basal regular diets for 11 weeks were analyzed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry “

Free-living individuals – as in “not in prison”?
An NMR metabolomics approach reveals a combined-biomarkers model in a wine interventional trial with validation in free-living individuals of the PREDIMED study – Rosa Vázquez-Fresno – Metabolomics

A High-Resolution LC-MS-Based Secondary Metabolite Fingerprint Database of Marine Bacteria – Liang Lu – Nature Scientific Reports

“Till now, 1,430 bacterial strains spanning 168 known species collected from different marine environments were cultured and profiled. “

Viruses and phages

Ribonucleotide reductases reveal novel viral diversity and predict biological and ecological features of unknown marine viruses – Eric G. Sakowski – PNAS USA

“We identify ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) genes as superior markers of viral diversity. RNR genes are distributed over a broad range of viruses”

More microbiology

Strength in Diversity – Daniel J. Wolter, Lucas R. Hoffman – Cell Host & Microbe

“In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Hammer et al. (2014) show that distinct, slow-growing bacteria have better in vitro and in vivo growth and virulence when cocultured than in isolation. “

The Journal of Infectious Diseases has a special Issue on Polio: The Final Phase of Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategies for the Post-Eradication Era – Journal of Infectious Diseases

Science, publishing, career

Correcting the scientific record: An introduction to retractions – Bonnie Swoger – Scientific American

“Although the system is far from perfect, the retraction process is one of the ways in which the scientific literature corrects itself over time.”

 

Bik’s Picks

When Racism Was a Science – ‘Haunted Files: The Eugenics Record Office’ Recreates a Dark Time in a Laboratory’s Past – Joshua A. Krisch – New York Times

“In its heyday, the office was the premier scientific enterprise at Cold Spring Harbor. There, bigoted scientists applied rudimentary genetics to singling out supposedly superior races and degrading minorities. “

Paul Ryan: Science doesn’t get climate change – Jane C. Timm – MSNBC

“A full 97% of researchers taking a stance on climate change say it’s man-made, as do 97-98% of the most frequently-published climate scientists. But according to Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, they’re all wrong.”

Get fish fry with a side of science at ‘Science of the Supper Club’ this Friday – Lindsay Christians – The Capital Times

“Science is everywhere, even at a Friday night fish fry. That’s the message of a new event this Friday called “Science of Supper Clubs,” part of the four-day Wisconsin Science Festival held at various venues around the state.”

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Microbiome Digest, October 9, 2014

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Human microbiome general

Advancing the Microbiome Research Community – Curtis Huttenhower – Cell

“We outline opportunities in interdisciplinary research, analytical rigor, standardization, and policy development for this relatively new and rapidly developing field. “

Human oral microbiome

Bioinformatic investigation of the cost management strategies of five oral microbes – K.J. Cross – Molecular Oral Microbiology

“The aim of this study was to investigate if five oral bacterial species implement cost management strategies to reduce the energy burden of extracellular unrecyclable proteins.”

Human skin microbiome

Identification of molecular mechanisms used by Finegoldia magna to penetrate and colonize human skin – Elizabeth C. Murphy – Molecular Microbiology

“This study examines the molecular mechanisms F. magna uses when colonizing or establishing an infection in the skin. “

Human gut microbiome

Bacterial ClpB heat-shock protein, an antigen-mimetic of the anorexigenic peptide α-MSH, at the origin of eating disorders – N Tennoune – Translational Psychiatry

“Here, using proteomics, we identified ClpB heat-shock disaggregation chaperone protein of commensal gut bacteria Escherichia coli as a conformational antigen mimetic of α-MSH.”

Animal models of microbiome research

Effects of essential oil supplementation of a low-energy diet on performance, intestinal morphology and microflora, immune properties and antioxidant activities in weaned pigs – Zhikai Zeng – Animal Science Journal

Soil microbiome

Poster presentation: Starting study of microbial genetics diversity in soils of mangrove preserved in sergipe – Karla Cristina Santos Freire – BMC Proceedings

“This paper proposes the characterization and evaluation of structures and diversity of microbial communities in the soil of mangroves in three conservation areas located in Sergipe.“

Community assembly of ectomycorrhizal fungi along a subtropical secondary forest succession – Cheng Gao – New Phytologist

“We examined the communities of ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi in young, intermediate and old forests in a Chinese subtropical ecosystem, using 454 pyrosequencing”

Metagenomics / Bioinformatics

Functional phylogenomics analysis of bacteria and archaea using consistent genome annotation with UniFam – Juanjuan Chai – BMC Evolutionary Biology

“A total of 14,727 GenBank prokaryotic genomes were re-annotated using a new protein family database, UniFam, to obtain consistent functional annotations for accurate comparison. “

More Microbiology

Halting harmful helminths – Karl F. Hoffmann, Paul J. Brindley, Matthew Berriman – Science

“More than 300 million people are infected each year with parasitic flatworms such as hydatid tapeworms and blood fluke schistosomes. “

Chromosome position effects on gene expression in Escherichia coli K-12 – Jack A. Bryant – Nucleic Acids Research

“Here, using Escherichia coli K-12, we demonstrate that expression of a reporter gene cassette, comprised of the model E. coli lac promoter driving expression of gfp, varies by ∼300-fold depending on its precise position on the chromosome. “

Microbes in the news

‘Good Poop’ Diet Is the Next Big Thing – Daniela Drake – The Daily Beast

“Now a new book, The Skinny Gut Diet, by nutritionist Brenda Watson, tracks the progress of people who follow a diet specifically designed to alter the gut microbiome. “

Another probiotic advantage: Bacteria protects against heavy metal poisoning – Jim Algar – Tech Times

“Probiotic bacteria found in yogurt can protect people from the effects of exposure to heavy metals, particularly in pregnant women and children, a Canadian study suggests.”

Science, publishing, career

The scientists who get credit for peer review – Richard Van Noorden – Nature

“Publons rewards researchers for putting their peer-review activity online. Nature spoke to the startup’s co-founder and two super-users.”

Meet the New Underclass: People With Ph.D.s in Science – Mark Strauss – iO9

“Once upon a time, newly-minted science Ph.D.s would get research jobs at a senior scientist’s laboratory, to train and hone the ideas they would explore at their own labs. But now the supply of post-doctoral students is outpacing demand, creating a new, hyper-educated underclass.”

Glut of postdoc researchers stirs quiet crisis in science –  Carolyn Y. Johnson – Boston Globe

Japan’s Missing Female Scientists – Jack Grove – Times Higher Education

“Too many female scientists are leaving Japan because they do not feel they can get ahead in its “male-dominated” society, a senior university leader has said.”

Bik’s Picks

Cave paintings change ideas about the origin of art – Pallab Ghosh – BBC

“Researchers tell the journal Nature that the Indonesian discovery transforms ideas about how humans first developed the ability to produce art.”

A timeline of a baby’s first hour – Laura Sanders – Science News

Fired science teacher did not have state license – 9 News

“The teacher fired after his science experiment injured four students, one seriously, did not have a valid Colorado teacher’s license.”

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